When conducting recent audience research with colleagues last year, we were stricken to hear from local teens that failure isn’t an option for them. With such a concentrated focus on achievement, teens feel that they have no time or space to fail. One of them told us adamantly, “I never fail. I will never fail.” It saddened all of us deeply and helped to engage us in a productive conversation about how we might create an atmosphere more conducive to failing productively and creatively in our own organization. We all instinctively know that … [Read more...]
Seeking wellness in the workplace? Have an impromptu Taylor Swift jam session.
You know how it plays out. You’re watching Wolf of Wall Street and the office run by Jordan Belfore is filled to capacity with drugs, prostitutes and other fun illegal shenanigans. Imagine sharing an office building with a company where this all takes place… except without the prostitutes, drugs and fun illegal shenanigans, but the same smiles on everyone’s face and the laughter being tossed back and forth. Within only a few weeks of working at NAS, I’d taken notice to some pretty strange things with our upstairs office neighbor, The Motley … [Read more...]
Getting Unstuck: Developing Skills to Climb the Leadership Ladder
Many great thinkers in our field have discussed the complexity of talent development and succession planning in the cultural sector. Marc Vogl, who works with arts and culture organizations in his role as Principal of Vogl Consulting, aptly describes the problem as a clogged and leaky pipeline. Basically, there are a small number of leadership positions at the top, often held for many years by the same people (that’s the clogged part) and therefore more junior employees are stuck at their current level, growing increasingly tired of waiting … [Read more...]
Building Cultures of Innovation, Embracing Change and Becoming More Foxy
Editor’s note: As part of our online discussion around The Summit at Sundance, we have invited participants in The Chief Executive Program to frame each of our problems to solve. Here, Marc Vogl takes on the problem: Develop employees and organizational systems that will transform our organizations and the field. “To expect the unexpected,” said Oscar Wilde, “shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” And yet, it is so much easier said than done. If anticipating plot twists in the third act of a play is the learned skill of the experienced … [Read more...]
Developing Transformative Employees and Systems
Editor’s note: Over the next two weeks, we’ll feature posts around the final convening of our Chief Executive Program, The Summit at Sundance. We invite you to participate in an online discussion of four major issues facing the cultural field. In this post, Fielding Grasty introduces the first of the problem statements. Problem to solve: Develop employees and organizational systems that will transform our organizations and the field. The global financial crisis has passed for much of the world, but an era of uncertainty has … [Read more...]
Rework
I have a tall stack of books at home, all of which I am in the process of reading (yes, I am one of those people). I choose to start and stop a book based on topic and sometimes the number of pages and size of type. Recently, I picked up one of the books in my stack – Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (the founders of 37 Signals who brought us Basecamp, Ruby on the Rails, and Backpack). This book encapsulates about five times its volume in management theory and it is fun to read. I read it cover to cover in a very short span … [Read more...]
Stealing Fire: Creative Deviance in the Evolution of New Ideas
A different look at how you create break-through innovation. Stealing Fire: Creative Deviance in the Evolution of New Ideas - Academy of Management. … [Read more...]
The Zombie Workplace Survival Guide
Just in time for Halloween, the Harvard Business Review blog offers tips for combating the four contagions that create a zombie workplace — "where creative people and good ideas disturbingly molder." The Zombie Workplace Survival Guide - H. James Wilson and Kevin Desouza - Research - Harvard Business Review. … [Read more...]
To Get Paid What You’re Worth, Know Your Disruptive Skills
An interesting thought on what you're selling (and therefore emphasizing) to your organization. Are you trumpeting the right things? To Get Paid What You're Worth, Know Your Disruptive Skills - Whitney Johnson - Harvard Business Review. … [Read more...]