MAY 2016

I was struck again, yesterday, when talking about a museum for which I am a consulting, about the nature of large institutions. They are like huge  ocean-liners; they have great difficulty in in turning  or changing rapidly. This makes it very difficult to institute change. This idea is not new to me. It has been with me for many many years since first working  for such a large institutions back in the 90s.

It reminded me again me that much communication in these large systems is convoluted, overlapping and interrupted in a variety of ways. And, it is often not possible to see the different ways that that communication can be ruptured, until it has been. The diagnosis in this case is to see where in the chain of command, the dialogue is disrupted.  This is not easy. Large institutions run by compartmentalizing jobs in the name of efficiency.