Natia presented at a congress last week, of open spaces for arts and collaboration. People were very impressed that she’s doing this in Kutaisi. They’re gonna call their part Projector, because Leni Academy maybe sounds to lame. Just kidding, I think it’s good to separate the purely educational structures from the artistic and experimental.
Also in the panel were people from successful arts spaces in Berlin, I think related to Tresor. Anyway, the main tenor of the panel discussion was the importance of good management. This led to a phone discussion between Tim in Kutaisi and me in Vienna. Because one reaction is “to get a good manager”. Yet good managers have tons of opportunities so maybe that’s gonna be difficult without a proper budget.
However, we had a good discussion about management then that I would like to share here.
Managing space, people, and the business
Those three are pretty much what managers need to do well, so let’s go through them one by one.
Managing the space means making sure that the space is used in the best way possible. That includes cleaning 🧹, scheduling 📅, and taking care of equipment and supplies 🛒. It also includes an architectural vision, and an ability to get stuff done. We just got homemade tables and some cheap chairs, so that we can start with the language lessons. A whiteboard would also be cool, and painting one wall white to project a screen on. And of course it would be nice if the whiteboard has functioning pens, and the projector has the right adapters. And both work well, no large blue stains or a broken cable.
Managing people is also important. We want to enable people to create with their fullest selves. To believe in their ability to sit down and learn or create something. To support each other in doing a lot, but also respect that people have different approaches and may need a break or have personal problems that they carry with them. It’s important to have a good relationship with everyone, but to also be able to say no when it is necessary. To lead by example, but also by trust. And to stand up when something goes wrong and take responsibility in difficulty situations.
Managing the business is what most people may understand when it comes to managing. Making sure there is an income for people. Having access to a money pot that keeps generating value that comes back to it. That’s what a business in capitalism is about: offering a product or service that people want to pay for because it’s valuable enough for them. There’s no magic recipe for getting money in. For artists, money comes either from donors that want to support the value it creates and pay for it from their pocket, or by the people who benefit from it and that pay for a class or seminar.
Some things I’ve learned about management
- Many people are penny wise but dollar stupid. We’re not good with money. Money is a number that we don’t like to see decreasing. That’s most people’s relationship. In contrast, an investment banker sees money however as Excel models and productive capacities that need to be allocated. Them, like governments hand out horrendous sums that no one could ever own by working hard. For an artist space it means to understand that we need to spend money to get thing started, but also believe that we can get the money back or at least have a plan B.
- Businesses that work with talented people have a high fluctuation of workers. I co-founded a successful restaurant with live music jam sessions in Vienna, Frau Mayer. There were lots of wonderful people in the crew, but people would come and go. A year later it could be that the whole crew was replaced, except for the cook and the art director. Especially in areas with low pay and talented people that have tons of opportunities this is a realistic scenario. Also some people may just want a time out, or need a time out at some point. It’s normal and it takes time to find a core team of people.
- There’s a lot of chaos in organizations that just needs a minimum level of order to relax a bit. When you’re doing your taxes, it seems like a sysiphean task that you can never overcome. But with the phone number of a befriended tax advisor, and a 7 bullet list from the year before, this whole thing becomes something that is worried about for three months and over in three hours. If you know in which bucket you must put which bill, and how to aggregate numbers and documents reliably, then a minimum amount of order can bring a lot of peace to people’s minds.
- A good manager makes sure the organisation doesn’t depend on them. If organizations become over-reliant on a single source of knowledge
- Focus on standardizing processes so they become manageable instead of scary.
- Make sure that new colleagues can land with their feet walking.
- Codify everything so that people can just read the fucking manual.
- People come and go and things take time
A good system is simple, transparent, and fair
Simplicity is beautiful. The more complex a solution becomes the harder it becomes to change course or to keep things running.
Transparency is great. As a non profit we want to show that we keep our promises. Theoretically there should be nothing to hide in a functioning organization. Information helps making decisions, and most wrong decision were taking on incomplete information or discussion of it. And we can only have an informed discussion if we have access to the relevant information and can trust in other people.
Fairness is a bit tricky. What might seem fair to one person may seem unfair to someone else. If we think that there’s only one big cake, someone else getting more means that someone is getting less. However, the cake can also increase for everyone. But people like to have money in their wallet and spend it fast. So a balance must be kept between growing the pie and eating the pie.
Well that’s a lot of bla but what about becoming a better manager?
Well, being a good manager means managing the space, people, and finances. It means making difficult decisions and getting hands dirty when there’s no one else taking care of it. And it means being reliable in serving others, while also keeping the bigger picture in mind.
Everything becomes easier when there’s trust, and it’s simple to do stuff.
Simplicity and writing down knowledge is my final advice. If the cook of a restaurant quits their job to marry a billionaire, it would be great if the recipes are written down somewhere. Also a video would be cool that explains how it is cooked. And maybe also the phone numbers of the ingredient suppliers. And how the oven works.
Now all of that is a bit much, but the simplest way could be just a pdf version of a Google Doc with todo’s, contacts, version, and some instructions. That could be worth a lot.
So I will probably start writing my thoughts down more often. We also want to train potential managers, and be able to live abroad.
Have we started already?