Looking Back to Move Forward
A retired school superintendent named George was one of my all-time favorite Board Members, and he would often remind us of something during tense meetings when we would be talking (or arguing!) about things that needed to be improved in, or added to, our museum.
George would say, "Yes, these are things we need to improve or programs we need to add, but let's stop and take a look back at some of the things we have accomplished in the past few months or the past year. What can we take away from looking at how we made those things happen?"
It was a very wise strategy because it shifted the focus away from the often contentious present and the uncertain future. We would be reminded that in the past few months or past year, we had accomplished many positive things together. And that we could add and improve more new things together if we used our past experiences to guide us forward.
Years later, I realized that George's approach was very much in the spirit of Sankofa.
As mentioned in this Wikipedia article about Sankofa, the notion of "looking back to move forward" is used by the Akan people of Ghana. They often use an adinkra symbol of a bird with its head turned backward to symbolically capture an egg depicted above its back to represent the same concept. It symbolizes taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present to make positive progress.
So, as we come to the end of another year, I hope you will be able to look back at 2024 to move forward with learnings for the New Year and beyond.
P.S. You know that tricky project you finished this year? It is AWESOME!
Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!
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