Author: Maryland Humanities

Executive Director Lindsey Baker looks at how organizations can fight stagnancy and reflects on Vu Le’s latest Nonprofit AF blog post.

I’m constantly holding policies and procedures up against the light to see how they could be better. Sometimes I feel like I’m back in the day of being a small museum Executive Director and creating exhibits each year by committee. Each year, we’d have volunteers who would write text, then edit their text once it was mocked-up and on the walls, putting post-it notes triumphantly over what they had already written. Trying to make it “just right”. This effort to always look for improvement is one I definitely understand. 

This dedication to constantly do better was in my mind when I read  Vu Le’s piece about being lazy in the non-profit field. As usual, Vu’s writing hit a nerve in me. One line in particular, about how laziness shows up in CEOs/EDs, sent me into a tailspin of deep thought:

“Forcing your team members to follow inane and nonsensical rules because you’re too lazy to try to improve your skills as a leader so you stick to archaic, ineffective, and inequitable BS.”

Whew. That hit hard. How many times have I looked at a policy or procedure and thought…BUT…WHY? Why does this exist? Why hasn’t it been changed? I had never considered that it might be laziness.  

My first thought is that some leaders may find it hard to envision a way that is different from the “inane and nonsensical rules” they themselves followed. In my mind, this camp is aligned with the same thought processes that support unpaid internships and hate student loan forgiveness. They might think, “I paid my dues” and so should others. As a leader who is always trying to make things better, I struggle with this. I know these things made my life more difficult and created barriers for participation. So, I can’t imagine perpetuating them if I have the power to change them.  

Others may be afraid of what it might take to overturn some of those rules. Or what the unseen impact might be if they change them. Many of us land in leadership positions with a lot of knowledge about our content area, but not a lot of training or support in terms of leadership and decision making. So often, it seems inane rules are created as a CYA. I know sometimes I think about a change I’d like to make to make our team’s working lives easier and I wonder…what was the reason this rule was created in the first place? Am I missing something here and I’ll regret this change later? 

One way I’ve combatted this fear is inclusive decision making. I can’t know everything. It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to know everything. But I can include my staff in decision making for policies and procedures. Often they will think of something I haven’t—a reason that implementation will be difficult, a tweak that makes the change more feasible—and we are able to move forward towards the end goal better prepared. This type of leadership opens up space for each staff person to use their voice and their personal experience to guide the policies and procedures of the organization. While it isn’t always clean, and it isn’t always quick I am sure that our organization is better for it. 

And then, there are times where I think some leaders WANT to change something, but in the nonprofit world, like many of their staff, they lack the capacity. They simply do not have the time to make the change happen.  A really straightforward example of this for me is our attempt to create an equitable spot bonus policy. Every version we’ve come up with doesn’t feel “perfect”. And while great is the enemy of good, we do want to make sure we’re satisfied with the policy we create. So we’re going on 6 months of using a draft form policy. Sometimes, all we can do is admit something’s not perfect while creating the fairest version we know how to at the moment.

For me, learning and doing better is a vital aspect of my leadership style. It requires me to  challenge the status quo, question outdated practices, and strive for equitable and efficient solutions. While some leaders may hesitate due to a fear of change or a lack of resources, inclusive decision-making and collaboration can alleviate these concerns. By involving our staff and valuing their unique perspectives, we can navigate the complexities of decision-making and create policies that better serve our organization and its stakeholders.

“What would it look like if we took steps daily to care for ourselves and our colleagues in the same way as we do for the objects in our care?” This winter, Executive Director Lindsey Baker gave the keynote at the Small Museum Association Conference. The conference theme: “Creating a Culture of Care.” She talks about her experience giving the address.

Many of my 20+ internships, fellowships, and part-time work gigs with small museums during my undergraduate and graduate school days were unpaid. I had to subsidize them working additional jobs. After receiving my Master’s Degree, I became Executive Director of a tiny historical society. I believed in the work and the importance of local history so deeply, that I often caught myself working 12+ hour days trying to get it all done at an organization with 1.5 staff (and a robust volunteer program).

This type of over dedication is the norm for museum work. Professional museum jobs are few and far between with many museum professionals struggling to find paid work. Once we do, we often work above and beyond any normal expectations because we believe in the mission so strongly and we know we are “lucky” to have our job.

I know firsthand the many ways small museum people put themselves last on the list of things to prioritize, working for low pay and extremely long hours. Being asked to do the jobs of multiple people, working weekends and evenings year after year, and doing it all for boards who may not fully understand the field or your work. 

Within this often isolating context, many small museum people find comfort and joy when given the opportunity to spend time with their colleagues. The Small Museum Association (SMA) Annual Conference is one of the best opportunities for that type of community building in our region. I first attended SMA when I was an undergraduate at Goucher College. I was hooked. Since my first year attending, I have been a regular attendee–presenting more times than I can count, serving on the Conference Committee and later on the Board of Directors. SMA drew me back year after year because these people understood my day to day work life in a way that no one else could. We consoled one another, lifted one another up, and worked to figure out how to create experiences at our organizations that brought our respective communities together. 

In all my years attending, I never thought I’d be standing on the stage giving the keynote. What special expertise did I have beyond my colleagues?

Well, I was wrong. There was something radical I was doing in my work–prioritizing the humanity of my staff at Maryland Humanities. 

When Will Roulett, SMA’s Conference Chair, asked me to give the keynote address at the 2023 Conference, he asked me to speak to the conference theme, “Creating a Culture of Care.” He wanted me to talk about the work I’ve been loudly doing at Maryland Humanities in centering the wellbeing and humanity of our staff.

I was thrilled to be asked to speak about this topic. I spent months thinking through how I could focus this talk and draw from personal experience. 

I called my speech “Prioritizing Joy and Showing Grace: A Small Museum Call to Action.” I wanted to challenge small museum folks—paid staff, volunteers, board members, and funders—to lead the way in prioritizing caring for small museum workers.

At the beginning of my speech, I asked “What would it look like if we took steps daily to care for ourselves and our colleagues in the same way as we do for the objects in our care?” I talked about how when we show grace helps us push back against some of white supremacy’s key characteristics like fear, urgency, prioritizing individual progress and quantity, and the binary.

Two parts of the speech seemed to strike the audience the most. I started out by telling the story of a boss who took care of me when my dad died. She told me to go lay down on the floor in a specific bedroom tucked behind a large bed, safe and secure where visitors could not see me. I remember doing so and just letting the tears come out in my own little safe space. I am still so thankful for this memory of the early prioritization of my own humanity that helped shape my feelings about our work and how we bring ourselves to it. Sharing it with this large audience, I realized how important this simple gesture was on her part. 

In another part of the talk, I wanted to show the audience the practical part of how we show grace in an organization. I shared a screenshot of a Slack message I sent to staff after another mass shooting.

I paused to let the audience read the message. I chose not to read it aloud because I knew if I did the tears would flow in a way that prevented me from continuing.

I included this transparent and vulnerable image to show how I try to treat my staff as whole people and allow them to take care of themselves when and how they need. 

SMA is nothing if not full of professionals looking for practical tips. To that end, I included policies and procedures into the talk, including my personal favorite, our snow day policy. I know it’s hard to think through how to actually apply these concepts, but honestly, that is the most important part. 

The reaction from the talk was very validating. Afterwards, many people came up to me to share their experiences and how it resonated with them. Others still send me expressive texts, emails, and LinkedIn messages saying that the talk validated their experiences. I had clearly struck a nerve. Seeing the response reinforced the urgency in how much our field needs to start taking care of themselves.

This was a call to action. I hope the friends and partners I’ve “grown up” with over the years at SMA are able to join me in finding ways to prioritize themselves and their colleagues. I will continue to push for our field to do better. If you’re interested in hearing more, you can always follow me on LinkedIn where I am living my best life talking all things workplace culture.