Great comment! To be fair, your assumption is probably correct. Max Anderson, our CEO has been in favor of transparency and performance metrics for museums for quite some time. My role as CIO has also helped in cementing this strategy as a way the IMA can improve its performance to mission.

The application of performance metrics to continuous improvement is not new, in fact much popularized by Deming and others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming). For museums it only makes sense to focus this continuous improvement on our mission.

In the last part of the series, I’ll introduce a few key steps to get started. Quickly though, it’s often useful to find some quick and low-risk ways of getting started… to “try it on for size”… Be sure to still pick something that’s important or the change won’t matter…

Thanks for a great point of view here! -Rob

I think one of the cultural issues that has been in some ways overlooked is the challenge of getting all levels of the organization to understand and appreciate the benefits of transparency. In my experience, it’s not too unusual for the “lower-downs” to see its value in a way that the “higher-ups” don’t, concerned as the latter so often are over controlling the image of the institution. It goes against the “trumpet the good, bury the bad” approach that so often comes from museum administrations. My sense is that this process at IMA started out with an administration that was open to the idea–is that a fair assessment?

So what I’m struggling with is identifying the best ways to make the case for a cultural shift towards transparency within the organization. The guerrilla in me likes the idea of pushing the bottom-up efforts, but at some point I think the top has to say “yes, we’re doing it this way now; we’re now committing ourselves across the board to transparency.”

It’s bridging that gap that proves the most difficult, in my opinion. Thoughts on how best to do it are welcome from anybody!