All staff and volunteers are crucial to the changes needed for museums and galleries to work in active partnerships connecting with their communities. You don’t have to be an outreach or community practitioner to be a champion for change.

We have identified that staff need to work collaboratively with each other, to feel empowered in their own roles before they can effectively share decision-making and power with those outside the organisation:

Staff ambassadors phase 1

• A successful approach garnering staff buy-in and personal empowerment
• Uses participatory methods with staff themselves
• Increases understanding of community engagement through participation

Tags

Everyone’s job, Induction & training, Staff skills, Change agents, Staff buy in.

Staff ambassadors phase 2

• Key learning points from phase two
• Including partnerships, management buy-in, peer learning and facilitation

Tags

Staff empowerment, Everyone’s job, Induction & training, Staff skills, Change agents, Structures, Staff buy in.

Silo working and community engagement

• Development and impact of ‘silos’
• How to break the ‘silo-mentality’
• Benefits of joining up

Tags

High level support, Business as usual, Leadership style, Everyone’s job, Core values, Change process, Structures, Staff buy in.

We have learned that participatory practice has to be part of everybody’s job, so that each team and individual understand their part in making it work:

Collaborative curators & toolkits

• Specifics on how the curators’ role changes for community collaborations
• An introduction to skilling-up community partners in the process

Tags

Everyone’s job, Staff skills, Community skills, Structures.

Collaborative recruitment

• A great example of shared decision-making in action
• HR processes: transparency and change
• Intensive collaboration at the start can set up a good partnership

Tags

Everyone’s job, Decision-making, Transparency, Policies, Partnerships.

Embedding participation

• Six techniques for embedding participation, and examples
• In a large, multi-site museum
• Next challenges they face

Tags

Everyone’s job, Structures.

More here http://ourmuseum.org.uk/resources/staff-development/everyones-job/

We also know this work involves knowledge, skills and support to start working differently:

Playing to staff strengths

• All staff have something to offer in a participatory process
• Find individual staff skills
• Create mutually beneficial opportunities

Tags

Everyone’s job, Staff skills, Staff buy in.

What is participation?

• Participation is the result of decades of theory and practice
• In multiple sectors
• An introduction to methods and challenges

Tags

High level support, Staff skills, Decision-making, Partnerships.

Rigorous methodology

• Be specific and use a framework
• A community has assets as well as needs
• Initiate relationships by volunteering with them
• Know your theory of change and ultimate goal

Tags

Needs and assets, Change process, Structures, Partnerships.