Expert answer:Role as a stake holder in the LPL
Expert answer:The Lexington Public Library in Lexington KentuckyWrite a 6 page paper (not including title page and reference page) that addresses the following:Describe an existing non-profit or public organization of interest to you. Include the organization’s mission, stakeholders, short-term goals (1–4 years), mid-terms goals (5–14 years), and long-term goals (15–20 years).Select and explain your role as a stakeholder, including why this organization is important to you both personally and professionally.Explain how you, in your role, will help to evaluate and revise the organization’s strategic planning process. Include any potential legal implications of revising the organization’s current strategic plan.Explain at least 3 strategic goals that you would recommend for the organization, which will directly contribute to and effect positive social change.Use proper APA formatting and include the following:A title page and running headAn introduction that states the purpose of the paperLevel 1 headings to define each part of the paperA conclusion to synthesize the entire paperA minimum of six scholarly sources to support your paperIn-text citations as appropriateA reference listReferencesBryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chapter 10, “Reassessing and Revising Strategies and Plans” (pp. 317–351)This chapter examines approaches for building a strategic management system. It also provides guidelines for reviewing implemented strategies and plans.Resource C, “Developing a Livelihood Scheme That Links Aspirations, Distinctive Competencies, and Distinctive Assets” (pp. 450–468)This resource outlines a process for identifying competencies for public and non-profit organizations.Free Management Library. (n.d.). Basics of identifying strategic issues and goals. Retrieved June 14, 2014, from http://managementhelp.org/strategicplanning/issues… This website provides questions to help organizations identify strategic issues and outline goals.Olesen, K., & Richardson, T. (2012). Strategic planning in transition: Contested rationalities and spatial logics in twenty-first century Danish planning experiments. European Planning Studies, 20(10), 1689–1706.
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Lexington Public Library SWOT and Appreciative Inquiry Analysis
Dominic Norwood
Walden University
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Description of Lexington Kentucky Public Library
The Lexington Public Library is found in Lexington, Kentucky. It was established in
1905. serves the merged city-county of Lafayette and Kentucky. The library has six branches
that serve approximately 300,000 people in the city of Lexington and the surrounding central
Kentucky countries (Lexington Public Library, 2017). The branches include the downtown
Lexington Central library which is the largest of the six, the Village branch, Eastside, Beaumont,
Northside, and Tate’s Creek Branches. In 2016 the organization was visited close to 2 million
times. Additionally, it has a big online community; the online users make use of various digital
applications. The website had over 8 million visits in 2016 while the ones that used its mobile
applications were over 6 million having close to 370,000 computer sessions (Lexington Public
Library, 2017).
Besides the use of online applications, the organization had many visitors who preferred
the print-formats making up 59 percent of the content, followed by DVDs and audiobooks being
preferred taking up 22 and 9 percent respectively (Lexington Public Library, 2016).The vision of
the organization is in having a lifetime connection and dedication to the community which it
serves. The Lexington Public Library mission is connecting and stimulating ideas which will
lead to changing of people’s lives. The core values of the organization are in the excellence of
the service that it offers, it also focuses equality on how they treat their staff members and the
visitors that they serve. It also looks at integrity which is targeted at maintaining trust within the
community which it serves. The others are in stewardship and also passion in the work that it
does. The Lexington Public Library strategic goals focus on six main areas which include
access, inclusivity, culture, stewardship, education, and space (Lexington Public Library, 2017).
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Reason for strategic change
Lexington Public Library is in need of strategic change to be able to continue offering
services that are responsive to their clients’ needs. The organization also serves the public, who
are also its financiers, it is, therefore, vital that it brings change to enhance its services, be
accountable to its stakeholders. There are also many technological changes that have brought
along innovative tools that the organization can leverage on. There are also policies within the
organization that need to be improved on to stay with the times and in line with the legal
requirements. Through various strategies, it will identify opportunities that exist and be able to
take advantage of them, improve on the weaknesses and be able to prepare for any challenges.
SWOT analysis
The process of analyzing the strength, weakness opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
which faces Lexington Public library will assist in analyzing both internal and external factors
that assist in the implementation of strategic plan that will in turn benefit its performance as an
entity and also the other stakeholders such as the community it serves, the staff and so on
(Bryson, 2011; Millett, 2006). SWOT analysis is critical to the continued success of the
organization, it will be able to focus its services and programs in areas where one is strong and
where the greatest opportunities are found.
Strengths
a) The library has a talented, skilled and dedicated workforce.
b) The library maintains a good relationship with the community it serves within the Kentucky
and Lexington areas.
c) The organization has a wide array of literature material that it offers to its visitors. They
range from books, audiobooks, DVDs, movies, magazines and many others.
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d) The organization also has an active online community which enables it to serve a much
bigger clientele.
e) Lexington library has innovative services which have widened its offerings from the
conventional use of print format to digital platforms and other applications.
f) Because of the organization’s good reputation and many years of services, the can attract
more partners (Bilmes, 2011).
Weaknesses
a) The organization has a total of six branches which work independently but managed as one
entity at the very top. Such an arrangement makes creates a bottleneck in the delivery of
service, there is also a slow response by the board whenever there is a concern which may
lead to delays and poor management.
b) The organization is governed by laws which make it hard for the administration to institute
changes or corrective action without going through a long and slow process of approvals and
legal challenges.
Opportunities
a) With the ever-increasing number of visitors and patrons, the organization is able to raise
more resources to boost its growth and activities.
b) The organization has increased the literature material that it has, and is also able to offer the
services through a wide array of services and platforms. That promises to increase its
standing in the community and be able to serve a wider audience who can visit the facilities
both physically or online.
Threats
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a) Lexington library relies on grants and public funds which may be affected by economic
situations and uncertainties such as economic downturns that may force the government to
reduce its funding.
b) The organization may be affected by the political environment considering that it is a public
entity that is guided by federal, state and local laws (Shafritz, Russell, and Borick, 2013).
c) Considering that it is a public organization, any performance related issues are bound to
affect the organization in a big way. In 2014 the organization suffered a major blow when a
former director sued it after it terminated its contract. The organization suffered greatly in
terms of finance and its reputation.
An Appreciative Inquiry 4-D analysis
An Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Process involves the searching for the best in people, the
community, and organization by finding out what gives life to the system at its most effective,
most economical, socially capable points (Whitney and Cooperrider, 2000). It is made up of four
stages that make inquiry into the process; they are Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny.
Appreciative Inquiries will vary across the industry as each organization has an exclusive and
diverse cultural and geographical mix of people. Additionally, in every organization, there is a
unique way of expressing what it values most and how it honors each relationship (Whitney and
Cooperrider, 2000).
Discover
At this stage there is stakeholder engagement and exploring the best experiences, hopes
and priorities for the future (Whitney and Cooperrider, 2000). The group will focus on the
strength, capabilities, competencies, positive hopes and feelings, relationships of the organization
and so on and so forth (Whitney and Cooperrider, 2000). By carrying out interviews and story-
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telling the stakeholders who include the staff, the members of the administration, Lexington
library visitors are asked to share their stories of what has been the accomplishments,
additionally, they will look at the factors, resources, and competencies that led to the given
successes. For Lexington, it has been a long journey from the late 18th Century. The organization
has grown by leaps and bounds and currently serves close to 300,000 visitors and a much bigger
online community of over 6 million users (Lexington Public Library, 2017). The organization
has a good relationship with the people of the Fayette and Lexington areas and other
stakeholders such as the Fayette Urban-county government, Lexington citizens, its staff, and
managers. The services have also grown significantly to offer literature material that currently
stands at over 560,000 items which comprises of books, audiobooks, magazines, music,
audiobooks and much more (Lexington Public Library, 2017).
Dream
Dream stage helps the stakeholders to challenge the status quo. I will involve sharing
dreams, enlivening, developing metaphorical presentations, and enacting the dreams (Whitney
and Cooperrider, 2000). The dreams of Lexington Library are also captured in its vision which is
in connecting the community in a lifetime of service. The organization has already taken
initiatives in serving the public, it has introduced after-school tutoring programs, summer reading
initiatives for children and the community at large. A long-standing dream for the organization
since its launch has been to reach more people irrespective of the gender differences and
economic status. To achieve that goal the organization has been engaging in non-conventional
and innovative approaches with the help of technology. It has been able to incorporate digital
services and now reaches a much bigger clientele. However, the dream is to reach more and
enhance its services through technological innovations.
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Design
This phase involves having specific activities in the creation of organizations design,
developing a proactive proposition, selecting high impact design elements (Whitney and
Cooperrider, 2000). Use of strategies such as incorporation of positive changes which can be
captured in the design statements. It is a provocative stage where the participants can come up
with concrete short and long-term goals to meet the dreams. Lexington Library intends to serve
the community better and also reach a wider and more diverse audience. It will, therefore,
develop better strategies that will enhance more interaction with the community through its
online platforms and also with physical visits. It will have forums where the management and the
community can interact through social programs and much more.
Destiny
This last phase is achieved through creating a commitment to a strategy that should be
implemented. I should involve developing possible actions, choosing the inspiring ones,
emergent task groups, and use of large group closing approaches (Whitney and Cooperrider,
2000). It will involve stakeholder actions, Lexington Library management, staff, and Fayette
Urban-county government and its citizens will pursue the dreams by applying the design
strategies, implementing the strategies that they chose to ensure that the organization meets its
goals and achieves the dreams.
Comparing organizational outcomes using SWOT and when using Appreciative
Inquiry
A SWOT is a critical process in strategic planning that helps the individuals or committee
in assessing both the internal and external environment of the organization. The benefit of that is
that it will help identify goals and strategies to guide Lexington Library in services and programs
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in the areas that it has strengths and where it has the greatest opportunities while at the same time
improve on its weaker sides and prepare for challenges.
Unlike SWOT, the Appreciative Inquiry approach starts from a point of what is working.
Instead of assessing what is wrong with Lexington Library it focused on what was experienced
and the greatest examples, experiences, encounters of the organization. It focuses more on the
positives and what has been achieved instead of the negative. The drawback is that it does not do
a thorough analysis similar to a SWOT that can guide the organization into correcting the
negatives and weak points. On the contrary, it helps the stakeholders focus on the experiences
and capture lessons from them to guide the planned changes.
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References
Bilmes, L. J. (2011). Federalist Nos. 67–77 How Would Publius Envision the Civil Service
Today. Public Administration Review.
Bryson, J. M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Lexington Public Library (2017). Strategic Plan. Retrieved December 20, 2017, from Lexington
Public Library on, https://www.lexpublib.org/strategic-plan
Millett, S. M. (2006). Futuring and visioning: Complementary approaches to strategic decision
making. Strategy & Leadership,
Shafritz, J. M., Russell, E. W and Borick, C. P. (2013). Introducing public administration (8th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Whitney, D and Cooperrider, D. L. (2000). The appreciative inquiry summit: An emerging
methodology for whole system positive change. Journal of the Organization
Development Network
…
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