Ep. 66 — How to Build a Museum That Doesn’t Depend on One Person
In the third episode of The Museum Professional's Summer Survival Guide series, Amy asks a bigger question. “All summer, we've been getting you ready to step away and enjoy a vacation. But what if your museum ran this smoothly all year?” Amy talks about the difference between a museum that runs on one person's memory and one that runs on systems the whole team can see.
Key Takeaways:
There are two kinds of dependence. A museum that depends on your expertise is a sign of value. A museum that depends on your presence because everything lives in your head is a fragile way to run anything.
Most museums are running on memory, not systems. Only 4% of museums are using systems or tools to lighten the load on their teams. When the work lives in your head, you can never really put it down.
Silos slow everyone down, even when everyone is working hard. When departments don’t know what the others are doing, the museum isn’t running as one system.
