"Interpretation is a complex task calling for reflection and judgment. The findings focus discussion, but the committee will need to think both analytically and creatively about the meaning and implications of the findings." (McClure et al. 1987, 23)

Introduction

Looking-Around is completed, and the report is written and distributed--now, what? The next step is to study the results and begin the decision-making that will result in a plan for the library. This is one of the most difficult--if not THE most difficult--transitions in the entire planning process. At this point, groups are tempted to develop a plan that does what they always wanted to do, rather than a plan that is based on the findings of the Looking-Around process.

This section provides general suggestions for approaching the process of studying the results and making decisions. It also presents three tools from which library planners can select to help the Planning Committee focus its discussion and decision-making.

Levels of Effort

The level of effort for this step will be the same as the level of effort the library has used for Looking-Around. If the report is a completed WorkSheet #1 (A-D), then the process will be basic; however, if there is a comprehensive report to review, the process will be carried out at a more extensive level of effort.

The Planning Committee should review the Looking-Around report with careful consideration. Each member should read the report ahead of time, setting time aside to examine the results and think about the implications for the library and its future. Each person should consider where the library is now, the needs of the community, and how the library's plans can be shaped to best respond to those needs. Then the committee should come together and work as a group, discussing the findings, listening to the perspective of others, and working through a structured process to make decisions that will result in final decisions about the library's mission, priority roles, goals, and objectives. The committee may want to spend more than one meeting discussing the implications of the findings.

Overview and suggestions

McClure et al. (24) offer some guidelines for this process:

• First, both factual and subjective information are important. Planners should combine impressions and opinions with hard data, looking at information from both perspectives and comparing the results.

• Second, watch for surprises. In other words, challenge your assumptions. The information that contradicts what everyone thought may indicate some of the most important areas of change needed.

• Third, try to place all information in perspective. Compare library performance data to that of peer libraries or historical data for the library to help understand its meaning. View the information in context.

• Fourth, libraries that have conducted surveys should remember that surveys are not ballots. The library staff, board, and Planning Committee may have more information than those who completed the survey. View the results of surveys, focus groups, interviews, and any other activity in which people expressed an opinion as important but not binding; however, also remember that their responses reveal a great deal about perceptions about the library. Use that information in other ways to shape the library's communications plan to inform people about the library.

The library's plan will be based on the decisions that are made during these discussions. This stage of planning is hard work; however, if it is done well, the rewards will be worth the effort. There are several approaches to analysis of the results.

Translating the findings In Planning and Role Setting for Public Libraries, (McClure et al. 1987, 23) the authors suggest one simple approach to analyzing the results of Looking-Around. Using WorkSheet #8, the Planning Committee should:

• Note the major findings in the Looking-Around report.
• Discuss how those findings might have an impact on the plan, either in terms of building on a current strength or identifying a potential for change.
• Determine what opportunities are identified that the library can exploit.
• Consider how the library might respond to those findings.

Individual committee members might jot down their own responses on the form when they review the report on their own, and then the form can provide the basis for structured discussion and subsequent decision-making by the committee as a whole.

Analyzing strengths and changes needed

Another structured approach in decision-making is to analyze the strengths and changes needed as revealed in the report of Looking-Around using the WorkSheets #9 (A-D). Once again, working individually and then as a group, the committee can review the Looking-Around findings, discuss the various individual interpretations of the information, and come to consensus about the appropriate priorities to serve as the focus for the library's services and management during the coming planning cycle. The WorkSheets provide a framework for making planning decisions by having Planning Committee members consider current strengths and changes needed in each of the following areas:

• Goals from roles: Considering possible priority roles for service, what does the Looking-Around report tell the reader about strengths and changes needed to implement the various roles?

• Who--The people the library serves: Based on the information available about the people who live in the communities served by the library, what does the Looking-Around report tell the reader about the strengths and changes needed to reach and serve various population groups in the community effectively?

• What--Services the library provides: Based on the information about the library's performance and the services it now provides, what does the Looking-Around report reveal about the strengths and changes needed to provide library services effectively?

• How--Management functions to improve the delivery of service: Based on the available information, what does the Looking-Around report tell about the strengths and changes needed in the way that the library is managed for service to the public?

The steps in using the WorkSheets include:

• Have each person read the report individually and jot down his or her own thoughts on each of the WorkSheets.
• Meet to discuss individual responses, recording the key points of the discussion of each area (roles, who, what, how) on flip charts.
• Following the first session, have a subcommittee analyze the results of the discussion and group the issue areas as reflected on the flip chart.
• Present the subcommittee's analysis of the discussion at a second meeting of the committee and use the information to make decisions about priority roles and goal areas for the plan. At subsequent meetings the group can refine the goal statements and develop objectives for each of the goals.

Using WOTS-Up to identify priorities

A third process that a Planning Committee can use to guide the discussion and decision-making is called the WOTS-Up process. WOTS is an acronym for Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, and Strengths; WorkSheets 10(A&B) guide the user in the process. It is an excellent tool to use in synthesizing the information gathered and will help the Planning Committee identify a multitude of issues and then narrow them to the few that are most important. Those decisions will help the committee develop a final mission statement, select priority roles, and identify goals and objectives for the plan. Having a person experienced in facilitation or group consensus building to guide the group activities in the process is helpful, but with the following outline even a novice can successfully use WOTS-Up.

Here is a list of the terms used in the WOTS-Up process with a brief definition of each:

• Internal factors: Those that relate to the library and its relationship to other libraries
• External factors: Those that relate to the community at large
• Weaknesses: Current negative factors
• Strengths: Current positive factors
• Threats: Future negative factors
• Opportunities: Future positive factors
• Impact: A measure of the "breadth" of importance. How basic is the factor? How many other things depend on it or are related to it?
• Consequence: A measure of the "depth" of importance. How bad or good will it be if you:

  Maintain the strength
  Take advantage of the opportunity
  Fail to correct the weakness
  Do not adequately address the threat.

• Immediacy: A measure of the importance of time. How much time is available:

  Before the strength will be lost if it is not nurtured
  To correct the weakness before it causes severe damage
  To take advantage of the opportunity before it disappears
  To prepare for the threat before it's too late to address it successfully.

Before the first Planning Committee meeting to review the Looking-Around results, ask each member to review the report and prepare a WOTS-Up Planning Issues Analysis Sheet (WorkSheet #10B) for each major issue they identify in the report. Then have them bring the sheets to the meeting to help the discussion.

The steps in the process:

• Break the Planning Committee into at least two groups. Assign two quadrants of the WOTS-Up Analysis Sheet (WorkSheet #10A)--the quadrants are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats--to each group. Make sure that each group has one positive and one negative quadrant and one present and one future quadrant.

• One group should have strengths and threats, and the other should have weaknesses and opportunities. If there are more than two groups, assign the quadrants in the same way.

• Ask each group to brainstorm in its assigned quadrants, using the sheets they prepared ahead of time and anything else they have learned from reading the report about the community, its people, and the library. In brainstorming, they should consider both internal and external factors (see definitions above). Remind the group of the rules of brainstorming:

  As many ideas as possible are listed
  Ideas are not discussed until all ideas have been listed
  Ideas are not criticized for their creativity or practicality
  All ideas are recorded even if they seem redundant.

• Provide flip charts and markers to each group, and have them record the points as they are raised. The recorder should make sure that all the ideas are written using the same words used by the person who originally verbalized the concept.

• After the brainstorming, debrief the full group by reviewing the results of each brainstorming session. End on a positive quadrant.

• After the debriefing and any discussion, ask the groups to take their original list and identify the priority strategic issues using impact, consequence, and immediacy as defined above as the criteria. Suggest as a "rule of thumb" that they work to reduce the list to about 20% of its original length in each quadrant, but to no less that three strategic issues.

• After a debriefing and discussion of the priority strategic issues, have them discuss how the library will respond to each to build on a strength, take advantage of an opportunity, repair a weakness, or deter a threat. WorkSheet #10A, the original WOTS-Up Analysis Sheet, can help at this stage, too.

• The results of the discussion should enhance the framework (discussed at the end of Chapter 4) upon which the library board can develop the library's goals for its long range plan

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