How Employees Shaped Strategy at the New York Public Library

¶ DrWeb says: This is how a total organization or library can work.. everyone has a stake, is a stakeholder.. everyone has ideas, viewpoints, dreams.. and leaving anyone out of change management means you miss all your voices…

“In the spring of 2014, we proposed a radical approach: offer anyone on staff – over 2,500 individuals, many of them union members – the chance to shape the library through strategic conversations with senior leaders. We believed that if the Library was to be truly nimble, senior leaders couldn’t unilaterally come up with a plan. Involving staff in conceiving, designing, and implementing the change would result in a course of action that was more fit-to-purpose and more likely to be well executed. Staff would fully understand the changes and be accountable to each other for their implementation.

“The conversation would be neither bottom-up nor top down. Staff would take a lead role in designing, testing, and advocating solutions. Leadership would shape the conversation to ensure proposals were strategically on-point. Senior leaders also would provide resources, guidance, and act as decision makers.”

Source: How Employees Shaped Strategy at the New York Public Library