So I’m trying something new today, an open thread with a question to which you can reply.
One of the things I am hearing from a lot of people right now is how they feel stuck when it comes to advancing change.
Through recent workshops I’ve led for professional associations and organizations, this feeling is definitely bubbling up more and more. “I feel like I’m hitting a wall.” “It just seems like we’re taking steps backward instead of forward.” “It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of support for change at our institution.”
So I’m wondering: What is something that is making you feel stuck right now?
Sincerely interested in hearing what you’re feeling.
Yes I feel a bit stuck! I have very clear ethical commitments, which I bring to my practice and my projects, but I feel stuck working with organisations whose commitments do not align with mine - either because they do not make anti-ableism / anti-racism central to their concerns, or because by their very nature they perpetuate harms / oppressions which means by extension I do too. I want to work with organisations for whom these concerns are central, but that is near impossible because there are so few of them within the arts sector, and those that do probably don't have any money...
Sorry to hear that, but I know many people are reading this and having similar experiences. Love the strategy of "creating good things outside of my workplace" -- we are not solely defined by our workplace. And when we work in a toxic environment, it's key to find ways outside of it to bring good to world.
I am stuck in a toxic workplace because I have niche skills and family responsibilities. I try to survive by creating good things outside of my workplace and by creating pockets of good within it.
I'm an intern at an art museum in a city, and I've been meeting professional staff there through informational interviews. They all seem exhausted, and several have described doing the work of two people or not being able to achieve work-life balance. It's really disheartening since they are so talented and should be more recognized. I'm trying to remain optimistic that not all arts organizations ask so much.
Overwork and burnout are definitely big factors. There seem to be many arts organizations and museums that laid off staff during the early part of the pandemic, and have not yet rehired to fill those positions (many in education, visitor services, and other front-facing positions). And as institutions have re-opened to the public, there's been pressure to "return to normal" and the ways things were before the pandemic. That's not a good formula for staff morale and workplace culture, for sure.
I feel like I have no room to make real change. Any advancement is halted by what seems like a never ending stream of “urgent“ issues. Some valid, some maybe not.
Thanks for sharing. I love that you're putting the word "urgent" in quotation marks. Tell me more about what you mean by that. I'm drawn to reflect on who or what is making the determination that something is "urgent," and how many of those issues are also important and meaningful (and not just "urgent").
Craving normalcy and pivot exhaustion has depleted enthusiasm and openness for change. Change as hard and out of one's control, rather than reflecting on a new changed landscape and openness to emerging opportunity.
I hear you, Wendy. Pivot fatigue is so real, especially after 2+ years of the pandemic forcing so many changes on us (in our work lives and our personal lives). It's certainly worn us down, including our ability to shape new opportunities. I'm so interested in re-sparking our energy and excitement around change, but that's not always easy.
To see in lot of cultural professionals a kind of pessimistic apocalyptic vission of all. A kind of imposibilitty to imagine a better future to fight for and to commit.
I'm also seeing this -- a struggle to imagine a better future, which is key to fighting for it and making it happen. Peace activist Kazu Haga writes, "Offering a vision of a different future and cultivating the belief that such a vision is possible is the best way to motivate people to stand up for change.” I love these words, and I think they ring true.
So true. There is a deep problem of trust and confidence in our professional sector. Nobody seems to trust in nobody/nothing. The dam and terrible suspicion default attitude. The "Just in case" prevention that carries to zoombiefy the organization. Don't move, don't do anything, is better be frozen than take that fraudster a ride etc. And this has been accelerated with the pandemic. I suffered this firsthand. Hire you as an agent of change to change nothing but take a nice picture for the big bosses and the media. Then discard you. Some take away to discuss on the Summer Camp:
- To be an agent of change as the only person who believe in the organization is doom to failure (it is a team issue).
- Quoting James Baldwin “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
- As Niven Postma says:
You can...
Be brilliant at your job
Have all the right qualifications
Work really hard
Be technically right
Do the best you can
But if you don’t do politics, politics will do you… The "behind the scene" factor determines the bad and the good one.
- Even the experience of change failed not because of you, was an important for you to be what you trully are.
Yes, this will be great to discuss more during the Summer Institute. All these issues around trust, institutional "behavior," authentic change vs. PR-serving change, etc. -- they are all worth unpacking a whole lot more.
And I do think that there is a hugely problematic way that institutions/organizations will hire and embrace a radical changemaker, get some surface things out of them, and then discard them in a harmful and toxic way. Happening too much. We need organizations (and those in positions of power) to commit to real change; deeper change; the challenging, uncomfortable type of change.
Yes I feel a bit stuck! I have very clear ethical commitments, which I bring to my practice and my projects, but I feel stuck working with organisations whose commitments do not align with mine - either because they do not make anti-ableism / anti-racism central to their concerns, or because by their very nature they perpetuate harms / oppressions which means by extension I do too. I want to work with organisations for whom these concerns are central, but that is near impossible because there are so few of them within the arts sector, and those that do probably don't have any money...
I am stuck at a place where I am overqualified but I feel unprepared for the next step.. so I feel stuck.. But working on it
Sorry to hear that, but I know many people are reading this and having similar experiences. Love the strategy of "creating good things outside of my workplace" -- we are not solely defined by our workplace. And when we work in a toxic environment, it's key to find ways outside of it to bring good to world.
I am stuck in a toxic workplace because I have niche skills and family responsibilities. I try to survive by creating good things outside of my workplace and by creating pockets of good within it.
I'm an intern at an art museum in a city, and I've been meeting professional staff there through informational interviews. They all seem exhausted, and several have described doing the work of two people or not being able to achieve work-life balance. It's really disheartening since they are so talented and should be more recognized. I'm trying to remain optimistic that not all arts organizations ask so much.
Overwork and burnout are definitely big factors. There seem to be many arts organizations and museums that laid off staff during the early part of the pandemic, and have not yet rehired to fill those positions (many in education, visitor services, and other front-facing positions). And as institutions have re-opened to the public, there's been pressure to "return to normal" and the ways things were before the pandemic. That's not a good formula for staff morale and workplace culture, for sure.
I feel like I have no room to make real change. Any advancement is halted by what seems like a never ending stream of “urgent“ issues. Some valid, some maybe not.
Thanks for sharing. I love that you're putting the word "urgent" in quotation marks. Tell me more about what you mean by that. I'm drawn to reflect on who or what is making the determination that something is "urgent," and how many of those issues are also important and meaningful (and not just "urgent").
Craving normalcy and pivot exhaustion has depleted enthusiasm and openness for change. Change as hard and out of one's control, rather than reflecting on a new changed landscape and openness to emerging opportunity.
I hear you, Wendy. Pivot fatigue is so real, especially after 2+ years of the pandemic forcing so many changes on us (in our work lives and our personal lives). It's certainly worn us down, including our ability to shape new opportunities. I'm so interested in re-sparking our energy and excitement around change, but that's not always easy.
To see in lot of cultural professionals a kind of pessimistic apocalyptic vission of all. A kind of imposibilitty to imagine a better future to fight for and to commit.
I'm also seeing this -- a struggle to imagine a better future, which is key to fighting for it and making it happen. Peace activist Kazu Haga writes, "Offering a vision of a different future and cultivating the belief that such a vision is possible is the best way to motivate people to stand up for change.” I love these words, and I think they ring true.
So true. There is a deep problem of trust and confidence in our professional sector. Nobody seems to trust in nobody/nothing. The dam and terrible suspicion default attitude. The "Just in case" prevention that carries to zoombiefy the organization. Don't move, don't do anything, is better be frozen than take that fraudster a ride etc. And this has been accelerated with the pandemic. I suffered this firsthand. Hire you as an agent of change to change nothing but take a nice picture for the big bosses and the media. Then discard you. Some take away to discuss on the Summer Camp:
- To be an agent of change as the only person who believe in the organization is doom to failure (it is a team issue).
- Quoting James Baldwin “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
- As Niven Postma says:
You can...
Be brilliant at your job
Have all the right qualifications
Work really hard
Be technically right
Do the best you can
But if you don’t do politics, politics will do you… The "behind the scene" factor determines the bad and the good one.
- Even the experience of change failed not because of you, was an important for you to be what you trully are.
Yes, this will be great to discuss more during the Summer Institute. All these issues around trust, institutional "behavior," authentic change vs. PR-serving change, etc. -- they are all worth unpacking a whole lot more.
And I do think that there is a hugely problematic way that institutions/organizations will hire and embrace a radical changemaker, get some surface things out of them, and then discard them in a harmful and toxic way. Happening too much. We need organizations (and those in positions of power) to commit to real change; deeper change; the challenging, uncomfortable type of change.