When Audience Members Violate Your Organization's Core Values
last week's post. Leadership Matters doesn't receive a ton of comments so last week was a happy surprise. Many of you--especially Millennials and Gen-Xers-- thought your point of view was missing, and sent examples. Clearly there's more to say on generational collaboration and conflict in the workplace. We're working on it, but if you're drawn to this subject, and you'd like to write a guest post, let us know. Our email is leadershipmatters1213@gmail.com.
******** While questions of intergenerational workplace collaboration continue to simmer, we'd like to talk about a different sort of leadership challenge. This came to our attention through Laurie Norton Moffat, director and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA. (Parenthetically, we should add something: Over the years we've ranted about how museum leaders need to read (and listen) widely--absorbing poetry, podcasts, science, philosophy, long-form journalism, novels, you name it---because it makes you more empathetic, broadens your perspective and helps you connect the dots in many unexpected ways. Moffat is that person. If what she posts on social media is a taste of what's on her bedside table, screen and other devices, she's an example to us all.) This week Moffat posted an op-ed piece by Pamela Tatge, director of Jacob's Pillow, Becket, MA. For those unfamiliar with "The Pillow" as it's known locally, it is home to America's longest running dance festival. Tatge's piece details the interaction of a woman of color and members of the Pillow's opening gala audience. Needless to say, it wasn't good. The interactions were demeaning, objectifying, and horrifying. In fact, as Tatge reports, it's a wonder the patron stayed for the whole event. What's interesting here is Tatge's reaction. First, let me say that everything I know about this incident is in her piece. There is nothing on the Pillow's website, and only two dismaying follow-up letters in the Berkshire Eagle. If a member of your audience insulted another visitor, how many of you would bare your organizational soul in the newspaper? The Pillow's experience brings to mind the incident at Boston's MFA in May where middle school students were subjected to racist comments by security guards and other visitors. In that case, reading between the lines, one of the most horrifying things was the sense that the museum might not have acknowledged what happened had the teacher not come forward on Facebook. In the end, the MFA revoked the visitors' membership and banned them from the museum. In addition, it says it plans to provide additional training for guards in how they engage with visitors inside and outside the Museum. One of the places organizations turn in crisis is their value statement. And while Jacob's Pillow is curiously silent about Tatge's piece on its own web site, it's clear her actions were rooted in the Pillow's Value Statement, which includes the following: INCLUSIONWe encourage a broadly diverse group of individuals to participate in our programs and join our Board and Staff, and insist on being inclusive of all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, socio-economic background, physical or mental ability. LEADERSHIPWe listen carefully, take the time to reflect on our successes and challenges, admit when we do not know something, and are accountable for our actions; recognizing that a crucial part of our role is to mentor the next generation of artists, arts administrators, and production staff. Of the many issues on your 2019 leadership plate does audience behavior keep you up at night? What can and should a museum leader do to forestall racist behavior or hate speech in its galleries or heritage site? Is Tatge's transparency the way to go? Not that we haven't written about this before, but here are some things to think about when your audience attacks its own:
Use your value statement. Presumably you all--board, staff, volunteers--played a part in its creation, and live it day-to-day. Where else can your patrons read the values statement besides the web site? How often do board and staff talk about it? Is it clear to your visitors that your museum has a code of conduct?
Silence is death. Don't fetishize silence. Not saying anything will land you in a world of trouble. It will also make a mockery of your carefully crafted values statement. If you believe in something, stand by it, but have a plan.
Think ahead. What steps should you take to ensure the right messaging in the event of controversy or crisis related to your organization and its values? Role play possible controversies to make sure your organization reacts as a team.
Show some humility. Even if you aren't the cause of the hurt, the hate speech or the racist comments, you are the venue in which they happened. Own what's yours. If you hosted a cocktail party at home and one of the guests insulted another, you'd apologize wouldn't you?
Talk about these issues with your board. It's easy to say what a museum or heritage site should do, but how (and when) does a board choose to discipline its audience, the very audience that is its lifeblood?
Does your museum have a clear and easy way for visitors to let staff know when something bad happens? Once you say what you stand for (see the first bullet point), you have to provide the opportunity to express how the experience measured up. Help your staff learn to listen and respond accordingly. A decade ago the glittery object among museum thought leaders was the idea of museums as a third space. As a concept--the museum as neutral ground where people gather and interact--is laudable if slightly utopian. But if the last 10 years have taught us anything, it's that saying you're the third space won't work with a community clamoring for you to take a stand, to believe in something, and when appropriate, to say something. Hopefully museum staff, boards and volunteers agree on their common values, but your audience? It's the wild card, the known-unknown you must court, charm, and cultivate. And what happens when the audience values don't align with institutional values? If a visitor related an experience like the one Pamela Tatge heard, what would you do? Joan Baldwin Image: The National Liberty Museum
