Exploring Daniel Pink's new book—Drive

Drive by Daniel Pink

I'm deep into Daniel Pink's newest book, Drive. I highly recommend this book. Check out this video! What do you think? Are extrinsic motivators (I.E.—Carrot/Stick way of doing business) thwarting our ability to be creative? Watch the video, read the book, leave your comments!

Here's a link to the video!

What am I doing? Part I: WORK/PLAY

If you know me, you know that I love my life. I have an incredible family and a fantastic job(s). Other than a little debt (ok, a lot of debt) from my college years, I really can't complain.

And yet to those people who still ascribe to the "normal" 9-5 work day, I couldn't possibly be happy. In their eyes, I work way to much and I can't draw the line between my work time and my play time. In fact, on more than one occasion, I've been accused of being a workaholic. Perhaps this accusation is true but in the age of constant connectivity, it's hard not to be a workaholic if you're passionate about life. Let's explore this a little bit.

Here's a section from Seth Godin's latest book Tribes:

How Was Your Day?

It's four a.m. and I can't sleep. So I'm sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Jamaica, checking my e-mail. A couple walks by, obviously on their way to bed, having pushed the idea of vacation a little too hard. The woman looks over to me and, in a harsh whisper a little quieter than a yell, says to her friend, "Isn't that sad? That guy comes here on vacation and he's stuck checking his e-mail. he can't even enjoy his two weeks off."

I think the real question-the one they probably wouldn't want to answer-was, "Isn't it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?"

It took me a long time to figure out why I was so happy to be checking my e-mail in the middle of the night. It had to do with passion. Other than sleeping, there was nothing I'd rather have been doing in that moment-because I'm lucky enough to have a job where I get to make change happen. Even though I don't have many people working for me, I'm in the business of leading people, taking them somewhere we want to go.

Admittedly, I am in constant conflict with myself about the breakdown between my work life and my family life. This isn't an easy task. The reality is that these two worlds are so blended together that, to me, there really isn't a separation anymore. This doesn't mean that my 8 month old daughter has been showing up to conferences with me or that I've been giving bassoon recitals to my wife on a weekly basis. What this really means is that, from a time prospective, I have been intertwining my work and play in a way that—I hope—provides a seamless transition between my two lives.

Why? Because, my work isn't work at all. It's not even close. My work teaching bassoon, my work with Arts Enterprise and my work performing bassoon are three areas so intrinsically valuable to me that I actually look forward to tackling these jobs every day.

The reality here is that my family does, and always will, come first. If tomorrow I stopped teaching at BGSU, I left Arts Enterprise and I put my bassoon away forever, there would be someone filling my shoes in each case who would do the job twice as well. My family, however, is a different story. They are my first priority and striking that balance between the family I love and the work I love is the key to success.

So, what does this have to do with Arts Enterprise? In short, those of us who embody the AE spirit can be the poster children for figuring out this new work/play continuum. As artists, we constantly toe the line between work and play. This never-ending battle is imperative for ultimate success in our world and it can shed a lot of light onto how non-artistically minded individuals could achieve success in this world. For business people, this way of thinking is especially exciting in the high-paced, start-up, world of entrepreneurship where the lines are easily blurred between work and play.

So, how does this post resonate with your life? Do you see similarities in the work style I've set out to achieve? It would be great to hear from you.

Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of our new Arts Enterprise website. Check it out! This site would not be possible without a partnership with TwistUp Media. For the last year we have worked with owners Kyle and Wes to develop the AE site and we are thrilled with the finished product.

What is interesting here is that we accomplished this with an incredibly small budget. In fact this website was essentially built at no cost to the Arts Enterprise organization. How did we do it? Instead of saying to TwistUp that we want you to build a site for us for free and, in exchange, we will list you as a supporter of the organization, we said this: In exchange for your services we will give you access to our rapidly growing network of chapters, members and supporters. Instead of establishing a four year payment plan for the website, we have given TwistUp the ability to work directly with our chapters as they build their own websites. Additionally, we have provided a way to deliver their services directly to our membership. A membership that we predict will serve close to 1,000 students by the end of the year.

As a person coming from the non-profit sector, it seems to me that we need to think about ways in which we can make our partnerships more mutually beneficial in nature. Techies who volunteer to do this work are amazing people, however they are also strapped by time with their own projects. Further, there is often a lack of understanding on both sides of the aisle in regard to everything from mission of the organization to the effective utilization of the technology itself. Often, it seems that the partners on both sides of the aisle are not considering the menu of services that could be provided as a way to better leverage the partnership. Consider an incredible blog entry by Ayça Akin from Core77.com. In her entry she talks at length about ways Techies and Nonprofits can better work with one another. Here's an excerpt:

These challenges should come as no surprise, since any designer/client relationship has its built-in (if clichéd) limits: Designers are asked to step outside themselves to see the world in a new way, but can never, by definition, be the client or the user. In pro bono projects—as time becomes expensive—paying attention to the unique perspectives of nonprofits is the only way for volunteers to develop sound working relationships toward making social change products effective and sustainable.

Here we have very different people trying to collaborate around a common goal, and points of friction are increased by differences in culture, language and preconceptions about one another. Like so many problems in the world, many of these differences can be overcome by simply trying to understand each other's priorities and world views.

Her blog entry goes on to speak at length about the common issues these partnerships face. I might offer a few suggestions to organizations interested in entering their own mutually beneficial partnership:

1. Mutually Beneficial Understanding—Take the time to talk at length about your organization. This is not just about your technology needs, this is about explaining your organization to your partner. Then, listen to what they have to offer. This seems all too simple, however it's amazing what this small suggestion can do for your partnership.
   
2. Find the Right Partner—It's so important to find a partner who's values align with yours. This will only strengthen the partnership. For us, TwistUp was the perfect fit. They too were a startup entity, they value entrepreneurship and they have an appreciation for the arts. We were aligning with one another practically before the partnership even started.
   
3. What's in it for them—Can you, as the non-profit, provide value to the partnership? For example, can you bring three to four good ideas to the table in exchange for the services you're about to receive from the techies? This type of partnership can really help your organization grow.
   

So, what's missing? What can cash strapped non-profits do in order to continue to generate mutually beneficial partnerships for their organizations?

Arts Entrepreneurship in Schools of Music: What Do Young Musicians Want?

Whether they were aware of it or not, young musicians were an important topic of discussion at two major conferences last month: The College Music Society’s Summit on Music Entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN, and the American Orchestras Summit at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  This demographic wasn’t necessarily written into the conferences’ agendas—and wasn’t proportionately represented in body—but they were certainly the subjects of an unaddressed dilemma in the room.

The dilemma is that young musicians are not getting jobs in their fields, and it’s not a new problem. Recently, however, music schools are attempting to incorporate arts entrepreneurship and career development curricula to address this issue.  Although the dilemma and the proposed solutions focus on young musicians, music students and recent graduates are largely excluded from the discussion.  It’s ironic and disappointing, but few leaders in the arts entrepreneurship movement have considered young musicians’ opinions about this subject.

In an attempt to advocate for young musicians, I attended the two conferences in Nashville and Ann Arbor.  With Kristen Hoverman, flute performance and entrepreneurship major at Bowling Green State University (Ohio), and Jonathan Kuuskoski, recent graduate of the piano pedagogy program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I co-presented the results of a survey that actually asked students and professionals in the arts field their opinions on arts entrepreneurship.  The survey was conducted under the auspices of Arts Enterprise Central, a nonprofit arts entrepreneurship organization of which Hoverman, Kuuskoski, and I are a part.

We surveyed almost 200 students—ranging from undergraduate to doctoral from a variety of music schools nationwide—and over 50 professionals—defined as anyone with an arts degree and included college faculty, freelancers and multiple job holders, to private teachers—looking for responses to four big questions:

1. What is the correlation between students’ career goals and the realities of the young professional artists surveyed?
2. Are students aware of and participating in existing arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campuses?
3. What would students like to learn in regards to arts entrepreneurship?
4. In what format (i.e. how) would students like to learn about arts entrepreneurship?

Professionals were asked their opinions retrospectively.
The survey results—expressed in quantitative and qualitative terms—pointed towards four big conclusions:

1. The reality of young professional artists is vastly different from the career for which they are prepared at schools of music.
2. Results indicated an overall lack of awareness of and participation in existing arts entrepreneurship offerings on college campuses.
3. Participants want an arts entrepreneurship class that combines lecture- and project-based curricular education with a non-curricular arts entrepreneurship student club.
4. Arts entrepreneurship education must be flexible and personalized towards the needs and realities of the post-graduate 21st-century artist.

We reached the first conclusion by comparing the degree programs and career goals of the students with the degrees obtained by and career activities of the professionals surveyed.  Of the surveyed students, 67% were in an undergraduate or graduate performance program.  Nearly 100% of student participants wanted performance to comprise the majority of their professional activities.  But when asked to define their careers, not one professional respondent had a career in which they only performed.  One participant performed in just one orchestra, but he also supplemented his income with private teaching.  Thirty two percent of respondents taught at a college level, 18% identified as freelancers, and 20% defined themselves as having multiple jobs, some of which were not in the arts field. 

Students and professionals alike are aware of and concerned about this reality.  The survey question related to post-college anxieties drew four times as many free responses (88 in total) as any other question, emphasizing the fears of young artists entering the professional world.  This student’s response best captures these concerns:

"[I worry] that I won't be prepared for real life as a working musician outside of the school environment, that I will have to give up my artistic pursuits in order to make a living for myself, and that all of the time I spent preparing to be a performer was not time well spent after all."

In the case of professionals, these realities translate to a need for arts entrepreneurship offerings:

"Most music performance students are groomed and prepared only for careers as orchestral players, when in fact very few make a living doing only that. We need to be prepared to understand business, marketing, and community relations to have maximum success in these endeavors."

Although both students and professionals acknowledge that arts students are poorly prepared for the professional world and affirm the importance of arts entrepreneurship, only 46% of students reported having arts entrepreneurship offerings on their campus and 61% reported to have not engaged in these offerings if they were present.  Nearly half of students surveyed didn’t know if their campus had any sort of arts entrepreneurship offering.

Despite these unimpressive statistics, the survey results indicate that 73% of students want to learn about arts entrepreneurship, and 81% of students are willing to take a class on the subject.  Most of these students want a class that allows them to explore arts entrepreneurship in a variety of formats: through lectures, projects, and in conjunction with a non-curricular arts entrepreneurship club.  This format allows students to apply ideas learned in the classroom in a low risk environment in preparation to enter the professional world in which consequences of failure are much higher.

The fourth conclusion, calling for arts entrepreneurship programs to be flexible and adaptable, is probably the most important.  Both students and professionals agreed that arts entrepreneurship education needed to be personalized towards individual students’ needs and that realities of the 21st-century artist must be addressed.  The following two responses, the first from a student, and the second from a professional, reinforce the need for personalized curricula:

"I enrolled in the [Nonprofit management] certificate as part of my doctoral studies so that I can be a stronger teacher, leader, and organizer in the arts.…Many of the classes are inflexible and designed to fit a butts-in-the-seat style of teaching. The teachers cover theory and literature, but are not able to cope with the diverse backgrounds of their students or [their fields of interest]. Entrepreneurship should be more like private coaching so that individual attention can be paid to the specifics of each field."

"Arts Entrepreneurship is thinking outside the box and allowing our students to relate to the music field in new and meaningful ways that may differ from previous generations. As educators, we need to honor the creativity and authenticity of our students and nurture their own development as artists and professionals. We need to serve as mentors that are not just interested in creating clones of ourselves, but rather embrace the new visionary models of what it means to be an artist in the 21st century."

The survey results call great change in collegiate arts training.  Not only do 74% of students and 86% of professionals agree that music schools need arts entrepreneurship programs, but the programs developed must be carefully planned and the student voice must be considered.  We have evidence that students see arts entrepreneurship training as valuable to their careers and professionals are ready to promote relevant ideas to these students.  Finding the ways to do this, however, will be the next great challenge for our music schools.

Emily Weingarten is a community musician and aspiring entrepreneur residing in Ann Arbor, MI.  She is in the process of starting a business to empower young artists called Independent Artists Consulting.  Emily is also the Chapter Development Specialist for Arts Enterprise.  Click here to contact Emily.

Arts Entrepreneurship vs. Creative Entrepreneurship

In recent years, arts programs at universities across the country have begun to utilize the notion of entrepreneurship as a way to help students have more career options upon graduation.

"Entrepreneurship can be defined as the process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity."
—Michael Morris.

The concept of Arts Entrepreneurship has been used freely as a "catchall" for student career development. From nuts and bolts classes that help students construct proper resumes to classes that involve the exploration of pure business start-up, Arts Entrepreneurship has yet to become a streamlined concept. I would argue that the study of entrepreneurship on our arts campuses should be focused on helping students harness their creative ideas. In other words, artists have creativity covered, it's taking those creative ideas and applying them to current business practice—in start-up, in the workplace & in entrepreneurial thought—in which our artistically minded students need the most help developing.

For arts students, the term Arts Entrepreneurship may be a little too specific for their needs and many times students find the focus turning back to entrepreneurship through the lens of an artist. Conversely, for business students, the term can be a little intimidating for those who do not consider themselves "Artistic." However, if we take a broader approach and use the term "Creative Entrepreneurship" as a way to define our curriculum, students on both sides of the aisle may be able to engage in a more holistic approach that allows them to work at the intersection of business and the arts.

"Creative Entrepreneurs are individuals who use creativity to unlock the wealth that lies within them. Like true capitalists, they believe that this creative wealth, if managed properly, will engender more [creative] wealth.”

—John Hawkins

Creative entrepreneurship differs slightly from the traditional business entrepreneurship in that it focuses primarily on creative or intellectual capital. Creative entrepreneurs usually establish ventures that have a place in the creative economy and focus on the collaboration of many diverse individuals ranging from varying backgrounds and degree tracks.

Like the traditional business entrepreneur, creative entrepreneurs still go through a process of identifying opportunity, establishing a way to fulfill the need that exists, gathering and managing resources, and harvesting the benefits of the venture. Creative entrepreneurs are leaders, risk takers, and idea generators. They are inspired by advocacy, social change, and the desire to be in control of their own work.

By identifying themselves as "creative beings"—instead of bassoonists, photographers, dancers, etc.—students are able to effectively work within the notion of creative entrepreneurship. Whether students utilize creative entrepreneurship to start a business, think entrepreneurially or enhance their Portfolio Career, this broader approach gives arts students a seat at the table that is our 21st century economy.

Exploring the Portfolio Career

The following is a definition from the website bnet.com:

A "portfolio career" is a "career based on a series of varied shorter-term jobs either concurrently or consecutively as opposed to one based on a progression up the ranks of a particular profession. The portfolio worker is frequently self-employed, offering his or her services on a freelance or consulting basis to one or more employers at the same time. However, a portfolio approach can also be taken to full-time employment with a single employer, if the employee chooses to expand his or her experience and responsibilities through taking different roles within the organization.

To critics, the portfolio approach to career development may appear unfocused and directionless. However, it is an excellent opportunity to experience the many different avenues available in modern life. It is important, in general, for the portfolio worker to maintain some overall sense of purpose or strategic direction in the work they undertake, and to view their portfolio career as a unified whole rather than a collection of "odd jobs."

Source: bnet.com

I first heard the term "portfolio career" last weekend during my trip to the University of Madison Wisconsin. Although defined above in the business sense, these two words have real implications for those of us trying to balance artistry with work. Let's face it, as artists, we look at that definition and say, "Yep, that's pretty much what I do every day of my life." Many, if not most, of us who identify themselves as "artists" strike a balance between teaching, creating and administering, effectively drawing from each of these in order to make a living.

So why am I dedicating an entire blog post to this concept? The fact is that most artists entering the workforce today who are interested in carving out a career in the arts should probably be thinking about several "mini" careers that make up their full time job. It is not unreasonable to think about a career in which you balance a private teaching studio, perform in several small chamber ensembles, work as an administrator for a small arts organization and have that "side job" to round out your work!

The truth is that if you are a person who is passionate about your art and you would like to continue to create on a regular basis, the portfolio career may give you the opportunity to have that artistic outlet. Would your art be the "breadwinner" of your portfolio career? Possibly, but what is more important is the fact that this approach allows you to continue to create.

I'd like to think of the Portfolio Career as a "freelance" career on steroids. To me, being a freelancer means that you are focused primarily on your art as a means of sustaining your career while those seeking a portfolio career are balancing their art with jobs that feed their creative passion. This subtle, but important, difference allows 21st century artists to develop careers that are not completely reliant upon their art, essentially allowing them to continue to create without the stress of piecing together a career of gigs/exhibitions that are not necessarily "in the bag" from year to year.

It's worth mentioning that, as artists or creative beings, our portfolio career can consist of jobs that still capture our creative passion even though it may not be creating a work of art in the studio or on a stage. In his book, A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink argues that, “The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people...will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”

The time is now for artists to bring their creative abilities to the workplace as one spoke on the wheel of their portfolio career. Whether it's working in a creative fashion to streamline a company's day to day operations or it's collaborating on a team in the spirit of true entrepreneurial business start-up, artists now can have a seat at the table with their business counterparts. The words "business counterparts" should not be viewed as a four letter word by artists. The truth is that we have a lot to learn from each other and if we each bring our strengths to the table, both sides have a greater chance of achieving true wealth in our lives.

What is exciting to me is the fact that if we assign a name to this type of work (portfolio career), we can also articulate a way to achieve the career goal. The most logical place to begin to explore a portfolio career to me would be at the university level where students can explore this mindset with little to no risk.

Interested in launching a portfolio career? Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Check out this blog: Starting a Portfolio Career
2. Create a portfolio career exploration group consisting of artists, business people and educators. This cross-disciplinary, collaborative effort, will help you gain the tools necessary when launching this career.
3. Join the Arts Enterprise network of chapters. Arts Enterprise is student run so YOU can bring the ideas that you would like to explore forward and create opportunities to develop your own portfolio career.
   

Art as Business as Art at UW-M

Last Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to work with a class being held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison called "Art as Business as Art." Comprised of about thirty students from across the campus community, this class "explores the dynamic interplay between artistic life and business strategy, and features compelling national figures who cross that line everyday."

Co-teachers Stephanie Jutt (Professor of Flute) and Andrew Taylor (Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration) have designed a class that "explores the productive and creative interplay between artistic intent, business practice, and community connections." This class is particularly exciting to me because it builds upon the Arts Enterprise at Wisconsin-Madison chapter launched by Professor Jutt. Jutt started the third official Arts Enterprise chapter last year behind the University of Michigan and Bowling Green State University and has worked to develop a thriving student group as well as a curricular outlet for students in the spirit of Arts Enterprise.

Using a loose interpretation of the Arts Enterprise Central tagline—The Art of Business. The Business of Art—Professors Jutt and Taylor have designed a class that is a logical next step in the AE movement. At its core, Arts Enterprise is an organization dedicated to extra-curricular, student-run chapters designed to enhance each student's degree path. However, it is important to note that this type of class greatly benefits the Arts Enterprise movement as it shares many of the ideals that the chapter organization is based upon and gives students a launching pad for their work with the student organization.

During my time with the class we explored the idea of divergent thinking in an effort to help the class develop ideas for an end of the semester project. Using an exercise called "mind mapping" I guided students through a process of creating word webs with the goal of moving as far away from the original idea as possible. Mind Mapping is "the process of using unrelated stimulus to help students think divergently in the development of a truly unique idea/product." (Jack Stamp)

Here's how it works.

1. On the board, draw three circles.
2. In the middle of each board write one unrelated word. For example: one color, one action, one famous person
3. Ask students to think divergently about the words on the board and then shout out words that make them think about the word within the circle. The goal is to get as far away from the word as the center as possible.
4. When you have a rich list of words, instruct the students to divide into groups.
5. In their groups, have students develop an idea/product using one word from each of the three circles on the board. This can be for fun, or it can have real world implications.
   

NOTE: You can either give them the topic for the idea ahead of the divergent thinking exercise or after. Each will have different but positive results.

Upon completion of the class session, I had the great fortune of being interviewed as a guest of the class. (The interview can be found here: Zeisler Interiew.) Additional information about the Art as Business as Art course information can be found here.

-NZ