The shift from outputs to outcomes in museums faces coordinated structural resistance — not just individual habits. Museums face pressure to adhere to conventional hierarchies that reinforce siloed expertise at multiple levels: regulative (AAM accreditation mapping to traditional divisions), normative (museum studies programs structuring curricula around siloed roles), and cultural-cognitive (the taken-for-granted assumptions that operate below conscious awareness).
W. Richard Scott describes these as three mutually reinforcing pillars. They create what organizational theorists call “isomorphic pressure” — forces that make organizations similar over time, even when that similarity may undermine institutional goals.
I wrote about this recently and where agency lives within those constraints in preparation for an upcoming event with Amanda Boehm-Garcia (Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art) and Joan Kanigan (Western Development Museum). Amanda and Joan will explore what it means to reorient museum work around participant outcomes over departmental outputs. This is part of the Museums and Change webinar series. If you’re interested in this topic, you can learn more here: https://www.museumprogress.com/c/events/from-outputs-to-outcomes-the-new-museum-professional
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Kyle Bowen
Principal, Museums as Progress
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