Seek Thy Successors!

Given rising concerns in the arts industry about the lack of succession planning and dearth of qualified people to assume organizational reins when the current leadership retires, I thought a recent piece on the Chronicle of Higher Education on recruitment had some relevance.

The article is mainly aimed at academic departments looking for faculty but there are some basic ideas that are good places to start when analyzing one’s search and hiring practices in any profession. Books on the topic may ultimately be more helpful, but reading the article may also make you realize you need to consult those books.

The core focus is on recruitment for positions rather than just advertising them and waiting for people to apply. The author, Gary A. Olson, who is dean of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University, suggests disseminating information in discipline specific journals and online forums.

The most labor and resource intensive option he suggests is letters soliciting nominations and applications for the position, the more personal, sincere and un-form letter like, the better. Before you dismiss this out of hand as something only big businesess might do, I received two such letters for arts management jobs in the last six months. One was for an executive level position, the other middle management. If it weren’t for the fact that I had no desire to be involved in either field, I might have considered applying. More to the point, active recruiting efforts in the performing arts are out there and the practice is likely to become more prevalent.

Something that I would not have really considered which Olson says is mandatory if you really want to sell the position is the creation of a website exclusively devoted to the search.

“Effective sites will contain more than a position statement and a list of committee members. The objective here is to make the site useful for the candidate, not the committee. The search site should contain links to sites that will best promote the institution and the community, so the key question to ask in constructing a site is, “‘If I were a first-time visitor to the institution, what information would help me understand what I might be getting into were I to accept a position here?'”

Olson also cautions against various self-destructive practices like succumbing to the desire to grill, rather than woo, a candidate; airing organizational dirty laundry; extending poor hospitality and failing to search for solutions in final negotiations for the position.

What I hope not to see, however, is the emergence of recruiting practices similar to those connected with musical directors in the orchestra world where a very small group of big name people are wooed by multiple organizations to the exclusion of all others. That will only serve to exacerbate the panic over succession. (Unless I happen to emerge as a member of that small group, in which case it sounds like a grand idea.)

Leader, Manage Thy Self

Are you a listener or a reader? If you don’t have any idea what I am talking about, you may want to take a look at Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself,” an article that has been reprinted in the Harvard Business Review a number of times. I first got my hands on it at the Arts Presenters Emerging Leadership Institute in January and have read it about three or four times since then. (It is only 11 pages long.)

As one might imagine from the title, the main thrust of the article deals with self-examination as a way of self-improvement. What he suggests isn’t a “12 Easy Steps to a Better You” program. If anything, he believes trying to adopt another’s practices is likely to make you miserable. He also observes that people often think they know what their strengths and weaknesses are but are usually wrong. (So if you are miserable in your current position, read it!)

In addition to knowing ones strengths and weakness, he feels it is important for people to know how they perform. That is where the whole reader or listener question comes in along with learning how one learns, what environments one thrives most in and what ones values are. Then, given your knowledge about how you best operate in relation to these factors, what is it you can contribute? Drucker gives a number of interesting examples of how men like Patton, JFK, Eisenhower and Churchill were hampered by situations which emphasized their weaker areas.

Once you have obtained this self-knowledge, Drucker urges you to recognize that everyone around you is an individual operating in varying degrees to the same criteria, have different ways of achieving success and therefore need different things from you to realize that success.

“Whenever someone goes to his or her associates and says, “This is what I am good at. This is how I work. These are my values. This is the contribution I plan to concentrate on and the results I should be expected to deliver,” the response is always, “This is most helpful. But why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

And one gets the same reaction – without exception, in my experience-if one continues by asking, “And what do I need to know about your strengths, how you perform, your values, and your proposed contribution?” In fact, knowledge workers should request this of everyone with whom they work, whether as subordinate, superior, colleague, or team member. And again, whenever this is done, the reaction is always, “Thanks for asking me. But why didn’t you ask me earlier?” Organizations are no longer built on force but on trust. The existence of trust between people does not necessarily mean that they like one another. It means that they understand one another.”

Yes, I know there is a certain irony in expecting people who don’t learn best by reading to gain maximum benefit of Drucker’s message through reading.

The Bionic Theatre Manager

I have been away for a few days, thus the lack of postings on my usual schedule. My thoughts have not been far from arts management though so I offer up the following article on the dearth of qualified theatre managers which appeared in the January 2007 American Theatre. The article was scanned and posted by Brooklyn College so some portions of the text may not be completely legible.

Jim Volz echoes the concerns I heard at the Arts Presenters conference regarding succession planning. The primary aim of the piece is to examine the academic and non-academic paths to executive level leadership of theatres. There are a lot of people worried about the lack of highly skilled leaders coming up the ranks to replace those who retire or are lured away.

The shortage of savvy, experienced theatre managers is evidenced by the number of long time managing directors of flagship regional theatres…who have been recently been recruited away or have played musical chairs with other theatres. Oftentimes, there’s a demoralizing institutional toll (that’s seldom talked about) when management leaders leave their theatres; this definitely has a snowball (or avalanche) effect on the board and the remaining personnel…

…Tired of the turnover and dealing with what many consider the “two-headed monster,” many boards turn to an already beleaguered artistic director to run the whole show.”

While sexier areas of acting and directing lure many people of a theatrical bent away from management, the elements Volz and many quoted in the article blame for the shortage of quality managers is that other profit and non-profit endeavors promise better pay and quality of life. Though managers are hardly alone since actors, directors and technicians all experience the same scenario.

A debate that appears throughout the article is whether academic training is necessary for success. Like the Bionic Man I allude to in my title, people can’t decide what needs to be implanted by others to make you strong and what muscles one can develop by oneself. Everyone seems to agree that practical experience is an absolute. There is an implication in the comments of some (perhaps due to the way they were quoted) that academic training may not be necessary at all.

My personal view is that formal classroom training in legal matters-contracts, accounting, human resources– can avoid a lot of serious trouble in the future. Formal training in personnel relations and conflict resolution practices can avoid a lot of heartbreak and resentment in a field where high pressure, long hours and low pay can breed a great deal of both. I can speak from experience that instruction in writing and graphic design elements won’t make people into good writers. But unless you are possessed of talent and discipline, you probably won’t be offered a paid opportunity to hone your skills with experience.

It only makes sense that if you were teaching someone all these skills, you would place it in the context of theatrical practice with courses on that very subject. There is a high likelihood, after all, that a theatre manager may wear the hats of marketer, bookkeeper, personnel director, programmer and graphic designer. So in my opinion, an academic program with opportunities for good practical experiences can be a real value for a fledgling manager.

One thing that many in the article agreed upon is that managers of the future need to be possessed of management skills and artistic vision. Given that the article mentions managers don’t have the time to mentor subordinates or even each other and the report on the field that Neill Archer Roan presented to Arts Presenters said that managers rarely found the time to review and assess articles on the latest research and theory, the only place a manager is likely to acquire these skills is in a formal training program.

In reality, the proficiency that really needs to be acquired is flexible thinking. As students were taking classes to master the classes of an academic program, they should be constantly challenged to assess emerging situations in arts, entertainment in the world as a whole. The act of evaluation should be second nature by the time a student emerges from a program.

While I obviously think people should possess solid training in all the skill and knowledge areas I mention above, John McCann of Virgina Tech is singing my song in the article when he is quoted as saying-

Today’s focus is preparing folk to manage and lead yesterday’s organizations…The solution, McCann believes, is to “focus more on leadership competencies and less on functional management training-challenge young potential leaders to be creative, intuitive and open to new ideas.”

If I Could Save Time In A Bottle…

…seems to be the theme of an arts manager’s life according to the APAP commissioned Conversations with the Field report I had written on earlier. People are busy trying to achieve so much that they fear they are losing sight of their organizational mission.

According to the report they are desperate for new tools and techniques to help alleviate their burdens.

“…the online information that is posted and distributed doesn’t adequately address the challenges confronted in today’s current business climate.

Therefore, many desire what they perceive to be relevant data, up-to-date news and useful statistics in their inbox. In essence, members are seeking tools that will afford more marketplace leverage and resources that will enhance their capacity to succeed in the earned and contributed income arenas.

However, when asked – in specific terms – what these improved tools and informational tools would look like, respondents were vague and impressionistic. They don’t know exactly what they want, but they believe that what they’re getting is not meeting their needs. This unease and discontent signals how the field feels that it is harder and harder to succeed in mission-delivery.” (pg 14-15)

I won’t even pretend that this blog approaches adequately addressing todays business climate. Sometimes I hardly have enough time in the day to ponder what I am going to write much less do a thorough analysis job. What I really thought was interesting about this section of the report is that people can’t specifically describe what sort of tools and information they want provided to them. They know they need help and the resources they are aware of aren’t providing it. But what form the help should come in, they don’t know.

Note I say “the resources they are aware of.” I suspect part of the problem is that they don’t have the time to review and assess–or even seek out–all the resources that are actually available.

One of the last report findings I cited in my earlier entry was that reviewing and discussing reports, initiatives and literature about the field hasn’t been valued. Now that the demands of ones time are so much greater, there probably isn’t much hope of reversing this trend. (Though the rise of forum discussions and arts management blogs might help.)

I also think that people in the field are vaguely aware of all the cheap technological tools that are appearing like social networking and video sharing sites. They have a sense that these things can be helpful, but they aren’t quite sure how due to lack of time to explore them. They know that chances are, help is out there and within easy grasp. After all, technological improvements are always newer, faster, cheaper and easy to use!

Without a deeper understanding of what each category of advancement is, hearing about all these brand new wonderful things can be overwhelming. I have a feeling that a lot of these arts leaders might be secretly wishing they had the time for someone to come in and explain it all in detail to them outlining how each tool is or is not appropriate for their organization.

It occurred to me that this all describes a segment of the population the arts are trying to reach. Reading and discussing about the arts hasn’t been valued. They hear wonderful things about attending The Lion King, The Drowsy Chaperon, the orchestra, the ballet. Their maturing income and entertainment preferences make them more inclined to attend. But they don’t have the time to acquire the tools to let them master and enjoy the experience. If only someone would explain it!

The answer is the same for both groups. Those with the information have to find a way to deliver the initial enabling tools to those who seek it. Packaging the tools in a way that makes it appear easy and appealing to access them in the first place and then motivate people to continue to acquire additional mastery and knowledge is the real trick.

How much you wanna bet that the correct mode(s) of delivery is similar for both groups and that the medium through which the time strained arts managers receive their answers is the one they will turn around and use as a delivery vehicle for their communities?