Getting to Yes:Advocating for Your Library

Laura K. Lee DellingerJennifer Gilstrap Hearn

Nikki Schardin

Understand what advocacy is and why it is important and who can advocate

Understand when to employ advocacy strategies instead of public relations or marketing approaches

Understand basics of framing theory and how it influences decision making

How to ask the right questions in preparation for your advocacy efforts

How to identify audiences and pathways to influence them Understand basic forms of persuasive proof/support Apply the learnings above to specific problems

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives

Overview of the WorkshopOverview of the Workshop

Morning: Lecture• Advocacy as Inquiry and Argument

Afternoon: Breakout Sessions• Identifying the Answers and Framing Arguments

Definition: CommunicationDefinition: Communication• Practical and necessary art • Four elements: speaker, listener, message

and occasion. • Definite and specialized attempt to persuade • Ultimate purpose of all communication is

audience response.

Definitions: Communication PracticesDefinitions: Communication Practices

• Public Relations: building mutually beneficial relationships over the long term

• Marketing: causing transactions to occur that satisfy human needs/wants in exchange for something of value.

• Advocacy: advancing a cause or proposal using argument to do so

What is advocacy?What is advocacy?

• Supporting a cause or proposal

• Using argument to do so

Focus of Library Advocacy Focus of Library Advocacy

• Turn passive support of libraries and librarians into educated action by stakeholders.

– Text originates from ALA Advocacy, A Framework for Planning for Future Activities. Prepared by Nancy Kranich.

Who can be an advocate?Who can be an advocate?

• YOU

• Your staff

• Your board

• Your community partners

• Friends

Why should you be an advocate?Why should you be an advocate?

• Ambassador for the library (both locally and globally)• Reinforcing other communication efforts • Reinforcing community/customer experiences• If the people closest to the cause don’t do it, why

should anyone else?• Knowledgeable about the library and its needs and

benefits• Influential community stewards

How to How to

• Ask the right questions

• Build a strong argument

• Reach out to the audience

Advocacy as Inquiry: Asking the right questionsAdvocacy as Inquiry: Asking the right questions

• What is the problem and WHY is it a problem?• What is our solution?• What do we want?• Who can give us what we want?• Why should they do so? (Benefit to them, alignment w/

values, etc.)• What do THEY need to know in order to take the action

we want?• Who is the best person to tell them our story?• How can we get them to listen to that person(s)?

Problem/SolutionProblem/Solution

• What is the problem?

• What is the cause?

• How do we want to solve it?• How is our solution going to address the broader

needs (community values = constituency values)?

What do we want?What do we want?

• Community action or involvement

• Funding

• Public policy change

• Build political and public will

• Create new library advocates

Who can give us what we want?Who can give us what we want?

• Who needs to be engaged Who needs to be engaged andand take action to achieve take action to achieve goals?goals?

• Identify Identify theirtheir needs, interests, values and level of needs, interests, values and level of engagementengagement

• Identify Identify theirtheir channels of communication, trusted channels of communication, trusted advisors, and willingness to actadvisors, and willingness to act

Who can give us what we want?Who can give us what we want?• Administrators

• Legislators

• City or County elected officials

• Voters

• Community leadership

• Customers

• Others?

Why should they take action?Why should they take action?

• Benefit to them/their constituents

• Alignment with their values• Alignment with constituency values

(remember: customers = constituents)

Who is the best person to tell our Who is the best person to tell our story?story?

• Chosen based on the needs of the audience

• Most direct pathways

• Most impacted parties

• Aligned with their values

What do they need to know to take What do they need to know to take the action we want?the action we want?

Go back to the “why”? Then explain how our plan:

• Benefits them/their constituents

• Aligns with their values• Aligns with constituency values

(remember: customers = constituents)

Framing TheoryFraming Theory

• The manner in which we process new information is related to our deeply held worldviews and assumptions– “…the way in which the world is imagined

determines at any particular moment what men will do.” (Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 1921)

Framing TheoryFraming Theory

• How we process information– People are not blank slates – We use mental shortcuts to make sense of the world– Incoming information provides cues that connect to

the picture/stories in our heads– Once these pictures/stories are evoked, we stop

processing

Framing TheoryFraming TheorySo, why ARE all TV nannies British?

Framing TheoryFraming Theory• How we process information

– Pictures connect with certain enduring, deeply held cultural values

• Freedom, privacy, opportunity, etc.

– Images, stories and values constitute the “frames” we associate with specific issues

What do What do theythey need to know to take need to know to take the action we want?the action we want?Speak in the language of the listener.

Connect to existing frames.

• What? (problem)

• So what? (why and how solution remedies/pros + cons)

• Now what? (take the action)

Round 2:

• If not, THEN what? (reinforce harm of inaction + benefit of action)

Make a strong argumentMake a strong argument

• Having one vs. making one• Systematic establishment of chain of reasoning in

support of one’s position.• Burden of Proof is yours: can’t assume people will

make the linkage between what you have to offer and what they care about, you have to make that link for them.

• Must have blended proof: reason + emotion, evidence of satisfaction of the audience’s needs

The 4 P’sThe 4 P’s

• Passion• Purpose• People• Persuasion

Passion Passion

•Personal credibility and commitment

•Ethos: character, competence and goodwill

•Advancing the cause for the purpose of

benefiting others, not just the self

PurposePurpose

•Establish a new situation or change an existing state of being•Fact (that something is real/true)•Value (that something is of utility and

deserving of support)•Policy (that a choice should be made in support of a proposal)

PeoplePeople

• Primary Audience: who can make the choice for which we are advocating

• Secondary Audience: who influences the primary audience and who can help us advance our case

PersuasionPersuasion

What type of support can you offer? Qualitative Evidence

•Examples•Definitions•Descriptions•Quotes •Analogies/comparisons•Testimony– Expert– Customer/Constituent– Opinion Leader

Quantitative evidence•Surveys•Statistics

Getting your argument heard Getting your argument heard or How can we get them to listen?or How can we get them to listen?• Direct Connections/Outreach

– Meetings & one-on-one – Roundtables/Forums/Town Halls– Hearings– Letters /e-mail– Fact Sheets & Frequently Asked Questions

• Media (as Channel and Influencer)

– Letters to the Editor/Opinion Editorials– Editorial Board Visits– News and Features– Library as media

Break for LunchBreak for Lunch

What’s required for effective What’s required for effective advocacy?advocacy?

• Passion

• Purpose

• Persuasion

• People

Break-Out Sessions Break-Out Sessions 1. Define the problem and your solution

(Frame the issue) :30 minutes

2. Refine your audience :30 minutes• Identify their needs, interests, values and level of engagementIdentify their needs, interests, values and level of engagement• Identify their channels of communication, trusted advisors, and willingness to Identify their channels of communication, trusted advisors, and willingness to

actact

3.3. Create Your Message (Your argument) Create Your Message (Your argument) :30 minutes:30 minutes• What, Now what, So what . . . Then what?What, Now what, So what . . . Then what?• Build your message using balanced forms of proof/supportBuild your message using balanced forms of proof/support

4. Identify the best messengers :20 minutes

5. Determine your approach : 15 minutes

6. Report Out

Break-Out Sessions Break-Out Sessions

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