Planning is crucial for setting goals, prioritizing tasks, and managing time effectively. When done collaboratively with coworkers at your museum, it can be a game changer. In this episode, Amy talks about the impact that planning with your colleagues can have on productivity and she gives you an agenda you can use for an annual planning workshop for your museum. Download the free planning calendar for museums and use it as a handout at your workshop.

Want to learn more?

Download the free planning calendar here: https://bit.ly/2024museumcal

Download the People First Framework Guide for Museums: https://bit.ly/4PSguide_lovemymuseum

Check out the website at: www.lovemymuseum.com

You can also join Amy’s email list here: https://bit.ly/LMMpodcast_signup

Planning helps you set clear goals, prioritize tasks,

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and allocate your time wisely.

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And let me tell you, planning with

your coworkers is a game changer.

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And something you should

be doing at your museum.

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And that's what we're talking about today.

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Also going to give you exactly how I

would talk about this with your staff.

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Like the actual agenda I would use.

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And I have a free resource you can

download that will help you too.

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So let's get started.

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Welcome to the Love My Museum podcast.

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I'm your host, Amy Kehs.

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And in this episode, we are

going to talk about planning.

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Planning the planning, actually.

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Planning is one of my favorite topics.

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And I have definitely evolved,

especially when it comes to planning

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for work over the last decade.

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Planning and productivity

kind of go hand in hand.

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And we'll talk a little

bit about that too.

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Yogi Berra ,the famous baseball catcher

said: if you don't know where you're

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going, you'll end up someplace else.

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And I really agree with that.

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So, what kind of planner are you today?

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And have you evolved or have you

been a different kind of planner

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in different seasons of your life?

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Do you already make goals for the year?

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Are you ready on January 1st with

a list of new year's resolutions?

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Or do you just kind of wing it 24 7?

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I definitely have been all of the

above at one point or another.

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And tell me this: what does

planning look like for work?

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And what does planning

look like at your museum?

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I think that planning provides a

roadmap for you to follow, whether

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personally or professionally.

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And having a roadmap is comforting, right?

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And like Yogi says, then we

all know where we're going.

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So.

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What have you planned for work?

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And if we, what if you made that roadmap

for your museum work and - here's

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my secret - what if everyone at your

museum was following the same roadmap?

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If you feel like your days are eaten up by

never ending meetings, and at the end of

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the day or the week or the month, you feel

like you're just spinning your wheels.

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This is the first step to get

everyone on the same page to

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stop this crazy hamster wheel.

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I've watched a lot of my museum clients

struggle with this, so you are not alone.

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And I really want to help.

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Now, I've had some clients

that did no planning.

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And I had some that would

plan 5 to 10 years out.

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One of my favorite clients

assigns a theme to each year.

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And I absolutely love that idea.

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For some museums, they may be

planning at their department

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level, but not at the museum level.

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And while that's a good start,

it's a good idea to do this at

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the museum level as well and I'll

go into why that is in a minute.

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Another problem I see, and I definitely

have been guilty of this in my own

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business, is you make all of these great

plans at the beginning of the year but

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by spring those plans that I made in

January were totally out the window.

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I was too busy.

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I was wrapped up in the day-to-day

to do's, and my clients were

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the same way for the most part.

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They weren't returning to those goals or

plans that they had made at the beginning

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of the year on a consistent basis.

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And if they were, the plan wasn't always

the priority and they would wander or

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lose sight of the plan as the year and as

external demands got louder and louder.

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And I also noticed that important dates

or milestones at their museum were not

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part of the plan, and would often keep

them two steps behind or catch them off

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guard when it came up on the calendar.

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As I shared in the first episode,

when the pandemic hit, I took some

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time to work on my own business.

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And I learned a lot of things

that now I use to help my clients.

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And part of that work was being

more proactive and productive, and

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that meant living those plans that

I was creating beyond January.

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It meant really following through and

finding ways to review and revisit

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those plans consistently and break

them down into actionable steps.

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The research and learning that I did

was really helpful, but the game changer

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for me was an amazing group program

that I did with my business coach.

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She showed us how accumulating

routines and recurring tasks and

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also holding us accountabl lead to

successful progress on our goals.

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And do you know what?

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That year was the best year my

business had had in over 20 years.

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And I know it was because I stayed

focused and I broke things down

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into actionable steps that I didn't

lose sight of throughout the year.

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And taking a vision for the year

and then using that to make goals

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for each quarter worked really well.

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I want to teach museums how to do this.

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And we'll talk a lot about this

on the podcast but today we're

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going to talk about just the first

step, that overview of the year.

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The planning the planning.

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So this overview of the year is a

discussion of that 30,000 foot view.

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Ideally, you meet with your entire

staff, but this might take some

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adjusting depending on the size of your

museum and how many staff you have.

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But either way, everyone will be

represented at this discussion.

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And everyone is coming prepared to

this talk and think of- think of this

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as less of a meeting and more of a

workshop and brainstorming session.

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You want to make sure that people

have a chance to contribute beforehand

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and learn the results afterwards.

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Okay.

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So now get out your pen and paper,

because I'm going to tell you the agenda

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for this annual planning workshop.

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The first thing that you will start

talking about in your planning workshop is

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your museum's mission, vision, and values.

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Now, this is going to set the stage

for the work that you're about to do.

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It's going to start to get everyone into

that mindset that they're considering the

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entire museum brand for this exercise.

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So go over the mission,

vision, and values.

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These are words that internally,

everyone should already know.

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It should be something that you

talk about so often, and they're

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living and breathing these elements

and they feel so proud to be there.

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These things are also things that you

might share with your external audiences.

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But even if you don't say these

words specifically to your external

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audiences, they should feel them

deeply and maybe even be able to

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guess based on the work you do or

how it feels to visit your museum.

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If you don't have a mission,

vision, and values for your

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museum, start brainstorming that.

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These things are essential to

your museum's brand messaging.

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The second thing is to go over

the key messages for your museum.

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Key messages are the center

of your brand messaging.

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I love brand messaging.

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And we'll talk about it a lot.

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What are the two to three messages that

run deep in everything that you do, again,

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just like mission, vision, and values.

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This is to get everyone in the right

head space and thinking about the

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museum as a brand and as, as a whole

for the work that you're about to do.

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So that they're not just focused on

their department or their team or

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themselves, but they're thinking about

the whole museum for this exercise.

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The third thing I want you to

go over before we dive into the

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real work, are the different

audiences that your museum serves.

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Usually a department is most likely

just dealing with one audience.

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So it's good to remind everyone

that there are a lot of

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different audiences to consider.

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For example, visitor services.

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Your main audience are the

people who walk through the door.

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And, if you're in the fundraising

department your audience is

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focusing on potential donors.

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Or your current board members.

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Government relations,

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if you have someone that does

that, you're working with community

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leaders and government officials.

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And the communications office is

usually the one that is thinking

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about all of the different audiences.

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But usually even they are focused on media

relations or on potential visitors and

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getting them to visit for the first time.

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Okay, now that we're thinking in

that mindset, we're thinking like a

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museum, like the whole museum, going

to work together to map out your year.

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Now don't forget at this point

that we're still looking at

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it from a 30,000 foot view.

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We're not going to get into the nitty

gritty of the, the how or the why.

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This is just an overview.

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Remember my client that

uses that yearly theme?

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That's a great idea to take out some

decision fatigue and also really create

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great brand awareness and consistency.

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When you're promoting your exhibits

and your programs to your audiences.

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So, what are the main things

happening for your upcoming year?

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Do you have a new exhibit?

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Any anniversaries or milestones that

you need to recognize or celebrate?

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What are the big programs or events

that you maybe do every year or

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that maybe go with the theme or

exhibits that you're working on?

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It is important to lay these things

out when everyone is in the room.

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If this seems overwhelming then download

my free museum planning calendar.

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The link is in the show notes and

it has over 100 ideas and prompts.

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And, and a lot of, a lot of

room to plan out your year.

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It's important for everyone to

hear what is on the horizon.

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And which of these

priorities are for everyone.

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Every department will be

working towards these goals.

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It makes me so sad when I see different

departments working so hard and other

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departments not supporting them.

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And usually that's because

they have different priorities.

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So everyone ends up asking

each other for support.

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But everyone is a bit resentful

because they have their own

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priorities and they don't have room

on their plate for anything else.

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And so if everyone has the same

priorities, they know in advance how they

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can support each other, because as you

will hear me say over and over again,

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The end goal for everyone is the same.

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You want people to come to your museum

and fall in love with your museum so

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they come back and bring a friend.

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If everyone is on the same

page, then you won't be making

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things hard on your coworkers.

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And you'll be working together.

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Doesn't that sound nice?

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Not to work in a vacuum, not

to work against each other.

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It leads to burnout when we work that way.

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And it leads to people leaving.

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And honestly it will

translate to your visitors.

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Stressed museum staff don't relate well to

the visitors walking through your doors.

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And so if they feel some ownership, and

if they know why your museum is important

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they can pass that onto the visitors.

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We want museums to thrive and

this is one of the first steps to

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getting everyone on the same page

and working towards a common goal.

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And you're just mapping it out,

remembering and knowing what you

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have coming up and what priorities

are for each part of the year,

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for each quarter of the year.

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This idea of everyone having

a common goal should be pretty

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straightforward, but it is definitely

the biggest problem I see in museums.

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Especially since the pandemic.

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And museum workers are exhausted because

they feel like everyone at their museum

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is working in a different direction.

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I went to a really great museum

conference last year and talked to a

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lot of museum professionals who told

me stories about how this was affecting

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their work and their love for their

job and their love for their museum.

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People feel like they're spinning their

wheels and either nothing's getting done

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or the work feels harder than it should,

and so this annual planning workshop.

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Is going to start to

help to clear this up.

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Okay.

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So what happens next?

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What happens after the workshop?

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Everyone should leave knowing exactly

what the vision for the year is,

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exactly what the priorities are for the

year and how they fit into that plan.

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And everyone will go back to

their department and take with

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them that complete big picture.

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They also have that mission, vision and

values of the museum fresh in their minds

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and they have those key messages that

they can weave into the work they do.

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And they have this overview of the year

that highlights the museum's priorities.

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Now they meet as a team and they

map out the work that they have to

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do to make those priorities happen.

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What is their part?

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What does the timeline look

like for these projects?

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What information do they need from

their coworkers and when should they

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ask so they give their coworkers ample

time to pull the information together?

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At the team level, we are now going to

take that vision of the year and break

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it down into four 12-week quarters.

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Now that will eventually get broken

down into monthly and weekly, et cetera.

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In future episodes we'll talk about

how you run a dream team and how these

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plans are divvied up among team members.

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But for now, just know that a version of

this is also going to show up in the form

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of a weekly agenda so that you're checking

in on these priorities every week.

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Okay.

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Now let's go back to your

planning calendar for a minute.

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I want to highlight some of the

things that you should consider

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during your planning workshop, and

maybe they will help as you talk to

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your team about ideas for the year.

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Again, download the free calendar for

museums It has a page for every month

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of the year with some ideas and prompts.

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On what you need to be

thinking about for that month.

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The calendar, I hope keeps

you relevant and newsworthy

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and will hook your audience.

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It is by no means an

exhausted list though.

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There are "holidays", - I'm putting

that in air quotes - for everything now.

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So think about your collection

and programs and your mission.

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What are some of these holidays that

can go with those things to give you an

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opportunity to educate and celebrate that

mission or things in your collection?

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Second, look at the past.

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Another great resource is looking

at past exhibits and programming.

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Was there something that did really well?

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Should you do it again?

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Can you improve it?

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Maybe a lecture that you

could make into a series.

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Or a program that did really well, that

maybe could be turned into an exhibit.

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And vice versa.

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I think every museum needs to

think of themselves as a community

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museum, if they want to thrive.

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So how can you support the community?

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Can you honor someone

with an annual award?

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Can you plan an event for families?

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Maybe you're the go-to place for a

Halloween party or another celebration.

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If you start having consistent,

reliable, and timely programs,

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you'll gain some public relations

traction in your community and

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you'll become known for those things.

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Third, I want you to take a look

back at this year and think if

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there were things that came up that

caught you and your team off guard.

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Can you plan for it this year?

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And when you're working on this planning,

don't forget that you should also map

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out timelines and deadlines as well, and

share those with the team along with some

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of the reasoning behind the timelines,

that these timelines aren't arbitrary.

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For example, as a communications

professional, I cannot tell you how

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many times in the last 30 years I had a

coworker come up and asked me why they

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weren't on XYZ TV show or an XYZ magazine.

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And my answer had to be because

that deadline was six months

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before you told me about the thing

that you wanted to be promoted.

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So planning together also gives

great insight into how others do

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their job, and the support that

they need from their colleagues.

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The other thing that this planning can do

for the museum's leadership team is to see

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the big events in that 30,000 foot view.

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Are there big projects that

are too close together?

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Is the schedule going to burn out

your staff or exhaust your resources?

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We should all be thinking of that

common goal, of that big picture.

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And your planning should start with

that big vision for your museum, and

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then from that master plan, branch

off to include what that planning

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and what those goals mean for your

team and even your own career.

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After you've gone through all these

things this should have everyone

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really excited and inspired.

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And so while those creative juices

are flowing, jot down some ideas

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for the next year or maybe a three

year five-year or 10-year vision.

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I hope this was really helpful.

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Go ahead and download the free

calendar and please share the

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link with your colleagues.

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That's it for today.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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I'll talk to you soon.