Photo by Glitterguts, featuring David Chervony (performer at THAW and Emily Chervony’s husband), Rana Liu, Lydia Bayley, Emily Chervony, Veronica Inberg, and myself.

Arts administration is admittedly all about herding cats. I learned this before I joined the program although I’ve held naively onto the belief that somewhere, somehow maybe I would find myself involved in a project where it didn’t feel like there were a million moving pieces all threatening to fall through at once, but alas, that’s generally not the case. For starters, any sort of large scale planning effort involves a lot of people. And people are terribly wonderful unpredictable little random molecules of being. It’s a challenge to account for all the curve balls they can throw at you.

I’m writing this a week and a half after the fundraiser for Links Hall, THAW, which was a successful night, but also a serious challenge. The sheer number of volunteers, board members, staff members, and attendees involved in the event was staggering, and we did wonderfully on our fundraising goals for the size of the venue and the number of people it could hold. Members of my cohort came out to volunteer and participate, which was wonderful, and you can see all of us in the GlitterGuts photobooth above. I was chair of the logistics subcommittee and I’m still personally debriefing what I would change now that I have the experience. I had challenged myself to take the role in order to gain more leadership experience and I’m glad I did; that being said, if I had it all to do over again I would definitely approach it differently. One of the hardest things about taking on a leadership role is having many voices in the room and deciding which course of action sounds the most appropriate, making that decision, and confidently asserting it in a manner that will get you buy-in from the rest of the crowd. Your stakeholders matter. You can’t lead in a vacuum, and you can’t lead from the bottom of a well of disagreement either. Harmony is key and not easy the more people you stir into the cauldron of planning.

Why is my metaphor about making things happen always a witch stirring a cauldron? More importantly, how great is it that a cat stirring a cauldron is in my post about herding cats to make things happen?

So what are my tips for project managing/leading/planning a major project?

1. Set some phases. Brainstorming and shooting for the moon to land in the stars is great, but after a certain point, the editing phase needs to set in. Editing, for me, means that everyone needs to understand the time parameters leading up to the event or production or final project or deliverable, and how that impacts what is feasible. My ideal three phases would be brainstorming, editing, and the final push.
2. Communication is key. This statement is one of the more obvious things I could have said, but conversations will get continuously repeated if people don’t listen to each other, or if only some people have half the information while others have the other half. And there’s nothing worse than a meeting where all that happens is retreading the same discussions as last time.
3. Understand that venting is natural. Stress happens and we all have different points of view about how our objectives should be achieved. And we all have different reactions to stress and pressure. I’m not saying that someone going off the grid and forgoing all responsibilities is the right thing to do; what I AM saying is that it’s okay to sit back and laugh at the complications of everything going on. And maybe let off some of that building steam too.

Until next time, Masters of Arts Management graduate ambassador out, like this performer packing her giant ostrich puppet into her car after THAW 2018.