Team up without turmoil! Winning strategies for collaboration (IAC poster)
I attended the Information Architecture Conference for the first time last week. It was in Philadelphia this year. It was such a pleasant surprise that there were lots of other librarians there!
My colleague, Beatrice Downey, and I co-presented a poster and zine with several common scenarios that information architects and content strategists might encounter when engaging with stakeholders. For example, what could you say when a stakeholder is derailing a meeting to discuss an unrelated topic? What are some steps to take if there is disagreement among stakeholders? We provided practical tips and even mini-scripts for productive, positive communication.
It sparked a LOT of conversation during the poster session, and while we did provide lots of strategies, the poster was a Trojan horse whose real purpose was to learn from other attendees whom we invited to contribute their own tips and tricks! Some excellent examples:
- Not getting a response to your emailed request for input? Schedule an 8am meeting to gather the input synchronously. (Surprise: input will be emailed to you and you can cancel the meeting, to everyone’s relief.)
- Need help getting the conversation started or moving past disagreement? Use inversion: “Let’s briefly talk about what we aren’t going to do.” Then flip those ideas around to start collaboratively brainstorming.
- Stakeholders don’t understand each other’s conventions? Create a glossary with field-specific jargon and acronyms.
- Is there a mansplainer in the meeting? Don’t invite them to the next meeting (if possible): “You understood what we were talking about, so we met without wasting your time.”