What's on your mind these days?

I’ve been doing a lot of listening lately.

In August I interviewed community bankers in places like Lancaster and Hershey, PA. They spoke with passion about customer service, enduring relationships, and opportunity. Values before profits.

I spent much of last week’s AASLH meeting in Rochester, NY, asking museum colleagues about their challenges and frustrations. And I got an earful. Which is what I had hoped for after agreeing to share a booth with Dale Jones, a Qm2 colleague whose work involves helping museums and sites make connections with their visitors.

Here’s a sampling of what I heard from the directors, educators, board members, interpreters, site managers, and CEOs who stopped by our booth:

My biggest challenge is...

• Trying to get a dysfunctional board to develop a plan
• A CEO who just doesn’t get it
• Engaging the board, especially in fundraising
• An inherited staff
• Dealing with the “founder’s syndrome”
• Getting return visitation from local, non-members
• A community that doesn’t know what a treasure they have in their own backyard
• Money

I wake up in a cold sweat at night...

• Afraid that the project I’ve been trying to get going just won’t happen
• Wondering how I can overcome the attitude “We’ve never done it that way.”
• Thinking about my dysfunctional board—micromanagers who lack commitment
• Worried about our poor/non-existent marketing and promotion
• Feeling anguish over the closing of historic sites in the future
• Because we’re undercapitalized

So, what’s keeping you up at night these days? And, more importantly, what are doing about it?