We have a couple more bits of news today; just to flag up some new resources and give advance warning of two webinars we’re doing on the 13th & 14th May. In a previous blog we mentioned we’d been working on some new guidance and a toolkit for Managing Financial Difficulties with Arts Council England.…
One of the most common workshop ice breakers asks you to tell your fellow participants something unexpected or quirky that they are not likely to know about you. I can still remember the shock and amusement when I confessed to my fellow Axis board members that I was a ‘Trekkie’ (for the uninitiated a fan…
…the provocation of hope is usually that a person is in some kind of trouble. (Lazarus and Lazarus, 1994: 72) A few years ago, I did some extensive research into arts and cultural organisations that were facing existential crises. I have to say it is quite sad to think how relevant that work has now…
When winds of change blow some build walls, others build windmills. Chinese proverb At the moment we are being asked to cope on many levels – individually, as families, with our peer groups and organisationally. Given how uncertain things are this is quite an ask, it’s no wonder there are moments of feeling overwhelmed or…
Its Friday selection box time again, here’s a few selected highlights from Susan and I for this week. The Coronavirus Time Capsule – Company Three An amazing project from the inspirational Company Three that has gone global, connecting teenagers across the world as they document their lives week by week. Huge ethical choices face those…
Just before the shutdown began, I was talking with one of my neighbours, a wonderful woman in her 80s who remembers the Nazi occupation of her native Holland. She remarked that the restrictions reminded her of that awful episode in that time was taking on the same odd quality: there was today when you focused…
As some of you know my creative practice is an important part of my life. I am not able to get to my studio at the moment and while I have often made work at home too, I have found it harder to focus at the moment. Last week, I was reminded of an exercise…
A lot of us, almost without warning, have experienced significant non-routine work as well as life changes. As a result, it is hard not to fill our thoughts with things that might have been – the cancelled exhibition, the postponed event, the tour that might never happen now. Not to mention the changes to personal…
Just in case your sense of time isn’t confused enough we’re sharing our Friday selection box on a Thursday. Sorry for any confusion that may cause! Susan and I are going to take a bit of a breather over Easter, time to reflect and recharge. We hope you will have the opportunity to do the…
Susan was a trustee of Clean Break, a women only theatre company that works with women who have experienced the criminal justice system. With Dawn’s help, Susan worked with the then Chief Executive to create a mess map. Mapping out the issues and the stakeholders helped us to understand why we could not solve our…
Last time we talked about messy problems, those problems with high levels of task complexity, today we are talking about wicked problems. Wickedness isn’t a degree of difficulty. Wicked issues are different because traditional processes can’t resolve them …. A wicked problem has innumerable causes, is tough to describe, and doesn’t have a right answer……
Last week, we started this mini-series with some thoughts about tame problems – the ones you know how to solve. Today we are looking at the rather more challenging area of messy problems. Messes are puzzles, rather than solving them, we resolve their complexities…We are increasingly faced with problems of organized complexity, clusters of interrelated…
Well, that was quite a week, and I confess I am pretty tired today. I feel a bit guilty saying that because I am not a key worker, I am not on the front line, I am just adjusting to my own little bubble and trying to make some sense of all that is happening.…