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Can we learn enough from current times to not get caught off-guard during the next downturn?  Or is the more important question, how do we learn enough from current times so that our organizations are on the right course in the future?  In other words, how do we right the ship so the next wind doesn’t blow us over?

Let’s finally be honest, many of us weren’t prepared for the economy to get this bad – personally and organizationally.  And some of us still have our heads in the sand or clouds about what is happening, how long it will last, or where we are on the spectrum of the current economy.  My personal feeling is that for the arts, the bumpy road is still ahead and we are just beginning to see some of the challenges of a new fiscal reality.

That’s right, not a downturn, a new reality.  Things will get better but they will never be the same.  Perhaps we don’t even really know what they were in the recent past.  Certainly many organizations were not on solid fiscal ground or as healthy as they could have been prior to October of last year.

But the economy’s largest effect on the cultural institutions and artists hasn’t really had much to do with money.  Instead it has simply divulged some major cracks in the foundation of the country’s arts and culture ecosystem.

I also firmly that social and economic situations ebb and flow regularly.  We live in a constantly shifting cultural landscape and always have.  Technology, science, and knowledge have a greater effect on culture than economics.  The fundamental problem we face could have been exposed in many ways, a major world war, a deadly pandemic, or natural catastrophe could have opened eyes as well.  It was just that the collapse of the world economy that struck first.

So what are we learning, what is being exposed, now that our eyes are open, what do we see?  And more importantly what do we do about it?

I think the last 30 years made us forget the roots of cultural and arts experiences.  We veered away from the true importance and fundamental need of story-telling and expression – whether we were guided to more commercial enterprises or towards building architectural castles that organizations couldn’t run, many of us are off-course and some of us are lost in the wilderness.  The basic concept of why we create art in the first place has been lost in the muckety-muck of running an organization.  We have to re-center ourselves and our organizations.  If the art is at the center of everything we do and every decision we make our organizations will flourish in our communities.  If we think of the art first we will be able to right-size our organizations.  If we put the art out in front we will know what tools and tactics we should use to communicate about the art.  If we talk about why we create art in our specific communities we will create a dialogue with our friends, neighbors, and audiences that will inform the art we do.

Yesterday, I posted about a theater that fired the artistic director because the board was going to make decisions based on finances.  The board president commented that he knew the business side of the organization and not the theater side.  I emphatically stress – the business is theater.   They are one.

Everyone in the arts needs to remember the business is the art.  We need our board members to understand this clearly or get off the board.  We need our donors to know this is our priority.  We need our communities to know this is at the heart of each and every step we take.  Most importantly we, artists and administrators, MUST get back to the art, all of our energy and decisions must come first from the art.  Of course this is eventually filtered through the mission, then through our communities needs, and then through a fiscally responsible and sustainable process of execution.

The best thing we can do to prepare the upcoming challenges, the new reality we are in, and future shifts we will face, is get back to the absolute basics.  I know this topic has come up before, but it can’t come up often enough.

Ironically, while catching up on my emails this afternoon, I stumbles upon the following Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Publishing.  I hope folks take a moment and think about the fact that if the leading publisher in business theories and practices is telling us to focus on “what the point of our work is” perhaps we should listen.  This is how we will flourish in the modern renaissance that has already begun.  Let’s not miss the opportunity.  In this day and age, I don’t think we can afford to blow it.

From Harvard Business Publishing Management Tip of the Day, June 9, 2009:

Leadership to Prevent the Next Recession

There is debate about whether the recession could have been prevented and what role business leaders played in creating it. However, the more important question will be: what have we learned? Here are three rules the recession has taught leaders to follow:

1. Prevent problems. Business culture focuses on problem-solving, but true leaders need to figure out how to avoid problems in the first place.
2. Keep two lists. One list is what motivates you and the other is what worries you. Know yourself before you tackle your business and you will be a more effective leader.
3. Focus on the “so what?” Leaders need to know what the point of their work is. To create stakeholder value? Keep customers? Make the world a better place? Post-recession, what should the ultimate goal of your organization’s work be?

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Three Rules for These Times” by Alan M. Webber – Read the full post and join the discussion

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