IDENTITY CRISIS
Muse (Journal of the Canadian Museum Association), July-August 2004

Embracing Change

Change is hard. It is difficult to embrace the confusion created by new trends and market demands. When we ask, “what is expected of us?” or “where are the models for what comes next?” we hope for clarity and pat answers, but get none.

But organizational change is possible. Thanks to countless American sitcoms, we’re all familiar with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s reputation. Which is exactly why it needed to change: it’s hard to do business when everyone hates you.  The IRS forged an ambitious plan to get its 100,000 employees to think and act differently.  Success wasn’t going to come from the mechanics of new processes.  Success, managers knew, would only come from old-fashioned education: once employees knew what was going on, the IRS could transform. And transform it did: the institution that so famously separates people from their money now has better customer satisfaction ratings than McDonalds. If a dinosaur like the IRS can change, so can museums.

Sherene Suchy’s new book, Leading with Passion: Change Management in the 21^st Century Museum, (Altamira Press, 2004) wants to get readers started. Her book asks some of the big questions that should get museum management thinking. What is expected of a museum director? How does an individual shape organizational culture and lead the museum toward a vibrant future?

Suchy wants the 21^st-century museum director to “be a global manager with superior management skills and a deep respect for and sensitivity to the arts.” Is she asking too much?  Certainly museum management has become more complex, but even the biggest museum isn’t Shell Oil or General Motors.

The book provides valuable comments, urging museum leaders to replace their overbearing sense of self-importance and habit of navel-gazing with creative thinking that assesses the value of the museum and reshapes the museum’s internal organizational culture.

Suchy’s ideal director is a coach and team builder who identifies what the museum stands for and can tell the organization, creates a context for others to give their best, finds new ways to create opportunities for the organization, and nurtures relationships with stakeholders.

These insights are great. But the author has obscured her arguments in a jumble of hard-to-follow themes, clunky academic language, and flaky trends like “emotional intelligence” (she advocates meditation to better appreciate the need for intuition). And she doesn’t effectively tell readers how her sometimes clichéd advice—“figure out what you care about most and find an organization that stands for it”—is more helpful than what your uncle told you when you were looking for your first job: “find out what you like and do it.”

If museum directors are genuinely interested in the entrepreneurial message, they’d be better off reading George S. Day’s The Market Driven Organization: Understanding, Attracting, and Keeping Valuable Customers (The Free Press, 1999) – a book Suchy doesn’t reference. In an era of increasing market turbulence and intensifying competition, a robust market orientation is a strategic necessity. Yet, as Day tells us, most firms only pay lip service to the concept. They don’t listen to the market, don’t keep innovating, and, instead, jump to meet every customer whim without a clear strategy.  Museums should see themselves in his pages: feeling superior to the market, having mission statements that only give the appearance of something being done. To win, Day tells us, organizations must be able to keep reorienting and have mission statements that are more than a mantra.

The IRS learned that organizations reap rewards only when change occurs at the level of the individual employee. Companies make the mistake of involving their employees too late or not at all; managers often believe everyone understands the issues and the need to change as clearly as they do. To be effective, an organization must be able to communicate with and inspire partners inside the organization. Employees who are kept in the dark lack a strong connection to corporate identity and are more likely to resist new corporate strategies. But when employees grasp core truths emotionally and intellectually, the organization suffers less friction, dilution, and delay when going from idea to action (Scott Bedbury, A New Brand World).

A museum’s future prospects for revenue generation are based on retaining its audiences and attracting new ones. Museums have to reach out to people and draw them into social conversations. Suchy hasn’t adequately equipped her readers to do this.  She simply doesn’t devote enough space to the concept that communication and marketing—both within and without—establishes brand identity, around which leadership, and passion can coalesce. 

Perhaps museum directors could start by leading an internal debate based on a single phrase from Suchy’s book: “economic exchange occurs after trust or social capital has been built.” It’s a deceptively simple statement; I’m sure the response will be more complicated.

Please send me your comments. RobFerguson@KnowledgeMarketingGroup.com