RESCRIPTING PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

The CEO of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Jack Lohman, is taking that institution down an intriguing path these days, and he talks a lot about this idea of needing to "rescript" the museum's story. In one sense, he's talking about the content of the collections and how that is presented publicly. But in another sense he's also talking about the story the museum tells about its relevance and relationship to the public as an institution. It's something all of us in the public sector should think about.

Easier said than done, of course, when we're head down in the day-to-day ritual of just getting stuff done. But that's all the more reason to think about our script, our story of relevance. Because rewriting it may actually be the key to how we get stuff done. We make a lot of assumptions about the relevance of public institutions to the public, and it's time we questioned whether those are still valid. I'm not questioning the validity of the institutions, just the nature of the relationship and what we all want and expect and need from them. 

Like the museum, most public institutions do a good job of doing the same good job they've being doing for decades. In the same way they've been doing it for decades. We can often conveniently justify this continuity with reassurances that the public still seems quite happy with how we do things. Indeed, when we even hint at doing it differently the public often gets a little up in arms. If the RBCM ever gets rid of its iconic woolly mammoth there will probably be rioting in the streets of Victoria.

But that's the difference between rewriting the story and rewriting just the business plan - it's not just changing things, but bringing the public along in the process. It's ensuring they understand what you're doing but also why, and why it matters to them. And how it relates to them. And how it will improve their experience. That's how you build social licence for change in the public sector. (Mind you, it would help if we did a better job of telling our story as it exists right now. But that's another post...)

I don't know, but I'm guessing that's why Lohman is talking publicly about what is ahead for the museum. He knows that so many of us adore things just as they are, in no small part because the museum today is largely the same experience it was when we went there on school field trips 30 years ago. And yet he sees the potential and the need for it to change and be something new and better. We all like new and better, but we all hesitate when it comes at the expense of old and comfortable. So Lohman is preparing us. He's including us in the story as it is rewritten. Smart stuff that.