Hive

Your Mom Goes to College!

The following is a paper I turned in for a class I am taking.

The present global crisis threatens to permanently reconfigure the cultural landscape causing museums to slash staffing, freeze hiring, halt planned exhibitions, and reduce services.[1] As the nation faces its most difficult financial crisis since the great depression, museums have already begun to face the daunting task of staying afloat in a dismal economy. In a recent address to a worldwide museum community via an online webinar, The American Association of Museum’s president Ford Bell began with the famous Charles Dickens’s quote “It was the best of times it was the worst of times.” [2] Admittedly an over used phrase, but one that rings clear to many who are left standing after September 2008’s massive decline in the stock market which delivered a punishing blow to all Americans. The challenges we face will cause us to make some difficult choices but has the opportunity to strengthen, and enliven cultural institutions as a whole.  In order to meet the present crisis head on, boards and development professionals will have to open their hearts and minds to some new ways of thinking. They can no longer play by the rules of the venerable political structure existing in most of today’s museums and cultural institutions. A fundamental change in institutional governance and a change in the structures museums use to acquire funding must take place. Practices must be put in place that break down silos to work with all staff to ensure that museums are meeting mission, empowering new voices in the management structure and demonstrating to their communities that they provide essential services as vital as health and safety will ensure the survival of their institutions.

The structure of strategic planning that takes place in museums is one that gathers groups of people who are locked in ivory towers, feeds them catered sandwiches, while consultants armed with the latest rhetoric lead planning sessions locked away from the people who will bear the burden of implementing the decisions made in a vacuum.

Senior staff and board members feel good as they lock themselves up for an extended weekend and probably truly believe that they are listening to a broad audience when determining the courses of action for coming years. These sessions remind me of the Soviet Five Year Plans that would eventual bring about a panacea of social change but only entrench a system of entitlements that further separate the institution from the audience it seeks to serve.

While it is not inconceivable that these closed door weekend “retreats” can’t result in the formation of strong visions for an institution, the complex hierarchal system of strategic planning does not provide for the entrance of mid level management and the future leadership of cultural institutions. The complex flow charts and graphics that are bantered about and discussed are really there to manage the very thing that is crushing the non-profit world: the proliferation of a group of elites who are placed in positions of steering an institution based on their ability to be wealthy, and maintain that wealth.  The strategic plan is an enormous plan designed to placate the strong personalities and well funded individuals who often drive activities of institutions based on personal proclivities and associations. The story of “the popcorn” car, the permanent inclusion of a giant immovable truck at the Slate museum, or

John Carnahan

’s candid description of the roots of the horse show are perfect examples of what can derail and consume an institutions resources.  While today’s presidents and CEOs are adept at maneuvering  the political waters and taming the lions of the non-profit boardroom, our industry is going to see a massive move toward retirement in the next 20 years[3], and non-profits have an opportunity to usher in a new type of senior staffer or leader in cultural institutions. Today’s leaders require what the Annie E. Casey Foundation report, "Up Next: Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations." a new decision-making structures that model empowerment and a more participatory approach, providing more leadership development opportunities to minorities, promoting a healthier work and life balance, and respect for and inclusion of the different values of a younger generation of dedicated nonprofit professionals. Today’s young professionals find the pursuing a career in the nonprofit sector compelling due to the opportunities for impact on societal problems. Money is not the primary motivator.[4] With the opportunity to populate our leadership ranks with individuals who are more inclusive in their management style, museums and other non-profits can begin to take a fresh look at the way they govern themselves to ensure their own survival. Boards themselves may even evolve as the wealthy boomers begin to pass from the halls of power, and the new philanthropists and board members emerge.

With new styles of leadership come new opportunities for development. Mock roll play of performing “the ask” of the wealthy society member with a heart of gold, comparing snail mail annual appeal letters, and debating the efficacy of Galas has been a large body of our discussion. It has been the area of comfort, (or discomfort as the case may be) for much of our instruction. While many of these methods will continue to play pivotal parts in the way development departments develop resources for their institutions, a focus on the schmoozing of wealthy members, parties for them and their friends, and random letters out to a waiting world are not going to sustain the the future of non-profits. A new Philanthropy epitomized by Bill and Melinda Gates is a very real model non-profits should address and engage with. In 2007 the New York Times reported:

 

Thousands of donors are thinking beyond “checkbook philanthropy” by creating family charitable foundations, visiting places that would benefit from donations or meeting with experts to discuss how to invest their charitable portfolio.[5]

 

Jay Steenhuysen, creator of Philanthropy Coach (myphilanthropycoach.com) has said of people like Bill and Melinda Gates “It’s great to make gifts of gratitude to the institutions and organizations that helped get you where you are, but that’s looking in the past,” said. “Successful people should also look forward at what kind of world they want to help create.”

Development departments are going to have to understand the mission of their institution better than ever, and be proactive with finding people who mirror Gates and the other “New Philanthropists” who seek to see the good that can come of strategically planned giving. This trend necessitates that a development department consist of a new type of leader that is working not for the generous salary paid to development directors, but for the good of the institution. The old director was tasked with perpetual cocktail parties, private receptions and well placed hand written notes of thanks and praise. Today’s givers seek for you to know what they care about. They want your institution to clearly match, and successfully carry out their vision for a better world. Development directors who are at ease with speaking to front line staff, at risk kids who attend museum programs and public programs managers will best be able to create the links between the hands on philanthropist who is spending to see action vs. their name on a plaque in the foyer of the institution. A comprehensive development plan that builds on a donor centered model-is probably the most important task of development departments in the immediate future.[6]

The connections we make with major donors are essential, but the connections we make with the average daily visitor are even more impotent. By sticking with our mission, museums will demonstrate the essential services they provide to their communities. Despite the hit everyone has taken, early reports from 2009 are telling us that museum visitation continues to be healthy, if not thriving in many of our major institutions.[7] While no one is offering a smoking gun for this rise, we in the industry know that museums have inherent value. That if we stick to our core missions of being places where amazing exhibitions and educational programs are continuing despite a lagging economy, people will find respite and value with us. Many institutions have raised the price of attendance, looked for pop up programs, and even hired more food service staff in hopes of saving their bottom line one chocolate brownie and hot dog at a time. But institutions that are focusing on providing people a place to go see wonderful art or objects while also being valued as a visitor will be sure to see increase in attendance.

We may do well to take a queue from the

Cincinnati

Art Museum

.   Entrance to the museum is free, but they also stopped charging for special exhibitions.

''We wanted to be able to share those exhibitions with as many as possible, especially in these tough economic times,'' said Cincinnati Art Museum Director Aaron Betsky, who has had to reduce the museum's budget by 10 percent and lay off seven people.[8]

This is a prime example where the collections and the visitors were valued enough to be given unfettered access to the institutions collection, providing a rich platform to sow the seeds of the mission for all who visit there. It is a wonderful time for museums to get back to what they do best at their most basic level: engage the public with items we all recognize as cherished pieces of who we are as a people that can delight, inspire and engage us in ways that daily reports on the failure of our banking system cannot.

Museums have fallen victim to a perfect economic storm in which endowment income, corporate sponsorship, foundation grants, public funding from tax revenue, individual philanthropy and visitor numbers have almost all tanked.[9] Staff cuts, canceled exhibit plans and reduced services have become the norm for many institutions. All of these events have seemed to strike us all unaware. It was as if we were, we ALL were, convinced that unfettered growth and expansion of museum programs would continue unabated indefinitely. I believe we were especially vulnerable in the face of this storm due to what

Nina Simon

has described as the Museums’ “inability to focus on anything but survivability.”[10]

In this effort the tried and true methods of governance and development have continued to remain static from time immemorial. The first Museum opened its doors on the American Continent in 1773 in

Charlestown

Virginia

. One can only assume the museums first board retreat soon followed.

If museums are to continue to hold a place of cultural importance in the twenty first century, we must begin to allow the old constructs of the patriarchal blue blazer to be retired to the garage sale of mediocrity. It is time to recognize the emergence of a new emphasis on the inclusion of many in the decisions and directions of an institution, and we no longer need to play puppet to the privileged, but can direct the philanthropist who is interested in building their legacy now.

 

 

Bibliography

Bell

, Ford W. “Straight Talk: Museums Rising to the Financial Challenge

Live Web Conference” March 18 and 19, 2009 http://iweb.aam-us.org/Communities/FTAttachments/Ford%20Bell%20Presentation%20Straight%20Talk%20web%20conference.pdf (April9,2009)

Casey. Foundation Annie E; Haas Evelyn and Walter, Jr. Fund Up Next: Generation Change and the                                                                                                                                         Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations. The Annie E Casey Foundation.2005. http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/ld2928k643.pdf(April 9, 2009)

CBS News Interactive “Downturn Forces Museums To Do More With Less”. 5, Apr 2009    http://wbztv.com/business/recession.museum.economy.2.976631.html

Durel, John and Anita “Building Organizational Strength in 2009” 16, March /2009. http://iweb.aam-us.org/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=244&threadid=459&enterthread=y (April8,2009)

 

Ellis, “

Adrian

Museums

and the present financial crisis” Posted April 11, 2009 http://museum30.ning.com/ (April, 10, 2009)

                                                   

Ellis, Adrian “American Museums In Financial Crisis “ 2003 http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/05/cx_0506hot.html (April13,2009)

 

Todd., Sarah “ How to develop and sustain leadership in nonprofits” Savannah Morning News.

Savannah

Now. 8, September 2007  http://savannahnow.com/node/357113

Simon, Nina Deliberately Unsustainable Business Models. 9 March 2009.

 http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/03/deliberately-unsustainable-business.html  (March 10,2009)

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] Ellis, “

Adrian

Museums

and the present financial crisis” Posted April 11, 2009 http://museum30.ning.com/ (April, 10, 2009)

[2]

Bell

, Ford W. “Straight Talk: Museums Rising to the Financial Challenge

Live Web Conference” March 18 and 19, 2009 http://iweb.aam-us.org/Communities/FTAttachments/Ford%20Bell%20Presentation%20Straight%20Talk%20web%20conference.pdf (April9,2009)

 

[3] Casey. Foundation Annie E; Haas Evelyn and Walter, Jr. Fund Up Next: Generation Change and the Leadership of Nonprofit Organizations. The Annie E Casey Foundation.2005. http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/ld2928k643.pdf(April 9, 2009)

 

[4] Sarah Todd.” How to develop and sustain leadership in nonprofits” Savannah Morning News. Savannah Now. 8, September 2007  http://savannahnow.com/node/357113

[5] JULIE BICK. “Write a Check? The New Philanthropist Goes Further” 18, March 2007 The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DA1F31F93BA25750C0A9619C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all (April 8, 2009)

 

[6] Durel, John and Anita “Building Organizational Strength in 2009” 16, March /2009. http://iweb.aam-us.org/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=244&threadid=459&enterthread=y (April8,2009)

[7]CBS News Interactive “Downturn Forces Museums To Do More With Less”. 5, Apr 2009 http://wbztv.com/business/recession.museum.economy.2.976631.html

[8] “Downturn Forces Museums To Do More With Less” http://wbztv.com/business/recession.museum.economy.2.976631.html

[9]Ellis, Adrian “American Museums In Financial Crisis “ 2003 http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/05/cx_0506hot.html (April13,2009)

[10]Simon, Nina Deliberately Unsustainable Business Models. 9 March 2009.

 http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/03/deliberately-unsustainable-business.html  (March 10,2009)

Interdisciplinary Teams in Museums

Creating a successful museum working environment is going to take some changes. When I taught school, I worked in an amazing place. We had a curriculum that was based on student inquiry, personal and global concerns, and student choice. The other thing we did was integrate curriculum. In one class you might be exploring content through real world projects that required math, design, writing, and synthesisised content knowledge. Teams of teachers were put together, all with specific content backgrounds, but everyone ended up teaching and working out of their content area.

Teams worked on the basis of consensus. We had many long heated discussions at times, but driven by the important mission of educating our students, we were almost always able to overcome personal differences.

Our curriculum changed every twelve weeks and we had a choice of what new area of instruction we wanted to work with. We chose on the basis of the unit, not on our team mates. Consequently we often worked with people with very different attitudes, pedagogical styles and personalities. But we were unified in the end by the mission. The kids. We got over ourselves and worked together to make it work. Success was more important than turf.

This is how we should be working in museums. We need interdisciplinary teams to make things work.  We need to be project based in our approach. When it is time to open an exhibit, all players: an education person, marketing, senior staff, curatorial and membership should be involved.

There can be a leadin this process. If it’s the Gala, then membership is the clear lead, but instead of running a top down show, decisions would be made on a lateral basis. There would be give and take and all players would share equal voice, and equal responsibility for the efficacy of the program.

This would start to work around “the not my job” attitude that we all get in to from time to time.

My idea of a museum that works is one where we all care about the success of all the programs. Where information flows, solutions developed and the burden of success is shared. Interdisciplinary teams could be a great step in this direction.

Building New Utopias in Museums

It is a tough time to be a working person. I was going to start out with saying museum professional but that sounds ridiculous because it is making us an exclusive of these tragic-devistating-unprecidented-bleak-economic times. Everyone is hurting.

I participated this week in four 90 minute webinars from AAM. Straight Talk: Museums Rising to the Financial Challenge was a series of phone in PowerPoint presentations and real time chat sessions that tried to address the current situation for museums.

What struck me the most about this whole thing, (beyond that it was about 2 sessions too long. Sorry AAM) was that a good deal of it was on how to fire people. I shouldn’t say fire; I should say something like lay off or “Realignment.”

Stuff like “Make sure you have a box for people to put their stuff in.” and other important notable stuff like “Don’t just spring it on your staff on a Friday afternoon.” (How many of us got the call to walk people out this past September in this exact worst practice scenario? Hands?)

The most helpful for me was from Ellen Spear, President & CEO, Hancok Shaker Village She focused in on how at Hancock they are revisiting their mission, finding ways to engage her community to demonstrate that what they have ALWAYS have been doing has value. They are looking at the simple life of meaning that the people they are trying to represent as a cultural institution and making connections with the lives of those who may be suffering today. She ended with a slide that said (Would love to show you but not posted yet. Maybe that web master was fired on Friday) new Utopia with a scene of the bucolic village in the background.

This is actually possible.  I think what I am going to do in the next few successive posts is put up ideas for museums as New Utopias. Now I don’t think people are going to all wear the same track suits and running shoes and turn their life savings over to development (we tried this, it ended badly.) I think we can build new models of working within the work structure with a new approach that will bring about change. I have worked places where this is possible. Where we have initiated best practices and research based models to increase the efficacy of the institution I was working at.

So what is your idea for a New Utopian work environment? All four of my readers! Get gutsy and share what your thoughts are for Museums post financial disaster!

 

I am Material Culture's B#%&*

Material culture is essential. We get a thrill from seeing "the real" thing. The discipline itself is important. But why is it posed as a mystery I am not allowed to unravel?
I came across the most glorious send up of museums in a recent post about material culture.
I am currently slogging through my second semester of this subject. I vacillate between a love hate of all things material. I love the discipline, but like a school boy head over heels with a girl out of my league, I am rebuked at every turn. I was not a history geek prior to the entrance into museum studies and I pay for it daily.
Material culture, collections, and the general dark side of stuff worship is acknowledged by all museum professionals. Despite this, people I dearly like would throw me under a bus to protect an item of material culture. Maybe they weren't hugged enough, or their afraid of committing to reality, or they honestly just don't like people. The kitties encapsulate this ugly side of an area of essential study.
The thing is people get material culture. Remember in the 90s when everyone started wearing kitschy t-shirts? When nostalgia became its own right of passage and an essential part of being hip?
That’s material culture. People get it in their own collections, memory, and personal history.
Material culture is studied by thousands of us who like old toys, crucifixes, china, baskets, quilts, 8-tracks and Halloween masks.
I think most of the people I went to bars with in the 90s qualify as material culture specialists. Does anyone remember thrift stores?
I am hopeful that with such a wonderful cacophony of emerging ideas about what museums can be that stodgy ideas of the past will be able to be cataloged and neatly placed in an airtight room for posterity.

Being Good at Being a "Good" Museum

There is a great deal being written about the sustainability of museums and what we should be doing to keep ourselves alive. My favorite two posts are from Museums Suck, a new blog of a clearly recently unemployed museum professional, but more on the level is a recent post from Nina Simon.

The thing they have in common is they both are asking museums (in Nina’s words) to be awesome. To take risks, and not simply survive, or to consider that as a possibility. Or in the case of MS to take what are your true strengths in collections and put that foot forward. Both posts are passionate calls for action in some direction, rather than the all too frequent maintenance of the status quo.

There is also the post from Elizabeth Merritt from AAM who wrote that many museums probably should close. She called us the “cockroaches of the non-profit world” and said we all too often survive.

Geez. Museums are taking it on the chin aren’t we?

To survive one must be relevant. It is tough to respond to this latest national crisis. We want to reach out and affect our communities. Nina suggest job training provided by museums, I have seen other calls for museums to be “happiness engines” for society to encourage our growth as a society, and to assist in the very survival of the species.

I love these ideas. I think that it is necessary to have spaces where cutting edge experiences are available that can provide nuts and bolts needs and empower individuals through interactive online and real time experiences. 

I also think that most of us are working at places that may or may not be laying us off in the coming weeks. That are pulling out items from our permanent collections and hoping people will want to see them instead of ponyng up for traveling exhibits, and generally ducking for cover and hoping for the best. That most of us have trouble getting the powers that be to see that things have changed in the way the public interacts and what they expect from public spaces and areas  built for learning.

So what to do for those of us employed in Peoria?

I have to say that both posts are right. Don’t suck and be awesome. To do this, reach out to your underserved. Open your doors to schools who can’t afford the entrance fee. Use grant dollars to bus kids in from rural and urban areas. Have a members opening where you collect food for a local food back. Invite community groups in for free and ask what their needs are. Can you provide space for meetings, host an event that they run ($$) which may benefit their cause? Be seen as a giver in this time of need. Throw your doors open and say to everyone “You are fearful, and you need something to drown out the medias drum of economic ruin, cast your eyes on things of beauty, items of curiosity, or sit in clean comfortable surroundings on us.” We need to put our foot out into our community and offer a respite. To bring happiness at no cost will be the way for us to be most awesome. To say ‘We can’t feed you or give you a job, but you can wander, play and learn here all you want in these difficult times.”

All we have to do is be a giving member of the community. All we have to do is be a good museum.

There is no such thing as PR Anymore

There is no such thing as PR anymore. If you are sitting in front of a computer and it is your job to “do PR” you should know you may be fired… I am not trying to rankle alarm in this time of financial doubt and turmoil but we need to take a look at this.

Organizations are starting to embrace web 2.0. as technology, but also as a way of thinking. The thinking is that we no longer are preparing a message in one central office. We are no longer saying,  "check with me before you talk to the press,” because we are the press.

At places Like The Brooklyn Museum in New York, there are multiple staff voices delivering information on events, offering insights and content that can’t be acquired with the average on-site visit, and at The Detroit Institute of Art, they combine the use of commercially made video with in house coverage of innovative uses of their space and collection to send messages everyday. These videos make me wish I lived in DetroitLet’s be honest. That’s saying something!

This technology allows for immediate communication. The people who are accustomed to being in control of information are often going to resist these efforts because it means giving up a measure of their personal control. 

If you are facing this issue a set of institutional standards that guides your social web based communications is a good idea. A quick search will come up with many examples of blogging guidelines.  Empowering reluctant marketing departments by getting them in on the standards may calm them enough to help them have a chance to relax and embrace the new medium.  The thing is we need our marketing departments to head up our social media efforts. Not to control it and dole it out in the old style top down fashion, but embrace it to help establish a vision for an institution that understands the integration of web voices, print and traditional media. And this way, maybe everybody gets to keep their jobs…

You gotta have faith...

This is a time where a lot of us are banking on faith. For some it may be the last thing that is not in hock or in foreclosure. Non-profits especially are straightening their ties dusting off their blue blazers and squaring their chins. It is a terrible time to wake up and see some of what we have been doing has been short sighted.

We have been like the onclelor "biggering and biggering" creating larger spaces, jobs, community events, and even opening new institutions. All more or less in response to a sprawling economy based on the lies of money managers that are somehow no-where to be found as we fire people to keep our doors open.

So much of what has been familiar and dependable has gone. So it is a great time to rethink how strategic plans are made. I am taking a course in strategic planning and all the models put the donors, board people, consultants who golf and socialize for a living and senior staff in making the decisions about how the organization is run. Somewhere in all these decisions is empowering a marketing department to do things like spend money on newspaper ads, rack cards, billboards and radio spots.

I'm going to tell you something: you are missing the important voice of middle management. These people are in their twenties and thirties. They don't have the false impressions that blogs are somehow a technology that must be learned to use. They have an innate understanding of the freedom of expression that the web has empowered.

They have had personal websites since age 11, own mobile devices, and have larger abandoned email to only converse with you.

They don't buy stamps or read mail. The feel insulted when a message is pushed on them they don't feel they have put themselves in a position to receive.

They are consumers who are defined by how and where they consume in ways that have their roots in what you do. (You may buy your suits at Brooks Brothers for status, but they buy their toilet paper at target for the same reason)

They have been in planned activities since birth. They have received constant feedback, and they are used to thinking creatively, and they will only stick around if you include them in your process.

We have to have faith that it is a good time to change what we are doing and listen to these voices. I am not saying to throw out all convention and go with only what the younger managers have to say, but there is an employment gap between these young people and the senior staff. They are quickly going to inherit high up positions as the aged workforce hurtles into retirement age. It is best to have the faith that their new and different ideas are worth listening too.

The biggest thing is they are your future visitors. They are focused on success, understand the need for savings, and will probably be our future donor base, board base and senior management base. Its time to bring them in to the board room. Its time to start listening to their ideas and giving them important work to do. Its time to have faith in those who bring a fresh look to a system that is based on a pre-industrial hierarchy.

 

Listening to how people listen.

I have an associate. This person thinks that social media, blogs in particular are basically crap. Facebook and Twitter is somehow not the right way to engage the public. This person is in marketing.

There are many people like this and quite frankly I don't know how to win them over. They have a fundamental problem with the fact that information is no longer delegated to mediums and prescribed by a publication schedule.

When I was a kid we got a nightly edition of the local paper. It was my job to walk the long driveway from my Grandmothers front porch to pick up the paper. I would bring it in, pull out the funnies and plop on the floor and read.

No I am not 65. But I am 39. I remember not having cable. I remember getting the sears catalog near Christmas and looking at the toys. I remember stepping up on a stool to where the black 100 pound rotary phone was in the kitchen. There was a number you could call for time and the weather. (I was always into new technology)

Of course most of us accept that information is no longer dolled out in evening, and morning editions.We can barely reacll that there ever could be a limit on our viewing hours or a time when we couldn't Google every last toy ever created by mankind from the Stone Age on.

But there are these memories. Even for those of us who are really not that old. Maybe we hold on to them. Maybe some of us are afraid that relinquishing the power of who gets to decide what is heard and how it looks is too large a threat.

Chances are my marketing friend is smart enough to realize that his job is in jeopardy of becoming obsolete.

People are no longer on the receiving end of a bull horn.

I don't read my mail. Everything that is an advertisement, short of things I have chosen to get (catalogs mostly) goes directly into the recycling bin. I didn't ask for it. Why in the hell would I open it?

Social media overcomes this. The people using it may not be your demographic now but do you know the average video gamer is 35? Just a stones throw away from your major donor pool. And these aren't burn outs in their parent’s basements, these are CEOs and doctors and lawyers.

People in their 20s are now not using email to communicate, and you just watch, desk tops and even lap tops are on the way out (my prediction only.)

People no longer receive their information as a member of the masses. Almost everyone is a member of a specialty group, and not only do you have to know where and how they access their information, but you have to do it too. I don't care how much starch is in y sour shirt, you have to do it too!

I hope my friend in marketing comes to realize this soon. It’s a terrible time to be out of work....

Do you care enough to make the tough decisions?

In my last post I introduced what I consider to be the three essentials:

1. You care about your audience
2. You recognize the shift in how people receive their information
3. You have faith in your staff to engage the public

I would like for museums to consider the first. In this past week I participated in a call with Museum Insight Why Should We Care?": Museum Conversation. 

MAI has found that

“31,000 museum-going visitors, only 1 in 10 respondents feel that the staff at their local museums really cares about them.  Combined, it is 10.74%, to be exact.  And this is from our Core Visitors, who support and visit regularly.”

One of the comments that resulted from the conversation was :

I find that it is easier to teach a nice person the facts necessary than to teach an educated person how to be nice. The character of a person is so hard to change in a work setting, so in interviews for floor staff I look first to the personality.

This  got a round of Amens! And Head Nods from everyone around me. I think it is an insightful truism but the problem is many times institutions are suffering from too many educated people in important places passing down the line an uncaring attitude.

Museums and cultural institutions are fraught with challenges that often result in frustration  that is often expressed to co-workers and employees. It can come from high performers and even positive people. It is like a downward spiral that if not put in check can translate right down to those walking the grounds and greeting your customers.  It can bloom to be entire departments of people who seem beat before they ever start and can linger in the institution for literally years if gone unchecked.

This leads to a point brought out by Cindy Solomon who basically said:

“If a person isn’t good at their job then fire them.”

This is an overly simplistic attitude, but unfortunately it isn’t followed enough. If you are in a position of leadership you should of course do all you can to retrain, re-inspire and help strengthen your employees to bring about the caring attitude that is essential in museum work.

If this doesn’t work, you should take action. It is hard, unpleasant and in some cases represents a failure on our own part. But after it is done it is a chance to sit with your staff, be honest with why the choices were made, and talk about as an institution how you can build a staff that truly cares.

The Three Essentials

 

 After the recent plane crash in the Hudson, I followed the story like everyone else on my radio and television. The first photos came from iPhones. When little was said to be known about the Pilot his resume was posted from LinkedIn. Video, tweets and all flowed into the main stream of news networks around the country. You may have found out about it from NPR, but it will only be a few months before you are more or less forced to upgrade to mobile devices that will keep you more connected than ever before.

 

So you can see the importance and power of this democracy of information. When you start to think about it for your museum or cultural institution, it seems exciting. Posting videos, alerts about upcoming events, and eblasts- oh the possibilities!

But with these possibilities come questions. Mission, and Face, and control of the message. These are real problems that institutions have to consider when they begin the process.  If you are new to the social media thing as an institution then the best place to start is the Brooklyn Museum’s blog. The excitement of what can be done with SM is immediate. The content is rich and intriguing. It is the perfect length and leaves you wanting more, but happy you didn’t have to read it.

But I guarantee this didn’t come about organically. It was a consorted effort by smart people who had faith in what they are doing. It shows the three things you must have to be successful at social Media:

1. You care about your audience
2. You recognize the shift in how people receive their information
3. You have faith in your staff to engage the public

Look hard at who your institution is. Are you poised to be a part? Do you have leadership that understands it, and is supporting it? Can you make it happen in your department first? Is it easier to ask forgiveness than permission?

Answers of yes for the three essentials can get you started.