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Story 07: Managing the Organization

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Work Ethic

Written by Elaine Heumann Gurian

Museum colleagues were always surprised to find that we were generally workaholics with a professional polish. The informality of our culture and our hippie way of dressing belied our generally middle-class values of reliability, forthright honesty, attention to detail, and the absolute trustworthiness of keeping commitments. We opened the museum on time, came to work early, stayed late, and accounted for every penny. We carried calendars, kept meeting appointments, answered phone calls, and wrote highly successful grant proposals. By the prevailing business standards of the day, we were a very well run and efficient organization though we looked very funky.

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