An Ideation Summit is a process that transforms stakeholders with divergent interests into collaborators. It provides a roadmap for identifying, clarifying and activating solutions. NAS has built an event that does just this, The Summit at Sundance. We’ve designed a process that empowers a group of colleagues to harness their collective brainpower and wisdom and tackle tough challenges facing their work. Our first Ideation Summit brought CEOs together to collectively work on real-world solutions to four key problems facing the field. The … [Read more...]
Marginal Thinking & Our Personal Boundaries
Clayton Christensen eloquently takes the conventional business idea of marginal thinking and applies it to personal decision-making, in this Harvard Business School piece. We may think that making a decision to cross our personal boundaries “just this once” might have a low/marginal cost, but when we begin to weigh the actual costs, we could end up bankrupt or down the rabbit hole of lies and deception. Christensen asks us to question our personal values and morals. That's what the devil and angel on our shoulders are for, right? How do you … [Read more...]
Values: A Part of the Everyday
Our personal values relate to decisions we make every day. Even the most mundane according to, Joel Urbany, author of How to Make Values Count in Everyday Decisions. We know, this got us all thinking about what it says about you when you leave your desk for that third cup of coffee or that you always eat out for lunch. Urbany dives into the term values-based decision making and draws a direct line between organizational values and those of individual employees, noting that this directly effects the overall decision making ability of an … [Read more...]
Get to Know Your Team
“There is a real reason for getting to know the people you’re working with.” Surry Scheerer, executive coach and lecturer at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and Ford School of Public Policy, suggests that leaders and their organizations take a more mindful approach to building and supporting teams. Sheerer emphasizes the importance of team building whether your team exists in a conference room or through virtual means. How do personal values influence teamwork? Do you know what your colleagues value most? Tell us in … [Read more...]
Constructive Conflict
Jeff DeGraff, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, expands on the Competing Values Framework, sharing how the creation of constructive conflict allows for internal innovation. How do you see constructive conflict in your own values? Do you see this between your personal values and that of your organization? Tell us in the comments section or at #ValuesNAS. … [Read more...]
A Return to The Competing Values Framework
The Competing Values Framework is one of the best tools that allows organizations to assess their internal culture. You can have each staff or team member share the current and preferred values of the organization, analyzing where “competing values” fall. This exercise gives employees buy-in and provides space for the sharing of organizational and personal core values. Check out our original post on the Competing Values Framework that appeared on Field Notes in December 2012. You can see what we learned by completing the exercise internally … [Read more...]
Do Your Values Actually Mean Something?
In this Harvard Business Review article, Patrick M. Lencioni discusses how constructing organizational core values is not a simple or meaningless task. We cannot and should not establish values because “we think we should” or “it’s the right thing to do.” They must be based on true meaning and upheld to the highest standard. Ensuring the core values of an organization resonate positively with employees is essential. Lencioni states that core values should be integrated with every employee-related process in the organization and that … [Read more...]
An Arts Advocacy Conversation in Salt Lake City, UT
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts represents an arts institution that sits within and reports to an institution run by folks outside the field - The University of Utah. A staff member of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts speaks with University President, David Pershing on he views and values the arts. When I say “the arts,” what does that mean to you? The term, “the arts,” symbolizes to me all that is stimulating to the sense in a profound way in the performing arts – from beautiful music (a single voice or a choir, or a single instrument or an … [Read more...]
Stop Talking About Art as an Abstract Concept
Whether we're talking to friends or strangers, how do we talk about the value we create? Mary Lou Aleskie, Executive Director of the International Festival for Arts & Ideas, shares why she believes we should stop talking about "the value of the arts" and start talking about the experience of arts and culture as a gateway to civic engagement and participation. http://youtu.be/b_S6kgrofto Advocate for the Arts! Click on the Twitter logo to share this with someone outside the arts. Start a … [Read more...]
Arguing for the Arts in Contemporary Society
Think about the folks in your community. Think about what they will do tonight. There are countless options for how they can spend their time, their money, their loyalty. Arts may be in that mix. It might not be. This is the context in which our community makes decisions and we need to be aware of that. In this video, Patrick McIntyre, Executive Director of the Sydney Theatre Company conveys the need to discuss the benefits of the experience we provide. Patrick highlights that this task is tricky when arguing the value to allies such as … [Read more...]
Everyone’s a Potential Partner: Building Value Together
Welcome back. We’re continuing our look at arts advocacy, particularly how do we broaden our base of support if we rarely hear from anyone who isn't already a fan. What if we shifted our mindset to see everyone as a potential partner or participant? The world and our communities would be teaming with opportunity. That's Springboard for the Arts' Executive Director, Laura Zabel's, view and it's working quite well. In this video Laura shares how she is energized by what's possible and how looking at opportunities through this frame has opened up … [Read more...]
Extreme Users: Look Outside the Everyday Audience Member
We’re talking about advocacy for the arts over the next few days. Specifically, what's our value... not only to our loyal patrons but also to those with whom we may not have engaged yet. In the human centered design world, that's called sampling extreme users. It's an incredibly valuable practice that helps us better understand our community and our customers. Professor of Management at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks discusses how looking at both extremes – those who participate every day and … [Read more...]
If Our Value Were Self-Evident Would We Need Advocates?
You cannot talk about arts advocacy without bringing up the instrumental value of the arts. Rule #1 of advocacy or any kind of relationship building is: know your audience. And when you're talking to politicians and policy-makers, the instrumental value carries the day. But, what about the intrinsic value of the arts? In our field we often shy away from talking about this. It is somehow seen as less serious, but if you are truly looking to connect with someone on the value of the arts there is no better way. In this video former Director … [Read more...]
About Field Notes
Listening is an important aspect of working in the arts and culture field. (It's good advice for anyone really.) At NAS, we are always listening for feedback or new ideas that we can use to help improve our own work. The problem, of course, is that it's not always easy to separate the signal from the noise. One of the perks of our work at NAS is the frequent opportunity to listen to some incredibly bright and interesting people – our colleagues in the office as well as leaders in the field and experts outside the field. These are great … [Read more...]