Management Philosophy

I received an email today from the Dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at Southern Utah University, Bill Byrnes. He headed up the Theatre Management program at Florida State my last year there. (Though I was five hours away doing an internship that whole year. He has been good about keeping in touch with FSU grads even after he left and has even enlisted our help providing real life information for his students’ projects. I actually lent a hand editing and commenting on the last edition of his Arts Management text.

Anyhow, his end of the year letter letting us know how things were going inspired me to check out the training program at his school. The thing that really caught my eye was the Guide for the Prospective MFA Graduate Student.

The guide answers a lot of the usual questions about assistantships, financial aid and admission deadlines. It discusses why one might want to attend graduate school, what sort of jobs arts administration encompasses and the difference between a M.A. and a M.F.A.

What I really liked was that they were very clear about what types of things they would be looking for on a resume that should accompany the application and they included an appendix that specifically outlined what should appear on the resume.

When I was an undergraduate, I had never held a job for which I had to submit a resume. I can appreciate that even with resources in books and on the internet, trying to put a resume together can be daunting. Many of those resources suggest formats that either aren’t appropriate or superfluous for jobs in the arts.

Likewise, they provide guidelines for the topics letters of recommendation should touch upon. Most importantly, they emphatically enjoin applicants not to procrastinate about asking people to write the letters, (with an implication that they may have to bug the recommenders a few times).

I applaud the program for providing some direction to make it a little easier on the applicants (and the review committee). The process is going to be tough enough for the prospects as it is and there will be plenty of other opportunities to screw things up during the process. As the title of the entry says, by providing this guide the training program at SUU is helping the applicant help them admit him/her.

I spent most of today as a caveman, thinking primarily about food and shelter to stay in character (and suffering the comments from co-workers saying it was no great strain upon me to act the part of a caveman). As a result I pondered little of great import today.

However, had I not been pursuing some Halloween fun, I doubt I could have posted anything half as insightful (and from some of the commentary, inciteful) as Drew McManus’ second installment recounting his experience working with arts management grad students at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Both installments are a good read, but the second one packs a punch with its discussion of results and conclusions from his exercise. Read both for the full context, but if you only have time for one, make it the second.

Drew has lead this activity before where he has graduate students roleplay a musician bargaining committee for an orchestra. I don’t know if Drew had a different scenario than when he was at the Eastman School of Music or if, as people familiar with the orchestra world, the Eastman students recognized the scenario as being within the realm of possibility. What brought the whole exercise the UW to a halt was the students’ disbelief that the financial statements they were looking at had any basis in reality.

In Drew’s first installation, the mock negotiation team essentially walks away from the table in disgust at the financial mismanagement and decide they are going to form their own orchestra.

In the second installation, Drew recounts his discussions with the students about how the apparently hopeless situation the students found themselves in was all too similar to ones with which orchestra musicians are confronted. Reading the entries brought back a flood of memories and emotions about a dismal experience I had working at a mismanaged theatre. Symphonies haven’t cornered the market on awful decision making.

For all the disillusionment and frustration it brought the UW students, I wish my graduate training program had offered a similar class to us. As Drew says, it helps dispel preconcieved notions and allows future managers to enter the profession with their eyes open. Although, when I ended up having that exact experience, I might have seen it as indicative of how it was everywhere and quit the arts immediately.

I recently came across this example of an employee training manual on Inc.com. The article is a few years old, but the manual excerpts that you can download immediately show that the company (Zingerman’s Deli) is interested in making the training process fun and empowering employees to contribute to the success of the company.

It isn’t tough to see how emulating Zingerman’s general approach for employees and volunteers can contribute to strengthening a relationship with and between them.

Last week Andrew Taylor put out a call for a part-time administrator for the Association of Arts Administration Educators. The comments which followed the entry debated if it were better to require someone to have significant experience in the arts or to hire a skilled administrator from another discipline with a more passing familiarity with arts administration.

The arguments on both sides being compelling, I can’t really decide on a general rule of thumb about whose resumes should be ranked more favorably by a search committee. I am, however, more and more convinced that having a clear sense of what will be constructive in advancing the organizational interests.

A month or so back I mentioned that the Honolulu Symphony got a new board chair, Curtis Lee. When I was listening to an interview with Mr. Lee, he mentioned how in his business customer service was the most important element. Since up until a week or so before taking the board chair post Mr. Lee headed a company owning the most car dealerships in the state, I cynically thought that this sentiment probably only applied up until they sold the car. For some brands, they have the monopoly and the next nearest dealer is 2,500 miles away.

Last night I had the misfortune of parking my car in the path of a man who is apparently offended by drive side view mirrors because he walked along smashing them. (My friends and I were lucky. There is another guy out there with homocidal thoughts toward tires and has been walking along the street slashing them.)

So this morning I drove down to the dealership to see if I could get my mirror replaced. I have to say I was a little shocked by the level of service. There was a man out in the driveway 20 minutes before the repair shop opened processing arrivals and directing them to open lanes. In the lanes I was greeted by another person who further processed and advised me about my repair very quickly. I got out of my car and someone moved it to another queue as I entered the lounge.

The lounge was HUGE. Coffee, danish and copies of the newspaper were situated at three locations. Comfortable seats were set in front of a flat screen television. There were also 6-8 cubicles with phones at which a person could work on a laptop computer and free WiFi service.

Two gentlemen entered the room and announced that one courtesy shuttle was heading west and the other east and began taking destinations and phone information for pick ups in the afternoon. It turned out there were more people needing rides than the shuttles would fit so they grabbed additional people from the office and keys to other vans. Destination was about 1/4 past their service area but they drove me anyway. (It was interesting that they chose Sam’s Club rather than the college I work at as the furtherest point.)

Unfortunately, the part needed for my car was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, the part actually needed is about $300 cheaper than anticipated. When I disembarked from the return shuttle I was handed a form with an appointment for repair already arranged and my poor car and I were off.

Now granted, one of people in the shuttle followed a remark about how wonderful the whole experience had been with the observation that our bills would let us know just how grateful we had been for the good treatment. The implication of his tone was that the extra $50 would be more palatable having received efficient and attentive service.

Mr. Lee may not know too much about symphonies. Dealer cash back incentive programs aren’t viable for classical music.(Unless Toyota is going to pay people to attend concerts.) But it will bode well for the Honolulu Symphony if he brings lessons learned in the car business to their organization. (And, of course, if the symphony takes them to heart.) A good experience can make the $60 paid for seats more palatable.

I have already started to formulate plans for small steps we can take to make our events more welcoming based on the experience I had today. Good lessons are where you find them.