The process of developing a policy

Motivating factors

Timeframe and commitment

Policy development is not a short-term task.

Analysis and evaluation is an iterative process and is possibly the most time-consuming step in the policy development effort. The number of reviews undertaken depends upon the results of the initial analysis and each institution's circumstances.

The primary goals in any review process are to seek broad input and to reach consensus so that the policy will reflect an institution's real needs. If the initial analysis is exceedingly comprehensive, and a review by other audiences reveals no major issues, then one review instance may suffice.

In larger institutions, there are likely to be more voices and thus more comments that require further refinements and reviews before consensus is reached.

Raising awareness and persuading management and staff

If your institution does not see the need for a policy, how can you persuade it otherwise? How do you convince overworked staff or an unconvinced administration that the effort is necessary and worthwhile?

Persuasion is a critical first step: without administration and staff support or buy-in, the process will be difficult to undertake and sustain.

One way to enlist buy-in is to prepare evidence to support your case. Evidence can be collected from the management and the community of museum professionals. Once the information is collected from different sources, it needs to be compiled into a clear, brief document and distributed along channels to make sense.

The persuasion can be a long process that requires personal networking and repetition of the message, but well-articulated arguments that show good work done can go a long way towards raising the awareness of the need for a policy.