Strategic planning hadn’t been done for 8 years. We had no formal strategic management processes, we’d fallen behind on technology and experience, and had low internal culture scores. Customer expectations and behaviors were shifting. Then came the disruption of COVID-19. With a new leadership team in place, RHPL’s opportunity was to start from scratch — to design an innovative strategic planning process that would lead to a transformational plan to move RHPL into the future with a renewed sense of purpose and ambition.

• Collaborative Strategy: included all levels of staff in decision-making from executive to para-professional
• Strategic Foresight: in-depth horizon scan and eight future scenarios looking 20 years out
• Global Mindset: positioning RHPL in the context of a global society, subject to the forces of our increasingly complex world
• Culture Survey: benchmarked against 1,000+ public, private and NFP organizations.
• Virtual Collaboration and Six-Month Timeline: digital tools and aggressive timeline drove momentum

• Results-oriented and empowered team members
• Development of a global, future-oriented mindset across RHPL
• Increase in innovation capacity across RHPL
• Growth of evidence-based decision-making
• Dramatically improved organizational health
• Increased nimbleness due to growth in collaboration skills
• Growth in customer satisfaction
• Increased use, both in-person and digital
• Expanding diversity of customers due to increase in inclusive content and policy

Learn more from the Richmond Hill Public Library Strategic Plan 2021-25 Board Report presented in September 2021.