Embedding Digital Strategy: An Organizational Best Practice

In 2014, the Wyncote Foundation commissioned a report entitled "Like, Link, Share: How Cultural Institutions Are Embracing Digital Technology." The report profiled "40 exceptional organizations that have a meaningful digital presence and are viewed as leaders," mining their strategies and practices to come up with five "themes" or takeaways towards developing some best practices from which other organizations might learn.

^{Centralized digital strategy in action: The Immersion Room at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, one of the organizations profiled in the report}

One of the limitations of the report is that it focused (with full disclosure) on "established legacy institutions." These organizations generally have larger budgets and can employ more staff members, so I don't know how well some of the Wyncote's suggestions would scale to institutions with different operational models. But the theme that stood out the most to me, and one that I think holds true across the board, is a call to "Shake Up the Org Chart."

Old dogs, new tricks

Digital strategy is an afterthought in a lot of institutions. It might be shoehorned into the duties of a department that formerly handled photoduplication, or relegated as an "other duties as assigned" function of a technology department. I see so many job descriptions for "Social Media Manager" which seem to assume that an organization's digital strategy should a) be confined to social media content production and b) doesn't require any more skill than your average college-age intern might be able to offer part-time.

The Wyncote report emphasizes that the institutions that do digital strategy well do not underestimate either the impact or work required to produce and maintain it. All departments should be thinking in terms of digital strategy, which may require some shifts in organizational structure and the necessity of professional development for existing employees. To make the organizational mission most successful, some old dogs will need to learn new tricks.

Another organization profiled in the report, the Steppenwolf Theatre, realized this and adjusted their strategy accordingly:

Smaller organizations are already doing this, to a certain extent, because staff members often wear multiple hats. They can integrate digital strategy into marketing, membership, giving, education, and operations because these duties overlap. This is often not feasible within larger, more complex organizations- but it is a model to learn from. At the very least, all of the differing departments could be in communication with the others to maintain mission consistency and ease the strain of digital strategy.

^{100% of the SBD rewards from this #explore1918 post will support the Philadelphia History Initiative @phillyhistory. This crypto-experiment conducted by graduate courses at Temple University's Center for Public History and MLA Program is exploring history and empowering education. Click here to learn more.}