Work less. Delegate. Take a vacation. Rest.
These are the words we chant when someone is overworked. But how much have industrial-age incantations helped dispel burnout in museums? Why do we keep giving ourselves the same advice when there’s not much to show for it?
Of course, rest is important. But rest alone is an incomplete prescription. Rest can become just another thing to do. “Oh, now I get to add a vacation to my to-do list? Now I get to add delegation to my list of responsibilities? No thanks.” There are no absences — the void itself takes up space in our minds, on our calendars, and in our nervous systems.
Staff well-being isn’t our focus at Museums as Progress. But culture can hinder a museum’s ability to prioritize audience progress, so it is important to us.
Staff burnout is also a challenge that shows the value of models. A model can be more or less successful, and it can have a larger or more narrow scope. But a good model is often an alternative to something already in place, which means it isn’t additive advice — It replaces some habit or process that you’re following today.
So, two kinds of advice: Additive advice and Model advice.
The Rest Psalm is an example of additive advice. Continuous learning is an example of model advice.
Another example:
“Just ask your members what they want your museum to do more of” is additive advice. It translates into: “Make another survey.”
“Make a habit of listening to how members approach the goals that matter to them” is model advice because it encourages you to spend less time asking people silly questions that never amount to anything and instead gather deep insights that can produce results.
For some, model advice triggers a threat response. A model suggests significant change and commitment, which can be scary. To me (hopefully you), additive advice is the real threat — It’s the kind of advice that seems simple on the surface but is lazy on the inside. Additive advice is glib and will kill you with a thousand “simple” suggestions.
Today’s letter isn’t about solving burnout in museums. Instead, I want to invite you to consider your tolerance for different approaches to big, thorny challenges like burnout — or DEI or diversifying audiences or organizational alignment or you name it.
Try going through the world this week viewing solutions — ideas, suggestions, advice, proposals — through the lens of Additive vs. Model. Before you evaluate the proposed solution, whatever it may be, take your emotional temperature. Ask, “How open am I to this advice or idea? Am I inclined to shut down because this is a model-type suggestion? Am I eager to embrace an additive-type suggestion?” If you’re more open to one type over the other, does that mean your system is running on an imbalanced diet?
Example: I’m going to invite you to an event in October with Dr. John Falk to discuss a chapter from his forthcoming book Leaning into Value: Becoming a User-Focused Museum.
The book proposes a different model for museums — the “value realization process”. Event participants will be given a PDF of Chapter 7 from the book to read in advance, which describes one stage in the value realization process. In the chapter, Falk outlines three key steps for museums to become more data-driven and user-focused:
To successfully become more data analytical, more evidence-based in their practice, museums will need to do three key things, none of which are common practice in today’s museum world.
First, museums need to be able to clarify the “what” and the “why” of the endeavor – making clear what it is we are hoping to achieve, what it is that defines value creation. If we do not know what success looks like, we will neither know how to achieve it nor know whether we have achieved it.
Second, museums need to be able to define the correlates of success. We need to be able to identify what the indicator behaviors are that result in successful outcomes so we can observe and track them and find ways to improve them in order to become ever better at achieving success.
Third, and finally, museums need to create an evidence-based culture, a culture of questioning and improvement. It is not sufficient to just collect data. If museums are to truly embrace a data analytical approach, everyone in the organization must commit to constantly asking what and why questions; everyone must be committed to seeking and utilizing data for determining how best to maximize user value.
Does that feel overwhelming? Does it help to know that it isn’t necessarily additive advice — that it’s an invitation to adopt a different model? If so, you might have a higher tolerance for model thinking. Join us on October 29th at 1pm ET for a conversation with John Falk on “Validating Value in Museums” and strengthen that tolerance.