LEADING THE WAY

Lynn Scarff, director of the National Museum of Ireland, shares with MELANIE MULLAN her insights into collaboration, leadership and creating spaces for people to do great work.

Director of the National Museum of Ireland Lynn Scarff shares with Melanie Mullan the importance of working as a team

MY BACKGROUND IS IN ZOOLOGY. I grew up by the sea in Portmarnock, and investigating fossils on the shoreline ignited my passion for natural history. I did my undergraduate degree in zoology at Trinity College, and a master’s in science communications at DCU. My mother’s side of the family were all artists, so from a young age, I was traipsing around galleries and museums and felt very at home in those spaces. My grandmother and mother were also both very active in their communities, and believed really strongly in volunteering and the need to be an active member of society.

THE BALLYMUN REGENERATION PROJECT

was where my eyes were opened to the possibility of arts and culture being an important platform for bringing people together around contested issues; how you can mobilise work within the arts and culture sector as a way to bring people together to get to the nitty gritty of what they disagreed on, but in a collaborative way.

I WAS PART OF THE FOUNDING TEAM IN THE SCIENCE GALLERY,

taking a shift from very communityfocused collaborative practice and then coming into an organisation that was really thinking about this transdisciplinary approach, breaking down barriers between disciplines, looking at big thematic areas that were important to contemporary society and saying, “How do you bring together all these different thinkers to address this problem, but do it in the context of an exhibition so it’s accessible to the public?” I was there for 11 years and was the director for the last few years, then the opportunity for the National Museum of Ireland role came up.

MY MAIN ROLE AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND

is working with people and all our teams and trying to get the resources we need to deliver on our strategic plan. It’s about listening, collaborating and making decisions that ensure the museum delivers on its ambitious strategy and creating a culture for our staff and visitors that provides a 21st century museum experience.

I SEE LEADERSHIP AS BEING WHERE YOU COME IN AND CREATE THE SPACES FOR PEOPLE TO DO REALLY GOOD WORK.

For me, coming into the museum was about seeing within the organisation all of these opportunities and all of these people who have wonderful ideas around how the museum could play a part in a role within that.

AS THE DIRECTOR WITHIN AN ORGANISATION LIKE THIS, I’M WORKING WITH EVERYBODY,

because everybody here is working hard, and doing a lot, and delivering a huge amount. While it might seem, from the outside, easier to just work with the management team, and everything goes from the top down, it tends not to – in many ways, it shouldn’t either because I would prefer a much more porous organisation.

IT ’ S IMPORTANT TO HAVE AN ORGANISATION WHERE GOOD IDEAS CAN GET OUT AND FLOAT UP.

To do that, you need to build relationships and trust with people, and forming those relationships so that people feel they can bring their ideas to the table. It’s rare because it takes a lot of energy and time.

SOMEBODY ONCE SAID TO ME THAT LEADERSHIP IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU’RE NOT THERE.

That stays with me a lot. I like it because it acknowledges that leadership isn’t about an individual or a thing. It’s much more about people. I think good leadership means that when you’re not in the organisation, everybody has a very clear idea of what they’re doing. Everybody is working and functioning well. I’m not saying that organisations don’t need directors or CEOs, but our role is to set up the organisation in a sustainable way.

PUT YOURSELF FORWARD AND GO THROUGH THE PROCESS

– don’t deny yourself the opportunity. We tend to hold ourselves back because we think employers are asking for two specific things that we might not have. I think what you need to do is say, “Yeah, but I have all this other stuff – don’t you think that’s really great?” The worst thing that can happen is you don’t succeed, and even in that, you’ll still learn something. Don’t leave yourself out of the possibility to put yourself forward.