At the recent Beacon Gathering Ceri Black, Head of Learning for Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales set the agenda for the day while she talked about engagement at the museum, her experiences of cultural change and about how we reflect on our practise and achievements.

Cultural Change

Initiatives that have influenced the culture of the museum include the arrival of the Inspiring Learning for All Framework and then through the creation of ‘Learning Spaces’. In this case cultural change was driven through the creation of a good example; once one good learning space had been established it seemed easier to improve things elsewhere.

One of the most powerful ways of changing the culture of an organisation is to send its staff to other places where they can experience other ways of doing things and reflect on their practice. Different networks can work in very different ways; some are more collaborative with one partner really leading the way and setting the pace for others to follow, and yet others are more bottom up affairs. They all have different strengths and the Beacons could learn from this, finding the best ways to allow good tried and tested ideas to travel across from one network to another.

Reflecting on our Practices and Achievements

I am firmly convinced of the power of tangential learning. I believe strongly that some of our most inspiring, creative thinking happens when we hear or learn about a situation that is similar enough for us to find connection, but different enough to spark some creative leap! By concentrating on learning from mistakes, you miss out on the opportunities of learning from successes, and so instead of concentrating on problems, you can instead use the approach of appreciative enquiry. At the museum we haven’t ignored problems, but we have found a less depressing and much more energising way of thinking about them. We’ve had some great conversations about what we’ve done well, what’s succeeded and the directions we want to move towards in the future… The rest of the morning is going to be about doing some really focused thinking about what are the ingredients of success…what are the critical success factors…what do we need to do more of?

This post is a summary of Ceri’s talk which can be found in full here (Word document) Ceri Black Talk