Chapter 12: Communication

True communication takes place when both the sender and the receiver understand the same meaning and intention. This requires an effort to verify that the intended meaning has been understood. Effective and clear communication is vital to insuring efficient planning, decision-making, delegation and managing innovation.

Communication has many barriers, both personal and organizational, but before we get to that let's look at the 3 elements of communication.

• The delivery - verbal, written on paper, and electronic communications are individually unique representations and have their own subtleties
• The assimilation - listening and reading to "hear" a message as it was meant to be understood needs time and feedback for best execution
• The perception - body language and non-verbal semiotics can change the meaning of a message so much that the "how" of the communication speaks louder that the "what" 

W - Waste of time: Silently criticizing the "sloppy, ugly" PowerPoint, or other "hows" of presentation,  and thinking that the communication is unimportant or doesn't apply to you because it is presented in an uninteresting way.

H - Hot buttons: each of us has words and phrases that carry personal negative meanings for us, which mean nothing special to the person speaking. Listening to what is said instead of reading into how it is phrased is important. 

A - Assuming:  Jumping to conclusions about what the speaker will say next, because the delivery is slow or repetitive, diverts attention and prevents one from catching something important. 

T - Tiny details: Communications that don't incorporate an overview seem too detailed. Making interconnections between the details can help in listening and one can paint the big picture themselves.

     My library recently started a Vocabulary Wiki for the library staff.  It is geared towards new staff that may have difficultly with learning the lingo.  Anyone can submit words and definitions that they found confusing at any point and it will hopefully help create a standard vocabulary. I remember being confused about certain terms when I started, so I think this will be a really helpful tool for new employees and it is great that is built/created by the rest of the staff, who, through their own personal experience, will make it better.
~ Kathleen


Barriers to Organizational Communication

* who should communicate with whom, about what and in what way are all expectations effected by the authority structure, work relationships and status
* generational barriers of preferred methods of communication

* communication needs like feedback and variations in time needed to assimilate information

* communications from supervisors can be perceived as manipulative and requires a counterbalance of trust and timely on-the-spot job evaluation

* readability of email communication takes practice in order to be clear and appropriate

     The central branch manager used a communication strategy of sending email blasts at least three times a week, and sometimes more often if changes were taking place. Her synopsis of "happenings" contained information about other branches, new staff, programming, things of interest to the library world. Mostly, they were updates about changes in our library system - everything from cataloging to new displays. The emails were short and friendly. This created a sense of inclusion and being informed while also allowing people to assimilate the information and have a "memo" they could easily save and refer to or send her a reply to start a dialogue of feedback.
~ Amy

     At the Minnesota Library Association conference, Joanne Frye Williams discussed communications in her Keynote.  She said: 

• Managing communication is important
• Secrecy: is harmful, deliver messages in a timely manner
• Be honest: don't add to the interpretation
• "In middle management you are the organizations mouth piece"
   When you are the messenger: 
• Be empathetic
• Don't delay
• Stick to the facts
• Don't sugar coat things
• Don't "sandwich" (sticking bad news in the middle of good news)
• Link to principles
• Never start with "I know you probably won't like this but...."
• Have a sense of humor!!!

I have used humor on many occasions with patrons to lighten up a situation.  I also know that it is important to know which patrons humor will work with and which ones it will not.

     Listening is so important, because if a person, whether it is a patron or a staff member, does not feel like they are being heard, then nothing can begin to be resolved.  Listening to concerns and addressing those concerns is a key part of effective communication.
~ Tina

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     I never worked at the library at Virginia Tech, but while I was an administrator there I did like reading some of their blogs for public information. Here's my favorite one: http://whatscookinvt.wordpress.com/ What's Cookin @ Special Collections? Virginia Tech's Culinary History Collection blog. It gives information about their collections that's got just enough 'librarian-speak' to make it useful to practitioners, but is written for the general public. Here's a fun post: A Tale of Two Covers, or, Why I Love My Job.  I really think blogs like these can give the public some 'windows' into specialized library areas, which is useful for raising awareness and even for development!
~ Katie

     I find our library's use of the intranet more annoying than anything else--since I am "off-site" most of the time I can't access it! I ended up emailing myself the phone list and then I just call and have someone else look at it when I need something specific, or when it's used for signups for training or other activities. 

~ Katie

     The public library where I worked had an intranet containing all the policies and procedures but was a boilerplate platform with an unfriendly UI. Looking for a specific and clear policy statement was like trying to find a needle in a haystack most of the time. Recently, they switched to Sharepoint and each library division was able to construct and author independently. This really improved the ability to find information through better navigation and visual organization. 

~ Amy