(Image: “Influence Pyramid” by Ed Batista)
I have posted a few times about librarians and the “influence pyramid” so it would be prudent to post some excerpts below from the Information Outlook article Solo power: how one-person librarians maximize their influence by Guy St. Clair that includes a lengthy discussion of the influence pyramid as it relates specifically to solo librarians.
My previous posts were The Influence Pyramid and the Solo Librarian and “The Influence Pyramid 2.0″–Librarians and Others Can Choose to Be Powerful. Anyway, here is the excerpt from Guy St. Clair which is still valid today:
“Certainly one-person librarianship – as a distinct discipline within information services-is not advocated for those organizations in which the quantity of information to be managed and delivered exceeds the abilities of a solo practitioner. That is a given, and no one (not even the most hardhearted organizational manager) is going to attempt to force a one-person librarian to practice in an environment which calls for a larger information staff. Nevertheless, as information audits, business process reengineering, and other management methodologies are utilized for determining the exact and appropriate amounts (and levels) of information required for the organization, the desired level of information services is often found to be that which can be managed and provided by one person. For that single-staff information professional to succeed, he or she must recognize and be able to use all the power and influence that is available.
There are, it seems to me, three ‘layers’ that make up the ‘body’ of what I call ‘The Power and Influence Pyramid’ [see illustration] and all three are essential components in the successful fulfillment of the one-person librarian’s work, that is, the successful achievement of the mission that has been established for the one-person library or other single-staff information delivery operation for which he or she has management responsibility.
Why Be Concerned with Power and Influence?
When we speak about these subjects, a natural sort of reticence seems to set in, especially with those of us who have been educated as librarians and who came into the information services profession to be of service to others. For some reason, there seems to be a conflict between the noble aspiration of servicing one’s customers and the less-exalted search for power and influence.
That notion, fellow practitioners, must be laid to rest immediately. There is no conflict between excellence of service to one’s identified information customers and the pursuit of power simply because, without power, one is permanently relegated to a subservient position and denied the opportunities for providing proactive, state-of-the-art information delivery. Therefore, in order to achieve one’s (and one’s organization’s) goals, it is necessary to be in a position of power, to have at least some power, in order to influence the decisions that are made about the work that one does as a solo librarian…
What might be called the ‘political’ layer of The Power and Influence Pyramid actually consists of three ideas. They’re not mutually exclusive and, in fact, when they are thought about, coordinated, and realized, the one-person librarian finds himself or herself in a remarkably powerful and influential position.
The first concept has to do with political awareness. Many of us quite naturally rebel at the idea. ‘Why do I need politics?’ we ask. ‘Don’t all the bad things that happen in our society come from the political process?’
Not necessarily, and if we’re honest with ourselves, one of the things we learn early on in life (leaving aside, for the moment, our professional life) is that there are people in society who do have power and influence, and if we want to get things accomplished, we must learn who those people are, observe how they operate, and insinuate ourselves into their operational sphere so we can benefit from their power and their influence…
The second ‘plank’ of the political layer of The Power and Influence Pyramid is the shared vision with all information stakeholders. While the one-person librarian may be (and may even be recognized as) the information point person in the organization, there are many, many people who have an interest in how information is managed and delivered, and these people must be called in. Their advice – whether formal or informal – is critical to the successful realization of the library’s mission, and the savvy solo librarian will make every attempt to find out what these stakeholders want, in terms of information services…
The third and final plank of the political layer is the librarian’s partnership with management. Do not deceive yourself – you have a relationship with management, and whether that relationship is a subservient one, a partnership, or something that falls somewhere between these two poles, the relationship exists. The smart one-person librarian recognizes this and does what he or she can to enhance that relationship (things like identifying specific but unstated information needs of management, and then filling them, come to mind, and there’s a whole list of techniques that one can employ to strengthen one’s relationship with management – a subject, perhaps, for a different article).
The desired relationship is a partnership, a situation in which management recognizes the value of the one-person library to the organization and, as a consequence, supports the work that the library does. There are two reasons why such a partnership is valuable, and they can be stated quickly: In the first place, when the solo librarian and management have a partnership and it is recognized as such, the library is then positioned as strategic to the organization (and, by implication, to organizational success). And just as important, a partnership between management and the one-person librarian brings management into ownership with respect to the library and its services, and with management as a ‘part-owner,’ as it were, the potential for success in the operation of the library or other information services unit is considerably advanced…”
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