KillingClassicalMusic

I believe that, at the moment, innovating on the administrative side of the classical music business is more important than innovating the artistic side. This is because I think it’s largely the business aspects of it that create today’s problems; the music itself is fine. Today I want to explore a indirect reason to innovate in arts administration: motivation.

Those who work in the arts have a bit of an advantage over many of their for-profit counterparts. Simply put, arts professionals are typically working in jobs that align with their passions. As a result, motivation is much less a problem than it may be for other employees in other professions.  But passion is a fickle motivator that waxes and wanes. When work becomes overly monotonous people can quickly lose the sense of higher purpose that is so important to producing meaningful results.

From experience and the stories I am told, I can say confidently that many classical music organizations suffer from a lack of motivation due to a lack of innovation. And I’m not talking here about artistic innovation. It’s not a new type of concert or something similar that employees need to feel a part of. Rather, it’s a sense of innovation in the way they do their jobs.

In a small, understaffed arts organization it can be very easy to fall into a monotonous routine, always doing the same things to raise the money, sell the tickets, etc. But it is precisely in these small organizations where success is so dependent on the creativity innovations of all involved. One person at the top of the food chain cannot drive all thought and leadership at an organization. However, if daily staff responsibilities becomes little more than rote repetition, the employees will likely lose their motivation to imagine and execute new ideas. Creativity and innovation are dependent on engagement.

To avoid this, organizations might consider building a creative element into all of their business activities. Thomas Edison once said, “There is a better way to do it - find it.” This is true of everything that goes on in the administration offices of arts organizations. From the way direct mail is done to the way tickets are issued, there is always a better way. Arts professionals should be challenged to move closer to that better way every time they execute their daily duties. This doesn’t mean that employees need to change the world each day. Rather, it is about making small, incremental improvements in everything and all the time. I call this micro-innovation, and it is a key to motivating employees who can often grow and improve organizations much more significantly than their titles and salaries might indicate.

A lack of motivated, inspired arts administrators is a threat to the long term viability of classical music and other nonprofit arts. By encouraging micro-innovation in operations, arts organizations can give their employees three of life’s key motivators that the arts are so well suited to provide. Being asked to innovate (i.e. come up with new solutions and strategies independently) gives employees a sense of autonomy. Creating the innovation (which makes them more effective) helps move them toward mastery. And seeing the fruits of this labor (and how it effects the health of their organization and classical music as a whole) helps foster the sense of meaning that is already so present in arts organizations.

The offices of classical music organizations are packed with creative people. Very often, their lack of experience in the business world can be a benefit because of the independence with which they can approach problems. When they foster and encourage micro-innovation, organizations can tap this resource and make it flourish by boosting the intrinsic motivation that first attracted their employees to their careers.

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