Recorded Webinar: Speaking Truth to Power: Why Transparency and Accountability Matter

Transparency and accountability are a chosen way of organizing and running an institution, no matter its budget size. In fact, the words transparency and accountability and others like them, can be found in vision, mission, and values statements of museums large and small. Many museums embrace the ideals of openness, communication, and trustworthiness in their work. Too frequently, however, transparency and accountability get sidelined by good intentions. What do they really mean in day-to-day practice? How do they become part of an institution’s DNA so that, even in difficult times, they aren’t ignored?

In Speaking Truth to Power: Why Transparency and Accountability Matter, guest speaker Anne Ackerson discusses the meaning and importance of organizational transparency and accountability. Anne will offer strategies for increasing and communicating both, and help participants create a transparency and accountability checklist for their organization. Ackerson, co-author with Joan H. Baldwin of the publications Women in the Museum: Lessons from the Workplace and Leadership Matters: Conversations with History Museum Leaders is also a co-founder of the Gender Equity in Museums Movement (GEMM).

This AASLH webinar is part of the StEPs Lab webinar series offered to both StEPs participants and all others interested in the topic of transparency and accountability. Applying what you learn in a StEPs Lab to your policies and practices helps your organization make meaningful progress. This is StEPs Lab 13. Learn more about StEPs, AASLH’s self-study, self-paced assessment program designed specifically for small- to mid-sized history organizations, including volunteer-run institutions.  

Details:

DATE RECORDED: June 26, 2018

COST: $15 Members / $30 Nonmembers

Description and Outcomes

Participant Outcomes:

In this webinar, participants will learn:

• What is meant by the terms transparency and accountability and how they impact internal and external organizational performance.
• How transparency and accountability create a more inclusive, diverse, equitable, and trustworthy organization.
• How to assess their organization’s transparency and accountability and steps to take to increase both.
• Strategies for communicating what they have learned about transparency and accountability to others, both internally and externally.
• How their organization can meet transparency- and accountability-related standards and performance indicators in the StEPs program.

Speakers:

Anne Ackerson is an author and frequent workshop presenter, focusing on issues of board and organizational development, governance, and planning. She writes about management and leadership issues for cultural institutions in her blog, Leading by Design. Anne is a regular presenter on issues of museum ethics, executive leadership, financial management, and board roles and responsibilities. She teaches AASLH’s Small Museum Pro! Leadership and Administration online course on museum leadership and administration. Previously, Anne served as director of several historic house museums and historical societies in central and eastern New York, as director of the Museum Association of New York, and as executive director of the national Council of State Archivists. Anne is co-author with Joan H. Baldwin of Leadership Matters, a book examining history museum leadership for the 21st century, published in 2013 by Rowman & Littlefield, AASLH's publishing partner.  Anne and Joan's latest book, Women in the Museum: Lessons from the Workplace, was published in 2017.