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DEI Toolkit

New York State Office of Cultural Education

Sector Solidarity

At its core, the cultural heritage community is a siloed one. Libraries Archives and Museums often operate in parallel; focused on similar issues and topics, but infrequently connecting or collaborating. Our practitioners work in different areas of the same field – supporting cultural heritage and collections – with similar goals including access, democracy, diversity, lifelong learning, preservation, sustainability, advancing the public good, and social responsibility. Since we share these similar goals, we must find ways to support each other in realizing them.  

Dismantling Silos and Integrating Networks

Many of our organizations operate in silos due to longstanding professional boundaries and networks. This section offers some suggestions for ways to begin the work of integrating our common goals and visions.

Practical approaches to dismantling silos and integrating networks include: Evaluate your organization and its departments or systems.

  • Are there smarter ways to communicate or organize your tasks and activities across your department? Across your organization? Your system?

Identify other organizations in your community or geographic location that are the same “type” as yours.

  • Are there other libraries? Other museums? Are there other collecting organizations? Cultural heritage sites?

Determine which affinities exist in your organization, community or geographic location, or in your organization “type.”

  • Are there sufficient people to constitute affinity groups from these identified affinities?

Sources

Integral Leadership Review. (2011). The Tensegrity Mandala: A Model for Organizational Design. Retrieved from: https://totallyalignedorganization.in/sites/default/files/documents/articles/The%2520tens egrity%2520mandala.pdf

Lumen: Principles of Management. (2023). Chapter 7: Social Networks. Retrieved from: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-tc3-management/chapter/chapter-7-overview/ (This link plus 7 additional screens, click through.)