I've offered a few posts recently on the craft and qualities of language in advancing purposeful work. Torbert et al's "four parts of speech" described the different colors on the palette of a well-crafted conversation. Schein's four forms of inquiry added detail and depth to one of those types of speech. But to me, the most essential and the most often missing aspect of any productive conversation is the frame. … [Read more...]
Thinking and speaking
Most of us have been admonished from an early age to "think before you speak." But it turns out that speaking doesn't work that way. Studies in psycholinguistics (Smith and Wheeldon 1999, for example) suggest that humans routinely dive into spoken sentences without a plan for how they will end. We do some basic preprocessing of the opening phrase, and perhaps some sketching around how it might end. But otherwise we're constructing the sentence as we say it. Just notice yourself speaking at some moment today, and see what you do. … [Read more...]
Four Forms of Inquiry
In my last post, I shared four forms of speech (Torbert et al) that define a richer and clearer palette of conversation in meetings (or in life). The two I find most absent or abused in purposeful conversation are inquiring and framing. So I wanted to dig into each of them in turn. … [Read more...]
The Four Parts of (Meeting) Speech
With a new academic year now begun, I'm noticing again how odd and awful meetings can be. People of strong intellect and good intent, when gathered over an agenda (or a lack thereof), so often get lost in weeds and hand-wringing. Words are spoken. Heads are nodded. And you leave the meeting without knowing what exactly you discussed or decided. … [Read more...]
Beware the volunteer sentence
It can be comforting when a solution or a path presents itself to you as the obvious choice. When you feel comfortable moving to the next problem or question without even thinking much about the one at hand. Problem is, if you're crafting something extraordinary, that obvious, unconsidered choice can also be damaging. It's often drawn from habit, from ritual, from previous assumption. And great organizations aren't built from habit. … [Read more...]
Noticing before knowing
My favorite books about writing are really books about thinking, and crafting those thoughts into powerful, public form. So, whenever I'm in a thinking thicket -- as I was for the development and delivery of my aesthetics/entrepreneurship course this past semester, "The Art of the Arts Venture" -- I look for insight in books about writing. … [Read more...]
Shock and ‘Eh’
I've been to enough 'creative economy' presentations to know how they generally flow: They draw a big circle and then flash a big number. The big circle includes lots of creative industries -- from nonprofit to full-on-profit. The big number comes from their aggregated economic activity. The message is, essentially: Holy cow, we're big. Therefore we're important. Pay attention. Make nice with us. … [Read more...]
Cultural strategies, structures, and subtexts
Theater journal has just published my review of Peter Frumkin and Ana Kolendo's book on cultural construction projects: Building for the Arts: The Strategic Design of Cultural Facilities (University of Chicago Press: 2014). Here's the opening excerpt. The full review is available for download (pdf format). … [Read more...]
The platform problem
Apple, Inc. has done a(nother) clever thing. In the midst of helping its customers succeed in individual goals through its iPhone and iOS systems, the company has also built resources to help groups and individuals succeed in working with each other. The App Store and iTunes are the most obvious examples. But the company has doubled down on the approach more recently. Apple isn't just a product or software company, it's a platform company, which is worth the attention of arts and culture managers. … [Read more...]
The dominant problem
Most of us would admit that our work comprises a complex bundle of interconnected problems. Each day we attack the particular problems in front of us (or the problems that pop up or pop into our workspace). And each day, we’re aware that there are more problems than we can actually solve. … [Read more...]