Mission critical
Clear statements of purpose, vision and values provide a framework for guiding day-to-day museum work. Jonathan Knott reveals how institutions create and live by them. Illustration by Alan Kitching
The Design Museum in Kensington, west London, receives a lot of positive feedback from visitors about the warm welcome they receive from volunteers in the atrium. “Someone who smiles and welcomes you to the museum makes a difference to the visit,” says Alice Black, the museum’s co-director.
This doesn’t happen by chance. The museum’s website lists four key values in a set of statements on “the Design Museum’s DNA”. One of them is “welcoming everyone to the museum and making them feel it’s a place for them”. Alongside “our values”, the other categories are “design is”, “our mission”, “our vision”, and “our culture”.
These statements were crafted as part of a project that began a decade ago and culminated in the museum’s reopening in its current location in November 2016. The move from its former home on the south bank of the river Thames in London embodied a wider ambition around “reinventing the museum for the 21st century”, says Black.
The museum has already received one million visitors at its new site, representing a significant increase from numbers of up to 250,000 a year at its previous venue. Black feels the institution has made encouraging progress in line with its mission “to create the most inspiring, exciting and engaging design museum in the world”.
She says the DNA statements acted as a reference point that anchored the museum through a period of change. “This was the thing we would always come back to when we had to make a decision,” she says. “Having these building blocks right at the start and making sure everyone knew them was a key factor in our success.”
The statements build on the Design Museum’s charitable objectives, which focus on the education of the public, and the broad vision of its founder, the English designer, restaurateur and retailer Terence Conran. Black sums up the latter as “design improves lives”, adding: “We just had to put all these pieces together and rethink them a bit.”
The management had a broad ambition for the new museum to engage with people beyond its existing core audience of those with a professional or academic interest in design. It then worked with the consultancy From Now On to create a rigorous strategy. This involved workshops with senior museum staff and trustees, as well as analysis of current and potential audiences, and the venue’s collection and programming. The statements were refined through discussions at monthly staff meetings and with the museum board, the Heritage Lottery Fund (which granted the project £4.95m), other museums and related organisations, says Black.
The different sections of the statements have different emphases. While the mission represents a tangible aim, the vision “for everyone to understand the value of design” is an overarching, idealistic aspiration. Black says a museum board member with a background in advertising summed it up as: “You’ll never achieve it, but this is your guiding star.”
The terminology of visions, missions, purposes and values can be confusing, since all organisations have different ways of using them.
V&A Dundee, which is due to open in September, uses the terms “mission” and “vision” in an inverse way to the Design Museum. Its overarching mission is “enriching lives through design” (see p31), while its more practical five-year vision is “to create an international centre for design, engaging people and promoting the understanding of design”.
Finding purpose and value
Jane Wentworth, the founder of the cultural consultancy Jane Wentworth Associates, which has worked with organisations including National Museums Scotland and Imperial War Museums, says the terminology of statements is less important than the questions they answer. When she advises a client on strategy, the questions she asks them are where, what, how and why. These correspond respectively to an organisation’s broad vision, its offer (such as exhibitions and other programming), its values and its ultimate purpose. The last is often the hardest to answer, she says.
“A museum director might tell you a long list of factual information about their galleries and collection,” says Wentworth. “And then we say ‘OK, but why are you looking after it? Why are we spending all this money on it? Why do we have to display it?’ And they have to come up with a reason explaining the impact of what they do.”
Wentworth stresses that the entire organisation must buy into mission statements, and online surveys are one way of enabling widespread feedback. She recalls working with a museum in Scandinavia where the management was perplexed as to why staff were indifferent to the brand strategy, before admitting that they had not been involved in its creation. “It was no wonder they didn’t take any notice of it – they didn’t own it,” she says.
In public-facing work, though, it is more important to demonstrate purpose and values than to state them. “We all know the cafes we like to go to,” says Wentworth. “It’s not because they have got ‘these are our values’ written on the wall. It’s because the staff are polite, quick and friendly, and the sandwiches are fresh.”
Nonetheless, a well-crafted statement can make an impact in itself. Gail Anderson, a US-based cultural consultant who is writing a book on mission statements, says “a strong, clear, crisp mission statement is the compass for an institution”. She gives the examples of a local museum in California whose mission is “building community around art”, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose mission is “conserve the ocean”. Anderson says the process of crafting and refining a statement can take around six months until it feels ready. “At some point, the mission sings,” she says. “It reverberates, it’s right.”
Social impact
Another fan of pithy statements is Iain Watson, the director of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (Twam). He takes inspiration from his previous employer, Durham County Council, whose mission was “to make County Durham the best place to live, work and bring up a family”. Watson says: “Why wouldn’t the council have that mission? Everybody can get behind it, but it’s not bland.”
Twam’s mission, “to help people determine their place in the world and define their identities, so enhancing their self-respect and their respect for others”, was created in the 1990s under a former director, David Fleming. It also has statements setting out “our vision”, “our commitment” and bullet points on what “we believe”.
The crafting of these statements was a significant moment in the sector because of their focus on social impact rather than collections and preservation, says Watson. About a year ago, Twam re-examined the statements and found that they “still felt comfortable for the organisation”. But in the process of developing its business plan for National Portfolio Organisation funding from Arts Council England for 2018-2022, Twam has also devised a “cultural and creative vision” with a four-year focus.
To do this, the organisation initially enlisted the services of a futurist to “open up our thinking”, before working with a creative consultant to determine the key elements of its identity and approach. The statement that emerged was “working together to make sense of the world through compelling stories of heritage, art, culture and science”.
Watson says this new statement sets out how it delivers on the established framework. “It’s more descriptive and narrative, whereas the mission is more outcome- and impact-driven,” he adds.
Watson advocates a pragmatic approach, rather than getting too wound up in theory. “If you read up on the academic thinking about what a mission is and what a vision is, our statements may not quite agree with that, but I’m reluctant to change what we call them. This is about what works within and without the organisation.”
And while he believes statements should be shaped by listening to everybody, Watson says that writing by committee risks losing the spirit that gives a strong mission statement its power. “What one word means to somebody might mean something different to somebody else,” he says. “It’s not an easy process and you have to take an element of authorial responsibility.”
In a similar way, it also falls to museum leaders to make sure statements remain fresh and relevant. The Design Museum has just begun the process of “recalibrating” its mission. Black says the revised statement is likely to involve more emphasis on social change and inspiring the next generation of designers.
“Working to reopen the museum on a bigger stage over the past 10 years has been a major milestone,” she says. “What will the next decade be about?”
It is important for us to have a mission that expresses clearly and concisely what the ambitions of the museum are and the difference it will make to people continuously. We went through a process of discussion and debate within the V&A Dundee team, and took into account audience research we had done on the potential of this new museum. We then tested our mission statement on audiences, particularly the creative sector.
The ethos of “enriching lives through design” is fundamental to the institution and the programme we are developing. Everything we do is informed by that mission.
Philip Long is the director of V&A Dundee
This doesn’t happen by chance. The museum’s website lists four key values in a set of statements on “the Design Museum’s DNA”. One of them is “welcoming everyone to the museum and making them feel it’s a place for them”. Alongside “our values”, the other categories are “design is”, “our mission”, “our vision”, and “our culture”.
These statements were crafted as part of a project that began a decade ago and culminated in the museum’s reopening in its current location in November 2016. The move from its former home on the south bank of the river Thames in London embodied a wider ambition around “reinventing the museum for the 21st century”, says Black.
The museum has already received one million visitors at its new site, representing a significant increase from numbers of up to 250,000 a year at its previous venue. Black feels the institution has made encouraging progress in line with its mission “to create the most inspiring, exciting and engaging design museum in the world”.
She says the DNA statements acted as a reference point that anchored the museum through a period of change. “This was the thing we would always come back to when we had to make a decision,” she says. “Having these building blocks right at the start and making sure everyone knew them was a key factor in our success.”
The statements build on the Design Museum’s charitable objectives, which focus on the education of the public, and the broad vision of its founder, the English designer, restaurateur and retailer Terence Conran. Black sums up the latter as “design improves lives”, adding: “We just had to put all these pieces together and rethink them a bit.”
The management had a broad ambition for the new museum to engage with people beyond its existing core audience of those with a professional or academic interest in design. It then worked with the consultancy From Now On to create a rigorous strategy. This involved workshops with senior museum staff and trustees, as well as analysis of current and potential audiences, and the venue’s collection and programming. The statements were refined through discussions at monthly staff meetings and with the museum board, the Heritage Lottery Fund (which granted the project £4.95m), other museums and related organisations, says Black.
The different sections of the statements have different emphases. While the mission represents a tangible aim, the vision “for everyone to understand the value of design” is an overarching, idealistic aspiration. Black says a museum board member with a background in advertising summed it up as: “You’ll never achieve it, but this is your guiding star.”
The terminology of visions, missions, purposes and values can be confusing, since all organisations have different ways of using them.
V&A Dundee, which is due to open in September, uses the terms “mission” and “vision” in an inverse way to the Design Museum. Its overarching mission is “enriching lives through design” (see p31), while its more practical five-year vision is “to create an international centre for design, engaging people and promoting the understanding of design”.
Finding purpose and value
Jane Wentworth, the founder of the cultural consultancy Jane Wentworth Associates, which has worked with organisations including National Museums Scotland and Imperial War Museums, says the terminology of statements is less important than the questions they answer. When she advises a client on strategy, the questions she asks them are where, what, how and why. These correspond respectively to an organisation’s broad vision, its offer (such as exhibitions and other programming), its values and its ultimate purpose. The last is often the hardest to answer, she says.
“A museum director might tell you a long list of factual information about their galleries and collection,” says Wentworth. “And then we say ‘OK, but why are you looking after it? Why are we spending all this money on it? Why do we have to display it?’ And they have to come up with a reason explaining the impact of what they do.”
Wentworth stresses that the entire organisation must buy into mission statements, and online surveys are one way of enabling widespread feedback. She recalls working with a museum in Scandinavia where the management was perplexed as to why staff were indifferent to the brand strategy, before admitting that they had not been involved in its creation. “It was no wonder they didn’t take any notice of it – they didn’t own it,” she says.
In public-facing work, though, it is more important to demonstrate purpose and values than to state them. “We all know the cafes we like to go to,” says Wentworth. “It’s not because they have got ‘these are our values’ written on the wall. It’s because the staff are polite, quick and friendly, and the sandwiches are fresh.”
Nonetheless, a well-crafted statement can make an impact in itself. Gail Anderson, a US-based cultural consultant who is writing a book on mission statements, says “a strong, clear, crisp mission statement is the compass for an institution”. She gives the examples of a local museum in California whose mission is “building community around art”, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose mission is “conserve the ocean”. Anderson says the process of crafting and refining a statement can take around six months until it feels ready. “At some point, the mission sings,” she says. “It reverberates, it’s right.”
Social impact
Another fan of pithy statements is Iain Watson, the director of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (Twam). He takes inspiration from his previous employer, Durham County Council, whose mission was “to make County Durham the best place to live, work and bring up a family”. Watson says: “Why wouldn’t the council have that mission? Everybody can get behind it, but it’s not bland.”
Twam’s mission, “to help people determine their place in the world and define their identities, so enhancing their self-respect and their respect for others”, was created in the 1990s under a former director, David Fleming. It also has statements setting out “our vision”, “our commitment” and bullet points on what “we believe”.
The crafting of these statements was a significant moment in the sector because of their focus on social impact rather than collections and preservation, says Watson. About a year ago, Twam re-examined the statements and found that they “still felt comfortable for the organisation”. But in the process of developing its business plan for National Portfolio Organisation funding from Arts Council England for 2018-2022, Twam has also devised a “cultural and creative vision” with a four-year focus.
To do this, the organisation initially enlisted the services of a futurist to “open up our thinking”, before working with a creative consultant to determine the key elements of its identity and approach. The statement that emerged was “working together to make sense of the world through compelling stories of heritage, art, culture and science”.
Watson says this new statement sets out how it delivers on the established framework. “It’s more descriptive and narrative, whereas the mission is more outcome- and impact-driven,” he adds.
Watson advocates a pragmatic approach, rather than getting too wound up in theory. “If you read up on the academic thinking about what a mission is and what a vision is, our statements may not quite agree with that, but I’m reluctant to change what we call them. This is about what works within and without the organisation.”
And while he believes statements should be shaped by listening to everybody, Watson says that writing by committee risks losing the spirit that gives a strong mission statement its power. “What one word means to somebody might mean something different to somebody else,” he says. “It’s not an easy process and you have to take an element of authorial responsibility.”
In a similar way, it also falls to museum leaders to make sure statements remain fresh and relevant. The Design Museum has just begun the process of “recalibrating” its mission. Black says the revised statement is likely to involve more emphasis on social change and inspiring the next generation of designers.
“Working to reopen the museum on a bigger stage over the past 10 years has been a major milestone,” she says. “What will the next decade be about?”
‘Enriching lives through design’ – V&A Dundee
From the start of the project we were clear that we wanted to focus on the importance of design and to provide opportunities through design.It is important for us to have a mission that expresses clearly and concisely what the ambitions of the museum are and the difference it will make to people continuously. We went through a process of discussion and debate within the V&A Dundee team, and took into account audience research we had done on the potential of this new museum. We then tested our mission statement on audiences, particularly the creative sector.
The ethos of “enriching lives through design” is fundamental to the institution and the programme we are developing. Everything we do is informed by that mission.
Philip Long is the director of V&A Dundee