Their leaders look beyond today and encourage staff to be creative and interested in ideas. Museums, including science centres and aquaria, make up one of the largest groups of non-profit enterprises. With colleagues from the University of Technology in Sydney, I ve been studying how museums work and what practices characterise the most effective ones. By effective I mean those that meet the constraints and meet or exceed the goals specified by the dominant coalition of constituencies . We find the most effective museums to have strong, committed leadership, to be cohesive and to focus their public programming clearly on the visitor.
Senior managers work together, model appropriate behaviour and look to the longer term.
Members of their boards, or Trusts, use their skills and knowledge to advance the organisation s goals. Staff have a shared understanding of and support for its goals. Training is critical, performance is carefully assessed and good work is rewarded. Staff value the skills and contribution of their colleagues. Communication is efficient.