The document discusses the importance of collaboration in museums, emphasizing core values such as trust, inclusion, and sustainability. It highlights best practices for fostering collaboration and the barriers that hinder it, alongside diagnostic questions for assessing organizational collaboration. The insights draw from examples like Pixar and Intel, illustrating how organizational culture and leadership influence cooperative behaviors.

1. LEADING INTERNAL AND
EXTERNAL COLLABORATION
Western Museum Association
October 27, 2015
Joyce Osland, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Global Leadership Advancement Center
Lucas Endowed Professor of Global Leadership
San Jose State University

2. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

3. • Social Benefit
• Excellence
• Leadership
• Collegiality: To provide opportunities for
individuals to connect and develop life-long
relationships, as they create a community of
colleagues who support each other’s institutional
endeavors and personal well-being.
• Fun
• Trust: To respect one another and be confident in
the integrity of our diverse museum community.
• Inclusion: To encourage differences of opinions,
perspectives, and unfamiliar ideas, as they enrich
the WMA.
• Sustainability
WMA CORE VALUES & COLLABORATION
The end goal of collaboration

4. If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
African proverb
© Joyce Osland, 2015

5. There are approximately 850 million visits
each year to American museums, more than
the attendance for all major league sporting
events and theme parks combined.
For this to continue, museums have to be
innovative – and collaborative
© Joyce Osland, 2015

6. NO INNOVATION WITHOUT
COLLABORATION: PIXAR EXAMPLE
• A messy iterative process involving hundreds
of people
• Tens of thousands of ideas in each film
• “Dailies” attended by many people from all
areas who offer ideas/feedback, regardless of
role or level
• Art, technology and business as equal partners
– no dominant voice

7. A BENEFIT OF PIXAR
COLLABORATION
“Pixar has always erred on the side of having
people feel like they’re a part of the process. I
know of very few employees who don’t
immediately go to the theater just to see how
may people are lined up with a film first
comes out. You’d be hard-pressed to find
that in any other business, and I would say
any other studio. Imagine the receptionist
going to do that! People are so engaged.”
Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation, Hill, Brandeau, Truelove &
Lineback, 2014, p. 22.

8. KEY DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS
• Should your museum be collaborating more/
less than it does?
• Are there hidden costs for lack of collaboration
among your staff/partners?
• Are there flashpoints where lack of collabor-
ation is most obvious and harmful?
• Are there barriers to good collaboration?
• Is your museum designed for collaboration,
competition or independence?
© Joyce Osland, 2015

9. BARRIERS TO COLLABORATION
Competition Fear
No
incentives
Too busy
Status Gap
Cultural
Differences
Scarce
Resources
Willing
or
Able?
Unskilled
© Joyce Osland, 2015

10. BEST PRACTICES
What would a truly collaborative museum
look like?

11. WAYS TO PROMOTE COLLABORATION
• Superordinate goals
• Shared values
• Rules of engagement/processes
• “How can I/we help you be successful?”
• From “we-they” to “we versus the problem”
• Functional conflict only
• No competition over scarce resources
• Avoid creating winners and losers –
evidence-based decisions
• Integration mechanisms
• Buffers
© Joyce Osland, 2015

12. Structure
Systems
Style
Shared
Values
Staff
Skills
Strategy
The 7-S Model
ALIGNMENT =
SUCCESS

13. SEVEN STEPS OF SOCIALIZATION
Careful selection
of candidates
Humility-inducing
experiences In-the-trenches
training
Careful attention
to rewards & control
systems
Careful adherence
to core valuesReinforcing
folklore
Consistent role
models
Organizational Behavior: An Experiential Approach 8/E
Joyce S. Osland, David A. Kolb, Irwin M. Rubin and Marlene E. Turner
16 -15(Pascale, R. T. “The Paradox
of Organizational Culture.”)

14. Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking
Instead of Telling (Schein 2013)
“Both an attitude and a behavior of the helper,
humble inquiry means “accessing your ignorance”
and becoming open to what may be learned from
each other through observing, genuine open
empathic questioning, careful listening, self-inquiry,
not judging but suspending judgment, and shifting
helping roles as necessary” (Edgar Schein, 2009; 2013)
© Joyce Osland, GLAC 2015
LISTENING TO LEARN -- THEN LEADING
STYLE

15. WHICH ITEMS DO NOT BELONG?
The Collaborative Leader:
1. Puts the organization’s overarching goals first and
personal goals second
2. Preoccupied with own agenda
3. When people disagree, gets them to see the bigger
picture
4. Empathizes with people who have different views
5. Encourages open discussion and debate early on
6. Makes decisions alone or overrules team decisions
7. Takes responsibility for a mistake
8. Holds others accountable
© Joyce Osland, GLAC, 2015
STYLE

16. “Organizational culture eats
strategy for breakfast.”
Peter Drucker
SHARED
VALUES
© Joyce Osland, 2015

17. Leaders Get the Behavior They
Exhibit and Tolerate
“The culture of a company is the behavior of its
leaders. Leaders get the behavior they exhibit
and tolerate. You change the culture of a
company by changing the behavior of its
leaders. You measure the change in the
culture by measuring the change in the
personal behavior of its leaders and the
performance of the organization.”
-Dick Brown
SHARED
VALUES
© Joyce Osland, 2015

18. How Leaders Create/Modify an
Organizational Culture
Ø What leaders pay attention to, measure and
control on a regular basis
Ø Deliberate role modeling, teaching and coaching
Ø Create and transmit new stories & symbols
Ø Socialize newcomers
Ø Inculcate key values in training
Ø Change reward system to benefit those who
behave in accordance with values
Ø Hire, promote, fire in accordance with values
22 -18
(Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership)

19. WORKING ACROSS CULTURES:
BUILDING RESPECT
© Joyce Osland, GLAC 2015
• In teams, respect = appreciating a
person’s contributions
• It’s more difficult to understand
contributions and acknowledge
expertise in areas unfamiliar to us
• Good communication and conflict
resolution usually lead to the
development of respect
SKILLS

20. COLLABORATIVE
PROCESSES
If purpose and shared values are the glue
that binds members into a coherent
collaborative community, rules of
engagement are the grease that keeps
member interactions running smoothly.
SYSTEMS
CREATIVITY COMES FROM A
CONFLICT OF IDEAS
© Joyce Osland, 2015

21. Fostering Input and
Healthy Conflict
• INTEL’s “Disagree and Commit” fosters both
candid exchange and cohesive implementation. It
is taught to all employees because it is an integral
part of INTEL culture
• Employees are encouraged to disagree and
express and consider all ideas during the decision
making stage. Once a decision is made, they
are expected to commit to it fully and not
undermine it -- regardless of their personal
opinion.
© Joyce Osland, 2015
SKILLS

22. BEST PRACTICES: EXTERNAL
COLLABORATION
• Take a win-win approach and focus on
reciprocal needs
• Do stakeholder analysis and develop
stakeholder dialogue skills
• Build trusting relationships in networks and
alliances
• Develop shared leadership skills
• Balance competition and collaboration
effectively
SKILLS
© Joyce Osland, 2015

23. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
Stakeholder:
Interests
My biggest
concerns
are?
Position
A “win”
outcome for
me would
be?
Influence
My special
power in this
situation is?
Special
Considerations
Cultural
Organizational
Expectations
What I want
from you is?
SKILLS

24. THE FINAL DIAGNOSTIC
QUESTIONS - AN HONEST LOOK
AT OURSELVES AS LEADERS
22 -4
Are we a force for collaboration or
competition or simply independence?
What example do we set?
Do we actively listen to all perspectives
and treat all areas equally?
STYLE
© Joyce Osland, 2015

25. “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change
the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing
myself.” Rumi

26. THANKS!
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
CREATIVITY COMES FROM A
CONFLICT OF IDEAS