Resting upon my Laurels and Starting New Jobs

Perhaps one of the greatest accomplishments of this blog has been achieved.

When I started doing this blog five years ago the purpose of it was to highlight my career, my skills in interpretation, in education, in social media, and in creating a positive impression of me in the internet world. 

mmmmm ... Halloween candy....

Essentially, it was to help me get jobs by being an ongoing piece of resume candy for potential employers to examine while attempting to fill what I considered a noticeable void in historical interpretation blog and web presence. 

I think this has worked for me.

This last August I interviewed for a permanent interpretive position at a National Park and I was selected. 

Naturally I am elated and the last two months since that time had been spent in preparation and retooling for this park. I am glad and proud to be part of their team and am applying myself. I would like to call my blog a mission success! 

The question now remains as to what to do about my blog: should I keep writing or should I hang up my hat? Or should I do something else like slow my involvement to a quarterly submission or every other month?

While I ponder these thoughts, I welcome yours; write a comment here, or drop me an email or comment on my LinkedIn or Facebook posts. I read them. I really do. 

Meanwhile, rather than rest on my laurels of finally achieving a degree of comfort and the joy of not having to move every six months, I still need to keep my job. 

Here is my method for getting into a newfound position:

1. Become a great employee before a great interpreter
2. Make priority lists
3. Content mastery comes with time
4. Be part of the team

Cute Puppy Ellie

1. When joining a new site, the first few days will be puppy-dogging around the place. By puppy-dogging, I mean that you get shown around to every place and meet everyone while following your guide like a puppy dog. Dogs are great; they are interested in everything you do with them even if they are not sure why it is important to you. Same thing for your first few days on the job. After that, subconsciously, your supervisors and coworkers begin to have more expectations of you, increasing every day from then on. The most important thing to do is to learn the daily operations of the place. 

What is the procedure for this? Where is the key for that? Who answers the phone and how do you do it? Learning to be a worker and employee helps take the burden off of your coworkers doing the mundane or menial tasks that every job is heir to. Cementing procedure and routine is essential to learning the work rhythm.

...and who does not really love a good list?

2. Make priority lists. My experience has been to make lists and check them off as you get done so nothing gets overlooked. Few things are more upsetting than missing some crucial time sensitive task because your attention was on something else. Some of these have financial consequences, not just at work but on life tasks like getting licences or updating addresses. The list makes sure that you are aware of all of your obligations and necessary tasks, and they are hopefully arranged in such a way as to make sure they are completed in a timely manner before time sensitive tasks expire. 

3. The daily operations and routines are the most important things to pick up. Everything else in terms of content can be picked up at a run. Each site is different and you will find what information is important quickly. 

In my example, I worked at a location that did school programs all day long five days a week for a month solid, and with diminishing frequency up to three weeks after. My first day on school tours I observed two tours, by the third I did a co-tour with an experienced interpreter, and by the fourth tour, I was giving the tour on my own. Sometimes you get thrown in the fire. 

Did I have all the answers or understand everything? No, of course not, but with repetition comes confident routine and only through time, talking with other interpreters, and finally research, can you start to get the whole picture. Spring and summer are the times to perform, and fall and winter are the slow seasons where content mastery comes. This might be nonexistent for the seasonal who is only there for a limited time, but gaining the additional content helps round out the programming and gives one the ability to answer the hard questions, as well as be able to make variations and even whole new programs!

Teamwork comes in all forms for all sorts of purposes

4. Teamwork. Especially important when joining a team is making sure you are part of the team. Go out on a limb for them. Be a little vulnerable for them. Sure coworkers can be prickly or jaded or grumpy. You do not have to be super-friends with them, but they will appreciate the work you do for and with them with time and trust. Of course there are those coworkers who use people and manipulate them, but learning who to be guarded or open with starts with making that initial offer. Besides, your coworkers have probably been doing this a while and you will need their guidance. 

There are probably a few other things that could be added to that list, but for now, those are the ones that have guided me over the last month. 

In the meanwhile, I will be gaining content mastery. Ye, the reading audience, can suggest what I should do with the blog, so look forward to next month's post.    

Book Review: Creating Great Visitor Experiences by Stephanie Weaver, part 3

This is the third and final installment of Stephanie Weaver's fantastic book, Creating Great Visitor Experiences. The third part of the book goes into great depth about the site.

Some places will not be changed to fit visitor trends - like historic buildings

The site is tricky because it will depend on at what level you are as part of the organization. If you are near the top and a decision maker as regards changing something significant, like approving a building project to improve the site, this third installment might be a good idea to get ideas and suggestions.

Implementing these practical changes in the fourth part of the book will help increase the visitor experience and probably save some money or make more. I am not sure how many of the higher level folks read this blog.

However, volunteer, entry level, or mid career professions may be able to make some well placed easy fixes or no-risk suggestions to help improve the site, with permission of their supervisor of course.

Since decision level executives will probably not read this post, it is up to the lower level readers to influence them from below. Weaver lays out an eight step process to revamp the site without having to build. They are:

1. Invitation - starts when a visitor says, "Let's do something today", and ends when they park in your lot.    
2. Welcome - the second they walk in the door and are greeted by someone.
3. Orientation - after moving away from the greeter and the visitor decides what to do next.
4. Comfort - this is found throughout the site in its design, it is how comfy the use of the site is to the visitor - mentally and physically.
5. Communication - everything in the written and spoken language which the visitor experiences.
6. Sensation - how well you engage the visitor's senses, including their senses of fun and adventure
7. Common sense - how practical everything is; working smarter, more efficiently, and logically.
8. Finale - how does a visit to the site ends and what they take with them.

While commentary on each of these points would be long winded when completed with well thought out practical how-tos in this post, the sections really do speak for themselves. To go through each step would be redundant and better handled by Weaver's book. 

However, some points are worth a closer look.

The Welcome step has to do with discovering the entrance and the greeting. The greeting is the part that can be changed faster than renovating the building entrance. The first contact is the first impression, and having a grumpy volunteer is not the good first impression. Select a front-line representative, be it a volunteer or entry level position, or someone else who has some experience in being personable and helpful.

In the Communication step, layers of redundant edits and revisions are made so that all communication - written, spoken, website, radio, sign, wayside, advertisement, or whatever are clear and concise. Communication is closely tied to the Brand and the Theme of the site.

Common Sense is such a critical step because sometimes we make up such rules, dogma, and  bureaucracy that it gets in the way of the things that matter. One example of using Common Sense would be to ask the front line or floor people. These employees, volunteers, or contract help (like in the case of security guards not employed by the organization) who walk around the site - they know what the popular exhibits are, they know how long visitors stay in the galleries, and where the messes are made - so ask them for their input. Weaver cites the situation when the city of Seattle was building a new public library; the planners included someone from the security and custodial staff at every design meeting. Common sense is also creating partnerships with like-minded organizations or businesses that mutually benefit each member of the partnership.Take a step back and evaluate if the things that are done are done for a clear and simple reason.

Taking a step back and trying to experience the site for the first time and seeing all the things that a first time visitor sees will help the site come a long way in making much needed improvements.

In short, this is an excellent book for entry level professionals to make impressive suggestions. 

Creating Great Visitor Experiences is an excellent book for mid level supervisory folks to make practical changes in the planning and implementation process. Going through the book in detail and the exercises as a executive team would be a great way to revamp on a practical level. 

For executive level folks, it is a great way to be able to improve the numbers for stakeholders while increasing the profile of the site. Increasing the site's revenue and visitation numbers might be a headache, but it is a good problem to have! It means that the changes have been successful and that the site is relevant to visitors and can increase capacity for more ambitious projects.

If you, the reader, are looking to find ways to improve your site, increase visitation, increase revenue, the profile of the site, or to shake things up, this book is worth the investment, or the time it takes to borrow a copy from the library. This is a book which should be suggested to any site. 

Book Review: Creating Great Visitor Experiences by Stephanie Weaver, part 2

The second part of the Creating Great Visitor Experiences (here is the first) dealt with what visitors want and how to best utilize the site's staff. This post will be a little longer than usual because there are a lot of deep and tasty nuggets of wisdom and insight from this book.

Visitors come to sites for a number of reasons, including combinations of reasons. Generally they go and do something because they have a surplus of free time, but it is usually limited. The visitor chooses from their free time options based on six rewards for use of their time, according to leisure time studies:

What are these students motivated by in this image?

• Social interaction 
• Active participation 
• Comfortable surroundings 
• Challenging, new, or unusual experiences 
• Opportunities to learn 
• A sense of doing something worthwhile 

The author, Stephanie Weaver, asserts that if sites begin to understand these visitor motivations for coming to a site, your site, it will help bring in others in the target audience. Hopefully these motivations bring them back, but also attract new and repeating visitors. Look over the list and see what your site already does and how you can improve them, or add new ones.   

On the other side, sites offer four kinds of experiences to seek, meet, and hopefully exceed the six motivations of visitors mentioned above. A site can offer these kinds of experiences:

• Educational
• Entertainment
• Aesthetic
• Escapist

Four E's

Combinations of these make for a more attractive destination and can appeal to more kinds of visitors. Stephanie Weaver notes further that

visitors are looking for something meaningful, authentic, genuine, and quintessential. Some examples she gives would be allowing the "real thing" to move people, seeing real animals in their real environment, or providing products and services that people expect when they come to a place where the reputation has already preceded itself for being true to itself. 

Much of Weaver's work in this middle section is based on consumer studies, marketing, advertising strategies, and consumer psychology. While the site where you work might not be so concerned about ticketing prices and how much merchandise is sold in order to keep the doors open, they are still underscoring the idea that you want more visitors to come and must compete against other forces vying for visitor's time and attention. Essentially, one of the goals is to ask the reader how to get near the top of a travel destination itinerary, compared to being a peripheral stop further in the description.   

We want our action to change visitor behavior from their experience during their visit. The four behaviors that we want to change is:

• Frequency - How often do they visit?
• Duration - How long do they stay on site? In each part of the site?
• Engagement - What do they do when they are here?
• Off site actions -  What do they do about the site when they are not there?

The new Ryan's Interpretations logo

Branding is an essential part of the site experience. Branding was mentioned in the previous post so now is a good time to go over it in better detail. Branding is more than a logo on a letterhead; it's so much more.

Branding is a whole concept in advertising and marketing. It is the look, feel, attitude, quality,  promises, origin, and future of a place or thing to the visiting consumer. It is so penetrating that it affects the manufacturers of the products. For example, are the items for sale made in the U.S.A? Are workers being given a fair wage or are they held in wage bondage overseas? Are the employees nice and respectful, or do they have bad attitudes, show low morale, or are struggling financially? These things affect the perception of the brand. 

Or is this the new Ryan's
Interpretations logo? 

A re-branding can add life to a struggling organization. A fresh coat of paint, some new employee training, a logo revamp and/or a name change can add new life. How does the visiting public perceive the name? Does it sound stodgy and elitist? Maybe consider a new name. 

Visitors first experience branding by how the site invests in its employees. The front line of the organization at the site is the first impression to the visitor. How far do the staff go out of the way for a visitor? The further they go, the better impression, especially with the right attitude. According to Weaver, the interaction of employee and visitor makes or breaks the experience. One bad day can crash all the careful planning and preparing. 

Definitely the new Ryan's Interpretations logo
(just kidding)

So how does a site attract quality staff? Part of it is branding, but also careful selection of employees that help set the culture and tone of working there. It comes from a top down approach as well. If the brass are willing to invest in great employees knowing that it will improve visitor perception, then it is a good indicator that a office place cultural shift will take place soon. 

Weaver suggests that the inverted power hierarchy triangle approach is a great place to start; where the executives and managers serve the employees, who serve the visiting customers at the top. Listening to the front line and making action happen improves employee manager relations and empowers the staff as a whole. 

An empowered staff and a motivated visitor have the potential
to create some great visitor experiences the the conditions at
the site support it. More on that next month!

I encourage the use of empowering employees because not only does it give them additional skills and experiences, it also raises the next generation of managers, administrators, and executives that have had field and front line experience. It also has the desired effect of making a better experience for the employee because the office baloney on the sides does not affect their front lines customer service as much. Happy staff are more loyal, compliant, and engaging than demoralized, underpaid, and disposable employees.

Again, Stephanie Weaver stresses doing the exercises in Part 4 to help assess the areas of problem and areas for improvement. Do not read this book like a theoretical text that requires no practical application. Take her up on the offer to help improve the site through your application of this book and see where it can go!

Next month will be Part 3 of Creating Great Visitor Experiences and will finish the review. The need for change had been addressed, the visitors' motivations and rewards have been addressed, and the staff's training and improvement has been addressed. Part 3 will focus in on the site itself.

Book Review: Creating Great Visitor Experiences by Stephanie Weaver, part 1

The need to improve should be an ongoing consideration for a interpretive site, regardless of what kind of site it may be. In the modern contemporary world in which we find ourselves, interpretive sites, whether for profit, nonprofit, or state sponsored, find themselves in competition. This competition is for the the attention of the visitor. The potential visitor is time-poor; with all the labor saving inventions the modern world has given us, we are always spending our precious time on something, whether it is useful or not. For example, a potential visitor could take a nap, watch TV, mindlessly search the internet, read a book, go to a sports game, take a cruise, exercise, or visit a site. What makes them want to come to your site compared to taking a nap? What makes them select your site or a competitor's? Stephanie Weaver's book, Creating Great Visitor Experiences, addresses how interpretive sites, museums, parks, zoos, gardens, and libraries can improve their sites on a practical and affordable level to compete with other options and bring in more visitors.

Book review for Creating
Great Visitor Experiences by
Stephanie Weaver

There is so much in this little book that it really should be considered a workbook rather than an expose or a study. The book is divided in four parts, but for purposes of better understanding, the review of the book will be completed over the course of three blog posts, with Parts 1 and 4 being examined this month and Parts 2 and 3 in the next two months.

One of the points the author makes early on is that the culture has changed. While some have decried the "edu-tainment" industry, it seems that to a degree, it is here to stay. People want to experience a place, not merely be entertained by it or educated by it. Sites (used broadly in the book to include where ever you may be) are in the business of creating and selling cultural experiences. Think of a Disney-themed site and compare it to the last museum, Park, or library you visited; which is more appealing? This kind of thinking should apply to for-profit, nonprofit, and state sponsored sites.

Improving visitor experiences creates repeat visitation, increases duration of visitation, increases education value, creates word of mouth advertising, and increases revenue. All of these things in turn help fund more services, programs, materials, and opportunities.

Likewise, a poor visitor experience is also likely to lead to a poor financial situation. Many missions of the places where visitors go have a preservation, protection, or conservation mission and improving visitor experiences leads to more care and concern about those places.

Weaver argues that the visitor experience has a larger scope than interpretation. Interpretation effort is wasted if the visitor has a frustrating time, like trying to find a bathroom, or not finding a parking space or the front door.

Part of the goal of the book is working with what you have. Sites are not rolling in dough, so improving the visitor experience can be a cheaper and more effective way to bring in more visitors than remodeling. If the customer service is lacking, a new wing and a fresh coat of paint is not going to bring visitors back.

Everything that the site has to offer needs to be evaluated for branding aimed at supporting your message, whether it is called a theme, goal, or mission.

Likewise, a bad visitor experience crushes the financial bottom line. Bad publicity is more likely to be by reported word of mouth than a good experience. One star reviews last longer and tend to hold more weight than five star reviews on travel sites and forums, thus the need to evaluate the entirety of the site, from advertising, parking lots, bathrooms, programs, personnel, and branding. Spare nothing and evaluate everything.

Studying up and taking notes 

Weaver suggests that there is an inside and outside visitor experience. No two visitors are the same. The inside experience is all the things that each visitor brings on the day of their visit, the bad and good days. A visitor may perceive things differently than originally intended by a site. The site cannot really fix what is inside a visitor, but can change the outside experiences of the visitor. That outside visitor experience begins when the visitor decides to visit the site and lasts until they drive away.

The visitor experience does not start at the door. In evaluating the site, step back and look at the whole picture. Everything matters. Your brand, your name,  and your mission is what your site is. The brand is the experience and your brand is only as good as your visitor's worst part of the experience. The exact definintion of brand is discussed in later chapters. All aspects of the experience fit together like a puzzle to form a whole. One bad or missing piece can ruin a puzzle.

Skipping parts two and three for now, part four is the practical side of the book. It gives suggestions for action groups and exercises to be completed to review what each site has, what it does well, and what it could do to improve. The exercises are grouped by each chapter, so an action group could read a chapter and discuss it, or do their "homework" between meets. However, the author suggests reading the whole book beforehand and then go through the book slowly, chapter by chapter, in the action groups. If you are serious about creating a greater visitor experience, this is where all the action is, so do not gloss over the exercises and questions; your site will be better for it.

I found the book useful and thoughtful and worth turning into a blog post. Next month, Part 2 of Creating Great Visitor Experiences will be the focus. One part will be about learning more about the visitor and what they want and what they need. The second part addresses preparing the staff for customer service and investing in them to improve themselves and ultimately, the site.

6-16-2019 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Five years can be a long time. It comes down to relativity, in one sense. Five years can be a long time in jail, or it could be a short time watching a child grow up. I'd like to think it to be the latter rather than the former in the case of my blog.

Five years ago, I had toyed with the idea of starting a blog to highlight my career as a historical interpreter and show off all the neat things I get to do or participate in. In some way, that is what this blog has done, so my original intent is still here.

2014 Ryan worked as a seasonal interpreter on a farm.

Over time, it became more of a place where I can show my depth of interest, concern, and understanding of the art and skill of interpretation and the issues surrounding it. Like all things in five years, it has changed. It has changed in becoming deeper, more impacting content than a fun and flashy "look at me" self serving showcase.

Because of this change, it has also been difficult to continue to provide meaningful content. The need to make content interesting, relevant, and important became a struggle to be able to do it. It is one of the reasons why the blog became less spontaneous and a more metered monthly publication.

2019 Ryan is still seasonal but with the National Park Service

Finding content and committing to a monthly deadline has been an education and a discipline that I have had to cultivate as the low hanging fruit of my imagination began to run out of readily available ideas and I have had to look for things that inspire from my career and daily life.

Over the five years, here are five things that I have learned in blogging:

1. Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you look back on my very first blog post, there is not one image. Actually, neither did the second post. Honestly, those were a little boring. They were my first ones, so that can be easily overlooked. More often than not, I have added too many photos and not enough text. I generally plan for between 5- 7 images but only end up using 4-6 depending.

Editor-in-Chief on location in Atlanta

2. You have to make your own noise. Not many people are going to be in your cheer squad, so recruiting people to share and spread is essential.However, I must admit this is an area in which I can improve. I presently only self advertise on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I have to learn more about Twitter. Networking with other bloggers and people who do things that you do helps create community and shared experience. It also seems less like "crying in the wilderness" where no one can hear me make noise. One way for me to improve is to explore better advertising and sharing platforms.

3.Editing matters! Writing is hard work, especially under a deadline. I try to use the Hemingway App to help improve my writing style. About my biggest complaint is that it does not like passive voice. Since much of the content I write about takes place in the past and sometimes by course of natural action and not active participation, the passive voice is simply part of the writing style. I also have an head Editor-in-Chief! She has helped me untangle some frazzled threads that made it onto an editable region on the blog software and turn it into something that makes sense to someone reading it. She has her own blog that she adds to when inspiration and time allow. 

David Connon, the author of the "Maserati"
guest blog post and author of his own blog
Confederates From Iowa

4.Snazzy titles. Perhaps I have yet to learn this one. My most visited and popular post was not written by me, but by a guest. The Me in a Maserati blog post just celebrated its release just 3 years ago. This post has been very popular in Europe, especially in Russia. I think it is because "Maserati" shows up in the title and the search engines worldwide pick it up. Or, maybe it is because David Connon's winsome blog post and his network far outshines my readership ."I think...that it has been your most viewed post because of the wording of the title, and probably particularly because of the word 'Maserati'. " I corresponded with David about the popularity of his post, initially to look at what made the post the most successful one yet but he also had this bit of advice about titles,"I think that writing good, snappy, and/or interesting titles is important if we want to attract readers. But it is hard to do, and sometimes it's like pulling teeth."
5. L shape writing. This kind of writing is similar to using the Hemingway App, in that the short curt sentences are broken up into smaller paragraphs that are easier to read. I still need to revise my earlier posts that use full paragraphs and break them into smaller chunks.

With all things, it is hard to say how much longer this blog will continue to bring the reader fresh content, but it is my intention to keep it up as long as I am able.

If you are a regular reader, then thank you for reading. Please continue to read and learn and give feedback. I appreciate all the help, support, and inspiration over the years!

Public Speaking Tips

One of the enduring expectations of a history interpreter is the ability to talk with the public. While not all job responsibilities involve dealing with the public on a constant basis, such as a museum technician or a curator, even these kinds of "back of the office" kinds of jobs will eventually involve speaking to the public in instances such as proposals, meetings, or formal speaking events or lectures. Its is simply to be taken for granted, although sometimes, early in one's career in an internship or something similar, someone may not yet understand that talking to the public is expected. This may come as a shock to the kinds of positions that do a lot of research or "back of the office" kinds of jobs. From personal experience, I once knew an SCA intern who was shocked and alarmed that part of her job was to speak to people! She thought that she would be doing visitor center and cash register stuff, not talking to the public for tours or programs. If the reader is in such a situation, what cane be done about it?

Fortunately, the Internet is full of suggestions and information on any topic; a search on public speaking suggestions and tips might be a good idea. Since this blog post is on public speaking tips, it can be supposed that if you are reading this, you have already thought of that.

What this blog post will aim to do is direct recommendations toward an interpretation setting, rather than formal speaking.

The biggest suggestion may seem the most obvious: practice.

All the suggestions that you may have come across previously are probably right; practice in front of a mirror, practice with close friends or family, practice to you dog. Reading it at first helps review it in your mind, especially if the speaking bit was written by you. This helps catch errors and weird sentence phrasing that sounded good in your head and all right in print, but are in truth weird and awkward when spoken aloud.

Speaking from a prepared script helps cement information. In preparing a text, try to use spacing and indentation to "chunk" information into memorable bits with the important parts up front so that if you do forget, your information will be there and everything else is an explanation of your point.

Speaking to children was helpful for me in learning to address larger groups of adults later on. If you are already involved in youth groups, camps, or organizations, this is a chance to practice addressing large groups of people.

I am not sure where this nugget came from, but it is worth repeating: Do not get the attention to a crowd and begin with the words "All right..." and "Okay...". It is an amateurish opening that betrays inexperience. Aim for something welcoming such as, "Good morning everyone! May I have your attention please. As we begin..."

Front-load your structure and introduction. Introduce yourself, your topic, and other concerns, such as a quick safety briefing. In terms of structuring the presentation, address when questions should be asked, midstream or at the end. If it is an educational group, remind them to raise their hands if they have a question. Go back to your learning foundation: tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them what you want to tell them, and then tell them again what you told them. Intro, body, conclusion.

Sweep and smile. Look at everyone in the group at least once, but do not do it for long because it looks like you are staring and it makes people uncomfortable. Smile, too. It makes people think you are friendly. While you are at it, let you hands do the talking. If you do not know what to do with your hands, practice leaving them hang by your sides. It feels weird, but it looks natural.

It is acceptable to have "um" and "uh" in there from time to time. Public speaking, while prepared, has an element of improvisation and sometimes distractions do arise. Being prepared and practiced reduces this.

Be aware of your body language. Keep information relevant and interesting. Many people do not care about the details in a presentation; save those nitty-gritty details for the questions. Review verbal techniques for some ideas on keeping things interesting.

Hopefully, these suggestions help guide the uncertain and inexperienced interpreter into something that they can use to help ease them into becoming more confident in their ability to communicate to the public and increase their ability to reach their visitors.

Next month: The 5 year anniversary of Ryan's Interpretations blog!

Stretching Beyond the Comfort Zone

Playing our strengths. Doing what you love. Following your bliss.

Call it what you want.

I'd rather be doing this.

At some point every interpreter develops an interest wherever they find employment. It's natural. However, sometimes you have to step out of that into something less familiar.

Getting outside the Comfort Zone. Diversifying your resume.

Sometimes it happens by necessity, sometimes by design, sometimes by fluke.

While gaining expertise is great, it can also become boring. Getting outside of the norm and learning new things is a part of mental health as it is activating different parts of your brain as you are thinking in different ways, which adds depth of understanding to a resource. The reality is, while it is great to be specialized, it is also preferred by many employers to have employees that have knowledge in other areas. This includes branching out into other disciplines, topics, or content beyond one's preferences. For example, focusing on biology, geology, archaeology, sociology, or any similar discipline rather than history.

Yes, something other than history.

Take a moment to get up off the floor and recover. Deep breaths.

This is only time I have been on a horse.
I was very much outside of my comfort zone

Maybe not so sudden of a shift away. Maybe instead of focusing on what has been done in the past, try developing new material. Check with the supervisor first; don't step on any toes.

Perhaps looking at different aspects that are under-developed at the site. One further example would be to venture into social media, if you have avoided it. Ask to help out with the museum collection. Work with the education specialist to develop new curricula. Learn about the archaeology of the site, if applicable. Do something different where you are.

If you are in the place in your career where your employment is temporary, such as seasonal help, try selecting a site or location or place that is outside of your typical content area.

Geology and I have had a hard relationship,
but it's a discipline worth exploring.
Maybe one day.

For example, if you are interested in prehistoric times, try a site that is more modern. If you specialize in the southwest, perhaps try going to a different region.

Being a temporary employee allows you the opportunity to gain experience by moving around and trying different things. While it may not get you a job as a biologist, it would be an asset at parks, sites, or locations where wildlife is a regular part of the site experience and can even add extra dimensions to the regular programming. 

Stretching your knowledge, skills, and abilities can be uncomfortable at first, especially if it is a topic that is of no real interest to you - yet. Ultimately it makes you, as an employee, more marketable. From my own personal experience, my position as an assistant gardener at a Japanese garden led to other positions with gardening and plant growing parts of a job, which led to full time jobs as a gardener or farmer, and it continues to inform my knowledge and demonstration displays even to this day. Getting outside the comfort zone provides new learning opportunities that can lead to more opportunities down the line. Granted, you will play your strengths, but do not limit yourself. Give it a try.

Life experience is Interpretation

Receiving information through observation

Life experience is interpretation.

All information gathered is interpreted. It is interpreted by everyone who can perceive it.

The manner in which we receive information is interpreted in a complex series of lenses that filter information by how it affirms or conflicts with our preconceived notions about what life is about. Our background and personal lived experiences interpret what we presently do, say, and think, and how we plan. These lenses are the constructs of our broad social influences. Each person's lens was put in place by his or her culture and society and can include heritage, nationality, region, social status, language, philosophies, religions, creeds, sexual orientation, gender affiliation, and so on.

People from different background see the world differently, think differently, and act differently, even if they all experience the same events simultaneously, like witnessing a car accident or viewing art or a outdoor music concert.

The cumulative effect of these filters and lens moment by moment and what we do with that information and our reactions to events is the interpretation of what information means to us, and it is up to every individual to decide what to do about it.

We are all searching for meaning in our lives. How we interpret our lives affects who we are and what we do, because we are constantly interpreting our world as it unfolds. This happens internally in what we think, say, and do. What happens to us via external forces causes us to interpret each situation and formulate reactions. Further, what we do not do or what does not happen to us is also interpreted.

Reflective insight helps us reinterpret information. Think back to things that happened in the past that happened to you and after some time new information becomes available that was not available before. Can we call these new revelations revisionist? This would include our experiences, thoughts, attitudes in childhood and after years and becoming a parent, when for the first time we see and understand why certain things happened and why our parents reacted and acted as they did then.

Our limited perspective inhibits our interpretation because it is held by a single person. However, engaging in dialog discourses or group discussion helps widen perspective. Hopefully that widening allows for a better interpretation.

Capturing information for "internal storage"

Allowing differences of opinion to influence us by affirming or coming in conflict with previously held information allows for different interpretation. We should consider differing and opposing viewpoints.

Of course, there is the flip-side. Vastly differing perspectives can inhibit understanding by being so far from reasonable that they detract from understanding, yet differences in perspectives give understanding richness. We must be humble enough to allow someone else to have a good idea that we had not thought of. That is why collaborative teamwork efforts and "synergy" tend to yield powerful results.

Interpretation takes reflection. For example, asking oneself, "How does my interpretation match up to reality?" is a great question to ask when seeking understanding. Can we get more perspectives to confirm the reality of the situation?

It is because of these things that I affirm the ORACLE approach, or the Only Right Answer Comes from Lived Experience, because we are interpreting all the time by living. Further, it's one of the reasons I try to integrate Audience Centered Experiences in my programs, because visitors are already interpreting; they just don't know that they are doing it. We only know what we know because it is the one who is doing the interpreting has an answer. By comparing answers, we can see whether of not our interpretation is correct.

Life experience is interpretation.

Good Interpretation Sells

One of the striking aspects of Interpretation as a discipline, a skill, and a philosophy is that it always is in search of frontier, a better light bulb, and a higher call. It is not complacent with giving a tour; a list of names, places, and events. Good interpretation inspires and a list simply does not inspire. Good interpretation sells.
By "sells", it should be understood that interpretation creates something within itself that people like visitors and stakeholders want.

Planning is crucial to making a
quality program that sells itself

One cannot buy a good reputation. A reputation is built, little by little, and as such it will take time. For an interpretive place, this should not be a problem as there is always another day tomorrow. By taking the time to carefully cultivate quality interpretive programs, events, tours, training, hand-outs, or waysides, an interpretive site can position itself to start to attract attention. Quality interpretation is going to inspire, motivate, and provoke (Remember Tilden's 6 Principles?) Outreach, advertisement, and word of mouth promote the site, but do not be discouraged by a modest response; many of the decision makers are slow to respond, especially to new things. Everybody is looking for a sure-fire win and the best bang for their buck, especially from the education field with their ever shrinking funding and increasing liability for field trips. The interpretive place is therefore in competition with everything else for that field trip consideration.

As mentioned, it will take time. Five years should be a minimum base before seeing significant growth. Why? Because you cannot buy a good reputation; it is built little by little and it takes time. Five years should be enough to get the word out. A busy season should be a good indicator that the interpretation is quality.

Some t-shirts do get honorable mentions!

That increased visitation is going to create revenue, even if the interpretive site is free. Nearly every interpretive site has a gift store. Those items on sale are going to sell. It works even better if they are quality products. The closer to the interpretive themes a product is, the more likely it will sell. However, never disdain a well designed t-shirt! Or a funny one! An excelletnt example would be Living History Farms. The town highlights trades like a print shop, a broom maker shop, and a blacksmith, and each of these shops produce goods to sell in the gift store. Living History Farms also goes out of its way to create events that fall in line with its interpretive goals like Food and Farm festivals. Read about my experience at LHF here.

If the site does charge for admission, the high visitation from quality interpretation is going to do well. It also shows to the Board or to the higher-ups that the site is doing well and deserves to be protected, preserved, and properly maintained. For many places, especially in the public and national properties, this is the goal: to get people to appreciate the place and make sure it continues. Few places are more heartbreaking than a washed up has-been place that is neglected.

The quality interpretation is simply going to elevate the profile of that place. Some places are blessed to be large, famous, important, significant places that resound in the public, but others are going to have to yell and scream to get recognition and a quality interpretation of that place can generate enough noise to attract notice.

These higher profile places are appreciated. The things that are appreciated are protected. Even a local place can gather staunch support if people properly appreciate it. Quality Interpretation creates not only appreciation for the site, but also support, a higher profile in the community, protection and preservation, better funding to be able to do more, and a reputation for being a sure-fire win for visitors.  Thus, when there is another partial government shut down, the impact is felt by the surrounding area because the local businesses depend on the revenue that the popular site brings in as an added benefit. Of course, that applies only to the public lands, but could apply to private interpretive places in the case of a emergency, like an environmental disaster.

The bottom line is that an interpretive place must take the time to hone its programming, hand-outs, and events, and provide the best training for staff in order to build that reputation that the site sells itself and is successful in reaching its goals. That is how good interpretation sells.

Rest: a Strategy for Success

Rest. The time we take for ourselves. No one can keep up a break-neck speed and busyness for long. It leads to stress, anger, and ulcers. In light of the end of the season, the end of the year, and a reflective holiday season, rest becomes part of the seasonal cycle of interpretation. Rest not only is part of the individual but also of the institution where the interpreter works. Rest is important because it allows us the time to do better.

People need rest. Too many days working leads to stress and fatigue. That stress and fatigue can mean burn-out. When we get stressed we get short and angry with people easily. A sharply sent comment can ruin a school or keep a returning group from returning again. We take rest to help us relax, get our mind off of work, and to have a good sleep-in every so often. Take the time to use days off or lieu days to take care of yourself. "All work and no play makes Jack an dull boy."

Settling my mind for a long winter's nap

Rest can happen at the places where interpretation happens too. Many of these places have a "busy season" where school, church, and other kinds of group visitation is at its highest. Maybe it is when the weather is beautiful when all the tourists come out. Sometimes the weather forces the place to close because it is too cold, wet, hot, or some other environmental conditions occur that makes it slow down. These interpretive places use the time to focus on fixing things, or cleaning them up. It is also a good time to take time to reflect on the busy season's programming goals, or compile statistics, research, have staff evaluations, or begin planning for the next busy season.

The slow season is a great time to get to projects that
you have been meaning to get to - like cleaning.

This period of rest is part of a larger programming cycle. The "slow season" for evaluaton, compiling, and planning is "Indoor work." Then comes a period of "ramp up", or when the first couple of school groups or a first major special event of the year. It anticipates and leads into the "busy season," whatever that busy season looks like at the place.

Finally, rest leads to a fresh and invigorated start. The best thing about rest is that it allows a break to recharge with renewed vigor. If we are always "on" it can be draining and ultimately can affect morale, presentation, and attitude. The visitors deserve to have the best presentation and if the presentor is calm, relaxed, and friendly rather than tired, irritated, and distracted.

So as the year comes to a close and many interpretive places are closed or having their "slow season", take the time and rest and relax. Reflect on your past season and how you can be part of what makes the next busy season a success!

Education and interpretation: Supply and Demand

Education activity in action

Museums, historic sites, parks, and other interpretive locations are concerned primarily with education. They are essentially in the education business. These places of learning are at-will leisure places where people go to learn of their own free will, and learn from placards, exhibits, audio tours, or an interpretive guide for pleasure or entertainment.

One of the many demographics that visit these places are students on field trips. This increasingly rare event is becoming rarer still with shrinking education funds for transportation, liability issues, and safety concerns. From a school administrator point of view, a field trip needs to be worthwhile and requires a result, some sort of educational payoff. How can at-will places of learning continue to supply great interpretive and education opportunities to meet the dwindling demand of visiting school groups and perhaps stimulate more demand?

For all that is stacked against the school field trip, it still cannot be beat for creating an impact on a student. One of the common comments heard at the information desk or kiosk from adults are, "I came here as a kid" or "I came here on a field trip."  Power of Place has tremendous impact on people, especially with students. Interpreters and guides should spend some time explaining, highlighting, and reminding their student visitors of the importance of the place they visit. It goes back to the concept of asking, "So what?" Answering this question directly or indirectly as part of the programming allows the Power of Place to work in the students, giving some understanding why they are there.

Working with children requires a different approach. Don't
"dumb it down", make it right for them!

A combination of education and interpretation needs to be the core of the program, be it an activity, tour, or special event. The Interpretive Equation and a bunch of creativity are necessary to create an impacting school program. However the interpretive site chooses to go about its school programming, it should be directly engaging to the student. Attention spans are at an all time low with handheld digital technology, streaming on-demand videos, and the like creating a culture of people who want stimulation. In some cases, the traditional tour-and-talk school program may not be acceptable anymore and a more engaging program should be considered. The Knowledge of Audience is essential to crafting an captivating program!

Creativity is also going to be essential because the culture of students is changing and more classic modes of education do not have the same impact as they did a generation ago. The school program must be interactive and relational. The challenge is the pre-planing, technological savvy, and of course the funds to make it happen. A further challenge is that the sorts of people who can do this are in short supply in the interpretive field and have to learn these skills in order to reach students.

Grabbing the attention of students is an art
worth pursuing

Even if an interpretive site has a set program, it should always be evaluated. "We have always done it this way" is an unacceptable answer. True, there may be some best practices at work in the program, but updating or tweaking the less essential parts can support the parts that already work well. Sometime a program must be reinvented from the ground up and here are a couple suggestions on how to do that. Sometimes utilizing a different technique can really change how a program operates and makes it better. Review the Interpretive Toolbox for ideas on how to be more engaging to students and teachers.The supply needs to create the demand and sites need to let the educators know what is being done at the interpretive site by advertising and getting the word out as well!

The point of all this is to satisfy the students, teachers, and administrators' desires for a great trip. A poor program comes under review and the school will perhaps stop coming. Having a great, vibrant, impacting school program not only keeps the school coming, but can bring other schools as well. Each spring and fall should be busy with school buses arriving and departing. Furthermore, each teacher should be impressed with what the interpretive site offers students and teachers as an assortment of educational opportunities. Lastly, each student should be excited to visit from what they have heard from other students. It takes effort, and often a collaborative effort of staff and teachers, to craft something unique and impacting so that these sites do not fall by the wayside and fade from importance.

Site Visit: Habitat for Humanity Global Village

There are times when you stumble upon something that at first seems like a day out and then suddenly strikes you as an interpretive "teachable moment". This is the case with Habitat for Humanity Global Village and Discovery Center in Americus, Georgia. Americus happens to be the headquarters location for the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity, an organization that builds homes for people all around the world, both in poverty stricken countries but also in the US. Their Global Village is a showcase of what kinds of living structures volunteers and local soon-to-be home owners build and how they differ from country to country

My passport and cancellations

Since every location has different environmental factors like geography, climate, weather conditions and concerns, as well as cultural considerations and styles, every home in country is different. Since Mexico is totally different than Malaysia, the styles of homes are different as well. Using a set "cookie cutter" plan design, builders are able to build homes exactly the same way using the same design, materials, and methods to quickly put up a structure in that locality.

We were given a "passport" that we could stamp that indicated that we had visited all the locations provided and each home was equipped with a stamping station. Collecting stamps is a great way to encourage understanding and visiting every location.

The shanty town

The tour first starts off in a walk down a shantytown street. Houses are made of corrugated tin siding and roofing, dirt floors, narrow streets, pallet beds, broken chairs, and have unsafe or unsanitary conditions. Along this pathway are interpretive signs prompting emotional responses of the visitors. "Would you like to live here?", "Where would you use the bathroom?", and "Would you feel safe here?" are some of the questions that are asked of the visitors to consider as they wander through this display. The visitors are asked to think about their feelings about their experience, an Audience Centered Experience that puts the visitors in the shoes of the people who actually live in such conditions. One striking feature was the use of non functioning electrical equipment, such as a light bulb suspended by a string or a old TV set. The idea behind this bizarre decoration was the hope of a better future where the resident of the shack hoped to one day have electricity to use that light bulb or watch TV on that set, or run that fan or radio.

Interpretive questions

Mexico

Beyond the shantytown lay the Habitat for Humanity samples, grouped by region. Each had different floor plans, colors, materials, and methods. Included in the tour was a workshop area where some of the materials used for constructing some of the homes can be made as a demonstration for visiting groups. For example, a simple brick making machine helps churn out bricks that would be used for the construction. Demonstration is a great interpretive technique to foster understanding and empathy to the people helping to make their own homes or volunteers helping in those locations. It's also a physical activity that helps work out some of that extra energy from visiting kids.

Housing is a global problem and a national one too

While the focus is on the international efforts to help alleviate housing poverty, it also reminds the visitor that there is a housing problem in the United States as well. The rising costs of rent, or home ownership, make it hard to keep up adequate living conditions, even in the United States. The Habitat for Humanity Global Village, while it is not a historical interpretive site, is still an interpretive center that highlights a provocative question of how to house the world's rising population affordably and adequately. It answers the question with the sample building and demonstrates the organization's ability to help out with a national and international need by meeting one of the basic needs of everyone: to have a home.

Visit the website here: https://www.habitat.org/about/global-village-discovery-center