8/9/2019 AP143 - Rising to the Occasion (Sounding Board 9 Apr 07)

1/110 ArtsProfessional 9 April 2007 editors@artsprofessional.co.uk

The problem of leadership in the arts is often tackled by recourse to training and the increasing of skills levels.Graham Leicester argues that a change in approach is required if arts leaders are to move the sector forward.

Real cultural leadership

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate tothe stormy present. The occasion is piled highwith difficulty, and we must rise to the

occasion. So said Abraham Lincoln in 1862. This wasthe quote that came to mind as I looked into the stateof people-development in the arts and cultural sector.People like me trained for the dogmas of the quietpast are struggling in the stormy present. .

This is not a phenomenon unique to the arts. Welive in powerful times, in unprecedented conditions of

boundless complexity, rapid change and informationoverload. Harvard psychologist Robert Kegan had itright in the early 1990s when he wrote his book In OverOur Heads1. Human Resources departments haveconcluded that we require much more roundedindividuals to thrive in this environment. Jobspecifications for senior managers and leaders haveadded layer upon layer of desirable skills andexperience to keep up with the multi-faceted nature ofnew challenges. The result is that senior roles now askfor a range of human capacities little short of themiraculous. The desirable characteristics of corporateleaders according to the Financial Times, now include

having a fiercely sharp intellect, being a black belt inpeople skills, being genuinely intellectually curiousabout the world, while also boasting superb energylevels and a certain personal humility.

Arts requirementsAEA Consultings Critical Issues Facing the Arts inCalifornia2 lists the following senior management skillsin the arts: board development and management,program design and administration, strategic planningand financial modelling, public relations and advocacy,marketing and branding, education, real estatedevelopment, commercial licensing, capital formationand fundraising, as well as a talent for diplomatically

balancing the interests of diverse constituencies andresponding to the changing regulatory environment inthe wake of Sarbanes-Oxley. With admirableunderstatement they conclude, this is a tall order tofill. We have reached the point where we are asking forsuper-human capacities in our leaders and seniormanagers: everything short of walking on water.

Consistently asking for the impossible has humancosts: high turnover, levels of dissatisfaction, stress,extended sick leave and burn out. Richard Floridas Riseof the Creative Class3 has become a blueprint for manycities seeking to harness the potential of the creative

economy. Yet it turns out that the incidence of stress

and anxiety disorders is markedly higher in the USregions that score best on his Global Creativity Index.The high energy, flexible, cosmopolitan, small-organisation-dominated creative economy is placinggreater strains on the psyche than we are able safely toabsorb. Florida labels these externalities concludingthat the creative economy is a sustainable notion onlyif it sits within a creative society. In other words, thesteady accumulation of specialist skills by the would-be leaders of the creative class is a hiding to nothing.We need a society-wide upgrading of capabilities toflourish in the buzzing confusion of the 21st century.

Arts offerWhich brings me to the good news. At a time ofcultural crisis that transcends sectors, organisations andsocieties, the arts and cultural sector can take a lead byproviding three vital resources: 21st century people: The arts are a natural medium

for cultural evolution and the development of thequalities we need to thrive in the 21st century. Artsand culture are the crucible in which theconsciousness of tomorrow will be formed.

Creative ad-hocracies4: 21st century people need

21st century organisations. The loose, highlyorganic, flexible, collaborative, cross-disciplinary,creative ad-hocracies that thrive in the arts arepromising candidates as settings for people togrow and develop the new consciousness. Suchsettings will be in increasing demand.

Real cultural leadership: in powerful times the taskof leadership is to help evolve the culture.

California senator John Vasconcellos says we needto be hospice workers for the dying culture andmidwives for the new. This is real culturalleadership.Suffice it to say that we need 21st century people

nurtured in 21st century organisations that supportcultural leaders able to transgress rules and norms inways that transmute how they are personally affectedby the culture into creative action that midwives thefuture.5 This is not easy. We are still looking for anappropriate form for the 21st century leading-edge artsand cultural organisation. It must be able to perform

the ordinary as well as the extraordinary tasks; it must

be able to support a sense of moral purpose beyond itsown survival; it must nurture and support its membersover time in a challenging environment; and it must paygenerous and caring attention to the needs of the oldculture while midwifing the new. The discovery of thisform (and it will be discovered, not invented) will be acritical advance for all sectors and we are likely tofind it first in the arts.

TransformationIt is common to talk of the power of the arts andculture to transform lives and communities (to quoteArts Council England). But that does not happenautomatically. To transform others we must be

transforming ourselves. To perform these acts ofalchemy we must maintain the alchemists fragile,intriguing relationship with mainstream science. Theethical philosopher Martha Nussbaum spoke of thefragility of goodness a fragility that is yet enduringand never capitulates. This is the strength I see in thearts and cultural sector.

We certainly need to learn how the sector as awhole can become more organisationally andfinancially sustainable. And, at the same time, weshould recognise that just like any other domain this sector has a growing edge. It is the practice at theedge that draws me, the competencies, the mindsets,

the behaviours, the experiences, the organisationalforms that are developing there. The arts are choosingthe fragile form of ad-hocracy because they have to. Itis the most creative. But in todays powerful timesmany more of us will have to find the courage andresilience to live there.I

Graham Leicester is Director of the International

Futures Forum.

w : www.internationalfuturesforum.com

His paper Rising to the Occasion: Cultural

Leadership in Powerful Times can be

downloaded at

www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk1 Kegan, R. (1995) In over our heads: the mental demands of

modern life, Harvard University Press, ISBN-10: 0674445880.

2 AEA Consulting, Critical Issues Facing the Arts in California, (The

James Irvine Foundation, 2006)

3 Florida, R. (2004) The rise of the creative class, Basic Books,

ISBN-10: 0465024777.

4 The ad-hocracy is an organisational form popularised by

management theorist Henry Mintzberg. As the name implies, it is

loose, highly organic, flexible, a tent rather than a palace, and

often brings individuals together in a temporary st ructure in

order to progress a specific project.

5 Aftab Omer, Leadership and the Creative Transformation of

Culture (Shift: 2005 journal of the Insitute of Imaginal Studies)

Graham Leicester

International Futures Forum

M ission, M od els, M oney

We have reached the point where we

are asking for super-human

capacities in our leaders and senior

managers: everything short of

walking on water.

Mission, Models, Money (MMM) set out toexplore and promote new approaches and newsolutions to the key issues that affect financialand organisational sustainability and thechallenges of introducing new business andfmodels and ways of funding. But of course, the

arts is at heart a human system. There can be nosustainable sector without sustainable people:that is, people who are equipped, motivated andsupported to guide the development of the newways of operating that a rapidly changingenvironment demands. Graham Leicesters paper

for MMM frames the challenges that face us asindividuals and as organisations in a new andcompelling way and inspires us to believe thatthe world of arts and culture is well positionedto nurture a new kind of cultural leadership fortoday's turbulent world.