4 Years of Positive Transitions Pt 3/4

3 of 4: (WWGD) “What Would George Do?” 

Relationships, relationships, relationships. My great uncle, George, was a Representative from Texas in the US House of Representatives for over 40 years, serving under US presidents from FDR to Carter. As head of the house appropriations committee, he was one of the last people to meet with JFK before his assassination in Dallas. Our family is very proud of George and particularly his reputation as a true statesman in D.C.

What does this have to do my positive transformation series? I’m getting there.

When he was seeking election initially, as a young upstart politician in a vast district covering the north/west & panhandle areas of Texas, he had to prove to these farmers and ranchers who had just barely gotten through the depression alive, that he was on their side. I grew up in this area of the world, and these people are quintessential Texas. They are not easy to sway or shift from their beliefs, they are strong, quick witted, hardworking and intelligent. They are also extremely hospitable and friendly and loyal to a fault. So, WWGD? (What Would George Do?)

He went farm house to farm house, door to door, ranch to ranch and had lunch/tea/coffee/lemonade with as many people who would let him in. And he LISTENED, AND LISTENED AND LISTENED. And they got to know him as a person and they began to trust him because he didn’t make unreasonable promises, he showed integrity and he spoke to their needs and how he could help them. He really understood his job as a representative.  

He was elected. And he continued to write to his constituents and update them and work for them in congress. They saw results and kept voting him in for 40 years.

So, here we are! The connection. 

When I started at my current museum about 3 ? years ago, I inherited a strong docent guild of between 120-150 docents many of whom had been touring for over 30 or 40 years. For years prior to the museum becoming its own 501c3, these amazing volunteers had created and had been running the education department from the outreach to the tour booking to the touring and training. Unfortunately, since the first staff member was hired at the museum in the mid-1980’s to oversee the education department to the time I stepped on board, there wasn’t a lot of work accomplished towards the development of a clear or succinct integration of the guild’s work and that of the official education department. The docents continued to maintain full control over training, touring with a beautifully intricate self-governmental system that relied very little on staff involvement beyond key information and access to experts regarding upcoming exhibitions.

I foolishly tried to change that dynamic, and failed miserably.

So, I had to step back, bury my ego and apply all that I could remember of great leadership books, inspirational examples of past supervisors and mentors, and ask myself, “What Would George Do?”

First of all, I am very fortunate to have an incredible docent guild full of exceptionally smart and talented people who offered very sage advice. These docents are not easy to sway or shift from their way of doing things, they are strong, quick witted, hardworking and intelligent and are also extremely hospitable and friendly and loyal to a fault. (Sound similar?!)

So, What Would George Do? He would find a way to hear and interact with every voice to help inform an effective decision that would provide a positive result for the majority. A year into my job I was able to build a small group of special docent advisers and we embarked on what we called an “integration” project to collaboratively shift the dynamic of the relationship between the docent guild and our education department to work together seamlessly towards a shared vision.

First we (the docents with my thumbs up) created, distributed and analyzed results from a comprehensive survey completed by each and every docent and then we set up a series of 32, “Dutch treat” brunch/lunches, with myself and each docent touring team of 3 to 8 docents over the course of 8 months at the museum’s on-site restaurant.

It was A LOT of Salmon Cobb salads!

Needless to say, people are people are people are people. Food is the great equalizer and when we can see each other as people with similar experiences and passions it’s a lot harder to assume someone is purposely out to get you and might allow for more collective forward motion. These lunches provided me with the tools to better understand my docents, what they really needed and what kinds of actual changes needed to take place. It also, hopefully, helped them to better understand who I was as a person and what our shared roles are in support of the museum and its mission.

George was a great communicator and kept his constituents up to date on what he was doing on their behalf so they could be better informed voters and continue to choose a representative who would fight for what they needed. He never got 100% of the votes, but he always got enough to keep him going.

I am not the communicator George was, and I also don’t have my full guild behind this effort, but we’ve made huge strides! I’m confident that the time invested in building meaningful relationships with these amazing volunteers will continue to work together to make the goals of integration and collaboration evident at the Bowers Museum. These types of transformation projects, just like in politics, don't always have a set end-date by which we can evaluate success, but I can continue to ask myself What Would George Do and then go to lunch.