Strategy and Strategic Plan Services

The vendor required to provide strategy and strategic plan services to conduct a review to identify opportunities to strengthen service delivery, organizational efficiency, and the impact of its services.
- Consultant to conduct a comprehensive service review and develop a ten-year service model framework and a four-year strategic plan.
- Consultation and communications plan
•    A consultation framework and engagement strategy, defining consultation questions, topic areas, and the appropriate engagement methods (e.g., Surveys, interviews, workshops, focus groups, town halls, and online platforms).
•    Determine accessibility and inclusion requirements (language, disability access, and equity considerations). 
•    Develop a risk management plan addressing participation risks, political sensitivities, and privacy concerns. 
•    Develop communication tactics, schedules, and key messages for different audiences (e.g., library staff, leadership, board members, the public, and key internal and external partners) throughout the project. 
•    The key messages should describe the rationale for undertaking a service review, the development of the service model framework and the strategic plan. 
•    A plan and timeline to engage with specific key informants, external stakeholders and staff that the consultant will engage in consultation. 
•    These groups and individuals will be determined in discussion with the project manager. 
•    Community members, associations and partners to the library will be included in the consultation. 
•    Staff will include key contacts from library leadership and other staff from different departments.
•    The engagement tactics may include, but are not limited to, key informant interviews, focus group sessions, and surveys. 
•    The number of meetings with key stakeholders and partners will be determined by the consultation and communications plan, in consultation with the project manager. 
•    Estimate a minimum of seven (7) to twelve (12) stakeholder and stakeholder group meetings.
- Research and scanning
•    Oakville community information, including demographic profiles, immigration and growth projections, and early development index data. 
•    Services that overlap, compete with, or leave gaps in library services (including town, public, nonprofit, and commercial alternatives).
•    Recent developments and innovations related to:
o    Public libraries (services, collection development, technology). 
o    Services supporting newcomers, inclusion, and climate action. 
o    Social and technological trends impacting libraries. 
o    The broader information and reading landscape, including literacy, access to information, and mis- and disinformation.
•    For the environmental scan, identify the research domains (i.e., political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental (pestle), sector trends, demographics, etc.). 
•    Establish indicators to examine (e.g., Demographic, social and community needs, political, governance and policy, economic, technological, library sector and industry trends, etc.)
•    Review foundational documents, including (but not limited to) the town of parks, recreation and library master plan (2024), the libraries council’s national user survey and social impact study (anticipated December 2025). 
•    Map library relationships, including strategic audiences, community groups, partners, funders, and potential users. 
•    Benchmark library against a pre-determined list of libraries, established best practices, and other recommended comparators. 
•    Comparative analysis should include (but is not limited to):
o    Service offerings
o    Service delivery model
o    Opening hours
o    Staffing levels
o    Budget allocation
o    Areas of overlap and complementary service
•    Clean and aggregate all datasets and prepare for data analysis and synthesis.
- Key stakeholder engagement
•    Undertake outreach and consultation with key stakeholders, partners and relevant OPL staff, as specified in the consultation and communications plan. 
•    Provide a summary report of all consultation efforts taken in support of the work. 
•    Review past engagement reports (including those produced for the recent master plan and central library projects) to extract relevant insights. 
•    Undertake focused engagement activities to deepen understanding, answer key questions, and validate assumptions.
- Library strategic plan formulation
•    Review and update library strategic elements (mission, vision, values, guidelines, etc.). 
•    Some of the activities included are:
o    Revisit mission and vision statements, values and guiding principles. 
o    Revisit library strategic priorities or pillars and goals. 
o    Revisit strategic objectives and confirm alignment with upper elements of the strategy.
•    Integrate insights and results derived from the previous phases under this scope of work (research, analysis, consultation, comparative analysis from the service review, and service strategy recommendations). 
•    Facilitate library board decision-making to establish strategic priorities (pillars) and articulate the goals and objectives that library will take to achieve these priorities.
•    Ensure the resulting strategic goals and objectives reflect:
o    The alignment with the new service model strategy and the new portfolio of services and initiatives, and its action and implementation plan. 
o    The library board’s vision for the next four years, with special focus on the increase of the quality, impact and effectiveness of library services derived from the new 10-year service model strategy.
•    To monitor the strategy execution, the development of a measurement framework to measure the achievement of goals and objectives that contribute to the strategic priorities, and the progress on strategic initiatives and projects. 
•    To foster continuous improvement, establish a performance measurement framework to integrate and report all the different measures developed to monitor the service model and its alignment with the strategic plan.