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Building Leadership Skills: Strategic Thinking. An Infopeople Workshop George Needham and Joan Frye Williams, Instructors Spring 2009. Today’s agenda. Leadership and strategic thinking The long view The FAST approach to strategic thinking Moving ahead.
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Building Leadership Skills:Strategic Thinking An Infopeople Workshop George Needham and Joan Frye Williams, Instructors Spring 2009
Today’s agenda • Leadership and strategic thinking • The long view • The FAST approach to strategic thinking • Moving ahead
Know what difference you want to make2. Choose your actions accordingly
What’s their strategy? vs. vs.
Why think strategically? • Save time and effort • Make the most of limited resources • Attract funding • Get people on board • Enhance chances of success • Increase job satisfaction
Why think strategically? • Save time and effort • Make the most of limited resources • Attract funding • Get people on board • Enhance chances of success • Increase job satisfaction • Try to take over the world!
What difference do you want to make? • Your community • Your library • Your team/work group • Personally/professionally
The long view • Target, not detailed steps • Principles, not techniques • Strengths, not weaknesses • Keep it simple
“Vision” implies that other people can PICTURE what you’re talking about.
Leveraging your assets • Starts with appreciation • Vision-led, not problem-driven • Concentrates on abundant resources
What kinds of changes do you think will affect your community in the future?
Think of a favorite book, movie, play, poem, or piece of music… • What is it? • Why is it important to you? • How has that affected your life?
Think FAST • Focus • Accelerate • Support • Tie it all together Adapted from Hagel, John et al ,“Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption,” Harvard Business Review , October 2008.
Focus • Use real data/evidence • Look for patterns • Ask “what if” • Estimate likelihood • Imagine consequences
Accelerate • Identify actions that will move you toward your target most quickly • Use resources you already have • Decide how you’ll measure progress
Who else wants to see the same kind of difference you do? • Community segments and stakeholders • Elected officials, power brokers • Other providers who share your audience • Friends and colleagues
Tie it all together • Constantly check near term performance against target • Adjust as you go along • Repeat as necessary
Evaluating strategic opportunities • Will it show? • Can it grow? • Does it flow?
Tell a compelling story • Ideas have to fit the audience’s values • Person telling the story has to be believable • Integrity • Commitment
Understand that objections are… • Normal, and… • Less threatening than risking failure on something new, but… • Not insurmountable
Thank you for participating!Please complete the evaluation. joan@jfwilliams.com george@georgeneedham.com