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To be, or not to be introvert and extrovert,
specialist and generalist (at the same time)
that is the question !
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What I will tell you

• Share with you my experience on how to recognize
  or create conditions enabling you to effect
  smooth changes in deep-professional organizations
• Picture some of these changes as they occurred in
  our natural history museum over the last two
  decades, listing my opinions and observations
• Do not expect a recipe applicable anywhere,
  because
• Social anthropology of knowledge-intensive
  heritage organizations is extremely complex and a
  function of the local environment
• Note that I am not actually a management guru,
  but a content professional with 35 years
  experience

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National Museum of Natural History Naturalis /
Leiden
scientific sanctum
open
semi-open
1820 1910 1998

• Jan Krikken
• Associate Director (Collections Research)

collection tower
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Credo without which one cannot achieve anything

• The only irreplaceable capital an organization
  possesses is the knowledge and ability of its
  people.
• The productivity of that capital depends on how
  effectively people share their competence with
  those who can use it.
• Andrew Carnegie

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What happened in Leiden recently

• 1820 Establishment of the museum, and around
• 1880- Gradual loss of public facilities, turning
  into strictly academic institution
• 1930s Public facilities vision did not
  re-materialize due to economic crisis
• 1985 Signs of new national cultural heritage
  policy and first ideas about national public
  presentation / 2 million available
• 1988 Ministerial questions about conservative
  directorate in view of anticipated
  quasi-privatization of cultural heritage
  institutions ? retirement of director
• 1990 Interim directorate and recognition of need
  to build completely new public natural history
  museum, the role of royalty / 20 million
• 1992 New directorate with building experience (!)
  and sense of public knowledge demand / 40
  million
• 1994 Public exhibition design consolidated and
  approved, and architect starts work

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What happened in Leiden recently

• 1995 Building design ready, and museum population
  committed to development of facilities, museum
  privatized / 60 million
• 1996 Actual building starts, preparation for
  collection removal starts
• 1997 Collection removal en installation of
  exhibitions
• 1998 Opening of new museum, and public demand on
  curators growing obligations clear and
  accepted, target 150 000 visitors / annum
• 2002 Scientific museum with fully functional
  public facilities, 260 000 visitors
• 200x Will the government remain aware of the need
  to invest in the knowledge infrastructure?
• Did you notice the increase in development costs
  from 2 ? 60 million
• Which factors, internal and external, played a
  role?

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Changing internal factors,senior to junior
staff
decides what public needs asks what public
needs
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Changing? external factors,networking then and
now
150 jaar
1895

• Your knowledge-intensive heritage organization
  needs them
• As specialist suppliers and generalist
  supporters
• your market

1995
Netherlands Entomological Society
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Curating the endless task (avoid drowning, and
dont tell your paymasters)

• 15 million specimens
• 6 million registered lots
• 200 000 species
• 25 curators, 30 technicians
• 1.7 million species known
• 17 million species anticipated
• Is the description rate of your objects leveling
  off?

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Hyperspecialism?

• J Krikken

100 000 species of beetles 2 million individual
specimens / on 200 sqm 400 000 species known
gt10 million species anticipated 20 000 known from
Europe, 4 000 from NL 1 professional coleopterist
in the NL with 2 technicians
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How to operate - be outgoing and confident, and
ask yourselves these 3 questions

• Who knows what your expertise is all about, and
  who could therefore tell the story to
  politicians, public servants, executives and
  sponsors?
• Who knows how and where the innovations in your
  field (are likely to) occur, and what your
  discipline will, and should, look like during
  the next decade(s)?
• How many of you really think that you should keep
  all your knowledge and expertise to yourself and
  a limited circle of colleagues? ? how many of
  you?

.naturalis
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So, how to get (and keep) matters moving (not a
fully garanteed recipe)

• Establish what your market (yes, your market)
  looks like your client networks, who supply you
  with material and demand your services
• Have your own authentic generalist vision about
  your business ready, and try to combine this with
  charisma dont leave this to incompetent smooth
  talkers only
• See to it that, apart from your team, your boss
  shares this vision, or else have him replaced
  (you cant easily replace the entire team)
• Avoid getting entangled in technical detail with
  higher management, and certainly not with
  bookkeeper types they are not interested stick
  to the big picture

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How to get (and keep) matters moving (something
to keep in mind)

• Always be fluent and unwavering in telling others
  about the infrastructural, i.e. societal
  position of your business, but do it in a
  balanced way dont overdo it
• Be realistic and selective set your targets,
  prioritize, and do not show your business to be a
  bottomless pit (an endless task), top
  management wont like that
• Be aware of useful comparative statistics
  elucidating the quality and volume of your
  organization in relation to your (European)
  peers use them to underpin your critical mass
  statements (staff needed)
• Hire some young intelligent extroverts for
  upcoming vacancies if you can, to get the right
  extrovert/introvert mix in your team, and to
  sharpen innovation and competitive performance

?
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How to get (and keep) matters moving (something
to keep in mind)

• Be aware of the fact that you will need the
  experienced academic introverts they are an
  integral part of your organizations intellectual
  capital, and most of them will move (see next)
• Bank on human psychology you and your
  colleagues undoubtedly love to tell your story of
  what in this business makes you tick, and who
  else could show people your real thing
• Keep quality development, with performance
  indicators, in mind, but do not let this make you
  blind to technological innovation and changing
  societal demand
• Move to another (a new) building if you can,
  because your possibilities to change peoples
  minds will multiply in the process

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How to get (and keep) matters moving (something
to keep in mind)

• You may need help after all win bold partners as
  well as peer organizations to influence your
  paymasters and a really good PR officer
  understanding your vision might pay off
• If resources are insufficient, if you dont reach
  your critical mass, dont be afraid to initiate
  an audit showing your current inability to
  provide quality in public service
• Finally, do not despair usually you need time
  count on the total process taking 5-10 years
  (with strategic scale thinking, time is on your
  side, but start now)

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• Paradigm shift?
• Yes, the rules were changed from 1995-1998, but
  we saw it coming for about 10 years
• Isnt this all general management talk?
• No, this is real life experience, but
• I left out the few bad parts
• Were we lucky? Yes, to some extent, but
• It was also all hard work, and
• You yourself can have a hand in creating the
  right circumstances

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Summary

• Be self-confident and authentic, avoid detail
• Maintain accumulated intellectual capital
• Most experts want to show what theyre worth
• Reward generalist, public-oriented attitude
• Encourage corporate knowledge sharing
• Change places to change minds

• Keep eye on new developments
• Closely follow cultural heritage policies of
  your government
• Convince relevant executives
• Let comparative statistics support your case
• Introduce systematic reporting, with performance
  indicators and quality control
• Inform your networks, your markets, win them over
• Instigate peer reviews

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Thank you !
krikken_at_nnm.nl
150 000 vols 2-3000 pp own publs / annum
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Thank you !
krikken_at_nnm.nl
The only irreplaceable capital an organization
possesses is the knowledge and ability of its
people. The productivity of that capital depends
on how effectively people share their competence
with those who can use it. Andrew Carnegie
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Presenting deep form-time-space evolution with a
view to the future This is a natural history
museum National Museum of Natural History
Naturalis / Leiden