Why presenting if you don't connect?

Over the years, I've had so many contacts with people working in the performing arts world in particular and the rest of the creative world that when I reached out to  a presenter of the Centennial Theater in Bishop, recently, I felt that I should talk about what I call the business of connecting humans to various expression of meaning.

I'm always surprised to notice and observe that some professional of the arts world don't seem interested to establish connections outside of what they perceive as their world and interest.From the outside, one could even draw the conclusion that their preoccupation for art and the creative expression is at best remote. Why is it that some presenters seem to be more interested in protecting their position  and their institutional position on the creative chessboard more than evaluating the value of connecting deeply with new and fresh source of talents?

If I was asked to lead a creative institution of any size, my focus would be to bring fresh and vibrant artistic and creative expression to my community.  To me, whether you are leading the Lincoln Center or a a local presenting center, you must show curiosity and passion for creative surprises or move on to another job. The point of any presenting house is not self preservation but the creation of a sacred, daring space where the creative and artistic cultures and expressions of the world (or a neighborhood) are presented to a community so that a new conversation can start or continue. In a way, part of the problem I am pointing at is that these "presenting centers" are called presenting house, perhaps there title should be changed to "conversation houses", "creative dialogue houses"...

After all, presenters are not so much in the business of presenting art as they are  in the one of fostering creative conversations leading to social, aesthetic, playful insights on us and our worlds. They are in the business of connecting humans to meaning. So if connecting with humans is a problem in the first place because you are too busy maintaining the bricks in place and you establish your presenting house as an institution (fortress) to the very artists who are the source of your life force, I call you on it today and encourage you to shift your focus to a vibrant, thought provoking, inspiring hub. Presenter of the world, you can be active and open members of your respective communities and meaningful players of our creative world... Kickstarter is doing it right now, one creative project at a time.

Do you smell the fire?

When fire burns in your gut,
notice what you've learned.

Notice the heritage running/
through.

Fire, down under - must be - something - to worry - about
> a lot.

Notice you learned that feeling the fire down under
meant you must drown your heart,
notice how slowly you learned the killing game.

Slowly too, I discover…

Your fire will not burn you the way you think
that fire, brings pain.

Perhaps, it was scary for those around you
but that fire is light.

So notice the messages through distortions
calling you, begging you, imploring you
to learn to live
with fire,
through danger,

with light

Why Tweetting?

I always want to know more about coaching and productivity and while I was listening to a useful teleclass on Productivity Process for Coaches and Consultants by George Kao and reading the comments on his Facebook page, I came across a comment about Twitter and the confusion about its relevance. So this is what I share on my current understanding of the tool:

Twitter is a powerful tool in a number of ways. For instance, it can be used as a micro-blogging media, allowing you to write down your insights related to topics you deeply care about or topics where you are an expert, an enthusiast or a fan.

Incidentally, you can also find through Twitter people and organizations who dig what you dig, loving what you love. All of a sudden, you can connect, listen and share insights with people whom you share a common interest with. It is one way to use it, so you can connect and discover people who inspire you in any field imaginable. It is also a "listening device" as obviously it can be a part of a marketing strategy.

Obviously, because Twitter is part of what we call "social media" (I prefer to say media "closer" to people) that means that there is less room for phoniness and inauthentic communication. When you are not really authentic, your message is instantly less compelling and closer to spam.

I could go on... suffice to say, Twitter and the other micro-blogging devices emerging will continue to evolve and impact on the way we communicate, influence and socially agree on what matter to us.

Creativity, Productivity and feeling Stuck

I wrote this in response to Penelope Trunk's great post on creativity and productivity.
The way you channel strength and vulnerability in your post is remarkable! It makes your writing fresh and authentic.
***
Beyond goals, I find the real inquiry that creates more focus (and engagement) lies in discovering what values are truly important to us. Sometimes, just reviewing those values during the week makes a huge difference to realign ourselves and find what is truly meaningful in our goals.

So I would say that it is sometime hard to stick to the "A- to do list" when our goals are not really an expression of values we have determined or discovered for ourselves. I would even argue that we must let space for the sublime to feed more and more the mundane. So that when you write your to do list, answer to a post, coach, wash the dishes (the mundane), you feel the connection to something sublime that only you could have come up with.

It's Now Your Value

This great article from the New York Times inspired me to learn more about the concepts of content and value as applied to the entertainment world.

Value and content were once the same thing. After all, if television said it was good for us, surely it was, right? But as most of us realize, things have changed - and so too have the concepts of value and content.

In the past, the very people who determined content were often the same people establishing what our values would be. They did this by telling us that their content was valuable. We had no choice. They even set the time we needed to watch or pay attention. This has changed profoundly.
Executives worry constantly about content for their new media platforms, and I realize how the executive mindset has not changed. The progressively emerging reality shows that  people will be willing to pay for value as opposed to prioritizing content. Content is simply not necessarily valuable anymore! This is nothing new! But our current media context reveals the lies we have to buy into.

 

Were I one of those executives, I would stop worrying so much about content and I go back to the fundamentals of figuring out what people really care about today. With this new mindset, eventually, the conversation would lead to art, to stories, to meaning, to offering your public something that truly matters for 3 reasons: it touches them, it can be shared, it can be recommended.

Love and war

Every time you  are willing to let go of being right: love ends war (thanks Anant). Try it at work, try it in with your relationships, try it everywhere.

Your Service or Product Does not Matter

I answered a series of questions posed by Sally Hogshead's (trust me, she is beautiful!) clever survey about the 7 triggers that make humans and their messaging fascinating. Her argument is that all of us have certain traits in us (some active, some dormant) and that we can explore ways to make them more explicit.  My primary trigger is vice, the secondary is lust and the dormant trait is trust.

Without having read the book or spent money buying it, I have already received great value from the author,  who put this book together. To me, what's becoming clearer each day is that there is an  open field to offer products and services that are not about the offerings, but about the value of what is received. For example, what if publishers where more concerned about the emotional and human value, the collateral benefit to customers buying their books, rather than the selling of the book.

Perhaps, when you are selling books, you are not so much in the business of printing, distributing, or arguing over the evil of e-books. You are in the business of moving people, to help them grow, to inspire them. What if a publisher was doing everything he could to understand the impact of his books on people?

I bet that no matter what business your are in, you could put a greater emphasis on those  who are being touched by your services and products. Perhaps, changing your entire mindset to see beyond the current end result, so you can track how in the long run, people are actually transformed positively by what you offer.