I was recently culling files and journals and noticed I had record of several successful programs and others that didn’t get off the ground. There was a commonality among the programs in the “didn’t get off ground” group and that thread ran through some of the “up and running” group.
Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper, USN, Ph.D. By James S. Davis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
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You may be familiar with the name Grace Hopper. An amazing woman Grace, who died in 1992, is one of the foreparents of the computer age. She retired in 1986 a rear admiral and the oldest serving officer of the US Navy. Some of her awards include Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. (Learn more about Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper, USN, Ph.D. at Wikipedia.)
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In the early 90’s I worked for an art museum. Initially my primary responsibility was as a docent/instructor teaching the collection to school groups, giving adult lectures and facilitating art classes. I was recently culling files and journals and noticed I had record of several successful programs and others that didn’t get off the ground. There was a commonality among the programs in the “didn’t get off ground” group and that thread ran through some of the “up and running” group.
Carpe Diem by begging forgiveness?
or Capiat Contio (Seize the meeting or seize the engagement)
By Cavana Faithwalker, Organizational, Community and Personal Empowerment Strategist, Facilitator
or Capiat Contio (Seize the meeting or seize the engagement)
By Cavana Faithwalker, Organizational, Community and Personal Empowerment Strategist, Facilitator
Language, Posturing, and the Chasm Between Control and Growth
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The museum director was thrilled to hear the news about engaging the black community through talk radio, however, my department heads forbade me to do the show. In my best, “you’re not the boss of me“ posture, I told them I would indeed do the show. One department head was upset I had told the director of this opportunity at the same time as informing the heads instead of presenting it to the department heads first presumably for approval.
At the time many art museums throughout the country had difficulty getting people of color “through the doors” and it may still be the case. This was particularly loathsome since the museum is surrounded by black neighborhoods.
A case can be made for this reasoning.
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Language: as an aside language is important in conceiving goals, relationship and objectives. Suppose the language is: “had difficulty getting people of color to access the museum as a resource,” instead of “through the doors,” and “the majority of the museum’s neighbors are black,” or African American, as opposed to “surrounded by black neighborhoods. “ The paradigm changes drastically. The initial language can be used to gauge what your corporate subconscious is saying, hold it, observe and talk yourself into a paradigm of abundance letting go of society driven scarcity language. This happens often in industries. You may have noticed a shift in the last 25 years from the term “outreach” to community “engagement,” and in another field from “caretaker” to “caregiver,” just as in larger society a change from “manning” a table to “staffing” a table. You don’t have to wait for industry consciousness to change and in fact, because you are dealing with issues specific to your environment and context - you might be the impetus of change in your industry.
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Another thing you may or may not know about Admiral Hopper is that she is credited with coining the phrase, “It is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission,” a lesson I still may not have completely learned.
As a prelude to officially moving into community outreach endeavors at the museum an opportunity fell in my lap, to host a talk radio show on a local black radio station.
This was not a case of “ask for forgiveness” - I just didn’t understand working in a stratified, hierarchical organization and I didn’t know this was inappropriate. The department told me that since I apparently was going to proceed, under no circumstances was I to do it on museum time or use museum resources. So I endeavored to do a show for the museum into the black community it wanted to reach with no support from the museum.
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Spikes in a Row. Photo by Alice Merkel.
Environmental Consequences
Over the years I learned that the power of a superior was not only in its authority over its staff but as gatekeeper of ideas and communications; what makes it or doesn’t make it up the chain of command (with blessings) can powerfully mold an organization's direction as what comes down.
I also learned that overall in this particular department it was better to beg forgiveness. This is not at every organization, of course, and obviously not in every department of an organization. However, it is out there enough I would be remiss not to draw it out a bit
I also learned that overall in this particular department it was better to beg forgiveness. This is not at every organization, of course, and obviously not in every department of an organization. However, it is out there enough I would be remiss not to draw it out a bit
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This kind of environment stymies productivity, creativity, deeper employee vestment and investment in the company, promotes group think and it should not be business as usual.
At the very least, it raises issues of trust and honesty, feeds communication silos that drain the company of vision and synergy. The strong employees resort to begging forgiveness but even they can turn into disinterested “yes people,” and become part of the group think plus it would be much better not to have this as the dominant means of accomplishing things.
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This kind of environment stymies productivity, creativity, deeper employee vestment and investment in the company, promotes group think and it should not be business as usual. |
The garden is tilled for harvesting micro-management, aversion to risk-taking thus the decreased ability to judge risk and inability to maximize growth of employee talents and leverage their experiences and goodwill.
If companies deal with issues that are fertile ground for this environment they can raise productivity, employee satisfaction, lower turnover and lower stress by looking at the abundancy of possible outcomes instead of focusing on the micromanagement “how comes,” as in “how come you’re doing it this way?” I note this mentality is pervasive in American society.
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Finding Your Way To Creative Expression
I co-developed and taught a class, Art for Early Childhood Education (AECE),” at a local 2 year college. I designed the class to give prospective teachers and administrators good experiences as artists that the vast majority hadn’t had, before they entered the field passing their bad art experiences and neurosis on to others.
They had to learn the rudiments of color theory and design, of course early childhood education, and they had to produce and talk about their 2D and 3D final projects (with broad parameters) in art terms and concepts, and most of all have fun. A few times a month we met at the art museum to peruse and talk about the collection. Having an email account was mandatory turning in papers via attachment was prefered. At least twice a week they received link to art and info via the WWW.
The most frustrating thing for many of the students was parameters that were too loose for them. A healthy percentage of their questions were asking permission for things I hadn’t spoken for or against. No matter how often or fervent I deflected their questions back to the initial instructions or with, “I don’t know what do you think,” or “what would prevent you from doing that, etc.?” Many were never thoroughly comfortable their decisions were approved, even when I tried to make it clear that outside of the stated goals and objectives, they didn’t need my permission for anything. To me this speaks volumes about our society. The projects were fun, creative and surprising because they didn’t know how I would have done it. Most art instructors worth their salt know this.
Good Supervisor Soil for Asking Permission
"Water which is too pure has no fish." ~ Ts’ai Ken T’an
I’d love to see you grow this list and give pushback.
- As leader, boss, facilitator recognize your personal vestment which will inform some of your decisions and actions.
- *Value the opinion, ability and points of view of others.
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On open house nights with Art for Early Childhood Education classes inevitably there would be art supplies out for an activity and inevitably throughout the evening parents would direct their children what to put where and what color it should be or even totally displace their children fulfilling their own need for creativity and vision. Often when working in a different endeavor with Art On Wheels who caters to populations with physical and mental disabilities, attending occupational therapist, and caregivers were prone to do this. With Art On Wheels we had the opportunity to address this and cater to this need. Had parents and occupational therapist noted their actions and why they were vested, they most likely would have chosen other options that weren’t antithetical to our goals.
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- Make peace with muddy water- understand the difference between arbitrary chance and calculated risk. This doesn’t mean calculating the likelihood of success only but calculating the impact of failure to establish whether or not the risk is worth it. Sometimes you can project the point of no return. Also arbitrary chance can be exciting and fruitful. You don’t have to see everything clearly and in many cases this is an advantage.
Ordinarily in most cases you will be faced with things that are not dire do or die endeavors and boil down to your preferences and if you think any idea is worthy or will work. Let the muddy waters soak the field!
*Valuing: To Reckon the valuable ingredients to be obtained by treatment (extraction) from any expression or action; as, the vein carries good values. So then valuing does not mean giving something value, it means applying a process to something to mine/extract, cipher or ascertain what value might be present or inherent in an action, result, force or entity.
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Working Together. Photo by Alice Merkel.
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The Color of Age. Photo by Alice Merkel.
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Old Timers and Us Kids
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In the 80’s I worked for a private naval architecture firm “on the boards,” designing, redesigning ships. At the time I was hired there was an influx of young folks like me in their 20s. There were older employees we called them “old timers” and they called us kids. There wasn’t a deep organizational chart, just us guys “on the boards” immediate supervisors who were engineers and then the owners of the company. Us kids laughed often at the oldtimer culture but there was a great heritage and history of shipbuilding among them that was beautiful so that old-timer was a term of endearment. This example may explain how wide was the age chasm.
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Did ya hear the one about two monks and a lovely girl:
Two monks were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was falling. Coming around the bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. "Come on, girl," said the first monk. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. The second monk did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he said. "It is dangerous. Why did you do that?" "I left the girl there," the first monk said. "Are you still carrying her?" |
Calculators had not completely migrated into the workforce and there were a significant number of old-times that still used slide rules…It gets better. They not only still used “slide-rules” or slide-rulers they did not trust calculators. They would constantly check calculator terms with slide rulers. During the years I was there many minor innovations and ways of doing things came to light. Us kids were not smarter than the old-timers, we just didn’t know the rules. Our solutions were often met with, “that’s not the way it’s done” (traditionally), new ways of doing things were quickly adopted. They were not still carrying the girl in the silk kimono.
Not one time that I remember was the culture that of ask forgiveness and our innovations made the company run a little better. No one cared if we multiplied 7 x (5+3) or 7x8 as long as 56 was on the bottom line. No one threw away our calculators and made us use “slide-rules,” and it was a good thing since most of us had, only had some previous exposure to them.
Photo: Cavana Faithwalker
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Cavana Faithwalker is an Organizational, Community and Personal Empowerment Strategist and Facilitator.
Cavana Faithwalker was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He has a degree in public art marketing and management from Cleveland State University. “So my degree is mix of urban studies, marketing and communications and studio art." Read the rest of Cavana's story here. |
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