Considering the Creative Ecology
Andrew Taylor | ataylor@bus.wisc.edu | www.artfulmanager.com
Austin, Texas | June 24, 2009

But first... about my yard...

The persistent visitor

Tending the garden
✤ Demands a (malleable) vision.
✤ Has a boundary
(stated or implied).
✤ Already in progress
(for thousands of years).
✤ Moves and grows in cycles.
✤ Subject to larger
(and smaller) cycles.
✤ Interconnected...you can’t just
change one thing.

The creative ecology...

Creative...
✤ expression
✤ experience
✤ insight
✤ innovation
✤ spark
✤ connection
✤ catalyst
SOURCE: Flickr user Martino!

Creative...
✤ expression
✤ experience
✤ insight
✤ innovation
✤ spark
✤ connection
✤ catalyst
SOURCE: Flickr user Martino!

...Ecology
✤ living system
✤ environment
✤ complex
✤ interconnected
✤ interdependent
✤ balanced
✤ evolving

Tending your garden
✤ Demands a (malleable) vision.
✤ Has a boundary
(stated or implied).
✤ Already in progress
(for hundreds of years).
✤ Moves and grows in cycles.
✤ Subject to larger
(and smaller) cycles.
✤ Interconnected...you can’t just
change one thing.

SOURCE: Flickr user Cesar R.
A (malleable) vision...

Connecting, advancing, and
celebrating Austin’s creative life.

SOURCE: Flickr user Liv...
A boundary (stated or implied)...

“Art is limitation; the essence of
every picture is the frame.”
G.K. Chesterton

Who’s in?
Who’s out?
✤ Industry Lens
✤ For-profit / Nonprofit
✤ Organized / Informal
✤ Industry / Job Function
SOURCE: Creative Columbus report, June 2009

SOURCE: Creative Columbus report, June 2009

Who’s in?
Who’s out?
✤ Human Lens
✤ Amateur / Professional
(or “Pro-Am”)
✤ Creator / Observer
✤ Self-Description /
Observed Behavior
SOURCE: Flickr user garryknight

Who’s in?
Who’s out?
✤ Human Lens
✤ Amateur / Professional
(or “Pro-Am”)
✤ Creator / Observer
✤ Self-Description /
Observed Behavior
SOURCE: Flickr user garryknight

What I heard: “All In”
(Jo Anne said so with some conviction.)

SOURCE: Flickr user MR+G
Already in progress...

SOURCE: Flickr user mandus
Moves and grows in cycles...

Adaptive Cycle

SOURCE: Flickr user j u l i a n o
Subject to larger (and smaller) cycles...

Cycles
✤ Larger (STEEP)
✤ Sociological
✤ Technological
✤ Economic
✤ Environmental
✤ Political
✤ Smaller
✤ Local news cycle
✤ Trends, fads, etc.

SOURCE: Flickr user Toby Maloy
Interconnected...
(you can’t just change one thing)

“Side” effects
✤ Unintended consequence
✤ Frequent “surprises”
✤ Changing the players by
changing the game

Tending your garden
✤ Demands a (malleable) vision.
✤ Has a boundary
(stated or implied).
✤ Already in progress
(for hundreds of years).
✤ Moves and grows in cycles.
✤ Subject to larger
(and smaller) cycles.
✤ Interconnected...you can’t just
change one thing.

Back to “creator / observer”

...so that means
we can’t do anything?

No, that means you must bring your
complex creativity to the task...
(And who better than a “creative alliance” to do just that?)

Four questions, four metaphors

“But doesn’t collaborating threaten our
individual impact and ideals?”

Meaning is always co-created.

How can we find common ground, when
we’re all so different in our creative work?

SOURCE: Flickr user Cayusa
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill.
They want a quarter-inch hole.”
Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School Marketing Professor

“I’m already overclocked. How can I take time
out to connect beyond my immediate need?”

The Honey Mushroom
Armillaria ostoyae

“Seems huge. Where can we begin?”

SOURCE: Flickr user Rodrigo Campos
Button by button, thread by thread

You’ve already begun, keep going...

With thanks to my hosts:
Andrew Taylor
Director, Bolz Center for Arts Administration | www.bolzcenter.org
Wisconsin School of Business
Author, “The Artful Manager”| www.artfulmanager.com
email: ataylor@bus.wisc.edu
twitter: www.twitter.com/artfulmanager

This work is licensed under the
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To view a copy of this license, visit
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