Heard It Through the Grapevine

Information is the lifeblood of influence. Without information, it's very difficult to assess and address the needs of others, which is the key to building influence. You need information about the work others do and, perhaps more importantly, are going to be doing in the near future. Daniel Brass's communication study provides a framework for understanding information (see "Being in the Right Place: A Structural Analysis of Individual Influence in an Organization," Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 29, pp. 518–539). According to Brass, a professor at the University of Kentucky's School of Management, we each participate in three communication networks that operate simultaneously in the workplace: a formal, an informal, and a friendship network.

The formal information network provides you with information that all faculty members are entitled to, as well as any other information that you're entitled to because you're a librarian or a member of a committee or task force. Formal information is important, because it keeps you abreast of your status, identifies current issues, and occasionally gives you a glimpse of things to come.

Unfortunately, the formal network has two substantial weaknesses. It's limited in scope, and it often delivers information about events or decisions that have already taken place. Influence building requires real-time information, because you must be present to exercise influence. Fortunately, that can be found in the second and third information networks.

Your informal information network delivers information to you haphazardly. Although much of the information is useful, a lot of it isn't. Still, it's an important source of information that won't make its way to you formally. Informal information includes the things you overhear in the lunchroom or that you're told when a committee you're on takes a break. The informal network lets you know about departments and programs undergoing change, upcoming events that haven't yet been announced, and other opportunities to build your influence through meeting an individual's or group's needs.

Whenever a staff member enters the library, you have a chance to obtain informal information. But waiting in the library like an information-hungry vulture isn't enough. Just as with the formal network, your informal network expands in direct proportion to the number of activities you're involved in outside of the library.

From an influence perspective, the most powerful network is your friendship network, which is made up of people who think of you when they hear information that may be important to you. For example, a few years ago, a district's curriculum committee decided that its high school would teach only 20th-century American history—anything that took place before then would be taught in its elementary and middle schools. No librarians attended that meeting, but a few were informed of the decision by their friends. Those librarians who didn't receive word of the committee's decision ended up spending much of their following year's budgets on useless materials.

That's why it's important to build close associations with staff members through collaborative efforts, committee work, special projects, and social ties both in and out of school. You can't possibly be everywhere where library-relevant information is being dispersed. You need to have someone present who will hear the information and recognize that you, too, need to know about it.

With all three information networks the lesson is the same. You can extend them by extending your activities beyond the library. Information is a resource that's as valuable as your library's print and electronic holdings—and it's much more valuable in helping you operate your library in the most effective way.

Gary Hartzell (ghartzell@mail.unomaha.edu) is a professor of educational administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.