Advice to an overworked arts manager

Here’s the summary of a conversation I recently had with a member of an Artist-Run Centre’s management collective. I sit on the Board, and chair the HR committee:

• tell people you need to manage your attention better, and the simple ways they can help you (explain about the distraction and interruption of being located in the open space, and the traffic through the space of people taking short cuts to the office when you are having to concentrate). They may have other good ideas to add, that can help them remember.
• develop a visual cue/sign – ‘cone of silence’ or a flag of truce – that lets people know when you are focussing and not available for casual conversation. I’ve seen this used before – effectively and with great humour, an added bonus for the office team!
• get their agreement on how to approach you when you are ‘coned’ (ie – leave you a note so you can follow up later. Note pad and a spike placed conveniently nearby, or a set of post-it notes they can stick in a certain place, so you can organize yourself to respond appropriately to them when you are ready).

• find and use a simple, easy to carry, calendar/planner to put not only the upcoming events and appointments, but to block off time that will be dedicated to certain tasks. Make a routine that helps you deal with things systematically, and helps others manage around you. Remember that old saying: ‘we teach people how to treat us’. But it also helps other manage their time better if your have some kind of schedule of your work/availability so they don’t have to try and grab you at any opportunity.
• Sometimes it is familiar and comfortable to have a habit of crisis management, and getting into a bit more structure may feel ponderous and even oppressive. Remember that this is not a prescription, imposed by someone else, but you deciding a way of working that lets you achieve your best for the organization, the artist-members we serve, your colleagues, and – more importantly – yourself.

• you perpetuate people’s dependence when you don’t challenge their demands/requests. Delving a little deeper into their needs can help reveal better solutions, or at least options that may not require you to rescue them. It is insulting to adults to treat them like children, incapable of grown-up responsibilities. Artists and arts groups, like any ‘good and deserving cause’ have the capacity to do a better job of managing themselves and their projects if we ask facilitating questions instead of running to solve their problems. And any good consultant (or parent) can tell you that the ‘presenting problem’ is rarely the ‘real’ problem. It always takes some probing to get to it.
• we maintain the infantalization of artists when we cater to their poor planning, claims of poverty, or overblown sense of entitlement. Special they may be, but years of handouts has not made the poverty disappear. And our organization does not have the resources for rescuing every under-resourced artist and arts group or program out there. The reason the S.E.A.R.C.H. Program (1996-2007, 2000 cultural workers/artists participated) worked was because I never thought people were incapable of taking care of themselves, needed coddling, or had only one functioning side of their brain. Usually what is missing is a good, encouraging conversation to help people process their problem or challenge and figure out where the solutions lie. Often it is in unexpected places, and requires connection to other people. That’s how we can help.
• let’s think about how to tackle this question as part of the bigger picture of our centre’s mandate and how to serve its members and the community. That will come in the new year and it will help you with your own personal desire to please and help. Your own history and social training is simply reinforced by the environment at work – a desire to be the one place that outsiders can find shelter and encouragement – but there have to be limits. We will work on that.