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Will Typecasting Ruin New Zealand’s Career?

October 10, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

I was reading today that the New Zealand post will be issuing legal tender coins commemorative coins for the upcoming Hobbit movie. This appears to be the first issue of coins associated with a popular culture icon (unless you count those issued for the All Blacks rugby team whose haka performance is iconic of itself).

I was both filled with a sense of amazement and concern about this. The amazement was based on the concept that an entire country could find itself identified so closely with a non-native cultural icon. The built in fan base of millions of Tolkien enthusiasts is proving something of a boon to the country which hosts tours of the many sites that appeared in the Lord of the Rings movies. While there was some digital enhancement involved in many parts of the movie, the inspiring natural beauty of the country depicted in the movies is there to be experienced.

I am sure there are many New Zealanders who are tired of foreigners trampling about looking for movie locations and reciting dialogue from the movies, but on the whole from what I have read, the country has a general sense of pride in the attention the movies have brought them.

My concern is based on the exact same thing–that the country find itself identified so closely with the movies that everything else it has to offer becomes eclipsed. Believe me, where arts and culture is concerned, the country has plenty to offer. Of the last eight seasons in my theatre, easily half of them have featured artists whose appearance was due to support from Creative New Zealand.

Here in Hawaii you can tour the locations that appeared in Lost and Hawaii 5.0, but the state’s identity isn’t closely tied to those television shows. After the planes stopped flying on September 11, 2001 and tourism dropped during the economic downturn, there has been a sense that the state needs to be known for more than just tourism, too.

I am sure there is plenty of discussion in New Zealand along the same lines. Fame and reputation can be a double edged sword that enhances your life in the short term but can be detrimental in the long term. Actors run into the same problem when they play an iconic character and then find they are inevitably cast as that same type the rest of their career. Arts organizations cultivate an aura of prestige that attracts wealthy patrons but earns them the perception of being elitist.

Of course, one benefit of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies is that New Zealand has a much stronger infrastructure for making and distributing films so perhaps the world will become more familiar with the creative and cultural richness of the country through movies and other digital media.

I think the country has enough diversity to offer it won’t face the danger of being typecast as Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The stereotypes other countries and racial groups have to face are bad enough, imagine people expecting everyone from New Zealand to either be an elf, dwarf or hobbit. (Kiwi are too nice to be uruk-hai.)

Business Models, General Musings

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Note To Email Subscribers

October 9, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

Quick note to those who subscribe by email. Due to the uncertain future of Feedburner given Google’s waning support of the service, I have decided to use a WordPress based subscription process.

You can subscribe by entering your email address in the “Subscribe Via Email” box on the right side of the blog home page, hitting submit and following the instruction in a verification email that will be sent to you.

To those subscribers I emailed yesterday regarding this change, I apologize for sending your email addresses in the clear. I had created a group in my email program thinking it would suppress the individual email information. I didn’t realize it had not until after the email was sent.

I was dismayed that someone took immediate advantage of the situation to send a solicitation. Again, I apologize.

I will be monitoring the subscriber list for the next month or so and deactivating duplicate subscriptions on Feedburner so that you don’t receive double notifications of posts. Please let me know if I inadvertently miss your address.

Thanks to all of you for following me for so many years and I hope you will continue to do so in the future.

Uncategorized

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Fear of The Black Hat

October 9, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

I was intrigued last month by a post on the ArtsFWD website made by Liz Dreyer about Edward DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats group discussion and thinking process.

My first gut reaction that made this approach appeal to me was that it forces everyone in a discussion to act as a devil’s advocate and point out the problems with an idea. In many conversations either no one wants to appear pessimistic or there is that one guy who seems to revel in the role. With the Six Thinking Hats, everyone has to engage in that this type of thinking so that it isn’t avoided, nor is any individual resented for adopting that position.

In addition to taking a judgmental approach, Six Thinking Hats also requires the group to explore in turn: the straight facts of the situation; speak optimistically seeking the positive benefits; discuss feelings and hunches and creatively explore alternatives and new ideas. The whole process is bracketed by a “meta-thinking” hat that sets the rules about how the thinking will be done and evaluates the process when it is over.

Dreyer does a pretty good job of outlining how the group at EMCArts explored the Six Thinking Hats process so I don’t want to reiterate all the details.

As I mentioned, I liked that the process made everyone move between the different perspectives together which helps prevent a strong personality from dominating a conversation and consistently redirecting it toward their personal bias. I also suspect that participation would help each individual member strengthen their personal decision making abilities through practice and the example of others. If a person didn’t feel really confident about thinking creatively or trusting their hunches, contributing to a discussion where this type of thinking wasn’t suppressed and observing others more skilled at this type of thinking could help that person develop themselves.

If you are considering using this approach in meetings, I would suggest doing additional research on how to use it. Each hat isn’t used in equal measure. Some of the additional research I have done specifies that the Red Hat which embodies intuition and hunches only be used for 30 seconds in order to ensure the response is spontaneous and free of internal censoring (“Oh that is a stupid idea…”) There is also a warning, echoed by Dreyer’s post, not to let the critical devil’s advocate Black Hat get overused.

On the other hand, DeBono’s critics say that his approach emphasizes creativity and qualitative thinking rather than testing if empirical data actually bears the ideas out.

That said, if you are doing any grant writing at all in support of your programs you are probably being asked to provide enough empirical data to keep you grounded.

[hr]

By the way, the title of this post was pulled from the hilarious 90s hip-hop mockumentary, Fear of A Black Hat. Entirely unrelated to the subject of the post but worth checking out, especially if you grew up in 1980s and 90s because you will recognize a lot of the groups they are making fun of.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqp-aSPqQYc]

Advocacy, creativity, Leadership, Management Philosophy

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Please, Don’t Donate To Us

October 8, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

I got a little reminder about the need to shepherd your resources and occasionally refocus yourself on your core business last week when I did my semi-annual stint as an on air guest for the public radio stations.

I am really proud of them because not only have they raised enough money to erect transmitters in all but one major population center in the state, they have done so while reducing the number of days of their appeal from 10 to 8. I think they were inspired to shorten the fund drive by the fact they have generally reached their goals a day or so early the last few years.

Every time I go on, I usually bring some tickets to a show to give away as a thank you gift. I had suggested some appropriate shows when we were making the initial arrangements and was told it wasn’t necessary to offer tickets because they were de-emphasizing gifts in return for donations this year.

I know the stations has been using the message that the premium was the programming rather than the thank you gift for a number of years now. Actually, most public radio stations I have listened to take that approach. The idea is that you are giving so that you can continue to enjoy programming throughout the year, not so you can get a nifty t-shirt.

Thinking they had adopted a purist approach to the programming is the premium philosophy, I was eager to see how successful they might be. Turns out, they aren’t abandoning thank you gifts altogether, just scaling back a great degree.

I was told that because they have such a small staff to help with the gift fulfillment operations, they decided to stop soliciting gifts to give away because it requires so much tracking of where items have come from, if the stations have received the item or if there is a certificate to be exchanged for the item.

If you have ever tried to run an auction fundraiser yourself, you know what can be involved in this sort of activity.

Instead, they have elected to focus more on station branded shirts and tote bags and CD/DVDs associated with local and national radio shows. This way they had a standard group of items that could be processed in the same manner. The gifts provided by the local community tended to be a limited number of higher ticket items like celebrity chef dinners and spa weekends that required $500+ donations.

This new approach for the fund drive is a little new to everyone I guess. The on-air host during one of my segments asked me what goodies I had brought causing one of the coordinators to gesticulate madly indicating that I didn’t have anything. I covered by talking about the season brochures I had brought to help remind me about dates and times.

We often talk about how chasing grant money for programs and services outside your mission and capabilities can be detrimental to your organization. Sometimes you are also in a position where it is better to say no and refuse the gifts of well meaning people if doing so will strain your resources.

It can be very difficult to say no to a heart-felt offering. Many charities which help the poor and dispossessed would rather receive donations of cash rather than food and clothing because the latter requires items to be inspected, evaluated, sanitized and often discarded, all of which diverts staff time and energy.

Groups can be afraid of the ill-will they might generate by appearing ungrateful and refusing the donations and feel obligated to accept. However, there are some alternatives according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy article recently reprinted on Guide Star. Some of the options include redirecting people to groups who will take the donation, a move that can help bolster the creditability of your organization.

Of course, that probably won’t satisfy the ardent long time supporter that wants their gesture to benefit your organization. The Chronicle of Philanthropy article mentions that many charities have disaster plans which outline how they will deal with the out pouring of generosity that may result from a disaster. These plans include responses to donations they are not willing or able to accept.

It may be worthwhile to develop a similar plan to respond to the undesired generosity of a strong supporter so you are prepared for that situation as well.

Fundraising, State of the Arts

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