{"id":3327,"date":"2016-03-14T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2016-03-11T14:23:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T19:23:07","slug":"worstward-ho-is-that-how-you-spell-f-a-i-l-u-r-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/2016\/03\/worstward-ho-is-that-how-you-spell-f-a-i-l-u-r-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Worstward Ho! Is That How You Spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CC<\/a>

CC Roadsidepitcures via Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEver tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho)<\/em><\/p>\n

The above quote from Beckett\u2019s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. Many of us have developed and embraced a new way of going about things. Rather than let popular programs keep working not quite as well as they used to, we now practice arts leadership within a variety of effective innovation frameworks. We test, we prototype, we experiment, we ask, \u201cwhat might it mean to do the opposite?\u201d\u2014and we go on assuming that many of these experiments might very well fail but we\u2019ll learn valuable things nonetheless, and better strive toward our missions through this learning. Through \u201cfailing better\u201d we\u2019ve learned to think like venture capitalists, and many of us have become very good at this. We\u2019ve even come to believe that this is how to approach \u201cfailure.\u201d However, within this framework, there is<\/em> no failure. Even \u201cunsuccessful\u201d experiments yield, at the very least, valuable learning moments with which we can eventually get it right. Those who have welcomed prototyping frameworks into our daily practice have come to understand \u201cfailure\u201d as a generative force. This is good.<\/p>\n

But is this really failure?<\/p>\n

How do we function in contexts where the failure isn\u2019t ours? How do we keep going when the very structures we rely upon fail us<\/em>? What do we do when the systems put in place to allow us to serve our missions have become so onerous to participate in that they seem increasingly like tests from the gods at best, or just plain old punishments? How do we stay strong when it takes twice as much effort to raise half as much money? How do we keep going when we know that what we\u2019re doing serves our communities better than ever, yet it\u2019s harder and harder to get support?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a starter list:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If you\u2019re not excited by it, stop doing it. This goes for programs your organizations does or produces, and it goes for you in your job, too.<\/li>\n
  2. Ask: \u201cWhy are we doing this?\u201d \u201cWho is it for?\u201d about everything your organization does\u2014if you can\u2019t answer easily, stop doing it or change it so it does.<\/li>\n
  3. Don\u2019t assume that growth is the answer. Sometimes, the more narrowly you focus, the more people you will reach.<\/li>\n
  4. Practice accomplishing more by doing less. Put your communication devices away in the evening, even whole days on the weekend if you can. Don\u2019t look at them first thing in the morning. Take care of yourself, really. Read, cook, hike, volunteer at another organization, whatever it takes.<\/li>\n
  5. F. Skinner wrote, \u201cIf you\u2019re old, don\u2019t try to change yourself, change your environment.\u201d This could mean interrogating your organizational mission toward re-inventing how your organization accomplishes its goals (see #1 above).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cEver tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.\u201d \u2014Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho) The above quote from Beckett\u2019s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. Many of us have developed and embraced a new way of going about things. Rather than let popular programs keep working not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":3328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[679,23],"tags":[497,695],"coauthors":[694],"class_list":{"0":"post-3327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-failure","8":"category-stories-from-the-field","9":"tag-failure","10":"tag-jeffrey-lependorf","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3332,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions\/3332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}