The Strategic Museum Exchange

The Strategic Museum Exchange (SME) brings together a small cohort of executive directors to apply various strategic models to their organizations' challenges and opportunities.

Purpose

The group primarily focuses on applying Opportunity-Based Strategy — an approach that combines the work of Strategist Richard Rumelt with aspects of MaP's Progress-Space Research methodology.

Participants complete a series of exercises and discussions that describe to one another the challenges and opportunities their organizations face. Additionally, staff from each organization participate in a confidential survey to describe their view of the organization’s strategic intent. In the final session, participants compare their staff's responses with the challenges they’ve described to their partners. This provides an immediate view into areas of strategic alignment within the museum.

How the group works

Cohorts are designed to ensure valuable exchanges between directors. A cohort consists of four directors with two pairs of directors. These pairs are created based on the organization's profile (similar size and discipline). All four participants meet once a week for three weeks with breakouts in each session for partner activities.

Participation is by invitation only. The next cohort meets in June, and all spots are filled. If you’re interested in participating in the following cohort (September), there are three spots remaining. Email kyle(at)museumprogress.com to get an email when the group is forming.