Speaker

Sarah Lutman amplified

Foragers needed

A personnel ad in this morning’s NY Times caught my eye.  A Forager is needed by Dean and Deluca.  It reminded me of the first time I saw this job title, back in the 1970s when I lived in the Bay Area and Chez Panisse hired staff to look for the distinctive ingredients that shaped their cooking, combing California for interesting suppliers and encouraging growers to invest in cultivating the tastiest varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and meat.

In the food business the job title and function is old news now.   It exists in a lot of places, from Whole Foods Market to local restaurant consortia.  It’s a function that most cultural organizations need — whether we’re foraging for new ideas, new artists, or new partnerships and collaborators.   How many of us devote full-time staff to foraging?

Competing Values Model

innovation modelOne of my favorite days at the recent NAS seminar mentioned in a previous post was the day led by Jeff DeGraff on Leading Innovation.  Dr. DeGraff aka Jeff showed us his “Competing Values Model.”  The model offers a way to think about four different kinds of innovation that can produce benefits: Do things first, Do things fast, Do things right, and Do things that last.  Or, put another way, innovation around creation of new things, innovation around competition and speed, innovation around internal systems and structures, and innovation around practice.  He walked us through the model and talked about how to think about the kind of innovation a leader may be naturally inclined to produce.  You can take a test to see where you land here.   I am strongly in the green zone  with yellow as my #2.  Where are you?

The point of Jeff’s presentation is not that one kind of innovation is preferable, but rather that in understanding one’s own style it is possible to plan for ways to optimize your results by understanding not only what strengths you have, but also those you don’t.  I guess I’m not the one to be put in charge of “streamlining internal work processes,” ” complying with regulations,” or  “compelling suppliers to reduce costs.”  But if you want to “integrate personal and professional goals,” “jumpstart breakthrough experiments,” or “launch radical change programs” I’m going to be better suited to the tasks at hand.  Read more about Jeff’s work at his Innovatrium or check out one of his books, like Creativity at Work.

Neighborhood concerts in Cleveland

It is interesting to see in this morning’s news that The Cleveland Orchestra is making a move that the St Paul Chamber Orchestra made seven years ago, namely to move some of their concerts to neighborhood locations around the Cleveland area and to lower ticket prices in those venues.  What we’ve learned since expanding our neighborhood concerts over the past seven years is that there are many people who want to attend our concerts who will not come downtown to do so.  In fact, neighborhood expansion has led to a 40 percent increase in subscribers. (Read about our results here and our white paper is posted here.) The results of our work have been widely circulated and are influencing decisions at other orchestras, like this one.

I didn’t call TCO so I’m basing my views on the news report and press release, but it looks like there are a couple of major differences between our approach and theirs.  We expanded our regular concert series to the neighborhoods – the neighborhood venues have the same kinds of repertoire, soloists, and program length as our “downtown” concerts at Ordway. It looks like Cleveland is planning a different kind of concert in neighborhoods from what audiences get at Severance Hall.  Read TCO’s press release.

Leadership and Convergence

Lobby of the Ross School at the University of Michigan

Next week a few arts folk from around the US are gathering at the Ross School of Management in Ann Arbor to talk and learn about “convergence” and how it is affecting the institutions we lead.   The faculty have not defined convergence specifically but they’re talking about turmoil in the external environment — in media, in economics, in demographics, in audience expectations.  We’ll dive deeply into the subject for four days and come out better prepared to lead our organizations, or so we hope.  I’ll blog about the seminar, which is sponsored by National Arts Strategies .  More soon!

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