Ep. 07 — Practice Makes A Habit
In this episode, Amy talks about the last of the four pillars in the People First Framework—Practice. The People First Framework creates a new way to work at your museum, a way to work that will create a healthy workplace internally that you and your coworkers love. Like any skill that we want to work into our daily life, practice is essential. Practicing the processes that the People First Framework has created is key to making them become habits.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00]
Today, we're talking about the last P in the People First Framework— Practice. The People First Framework is my guide to helping you make your museum a place that you and your coworkers love. Internal communications is so often overlooked, but it's something that everyone can help with. Let's get started.
Hello, and welcome to the "Love my Museum" podcast. I'm your host Amy Kehs and I confess, I love museums. I also happen to be a brand strategist and communications expert. I want to help you guide your museum to something that your community loves and honestly, that starts with your employees. Having happy employees can make or break a visitor's experience. Happy employees also bring their amazing talents to their museum, and happy employees stay.
[00:01:00]
Right now, a lot of museum employees aren't happy. It's my experience that many of these problems could be solved with better internal communications. Studies show that museum workers feel fulfilled with the kind of work that they are doing, but they are leaving because of frustration and burnout. Finding ways to work better with your coworkers can help. Internal communication is something that everyone tends to shy away from and yell "Not it!" Human resources doesn't want to do it. The communications department is often expected to do it, but with no education, direction, resources, or staff to dedicate to it. Seriously! We need a game plan for making our workplace somewhere that adds to our life instead of steals from it. I see museum workers creating more work for each other every day.
[00:02:00]
Over the last few episodes, we've been talking about the People First Framework. The framework includes four P's, four pillars, to improve your internal communications. The four pillars are People, Planning, Process and Practice. They will transform your internal communications so that your museum is on its way to being a well-oiled machine. The framework strives to add open communication, mutual respect and teamwork to your museum. In the last three episodes, we talked about the first three P's to the framework. People, Planning and Process. Let's do a quick recap. For People, we talked about how you begin to develop or improve relationships with your coworkers.
[00:03:00]
These relationships and the respect that you cultivate can be the foundation for finding ways to work together instead of fighting for resources or replicating efforts on the work that needs to be done.
The second "P" stands for Planning. A problem that I sometimes see is the departments might be working in a vacuum and that their priorities don't align. Planning together will ensure that everyone is following the same roadmap throughout the year and that everyone is working towards the same mission, vision and values of the museum. Making sure that everyone has the same priorities and is following the same roadmap really makes a difference.
The third P is for Process. Once you've initiated these conversations with coworkers and you are following the same roadmap, then you can create a process so that everyone is working smarter and not harder.
[00:04:00]
In the last episode, we talked about ways that you can do that using standard operating procedures, templates, automation and repurposing. So now, today we are talking about the fourth P in the People First Framework—Practice.
Like any skill that we want to get good at, practice is essential. So many times I see the time going into creating the process, but then it goes unused. No one does what was planned to do and no one practices the process that they created. I had a project once and as it was winding down, I wrote those standard operating procedures for my clients so that they could keep doing what I had been doing.
[00:05:00]
And that SOP also had a great timeline and I even gave them sample emails, all written out for them. And the project ended and I went off into the sunset to enjoy a nice summer vacation. When I came back several months later to help them with another project, that process that I had created was still sitting untouched. It was still sitting in a virtual folder, collecting dust. The museum didn't put it into practice and practice is really important for a few reasons. Today, I'll give you some examples and some stories about why you need to practice.
The old saying "Practice makes perfect" is probably true. This winter, I decided to learn how to knit. And I took a knitting class and our teacher was amazing. Suzy, her name was Suzy.
[00:06:00]
First, she told us that we had to practice in between classes for at least 10 minutes a day. And she also told us not to be afraid to make mistakes, that the stitches could be taken out. We could begin again. The project that we started with was a small washcloth and we practiced it until it looked like a washcloth. Let me tell you, the first couple versions of mine definitely did not. I want you to do the same thing with your processes. Start with the simplest one and keep practicing it. Suzy, the knitting teacher, was also really good at presenting different ways to explain the same thing. She recognized that everyone learns differently and by walking around while we practiced in class, she could observe the different learning styles and adapt her teaching to each student. That's a really important thing to remember as you start practicing this new way to work.
[00:07:00]
As you're practicing your new process, it will allow you to see what works for everyone.
Let's talk about that a little bit. In addition to getting my undergraduate degree in public communications, I also studied psychology. I loved when we talked about personality and personality tests. Now, during the pandemic, when I started to focus and concentrate a bit more on my own business, I started working with business coaches, and two of my business coaches used these tests so that we could learn how we work. They talked to us about the importance of figuring out our learning style and the way that we worked best. Have you ever taken any of these personality tests to see how you work? How you learn?
[00:08:00]
You may have done these at workshops or conferences, or maybe they are a part of your employee onboarding. Some common ones used for business are Myers-Briggs, Kolbe A, Clifton StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, Human Design.
Taking a lot of these tests helped me to learn how I learn. Then, as you're practicing the process that you've developed, you will, number one, get some insight into how you learn and also how your coworkers learn. Number two, it will give you all a chance to iron out the kinks in the process that you've just created. If you know how everyone learns, that's really going to help you implement the processes and make them something that people are actually going to use at your museum to get work done.
[00:09:00]
Let me give you an example. Picture this—the Kehs family dining room table. On game night, we have a new game and we're sitting down to learn it. It's my husband, Brian, my daughter, Zoe, my son, Nolan. I have noticed when we are sitting down to learn a new game, that we all learn differently. And that there is a definite pattern that we've fallen into on game night. So this is how a new game always happens in our house. Zoe is always the first to grab the instructions and begin reading.
Zoe would prefer to read through the entire instruction manual before beginning, but because we're sitting and staring at her, I have observed that she will skim it briefly and then she'll start reading it out loud. This does not really work for my husband. I think he would also prefer reading the instruction manual himself.
[00:10:00]
But, her reading it out loud, he's tuned her out and now he just wants somebody to figure it out and then teach it to him. Now me, I always interrupt her about a quarter of the way through the manual. I've heard enough and I just want to start practicing it as we learn it. In Human Design, I'm a one three profile. If you're familiar, you know that means that I like to dive deeply into things and build a strong foundation of knowledge, but then I really need to learn through trial and error. Knowing that this is how I learn helps me every day, not just in work, but in other areas of my life. So that leaves Nolan. Well, I guarantee that Nolan has already pretty quickly decided sort of what category of games this new game falls under.
[00:11:00]
And he's probably already come up with a strategy for how he's going to beat us.
And he almost always does. When I told my family at dinner the other night that this is what I was going to talk about on this episode, their mouths dropped open and they were like, "Oh my gosh, you are right. That's exactly what happens every single time." And it's because we all learn differently. So the moral of the story is that everyone learns differently, and if you're going to incorporate these new ways to work in your day-to-day operations, you need to try them out and test them.
Now new routines and habits also need reminders. You need to create ways to remind yourself and your coworkers to have the conversation, to send the email, to use the SOP, whatever it is.
[00:12:00]
Don't be afraid to tweak your new processes and systems as you practice them. If you find something that works better, don't just abandon the whole idea. It's all about trial and error. So here are some ideas on how to help you practice all of these processes and systems that we have been creating.
Number one—Don't underestimate the power of the sticky note. You will need reminders to do these processes for quite a while when you start. It could take our brains up to a month, sometimes longer, to establish a habit. The more consistent you are, the better. Use those sticky notes on your desk, your computer monitor, a door, a notebook. But these reminders could also be digital. On my Google calendar, my business coach helped me create a time-blocking system.
[00:13:00]
That lives as a second calendar and it's the basis, not just for getting my work done, but it also includes space for recurring tasks that are part of the process for my own business. I also use project management software. And it includes the tasks required for my processes and systems.
And check-ins. I share that project management system with my assistant so that she and I can communicate and stay on track.
Number two—Add the tasks that are required onto your weekly team meeting agenda. Now we will talk more about a weekly team meeting in a future episode, but start by adding those things as check-ins.
This will serve as a reminder, but it will also provide some accountability. Speaking of accountability, find an accountability partner. Maybe your colleague is also trying to set up new habits and systems for work. Schedule time to check in and hold each other accountable.
[00:14:00]
Having an accountability partner created huge growth and change in my own business and career, and I highly recommend it. Having the extra support and someone to talk to is also something that you'll really benefit from.
The next thing is, don't be too hard on yourself and don't throw in the towel too early. Trying out this new way of working will take some dedication and persistence. It may also take a bit of time to convince others to give it a try. So there you have it. The People First Framework. Four P's, four pillars, for helping your museum internally. People, Planning, Process and Practice. They will create a less stressful work environment for you and your coworkers.
[00:15:00]
Hopefully that will make your workplace an easier place to be so people will stay. And it means that they will hopefully have better interactions with your guests.
We want your guests to have an amazing experience at your museum so that they come back and bring a friend. The people working at your museum are a huge part of that experience. The People First Framework makes your museum a place that you and your coworkers will love I hope this has been helpful. You'll find a link to the People First Framework guide in the show notes. Just click on that link, enter your email address, and I will send you a copy. Thanks so much for listening. And I'll talk to you soon.
