Posted on by hildaweisburg

Fielding Tough Questions

We live in a confrontational, polarized world. Tough questions—and charges—are a part of it. If you are a leader, chances are someone is going to challenge you. It happens to every president, CEO, director and head coach. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a leader, people know you lead the library. If someone has an issue related to the library, you are going to be challenged. What you do next defines you as a leader.

A story I have told before occurred when I took a new position in a school and a teacher came storming into the library and started haranguing my clerk. I came over immediately, indicating if there was a problem, the responsibility was mine, not the clerk’s. It was in the early days of automation, and the practice had been to use teachers’ social security numbers for their barcodes. The teacher was opposed to this. I listened to what she said and apologized for not being aware of the policy. It was my library, and I was responsible. I told her would return all her books, issue a new barcode for her, and re-check out the books to her. At the end of the school year, we changed all teacher barcodes.

What worked when I was challenged? I listened without getting defensive or arguing that I wasn’t the one who put the practice in place. I came up with a satisfactory solution. The result – she became one of my strongest library advocates.

The tough questions are getting tougher, the challenges louder and more fierce. To help us be prepared, Allison Shapira has some answers for you When a Tough Question Puts You on the Spot. Here are her four points.

  1. Prepare in Advance–You can expect to have questions and accusations directed at you for books in your collection and displays in your library. Don’t be caught off guard. Be familiar with the Library Bill of Rights and be able to quote key sections. (You might keep a copy on hand). Have a Selection and Reconsideration Policy in place. This ALA toolkit will get you started if you don’t have one yet.
  2. Pause and Breathe–Being confronted is scary. Your body goes into fight, freeze, flight response. While it is trying to protect you, the process shuts off your cerebral cortex–the part of you that thinks. Allow yourself a moment to respond and get your (hopefully) pre-planned response into action.
  3. Express Sympathy and Honesty–This is what I did with that teacher. When a parent comes to you with a challenge, acknowledge their awareness and their concern. Explain how you don’t seek to override their decisions for their child. Once things have stopped escalating, explain that other parents have the right for their children to have access to those subjects.
  4. Acknowledge the Uncertainty–This is often at the root of challenges and frustrations, rather than true animosity. A teacher is angry and wants to know why the material they requested for inclusion in the library last year is still unavailable. A principal wants more data on the impact of your Makerspace and you hadn’t thought of that before. Be honest about your lack of knowledge, assure them you will look into the matter when possible, and give them a date by which you’ll have an answer.

In some of these confrontations, you need to take a stand and that can be difficult. Shapira recommends you use this PREP framework:

  • Point: State one main point.
  • Reason: Provide a reason behind it.
  • Example: Give an example that supports your point.
  • Point: Before you start rambling, re-state your main point.

You will have to face tough questions and never know when. As with any other aspect of leadership, planning is key. Knowing what you will say when it happens will put you in the best position to handle the challenge and help you trust yourself in difficult, emotional situations.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Crisis? No!  It’s a Chopportunity

With all the grim news about cuts in library positions and budgets, it is easy to have a pessimistic attitude about the future which affects how you interact with others on a daily basis. I learned the word “chopportunity” in 2013 at a School Library Journal Summit. It’s a mash-up word combining Challenge and Opportunity.  I strongly believe our mindset influences how we look at our world and feel about what we do.  When you look at a challenge as an opportunity, it changes your mindset.  The shift puts you in charge of the situation rather than feeling like a victim of what is happening around you.

What challenges are you (and your teachers and administrators) facing?  How do you deal with turbulence and disruption when they occur?  You could panic.  You could complain. You could hunker down and hope it will pass.  But that’s not what leaders do.  When technology first captured the enthusiasm of administrators, affecting library budgets, I told librarians, “When you see a runaway truck coming at you, don’t try to stop it by lying down in front of it.  You will die. Instead, jump on and steer.” The advice remains true.

Chopportunities come in all sizes.  A small one that frequently occurs in our lives is being “asked” to cover a class when no substitute is available.  We know it’s more of a demand. When possible, find out if the class can meet in the library. (Hopefully, it is just one period.) Explain you don’t want to close the library to students and teachers who need it. This nicely informs the administration that your work is valued throughout the school and throughout the day.

And even if you must follow the plans the teacher left, you invariably can add a library component.  Invite the kids to learn library tricks to help them get work done more efficiently.  Or you can use the time to weave in of your lessons on hoax sites and evaluating sources based on the subject you’re being asked to cover.  Challenge them to find the “agenda” behind a website they check. Compile their exit tickets and give a copy to the teacher and your principal.  What was an inconvenience becomes a Chopportunity to reach students and prove the worth of the library!

The paradigm we all grew up with was that schools have libraries with librarians.  Not ever contemplating the situation could change, many librarians focused on doing their job but not showing teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders why it was vital. You know what happened next.

In Embrace Turbulence Ken Goldstein advises those in the corporate world how to avoid being swept out when the world changes once again.  He points out you can’t control change.  What you can control is “attitude, anticipation, and readiness.”

Attitude is the ability to see the latest crisis as a chopportunity. Goldstein reminds readers that “The reward for getting over a hill is the opportunity to climb another hill. There is always another this to get through.” Supposedly, “May you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse, but it all depends on how you look at interesting times.  It can be exhilarating.  A chance to try something new and different.

Anticipation in this context is the opposite of complacency. Things are going well, and you assume they will always continue this way.  In actuality, change is coming.  It always is.  There’s a new educational idea.  New technology explodes on the scene.  How many changes have you seen in the past two years?  Goldstein refers to “big company syndrome” which is “the belief your paycheck will always show up.” (We’re looking at you Sears, Blockbuster, and Kodak.) He says, “smart company syndrome is knowing you have to earn your keep every day.” For us, it means proving our worth – every day.

Readiness is the key not only to survival but to increasing your value to the educational community.  Our National School Library Standards challenge us to embrace change.  We are to reflect on our practice and go beyond “it’s good” to “what do I need to do to make it better.”  We must be aware of the larger environment, looking beyond the library to what’s happening in education, trends in technology, and whatever else might impact schools and the library program.

I was once talking to my vice-principal and said it would be great to have one normal year without a crisis.  She told me crisis was what was normal.  She was right.  As Goldstein advises, “Make peace with turbulence. Pace yourself for a ceaselessly bumpy endurance contest. Expect an unruly rollercoaster ride and be mildly pleased the days it doesn’t throw you from the train.”  In other words, you must always be ready to deal with something – usually several somethings—in the course of the school year.  Some small, but others quite big. It’s just another Chopportunity.