Ep. 03 — Things I Know for Sure About Museums

Apr 2

Using her People First Framework—People, Planning, Process, and Practice—Amy outlines actionable strategies for cultivating a supportive and productive museum environment. By focusing on internal communication and fostering a culture of collaboration, museums can enhance job satisfaction, retention, and overall success.

Tune in to gain invaluable insights and discover the keys to ensuring museums not only survive, but also thrive in the years to come.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00]

Hey, there! Today we are talking about what I know for sure about museums. And I love that what I know for sure has been backed up by research too. That's always a great feeling isn't it? And the goal of all of this: to make sure that museums live on. To make sure that they thrive into the next century. Let's get started.

Hello, and welcome to the “Love my Museum” podcast. I'm your host Amy Kehs. I'm a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. I'm so glad you're here today. Now, one thing that we haven't done on the podcast yet is to define the word “Museum.” I use the word museum generically to include art museums, science museums, accredited zoos and aquariums, nature centers, historic homes, landmarks, and other cultural institutions.

[00:01:00]

If you work in one of these, then you're in the right place and this podcast is for you. My mission is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century. And through all of the work and the research and the conversations I've had, I know this for sure: keeping a museum's doors open relies on communicating with people. Two groups of people actually. The first group are the people we need to visit your museum. We need people to walk through the doors, have an amazing visit and love it so much that they come back and bring a friend. The second group of people that we need are the people who work inside the museum.

You, we need you.

[00:02:00]

We need talented, thoughtful people to decide that they love working in their museum. And we need them to have a place where they have a fulfilling career, one where they can grow. And so no matter which way you slice it or dice it, the people, both of these groups, they need to come first. I'm recording this episode on a sunny spring day in 2024, and studies show that museums have for the most part weathered the storm that was the COVID-19 pandemic and come out the other side, giving much thanks to federal relief programs. Those programs protected the collections of these places, kept them safe, and helped maintain the buildings that they were in.

[00:03:00]

I would say, though, that there's still some work to do. In the most recent annual national snapshot of United States museums, which is a study that's conducted by the American Alliance of Museums, says that attendance numbers, staffing, and revenue may not rebound to pre-pandemic levels for a few years. In fact, in the same snapshot, they reported that two-thirds continue to experience reduced attendance averaging around 70% of their pre-pandemic attendance. And we'll talk a lot on this podcast about how to get those numbers up, how to get more people through your museum's doors. But today, we're going to talk about you. The museum employee. Because, of the two types of people I mentioned, you are the key. And the current situation looks a bit rough for museum workers.

[00:04:00]

In another report released by the group Museums Moving Forward, 60% of the almost 2000 art museum employees that they polled have considered leaving the field. 74% cannot always cover their basic living expenses. And it takes an average of 12 years before a worker receives a promotion. Of the museums that were recruiting for job openings, 60% reported having trouble filling those positions. Their report found that the majority of the art museum workers that they polled found a sense of meaning and purpose in their work. But they are more dissatisfied with their jobs and workplaces than when compared to U.S. workers overall. And the top reasons are low pay and burnout.

Okay. So how do we do this? How do we make people want to work in a museum and love their museum so much that they stay?

[00:05:00]

What needs to be changed? What can we course correct for our weathered boat that's just been through the storm of the pandemic? Well, what I know for sure is that communication and finding better ways to work can help. And I have four changes that you can start working on today.

Number One is people. We'll talk a lot more about this in the next episode, but the people that work at museums need to feel valued in a low-stress and supportive environment. And I should say here that “people” doesn't need to mean “more people.” People just means taking care of the ones that you have, and also creating an environment where those talented people want to stay.

[00:06:00]

Number Two is developing a plan. A roadmap. And having everyone in the museum following the same roadmap. It's planning. Nothing makes me sadder than watching different departments in a museum compete for resources because they aren't on the same page. They think that they have different priorities and different goals and they lose sight of the overall mission, vision, and values of the museum. Planning together with your coworkers is a game changer.

Number Three is implementing processes. Developing standard operating procedures or habits, workflows, whatever you want to call them for the things that you should be doing every day, every week, every month. It sets up consistency and it sets up calm, takes the stress away.

[00:07:00]

I've seen this before in my clients and in my own business. It is magic. And I wish I had discovered it 30 years ago.

Number Four is practice. If the things that we just talked about are put into practice, then you can iron out the kinks and you can perfect them, as opposed to putting these ideas and plans and systems up on a shelf or in a virtual folder, never to be used or implemented. If you do that, then change won't happen. And these things need to become a habit. The only way to do that is to customize it. To practice it and make changes. One of my favorite sayings is give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I would add that the man needs to practice fishing.

[00:08:00]

This winter, I decided that I wanted to learn how to knit. And I took a knitting class. An in-person knitting class. I didn't watch YouTube videos, although it was tempting. And in my knitting class, our teacher would walk around and give us instruction and of course tell us how to do things, but at the end of every class, she reminded us that we had to practice. We had to be okay with making mistakes. We had to be okay with ripping out stitches and trying again. But we had to practice before the next class or it wasn't going to stick. It wasn't going to sink in. And that's what we need to do for all of these new habits. Okay, so that is what I know is true. To take care of a museum, you need to tend to four things.

[00:09:00]

Four P's actually: People, Planning, Process and Practice. My Four P's are called the People First Framework, and it's an internal communication strategy that I built that lays a foundation for creating a workplace that people don't want to leave. And we'll be talking about each of the Four P's on the upcoming episodes. Focusing on these four things strengthens internal communication. I think these studies probably give the impression that employee retention is solely a human resources problem to solve, but I disagree. Internal communication plays a huge role in job satisfaction, both on the management level and the peer-to-peer relationships.

I hope that this was helpful and has got you thinking a bit. And this is just an overview.

[00:10:00]

We'll talk a lot about internal communications on this podcast. And they are things that everyone, no matter what department you're working in, can learn from. I will link the studies I mentioned here in the show notes. If you've never taken a look at these reports, I highly recommend it. Also in the show notes will be more free resources that you can download. Thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you soon.