When you’re in a position of leadership, people are going to lobby you – either for things they want for themselves, like raises or budget increases, or for initiatives they believe the library should undertake. In previous columns I’ve addressed a couple of principles for dealing with that kind of lobbying: first, the importance of recognizing both the power and the limitations of the argument from anecdote; and second, the importance of looking at data in context.

Today I’m going to suggest a third principle to help you respond wisely and effectively when you’re being lobbied: Ask for the receipts.

Here’s what I mean by that. Those who try to convince you to do something (or not to do something) will often invoke the authority of studies or of data or of experience. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that – in fact, when the people we lead are trying to convince us of something, we fully expect and hope that they will cite evidence in support of their lobbying. And it’s also very important that we receive such appeals to evidence critically. When someone tells us that “library employees are unhappy about X” or that “studies have shown that Y is true,” we need to ask follow-up questions.

Conversations that follow this principle might look something like the following exchanges:

Employee: “Everyone in Cataloging is really unhappy about the shift to RDA and think it’s a terrible idea. I think we’d better stick with AACR2.”

Leader: “Tell me more about the mood in Cataloging. What are you hearing, and whom are you hearing it from? 

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Employee: “Studies have shown that workers are more productive when they’re physically present in the office. We need to cancel all remote-work arrangements.”

Leader: “That’s potentially really important information. Could you send me links to some of those studies so I can review them with my leadership team?”

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Employee: “Every time I walk past the Social Sciences help desk, there’s a line of patrons waiting for help. I think we need to add more staffing there.” 

Leader: “Thanks for that information – I hate the thought of patrons having to wait for help. Has there been any kind of structured study of the traffic patterns at that desk that we could use to help us come up with a good strategy?”

Note that in none of these cases does the leader respond to the argument by expressing skepticism about the report. Instead, she responds immediately with appreciation and interest; then she gently asks for more complete information. Both elements of that response are important: you never want your employee to feel dismissed, and you never want to assume that the information they’re bringing you isn’t accurate. You want to draw out more information, and enlist the employee in helping you come to a wise and strategically effective solution. If, upon further investigation, the evidence doesn’t support the employee’s position, you’re letting the evidence send that message; it the evidence does support it, then you’re well situated to move forward in a wise direction. 

Takeaways and Action Items

• Referring to evidence isn’t the same thing as supplying evidence. When someone makes reference to evidence, ask to see the evidence.
• Never make an employee feel like you’re skeptical of what they're telling you; instead, enlist the employee in the joint project of learning more about the issue.
• Review in your mind recent experiences with employees lobbying you for changes to library practice. What did they use to support their arguments? How did you receive and evaluate those arguments? Should you have dug deeper?