And another thing: organisational ethics and deficit areas

It’s unsurprising that these polycrisis times have led to lots of conversations about how organisations are coping and responding: what we do, how we do it, and how we behave when doing so.

My latest ‘and another thing’ vlog ties together three key themes or deficit areas that have come out some of these recent conversations, observations and my ongoing governance reading.

With thanks to all those who have shared their thoughts and fears on these issues, these include:

  • A lack of general governance readiness for when things start to go wrong;
  • Poorly articulated organisational ethics and values that don’t hold up when tested; and
  • The decimation of formal and information ways of being with and communicating with each other, through the normalisation of previously unthinkable behaviours.

In full recognition of my privilege and the importance of maintaining perspective in the face of multiple local and global crises, it seems almost everyone in my circles are experiencing some level of brokenness or burnout at the state of the world at the moment.

In microcosm, our arts, cultural and non-profit sector is being torn apart by hurt and grief and harm after harm – to the point where I am more fearful of its future, its work and the wellbeing of the people within it than at any point in my 25+ year career.

Art and culture have traditionally been ways we have brought people together and held space for new and challenging ideas, moved conversations forward, shifted paradigms, changed minds and saved lives.

But with the people that make or engage in those processes more depleted, and the state of our sector more tenuous than many of us have ever known, how do we hold and care for those who do the work of holding and caring for others?

How do we re-center our commonality and shared humanity, without being dismissive of recent and ongoing hurt? How do we create safe spaces for honesty and multiplicity alongside civility and respect? And how do we re-articulate and recommit to our personal and organisational values to make sure we practice what we preach?

 I have many more questions than answers. There’s no formula for this. No experts. No precedent in most of our careers. So this is just another clumsy contribution to the long, large messy conversation of which we’re all taking part.

Read more

This edition of ‘and another thing’ draws from or references:

A version of this article was published by ArtsHub.

Further reading: Palestine as a governance issue

You can check out all of the articles and resources in this series, which include:

Subscribe or support

For future updates, subscribe to my free occasional enews.

If you’d like the full versions or more of these rants, you can join me as an advocate, ally or accomplice for rethinking arts governance from just $2.50/month.

Unknown's avatar

Author: katelarsenkeys

Writer. Rabble-rouser. Arts, Cultural and Non-Profit Consultant.