I also agree with the need to balance the provision of opportunities for
current employees to advance with the need to bring in new people with new
ideas. Though I have only worked full-time in two museums, I have worked in a
great many organizations in a variety of capacities.

One of the two museums suffered badly from offering very few opportunities for
development and promotion to existing staff. This resulted in an unacceptably
(to me, at least!) high turnover of talented young employees who saw they had
little future in the museum and went elsewhere, which was a pity. Those who
were left had a tendency to keep their heads down. On the other hand, the
constant inflow of new ideas and people was refreshing in every possible sense
of the word and no doubt contributed to the dynamism of the organization.

The other museum kept the same staff doing the same jobs, year after year after
year. The great wonder was that their employees continued to come up with good
performance and quality products. However, the museum developed a reputation as
a place where there were no new ideas and where nothing ever changed, which
severely affected its visitation. I do not believe this reputation was entirely
fair, as the museum DID continue to have its share of successes. However, it is
also true that changes in museum technology and approaches largely passed it
by, as it did not have the inherent knowledge to try new things and spent
little time attempting to acquire it. In this institution, there were no
opportunities for advancement of existing staff or for the infusion of new
ideas that might have resulted from hiring new people. Too much emphasis was
placed on continuity; as well, having the same old people fighting the same old
battles resulted in deep-seated and difficult to manage personality conflicts
and decreasing productivity. To my mind, this is a worst-case scenario.

Based on thirty-five years of management, my feeling is that you need to
balance a few basic things:

a. the need to maintain a degree of continuity, which results from staff who
have spent most of their careers in the institution and are highly devoted to
it;
b. the need to continuously motivate, challenge and reward staff by providing
new learning opportunities and challenges by moving from one position to
another, both laterally and up the ladder; and
c. the need to maintain a constant awareness of and influx of new ideas and to
keep "refreshing" the mix of personalities, which results from hiring new
staff.

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum