I’m really wrestling with this one, Andrew. So much to process. Is creating the conditions within which meaningful work can emerge a product of good management? Indisputably, yes, in my experience. Management plays a critical role in setting the stage for good work to emerge. An arts organization’s culture, the people it attracts and keeps, its clarity and determination to go beyond audience-building to finding the right audience…These are all pieces of the management puzzle. Artists need audiences who bring enough to the work so that it can resonate and thrive. In any event, organizations who fail in emergence wither and die, no matter how “well-managed” they might be. No amount of doing things right will ever amount to as much as doing the right thing. I may be misguided but I wouldn’t underestimate management’s ability to impact emergence. If I’ve missed your point; I apologize. I just feel like one of the serious pathologies in arts organizations is that management is too often let “off the hook” in terms of creating emergent experiences. Accountability’s edges—when it comes to creating meaning and lasting work—are so very blurry. Thanks for a provocative read. I always appreciate your ability to get me thinking.
Thanks Neill. I'm so grateful for your feedback/pushback, as it helps me clarify (for myself and others) what I mean. Always a journey. My intention here was not to suggest that management is useless, and that emergent outcomes should be left to their own energies and trajectories. Rather, I'm interrogating what, exactly, a manager can manage.
As you suggest, the useful answer has something to do with creating, encouraging, coaxing, nudging, or perhaps simply attempting to name and defend "the conditions within which meaningful work can emerge." That's quite different than the conventional framing of management as "planning, organizing, leading, and controlling."
I also notice that many of the outcomes promised in a typical arts nonprofit mission statement are beyond direct control. And unless the board, executives, staff, contractors, and volunteers are aware of that, they can expend energy and effort in ways that don't matter, or at worst, diminish the odds. I've observed and lived that experience more than once.
I’m really wrestling with this one, Andrew. So much to process. Is creating the conditions within which meaningful work can emerge a product of good management? Indisputably, yes, in my experience. Management plays a critical role in setting the stage for good work to emerge. An arts organization’s culture, the people it attracts and keeps, its clarity and determination to go beyond audience-building to finding the right audience…These are all pieces of the management puzzle. Artists need audiences who bring enough to the work so that it can resonate and thrive. In any event, organizations who fail in emergence wither and die, no matter how “well-managed” they might be. No amount of doing things right will ever amount to as much as doing the right thing. I may be misguided but I wouldn’t underestimate management’s ability to impact emergence. If I’ve missed your point; I apologize. I just feel like one of the serious pathologies in arts organizations is that management is too often let “off the hook” in terms of creating emergent experiences. Accountability’s edges—when it comes to creating meaning and lasting work—are so very blurry. Thanks for a provocative read. I always appreciate your ability to get me thinking.
Thanks Neill. I'm so grateful for your feedback/pushback, as it helps me clarify (for myself and others) what I mean. Always a journey. My intention here was not to suggest that management is useless, and that emergent outcomes should be left to their own energies and trajectories. Rather, I'm interrogating what, exactly, a manager can manage.
As you suggest, the useful answer has something to do with creating, encouraging, coaxing, nudging, or perhaps simply attempting to name and defend "the conditions within which meaningful work can emerge." That's quite different than the conventional framing of management as "planning, organizing, leading, and controlling."
I also notice that many of the outcomes promised in a typical arts nonprofit mission statement are beyond direct control. And unless the board, executives, staff, contractors, and volunteers are aware of that, they can expend energy and effort in ways that don't matter, or at worst, diminish the odds. I've observed and lived that experience more than once.
So true and wise! This one touched my heart this morning. Thanks!
Thanks Nancy. Glad it resonated!