If you’re not already doing quarterly planning at your museum, now’s the perfect time to start! In this episode, Amy talks about the best practices for quarterly planning for your museum. She also gives listeners three other things that can be looked at every quarter. It’s one of the best ways to make sure your museum doesn’t just survive—but thrives.

Links from the Episode:

• Episode 5: Planning the Planning
• Want more help with time audits and SOPs? Send me an email: amy@amykehs.com

More Free Resources for Museums:

• Museum Planning Calendar
• Museum Metrics Template

About the host: 

Amy Kehs is a brand strategist and communications expert for museums. She has owned Kehs Communications since 2000 and has worked for the most renowned and well-loved museums in Washington, D.C. Her goal is to ensure that museums thrive into the next century and she hopes people will come to love museums as much as she does. Her proven process sets up proactive communication habits for museums, cultivating relationships with visitors who will want to return and bring a friend. Want to talk more? Click this link to book a call.

Hey there today.

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We're talking about your museum for

the next 90 days and best practices

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for that quarterly planning.

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I'll also give you three other things you

should schedule to look at every quarter.

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Let's get started.

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Hello, and welcome to the

love my museum podcast.

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I'm your host Amy keys,

and I love museums.

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I'm also a brand strategist

and communications expert.

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For museums and I am so glad you're here.

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So it's the beginning of the year,

but it is also the start of a quarter.

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So.

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Today on the podcast, we are

going to be looking at the

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next 90 days for your museum.

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It's the beginning of a calendar year,

but it's also the start of a quarter.

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And depending on how your museums fiscal

year runs, this could be your first

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quarter of your year or your second.

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But either way.

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I really hope you begin quarterly

planning at your museum.

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Quarterly planning or any kind

of team planning is so important.

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Not having a plan and not

making sure that everyone is.

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Rowing in the same direction can lead

to a lot of miscommunication and other

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internal communications problems.

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I want everyone working together

to move forward and not working.

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In a vacuum.

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When your whole team

understands their part.

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In the big picture, things stop feeling

so scattered plus planning together,

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shifts your museum from reacting

to everything, to actually going in

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the direction that you want to go.

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But.

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Let's be real.

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Even the best plans can lose steam.

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So it's easy to get caught up in day to

day tasks and forget about those goals by.

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March or even February.

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So.

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That's why planning has to be.

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A living process, something that

you revisit, you tweak and you

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recommit to as the year goes on.

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And we talked a lot about

planning in one of the first

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episodes of the podcast episode.

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Five I'll link that in the show notes.

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And that episode goes in depth

about how and why you should

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do an annual planning workshop.

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And depending on how big your

museum staff is, this will look

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differently for different museums.

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Check that out.

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If he want more ideas on what to do.

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In that workshop, but.

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The big takeaway is that so often when

it comes to planning that information

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on what the museum's priorities are and

the role that each person plays in the

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high priorities doesn't get communicated.

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Either the leadership team

may not tell everyone.

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Or maybe they talk about it, but it's very

vague and soon forgotten and there isn't.

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Any follow through when it comes to

the actions that need to be done to.

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To be successful with those

priorities that were set.

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Another problem I see in how

plans are being executed.

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Is that there?

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Isn't a consideration of resources.

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There are only so many hours in a day.

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Studies show that museum

workers are being overworked.

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Leadership over promises and

doesn't consider the resources.

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And when I say resources,

I don't just mean money.

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I mean, People power.

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Lots of times I see a museum decide

on the priorities for the year,

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and then they quickly forget those

priorities and they take on more and more.

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And then the staff is overworked

and underpaid and then they quit.

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And then the museum has even less staff

and less resources to get everything done.

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When you decide your museum's

priorities for the year, you

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have to consider your resources.

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Your workforce and what is reasonable?

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And after you've done

this annual planning.

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You need to keep revisiting

this throughout the year.

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And the first step of that is.

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Looking at the next 90

days or quarterly planning.

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I actually just finished up quarterly

planning with my consulting clients.

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Uh, last week M one of the first

things that we do is we revisit

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the priorities that we set in

the annual planning workshop.

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And we see which of those

priorities is coming up in the

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next 90 days in the next quarter.

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And essentially the rest of

the session is planning out how

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we will get those things done.

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Assigned tasks to who is going to do them.

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And of course, there will be a

lot more to do each quarter than

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just the priorities that we've.

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highlighted in our annual planning

and in our quarterly planning.

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But having a hierarchy of where project

lies and thinking about the resources

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you have helps keep museum workers,

loving their job and loving their.

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Museum.

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I really think that this applies to.

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any.

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museum size.

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But especially for small

museums, when you have.

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a very small staff, you.

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I really need to be mindful of.

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your resources, especially.

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Mindful of your people and

taking care of your people.

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Creating a habit for quarterly planning

is really all about making sure you're

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checking back in on those priorities.

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That you made at the

beginning of the year.

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It's also about making the

time to check in on each other.

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This should be further broken down

into then monthly planning and weekly

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team meetings and weekly reviews.

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Quarterly planning.

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Gives us a chance to think about.

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If we also need to create a communications

plan for a specific project.

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And the quarterly planning that I do at

my clients also takes the time to look.

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At their personal and professional goals.

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Humans have 24 hours in a day.

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And helping your museum's

staff create a balanced life.

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Means that happy staff.

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Stays.

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In addition to the quarterly planning.

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There are some other things that

I think you should do while you're

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looking at the next 90 days.

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And the first of those

things is a time audit.

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I encourage my clients to do a time audit.

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We can talk about more about this

in another episode, but seeing where

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your time is going and thinking about.

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Am I the right person for this job.

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Is a good thing to do.

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If not every quarter, at least

a couple of times a year.

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Second another good thing to do when

you're looking at the next 90 days is

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to compare notes from your time audit.

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With your team and your

colleagues and other departments.

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I remember having a meeting with a client

where we talked about this it was in the

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meeting where people from two different

departments, two different teams.

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I had them actually talk to each

other about what they were doing

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and what their process was.

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And we found.

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That they were duplicating so many tasks.

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And this meeting led to them being able to

repurpose things that they were writing.

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And share that workload.

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Re-purposing what they were writing.

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also meant that the museum's brand was

more consistent, which is really great.

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The third thing that you can do in.

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Your quarterly planning session while

you're looking at the next 90 days

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is to take a look at your S ops.

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Or standard operating procedures.

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Are they working for you?

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Do you need to revise them?

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Is there something that you're missing?

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Every department should be creating

standard operating procedures.

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Actually scratch that.

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Every person.

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Who works in a museum.

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I should have standard operating

procedures for the things

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that you do in your job.

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You should have these documented

so that if you were out sick or

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if you want to go on vacation.

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Other people can pick up that

task and do it while you're away.

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It relieves stress for everyone.

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If you would like help getting started

on a time, audit are creating SLPs.

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Send me an email.

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And let me know we can hop on a

call or if I get enough interest,

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maybe that could be an episode.

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Of the podcast as well.

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Planning isn't just about

schedules and to do lists.

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It's about giving your team a shared.

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Purpose and the tools

that they need to succeed.

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And when everyone knows what their

role is in the bigger picture.

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The work becomes not just productive, but.

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Meaningful as well.

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And being able to revisit these

plans every quarter, every month.

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And even breaking that down to.

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A a weekly team agenda and

looking at it every week.

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Means that the mission of

your museum can move forward.

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And also creates a proactive.

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And also productive way

for your staff to work.

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So as you're looking at your museums in

next 90 days, Think about the planning,

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but also think about the people.

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How can you create systems and processes

and how can you communicate them?

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More internally so that everyone is being

able to work on the things that they are

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experts at and not reinventing the wheel.

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If you are not already doing quarterly

planning, I hope that you'll start now.

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Take that annual plan that you've done.

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Schedule time on your calendar for.

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Every new quarter throughout the year.

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And use that time to look

back on that annual plan and

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on those annual priorities.

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It is the next.

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Step.

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In making sure that your museum not

only survives, but also thrives.

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That's all for today.

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Keep up the great work and

keep loving your museum.