Presenting our findings at the California Association of Museums conference!

On February 20, the Art Center presented our findings at a session entitled Talkin' About the Generations. Jenny Wei showcased the Art Center Next Gen project as a case study showcasing how different generations can work successfully in the museum professional environment.

As audience members arrived, they were provided with a sticker that indicated their generational affiliation (undeclared was an option) and a color key to their breakout group. Breakout groups included a motley mix of generations and promoted some wonderful ideas about what works, what doesn't to promote intergenerational dynamics and what the field can do to help.

In our breakout discussions, some key themes emerged:

• The power of communication
• Organizing opportunities for staff to get to know each other through offsite gatherings involving food and alcohol
• Promoting diversity training to foster understanding beyond just generation, also gender and ethnicity
• Focus on the things that connect us
• Using our exhibitions and programs to incorporate multiple viewpoints
• Use empathy and promote understanding

Team Terri

Team Terri had the following Experience Statement:

Dedicated Art Center team members with a growth mindset need a clear path to find internal resources and know-how in order to maximize our knowledge base and foster staff collaboration and team building.

Pinhole flares

The Pinhole Flares came up with the following experience statement:

Art Center staff need an internal, informal, and non-digital forum to receive and communicate input, new ideas, feedback, to meet evolving professional needs.

Team Cousteau

Team Cousteau came up with the following experience statement:

New employee needs to share their own skills and learn about those of others so they feel self directed and useful member of a team.

Creating our Tool

On January 29, we launched another design challenge, this time specifically focused on creating a tool that could capture information about staff, promote collaboration and professional growth.

Our challenge for this effort:

How might we create a tool that shares our individual purpose statements, skills, interests, and goals in a physical and digital form that promotes collaboration and peer support?

Professional Development is Awesome!

Our results!

We ended up with two amazing visual recordings of our session, and the start of a plan to develop a tool that we can continue to use to share and record professional development intentions. Jeanne shared a IDP (Individual Development Plan Template) that could be used for future professional development planning for staff. We also discussed the critical links between development and feedback, and were (re) introduced to the SBI (situation, behavior, impact) tool for providing feedback to others.