Leading Beyond Neutral in Polarized Times

ID: WMA2026_544

Track:

Museum leaders are navigating rising pressure around neutrality, truth, and civic responsibility. This half-day workshop moves beyond theory into practice, equipping participants with a structured framework for decision-making in high-stakes moments. Through real-world scenarios, peer exchange, and guided application, participants will clarify their institution’s positioning and leave with tools to lead with greater confidence, alignment, and impact.

Session Information

Format: Half-day workshop (9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

Fee: $25-40 (just whatever is needed for printed materials/workbooks)

Uniqueness: A hands-on leadership lab translating research into a practical decision-making framework participants actively test, adapt, and leave ready to implement.

Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will:

1. Clarify institutional positioning in practice
2. Participants will identify how their institution currently navigates neutrality, authority, and civic responsibility, and assess alignment between values and decision-making.
3. Apply a structured decision-making framework
4. Through guided exercises, participants will use a research-informed framework to analyze real-world scenarios involving controversy, stakeholder pressure, and public interpretation.
5. Develop an actionable leadership plan
6. Participants will leave with a tailored set of next steps, including language, strategies, and decision points they can immediately apply within their organization. This workshop is designed to move participants from awareness → analysis → application → action, ensuring clear, practical outcomes aligned with WMA’s emphasis on tools and implementation.

Engagement: Participants will engage in a sequence of facilitated activities, including a live positioning spectrum, small-group scenario labs, and individual institutional mapping. Peer coaching and structured reflection will be embedded throughout. Participants will actively apply a decision-making framework to real challenges, receive feedback, and refine their approach in real time.

Relationship to Theme:

Audience

Audiences: Other 

Professional Level: Mid-Career Senior Level 

Scalability: The workshop framework is adaptable across institutional sizes, budgets, and governance structures. Participants will work with scenarios representing small, mid-sized, and large museums, and will tailor the framework to their own organizational realities. The tools provided are designed to be flexible and scalable, enabling application regardless of institutional capacity or context.

Participants