Advocacy, Action, and Answers: Building Influence for the School Librarian

1. Advocacy, Action, and Answers: Building Influence for the School Librarian Ann Dutton Ewbank Arizona State University

2. Purpose and Outcome • This workshop will take participants through Dr. Gary Hartzell’s advocacy framework, Building Influence for the School Librarian: Tenets, Targets, and Tactics (2nd Ed.). LinworthPublishing, 2003. • Participants will leave the workshop equipped with strategies for advocacy within their schools and communities.

3. Caveat • We will be speaking today in the context of building influence within your local school setting; • However, this framework is flexible and adaptable for other contexts, such as school councils, statewide and national issues

4. Agenda • Understanding workplace conditions • The price of influence • The attributes of influential colleagues • Influencing the principal • Your plan for Monday morning (and the rest of your career!)

5. Understanding workplace conditions

6. Understanding workplace conditions • Schools are rational bureaucracies • Interlocking dependencies: you can’t do your job without other parts of the organization • Keeps concentration of power out of the hands of a person or group • To increase influence in a bureaucracy; know which people in the organization are most important to you!

7. Who’s in your 5? Strength of relationship: Close Reasonable Distant Physical Proximity: Immediate Near Far Principal Medium High LMC High Dependency: High Medium Low

8. Why is this important? • In order to influence you must engage • The “reciprocity” principle • “If you’re not engaged in a variety of activities outside of the library itself, you run the risk of coming to focus on your own part of the bureaucracy.” • “Quiet competent behavior just sustains your dependency.”

9. The price of influence

10. The price of influence • Political behavior is… • Knowing with whom you must work and how to work with them • Value-neutral; a tool used to advance change or maintain the status quo • Political behavior requires… • Specific behavioral changes in your everyday activities

11. The price of influence • Is it worth it? Ask yourself… • Do you believe in the fully involved teacher-librarian role outlined in professional documents and organizations? • Will your personal make-up and value system allow you to behave in an influential manner? THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS

12. Attributes of influential colleagues

13. Attributes of influential colleagues • Likability • Expertise • Integrity • Committed energy • Sensitivity to the context of others’ lives

14. Influencing the principal/headmaster

15. Influencing the principal/headmaster Conceptualize your relationship Adversary Ally Indifference Where are you located?

16. Influencing the principal/headmaster • Principal’s perspective is different from the faculty’s • Principal will always want to know what is going on in various parts of the school • Principal’s spheres of responsibility and authority are much larger than yours • Principal has to struggle with competing and conflicting demands

17. Influencing the principal/headmaster • Get clarification of what your principal expects from you • Take the initiative instead of waiting for the principal to come to you • Gather information before you talk to the principal • Learn the preferred chain of command (may be different than you think!)

18. Influencing the principal/headmaster • Outside assignments- committees, accreditation teams at school and council level • Evidence- monthly and annual report • Quarterly meeting with principal/headmaster • Credit the administration when you receive compliments about the library program • Others?

19. Tenets- Across the Board • Build alliances with powerful people- those who control resources and have formal authority • Build allies among peers by mentoring newcomers and with support staff • Build allies across the board by doing favors for others • Build allies through hiring and appointments • Build alliancesby sharing credit and recognition

20. Targets-The Principal/Headmaster • Your principal’s working style • What are his/her primary objectives? • How formal or informal is your principal? • How much control does he/she maintain in delegating tasks? • Is he/she a morning, afternoon or evening person? • How does he/she best receive information (reading or listening)? • Is there something that he/she considers absolutely unforgivable in interpersonal relations?

21. Targets-The Principal/Headmaster • Get early and continuing clarification of what your principal expects of you • Take the initiative- do not wait for others to come to you • Do your homework- for every problem, deliver a possible solution • Be your own publicist and promoter- subtle, not strident • Talk to others before you talk to your principal. • Don’t get caught up in jargon or titles • Establish a strong relationship with those who surround the principal

22. Tactics for Monday • Ask for department head status • Develop an evaluation instrument specific for t-l’s • Ask for assignment to accreditation teams • Volunteer for committees • Write a monthly report • Offer to write a column in the monthly newsletter • Invite meetings in the library • Schedule a quarterly meeting with the principal • Credit the administration when you receive compliments on the library and its services

23. Tactics for Monday • Nominate your principal for an award • Attend Board meetings • Develop monthly and annual reports • Volunteer for district level committees • With the other librarians in the district, create a “librarian to the board” position

24. What will you do on Monday?

25. What will you do on Monday? What THREE actions can you take that will help you begin to build influence?