Rules for Radicals

I was touched at the thought Jo would try to track down this book. My favorite idea from Rules for Radicals, and one I’ve thought of often over the years, has to do with the change process and how for every two steps forward one should prepare to take one step back. I’ve not only found that to be true, but an idea that “fosters hardiness” as Kouzes and Posner encourage.

That being said, Jo's interest spurred me to track down a quick overview of the book Rules for Radicals. Here’s a link from the Vancouver Community Network:

http://vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/rules.html

As I read this overview, I thought of the emphasis our leadership thinkers place on ethics, trust and collaboration. Alinsky’s rules are written for those working to change the status quo. As long-established institutions, libraries can unquestionably be seen as part of the status quo. Certainly libraries have had to face some of the tactics outlined by Alinsky:

Rule 1: Power is not only what you have, but what an opponent thinks you have. If your organization is small, hide your numbers in the dark and raise a din that will make everyone think you have many more people than you do.

How many times has a staff person objected to a new idea using the claim “everyone” on staff is against it? How many times do book challenges come with the implication that many other patrons share the same concern? How much easier have the Internet and social media made it for small numbers to raise a din?

Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

I think again of book challenges and the claim, for example, that the library director, or an individual trustee, is a “purveyor of pornography”. I know that one of my previous directors eventually resigned from her job because she became identified personally as the cause of the library’s problems.

I realize Rules for Radicals, like Machiavelli’s The Prince, was written in a specific historical context. However, as I think of the leadership development plan and the commandments Bennis and Goldsmith encourage us to develop, it’s helpful for me to consider specific opposition tactics and strategies I might face as a library leader.