The report Character Matters: Attitudes, Behaviours and Skills in the UK Museum Workforce, published in September, highlighted a drive towards creating more stable and financially resilient museums that can diversify income streams and increase their social impact with audiences.
The survey, commissioned by Arts Council England (ACE), Museums Galleries Scotland, the Museums Association (MA) and the Association of Independent Museums, noted a “new emphasis” towards a more diverse and flexible workforce and acknowledged a need for improved collaboration in the form of sharing resources, knowledge and ideas.
It found a need for business and management skills to support income diversification, with 22% of the 2,000 museum workers surveyed saying that income-generating activities had been added to their job description in the past three years. Embedding digital skills across the organisation and improving leadership skills at all levels of the organisation were also found to be important.
A number of key personal qualities for the museum workforce were also identified including conscientiousness, optimism, motivation, self-efficacy, persistence, curiosity, creativity and the ability to learn and collaborate.
“Some of these personal qualities can be influenced and changed while others such as self-efficacy are generally thought to be relatively fixed by the time people reach adulthood,” stated the report.
These personal qualities can be nurtured and developed through effective CPD and training initiatives. But the Character Matters report highlighted that rates of coaching, job secondments and mentorship, some of the most tailored forms of CPD that help develop personal qualities, were very low.
On this point the report made a number of recommendations. It suggested museum workers (supported by their employers) should proactively seek out opportunities to work with a mentor and train to become a mentor themselves; organisations should aim for a significant percentage of their workforce to be mentored or coached; and sector bodies should look at setting a minimum-percentage baseline of the workforce that is supported by a mentor or coach.
Mentoring has been part of the MA’s approach to professional development for a significant amount of time. It is a key component of the Associateship of the Museums Association (AMA) and now part of the Transformers programme. During the development its Workforce Strategy, a continued strong appetite for mentoring has remained across the sector.
The MA is going to be working with ACE to research and develop a new mentoring programme, which will be based on best practice models that exist inside and outside the cultural sector. “We want to develop a mentoring model that is fit for the 21st century,” says Tamsin Russell, the MA’s professional development officer
The exact nature of the model, due to be launched in spring, won’t become clear until the research has been conducted but it will deliver mentoring designed to nurture the values and qualities that sector professionals need.
“What we are hoping for is that individuals will be able gain access to mentoring, even though they are not on an organisationally supported programme,” says Russell.
“It will be an opportunity to see how we can use mentoring to address the recent recommendations within the Character Matters report, which encouraged development of specific personal qualities.”
In order for mentoring programmes to be as effective as possible there needs to be clear processes and agreements in place so that both the mentor and mentee are clear about their role and the scheme is structured effectively. According to Russell the key factors that museums need to consider when setting up a scheme are: mentee selection, mentor selection, training, induction and evaluation.
Often mentees begin by wanting to develop in a range of different areas, and over the course of the programme find a stronger career direction, says Shepley. In her view, a critical skill for enabling this progression is being able to listen to mentees and allow them to develop solutions themselves, rather than wading in immediately with advice.
“There is some direct advice-giving, but equally with lots of the issues, the mentee knows how to get there – it is just about providing a forum where they can work through thoughts in a very constructive and supportive environment,” she says.
The success of a mentoring relationship is also dependent on the mentee, who needs to have a clear idea of what they want to achieve so that their mentor can provide targeted support.
Meanwhile, Sarah Monroe shares her tips on how to get the most out of a mentoring relationship if you are a mentee.
“It is also very important to be open to learning beyond these goals as in some situations the person you choose may not have expertise to offer guidance that links directly to your aims but can know alternative methods of approach which could also contribute to your aspirations,” writes Sarah Moreno, a learning apprentice at the London Transport Museum.
Dhikshana Pering, the learning officer at London Transport Museum, sheds more light on the workings of the institution’s mentoring and apprenticeship programme in this article.
Mentoring can be conducted face-to-face, online or over the phone and it is possible to design schemes for individuals and organisations. For example, ACE’s Museum Mentoring scheme sees mentors help small museums gain or retain Accreditation.
Speed
mentoring is also increasingly popular and is and heavily utilised by the MA at
events and as part of its Transformers programme.
Jess Turtle, the project coordinator for Transformers, says: “Speed mentoring is fantastic as a device for peer learning in events. I am always amazed at how quickly people can be honest with each other in a speed mentoring setting and how mentors can offer very useful insights, even in a 10-minute session.
“We use speed mentoring in the Transformers programme so that current Transformers can learn from programme alumni. I’ve also used it at the MA conference where Transformers share their learning from the programme with colleagues from across the sector.”
Speed mentoring, professional development workshops and inspirational keynotes will all be offered as part of Moving on Up – a networking and professional development event aimed at museum professionals in the first five years of their careers. The next Moving on Up takes place at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh on 28 February.
