Author Archives: James Heaton

Glosario, T

Thought Leadership

Posted on by James Heaton

What it means

Thought leaders are public-facing subject matter experts, who seek to proactively influence broader opinion. It is not a permanent title and it requires that the content be at the forefront of the subject matter. Thought leaders can organically emerge from inside the museum and it is not required that they be a senior leader in the organization.

How it’s used

Museums are an excellent platform for individuals to be recognized for their expertise. The museum can empower and enable its people at all levels of the organization to develop their thought leadership capacity. Communications teams are often tasked with raising an internal thought leaders’ profile by leveraging opportunities for them. 

Thought leadership is frequently a goal of museum leadership and recognized as a strategy to utilize the talents of individuals within the organization. It positions both the individuals, and the organization as leaders, and increases the visibility of the museum’s work. Museums themselves can be thought leaders, staking out a consistent, focused, and publicly recognized position of expertise and thus become sought after when the subject arises in public and professional discussions.

Smaller museums have a brand imperative to find and keep focus as you can only be a thought leader on a few topics. Larger encyclopedic museums often struggle with focus because they are inevitably pulled in so many different directions. 

At encyclopedic museums it’s more likely that there will be individuals with niche areas of expertise that don’t represent the museum as a whole. For specialized and smaller museums however, thought leadership is an opportunity to gain recognition and public stature for the museum itself. 

Why it matters

Thought leadership translates into greater visibility, more frequent invitations to panels and conferences, and publications within the field and for general audiences. This, in turn, bolsters a museum’s public profile and funding opportunities, while also enhancing public awareness and trust. Consistent thought leadership can also help attract and keep capable employees.

Recommends

All members of a museum should be able to contribute to an institution’s thought leadership from their particular vantage point, as such it is important that all individual contributors on a museum’s team should have full bios on the website so they can be more easily sought out.

Glosario, S

Staff

Posted on by James Heaton

What it means

Staff are all paid employees of the organization from the CEO to the front line. They typically make up the largest line item in a museum’s budget. Museums also have an array of other service providers, including regular vendors, contractors, and others who are all seen by visitors in the same light as paid employees and who contribute profoundly to the organization’s success. Paid employees, however, have access to different information and are held to higher standards.

How it’s used

While all members of the museum community are expected to uphold its values and serve to engage the public, it is the museum staff that are ultimately responsible for this work and are paid to represent the museum in the eyes of the public. The museum is responsible to ensure that anyone actively working with the museum conducts themselves appropriately because they are in effect representing the museum even though they may not be staff.

Staff are thought workers who help shape the direction of the organization. They are the core team that carries out the museum’s mission and activates the strategic plan. As such, they are critical to the success of the organization and are not just resources in the same vein as facilities or collections.

Note: The majority of North American museums are small museums, many of which have few or no paid staff. In those cases, the roles and responsibilities of paid employees may fall to board members and volunteers.

Why it matters

Since museums exist to serve the public, all those who interface directly with the public are critical to its purpose. Any negative experience in the museum is a threat to the brand and thus, future visitation, membership, etc.

How a museum treats its employees has a direct impact on audience experience. The health and well-being of museum employees is thus foundational to an organization’s capacity to effectively serve the broader public and fulfill its mission.

Recommends

The word “staff” is commonly used for employees who are not part of the leadership and this, in our view, is problematic because it supports a particular mental model.

As we see it, the term staff creates a false sense of separation between decision-makers or “thinkers” and “doers.” All employees should all be both decision makers and doers.

“Team members” is a better term in our view and all members of the team should be empowered to make executive decisions within their designated area of responsibility, rooted in the organization’s Core Values and also be fully empowered to carry out those decisions. “Staff” as a term interferes with this sense of agency.