I’m seeing a lot of discussion at the moment about how we take the arts and culture sector forward; that this moment of massive disruption should be used as an opportunity to make some important changes happen. I have seen pleas to give more recognition to our massive range of amazing freelancers (thumbs up from me!), for every board to include at least one artist, for funding to be more flexible and follow people rather than institutions, for more attention and support to be given to artists generally. I have also been very humbled by the feedback Susan and I have had about seeing and hearing strong female voices during the crisis, diversity is as powerful a need now as it has ever been, if not more so.
I have been thinking about what my view might be on where we go next and it has to be a call for creative organisations being genuinely ‘creative.’ Not just in terms of our programmes and delivery but in the way, we organise ourselves. It is time for really examining and testing our organisational designs. So often I see solidified hierarchies rather than flexibility, I see multiple tiers even in the smaller organisations and I see boards that want to stick with what ‘works’ (i.e., what everyone knows) rather than try something new.
I also still see disciplines where it is important to have the right title in terms of career progression. For some years I was known as ‘Recovery Programme Manager’ apart from those who knew about the Arts Council’s Recovery Programme, my job title meant absolutely nothing to anyone else. I was concerned this might be a drawback but actually found most of the time it gave me enormous flexibility and that worked really well for me.
In the midst of all this meandering I found myself reflecting back on last week’s Charette post, I love those two questions:
- How might we?
- How have others?
Here goes…
How might we give our teams more autonomy?
How might we let goals run us rather than ‘management or leadership’?
How might we introduce more play and fun into our organisations?
How might we discover and genuinely use all the talent in our organisations – wherever it is?
How might we kill off the hierarchies?
How might we involve artists, communities, partners, and other sectors in shaping or running our organisations?
How might we learn from each other more?
How might we tear up the job descriptions, ban the annual appraisal and stop being run by meetings?
How might we make organisational reflexivity a funding condition?
How might we build our insights – send people off on adventures for a week, a month, three months, a year?
How might we tell out stories differently as creative organisations?
How might we create organisations where people’s job titles are to be adventurers, inspirers, challengers, disruptors, experimenters, supporters…?
How might we challenge the view that working in the arts is a privilege, and we are self-motivated, so we should put up with questionable terms and conditions?
How might we acknowledge creativity wherever it sits in our organising?
How might we tear up the rule book and start again?
If you wonder how might others…take a look at Buurtzorg, Propellernet, Wildling Shoes, /ut7…
I know some of these things will probably never change, some might argue the systems are too embedded, the power structures won’t allow it, it’ll never happen – or it might even make things worse! I suspect they were probably some of the arguments flying around when men were deciding if we could have the vote. For me the bigger issue is not being brave enough to ask the questions, and therefore not even trying.
You might also be shouting at the screen that your organisation already does all this and more. Fantastic! Let me know. I want to put together some short case studies to show how we can organise creatively, if ever there was time for us to learn from you it’s now.
This piece has been edited several times because it did get, well, a bit of a rant. Hopefully, not so much now because I don’t want that to get in the way of you being able to join me in asking some of these questions of ourselves.
I finish with a quote, which although it doesn’t apply to arts and cultural organisations directly is a pretty salutary challenge.
Our proposition is that employees are inherently creative but their creative efforts are thwarted by organizations which in actuality provide hostile grounds for creativity.
(Raharso, 2019: 297)
Dawn
Reference
RAHARSO, A. 2019. The misinterpretation of organizational creativity: Errors in problem definition. In: ABDULLAH, A. G., WIDIATY, I. & ABDULLAH, C. U. (eds.) Global Competitiveness: Business Transformation in the Digital Era: Proceedings of the First Economics and Business Competitiveness International Conference (EBCICON 2018), September 21-22, 2018, Bali, Indonesia. London: Routledge.