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PR Rx Section 4: Decision Makers |
Communicating in Person |
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Your face-to-face communication with decision makers is a critical time to make your case. While successful PR efforts involve constant communication with decision makers and are based on building relationships, you will likely have the opportunity to make your library’s case through several formal and essential venues. Scheduled policy meetings, formal presentations, and testimony should be the crowning task of your PR efforts which involve policy or budget matters. “THE MEETING” Make an appointment. When you are advocating for something, do so formally. While you make have many water cooler conversations about your library and may also have the opportunity to talk with decision makers socially, do not assume that informal advocacy—while very helpful—replaces a formal request. In a meeting, you are forced to clearly articulate what you want and why. You state your case and then let the decision maker know that you expect consideration of the issue and some institutional/governmental response to it. In a formal meeting, you completely eliminate any potential conflict of friendship because you are presenting your case within your institution’s professional practice. Schedule the meeting at a time that is not too late or early in the decision-making process. Timing is everything. Do not surprise decision makers by making last minute requests. A county commission budget hearing should not be the first time commissioners hear about your library’s needs, especially not if you are asking for large capital items. Do not submit requests once a budget has been finalized. Learn when decision makers are studying their budgets and priorities. Be prepared to meet with them at that formative time—when they have not yet committed to one particular course of action and can integrate your plans with theirs. Know whom to talk to. In legislative matters, for instance, you would need to speak with the chairman and members of the appropriate committee. If you are not already certain, find out who actually makes decisions about your budget and your requests and find out who recommends action to those individuals. Be sure to talk with key aides or assistants, because support staff is often responsible for gathering information that decision makers need to prioritize their ultimate actions. Assume bosses/political leaders are trying hard to do the right thing. Too often, we allow ourselves to accept the cynical clichés that politicians are less than honest or that bosses are more interested in their personal agenda rather than in carrying out good policy. While some of that may be true, in most instances, people are trying to do the best job they can. Just as the library manager has many pressures, so does the state legislator or the university president. The fact is, decision makers must make tough choices and are themselves ultimately accountable based on their actions. Often, advocates assume that the reason decision makers have not supported them before is because the decision maker is inept or somehow uncaring about education and the services libraries provide. Approaching any decision maker with that attitude is not only insulting; it is counter productive. Politeness and professionalism are only a beginning. Whether you agree or not, give them the benefit of the doubt—assume that they would like to support the library’s services. And, never tell a decision maker, “Do this because it is the right thing to do.” Do not cast yourself as a judge on their morals. Be targeted—do not be derailed. Just as you prioritized library requests, state your case using clear rationales. Stick to the topic at hand and do not ramble on about anything unrelated to your library request. If you have set up a meeting to discuss a particular topic, do not dilute that presentation with talk about other matters. Avoid the following phrases: “as long as I’m here,” “while I have your attention,” “I’ve been meaning to mention,” “there’s this other problem we’re having,” “What do you think about national security?” and so on. Time is precious—yours and theirs. Do not spend it on any discussion that cannot help you promote your cause. By the same token, do not allow the decision maker to derail you from your topic. A common trick is for a decision maker to ask you about a number of topics so as to “run out the clock” or limit any potential request he or she may not want to hear about. Keep them on topic. While you must naturally be cordial at the start of a meeting, get to your point quickly. If the decision maker raises some totally unrelated issue, smile and agree that the point is fascinating and say that your library probably has a book on that. Then continue making your case for the library’s needs! Librarians tend to say too much. Librarians love what they do and want to explain the complexity and wonder of library service to people. Most decision makers do not want to hear it though. When you have a key decision-making meeting, get to the point and make your request. Give the rationale and then stop. Let the decision maker ask you questions. While you must certainly be prepared to respond and have lots of facts and figures available (which you will, of course, present in written form), give that information when it is requested. Too often, librarians will over explain an issue or give too much detail. Not only do you expend precious minutes on the clock, but you also run the risk of lulling the attention you have worked so hard to get. The most extensive information you can provide is about the impact that your library has on people and the effect that the proposed request (should it be approved) will have on the people you (and the decision makers) serve. You do not need to give decision makers a lesson on library work or dazzle them with jargon. If they want that information, they will certainly ask for it. And, no matter what you are asked, be succinct. Talk about outcomes. Service facts and figures are fine support information, but everyone today is talking about outcomes. Tell the story that demonstrates the library’s role in helping someone graduate, start a business, cut costs, or get off Welfare. Provide a context and a means for decision makers to understand the overall contribution the library makes to its particular community. Relate those outcomes to the priorities established by the decision maker. Get others to argue your point. Get some of the people you serve or perhaps other leaders to talk with decision makers about your library’s needs. While librarians are clearly the people most informed to talk about library requests, they are also seen as the most biased. Patrons, school kids, parents, library board members, and other officials, for instance, are particularly effective because they represent the “lay” perspective. Follow-up! Send a thank you note and continue discussions with the decision maker and his/her staff. Keep them posted on the library’s activities and on the progress of your request. Almost everything is negotiable. There will be times when a librarian must state unequivocally a position and hold to it at all cost. Be warned, however, those time are seldom. Do not force yourself into a corner. If you say to a decision maker, I absolutely must have this, or I cannot live with that mandate under any circumstance, you had better mean it. Budgets, staffing, and even policy discussions are open to consideration. While certainly everyone begins a debate with a given position, the decision-making process is about crafting workable compromises. If you refuse to negotiate (particularly for non “life and death” issues), you will be seen as unreasonable. Your input into broader institutional or community policy will not be sought. In short, you will make the most catastrophic of all mistakes: you will keep yourself out of the negotiating table. When you must absolutely hold a position, do so. Just remember that almost any policy can be made workable. Some General Scenarios and Suggested Answers
Testimony The rule of thumb for public testimony is to draft one page of comments or about five minutes. Testimony should never be read but should be prepared to hand in and used to keep the speaker on target. Be direct, compelling, and illustrate your point. Always begin by introducing yourself and stating your position.
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