TechEssence.info

Meredith's excellent post about acquiring staff buy-in caused a commenter to raise a related question: how to get buy-in from the higher rungs of the ladder.

As with anything, there's no one foolproof way. Evaluate any strategy suggested in light of what you know about your library's administration. That said, here are a few things that have worked for me and folks I know.

• Show how it saves staff time, effort, and (especially) annoyance. With impressive-sounding numbers, if possible. I'm selling new signage for MPOW on the rationale of "will reduce directional questions." (Signs are a technology, folks. Not every technology runs on microprocessors.) Solve a problem you know admin has.
• Show that it runs easily on what you've already got, for little or no additional budget damage. This is a major selling point for a lot of open-source software.
• Easy sells. Show that it's easy to work with! This means keeping your testing and installation war stories under wraps, at least temporarily.
• Line up a patron or two who clearly want the new service before you pitch it to admin. Informal surveys, skunkworks test runs, whatever it takes. Do not give a naysayer an opening for "But nobody will use it!"
• Anticipate objections. Don't write down all your rebuttals in your proposal, or you will sound defensive—but do be ready to answer the likeliest questions. Security, maintenance, cost, customization, training, marketing… be ready.
• Pitch a pilot project instead of a full-blown rollout. This gives admin a handy out; they can blame you if the tech fails. (But it won't fail, right?) Study other projects (tech and otherwise) that have succeeded in your library, to figure out how other people documented a pilot project's success. Then do as they did.
• Are other libraries doing it? Have they talked or written about it? Be a librarian—build a bibliography! Library admins fear being left behind. It's cruel to play on that fear, but it's also effective.
• If other libraries aren't doing it, you may be able to sell it as "Our library can be a leader!" This is a risky strategy, especially in libraries with timid or stretched admins, and it should never be tried in isolation; you need other arguments. Still, it can work.
• Do it silently. Sometimes, honestly, it doesn't pay to ask. If you've got a website improvement that is a slam-dunk for everybody, but by the time it's chewed over by six committees it'll be useless, take the risk (make no mistake, this is a risk) and just do it.
• Be prepared for your pitch to fail the first time. Or the third. Or the tenth. Sometimes you have to plant an idea and then give it some time to germinate.

And some things that I have seen fail:

• "It's cool!" If this is your only selling point, go back to the drawing board.
• "Patrons are doing it!" Usually you can't prove this to admin's satisfaction. Even if you can, the response is likely to be "Doesn't mean we have to." You need to demonstrate a benefit to the library, not just to patrons—I know that sounds cold, but I have found it to be true. Personal value (to library admin) precedes patron value!
• Jargon. Don't use it. "Baffling ’em" with bovine excrement only makes admin hate you.
• "It makes my life easier!" Sure, but how does that benefit admin? To make this work, you need to do a little horsetrading. Tell admin what you can do for them with the time this technology will save you. Then be honorable and do it.

Meredith's commenter asked specifically about either-or tech questions, such as "Fedora or DSpace?" I think the answer here is fairly straightforward: figure out what admin cares about and play to it. If admin likes fancy homegrown user interfaces, then it'll be easy to sell Fedora. If admin likes out-of-the-box functionality, DSpace has it.

If your instinct is to play against admin's desires—you think, for example, that admin will want DSpace because it'll be easier short-term, but Fedora is a better long-term choice—then you have to anticipate objections, again. Your big weapon is that you know a lot more about these things than admin does, and knowledge is power. Don't be overbearing—but do apply a little spin to your presentation.

Also, don't get caught up in choices that don't really matter. If you'll be happy enough with either choice, say so, and decline to take sides. By all means lay out the pros and cons clearly for your colleagues, but save your side-taking energy for the discussions that count for something.

I hope this post will attract some discussion; I don't doubt I've missed some things, and some of what I've said may be controversial. Have at it!