Introduction to Museum Management

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Introduction to Museum Management

• MUSE E-105
• Instructor
• John Durant
• Director, MIT Museum
• Adjunct Professor, Science, Technology Society
  Program
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Todays Agenda

1. Strategic Planning
2. Knowing your Audience

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1. Strategic Planning

• What is a strategic plan?
• A document setting out the optimal future for an
  organization and the changes required to achieve
  it (Lord Markert, p. 4)
• Why create a strategic plan?
• If you dont know where youre going, any plan
  will do(Peter Drucker)

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Strategic Planning

• Question
• Whats the difference between between having a
  strategic plan and being strategic?

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If You Want a Strategic Plan

• Obtain Executive/Board agreement on the need for
  a strategic plan
• Agree who will join the planning team
• Scope out the planning process
• What are the principal aims of the exercise?
• What (if any) research will be needed?
• What (if any) external consultants will be hired?
• How long will it take and what will it cost?
• How will you secure buy-in from the entire
  staff and board?

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What to do next

• Start with the mission (statement of purpose)
• Make a frank assessment of where you are
• Environmental scan
• Comparison benchmarking
• Work out where you want to be
• Objectives
• Priorities

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Thendont forgetthe strategy!

• A goal or objective is where you want to be
• A strategy is the plan you make for how youre
  going to get there
• Lots of strategic plans are heavy on goals and
  objectives and light on strategies

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Assessing Where You Are

• Some Useful Tools
• Environmental Scanning
• Benchmarking
• Who should you measure yourself against?
• How do you rate?
• How do others rate you?
• SWOT Analysis

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Understanding the beast (!)

• Three essential tensions
• Collections versus communications
• Process versus product
• Mission versus margin
• Three overlapping circles
• Collections management
• Communications (exhibitions, programs, PR
  marketing)
• Administration/management

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Setting Objectives

• Successful objectives are
• Clear
• Credible
• Achievable
• Measurable
• Few in number

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Devising Strategies

• Which key objectives must we fulfill?
• What major assets do we bring to the task, and
  how will we deploy them?
• What obstacles lie in our path, and how will we
  get round them?
• What are the key milestones along the path?
• Where should we start?

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Getting from Here to There CHANGE

• In most organizations change is
• Suggestions, please!

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Change Management

• Question
• Whats the biggest challenge in managing change?

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Change Management

• Answer
• Getting everyone agreed about the fact that its
  really needed!