Is the performing arts industry designed to learn?

By Andrew Taylor
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One of the elements I'm eager to observe during the National Performing Arts Convention (and, in fact, will be working with a team of colleagues and students to watch with me), is whether the thousands of performing artists and arts professionals assembled in Denver constitute a ''learning system.'' That is, does the opportunity to gather in such large numbers under a common convention make us smarter as an industry, or just better connected as individuals?

A large part of the goal of NPAC, after all, is to foster a collective agenda for the performing arts, and advance strategic collective action. Says the web site:

NPAC will lay the foundation for future cross-disciplinary collaborations, cooperative programs and effective advocacy. Demonstrating a new maturity as a united sector, NPAC is dedicated to enriching national life and strengthening communities across the country.

Such a goal requires the individual players to be smart and engaged, of course. But it also requires the system -- the relationships, connections, incentives, motives, and aggregate activities of all of us together -- to learn, as well.

It may sound a bit squishy and social-science-y to some, but a wealth of thinking and research on ''organizational learning'' has sprouted since the 1970s. As corporations evolved from ''do the job as defined'' widget-making to ''evolve the job as needed'' knowledge-making, corporate leaders and affiliated academics began to discover that the very structures of organizations seemed designed to block learning, both by individuals and by the system itself. A company would vocally encourage its teams to take risks, for example, but every incentive, feedback, and social system would scream ''be cautious, don't fail, don't look dumb.''

The performing arts world has never made widgets, of course. But we've professionalized enough to adopt many of the structures, cultures, and norms of corporate America. We've divided our labor by artistic discipline, by job function, by revenue potential, and all to wonderful effect. But have we built a system that is resistant to learning, to risk-taking, to honest self assessment, and to radical innovation?

In Denver, we'll be exploring this theme in several places. In a workshop session on Thursday afternoon, a group of us will dive into ''Higher Education and the Real World of Practice: Creating a New Alignment'' -- an obvious and essential part of any learning system. And throughout the convention, the I-DOC Project (interview, document, observe, clarify) will be observing and analyzing our capacity for collective insight and collective action. Some of the elements we might be watching for are described in this overview of organizational learning (summarized below). And we'll be eager to share our discoveries after the convention.

But in the meanwhile, keep an eye and an ear open while you're attending in Denver to decide for yourself which of the following qualities we hold in abundance, and which are still under construction:

• At the individual level:
  • Self mastery
    The ability to honestly and openly see reality as it exists; to clarify one's personal vision.
  • Mental models
    The ability to compare reality or personal vision with perceptions; reconciling both into a coherent understanding.
• At the group level:
  • Shared vision
    The ability of a group of individuals to hold a shared picture of a mutually desirable future.
  • Team learning
    The ability of a group of individuals to suspend personal assumptions about each other and engage in "dialogue" rather than "discussion".
  • Systems thinking
    The ability to see interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect; the ability to think in context and appreciate the consequences of actions on other parts of the system.
  To hear more from Andrew Taylor, read his blog.  
  To learn more about NPAC sessions such as "The Not-So Distant Horizon: The Near Future and the Performing Arts", visit the website.