Art is a universal force for good. But arts organizations are a microcosm of society, so we must assume that they contain the full range of human attributes and behaviors. The conditions do not therefore exist automatically for employees to feel safe, happy, and rewarded—they require the meticulous building and management of organizational culture. It has been known for many years that organizational culture is foundational to business outcomes, going back to management guru Peter Drucker’s much-quoted assertion that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what is culture anyway? The description I have often used is “the written and unwritten values that underpin the human ecology of a workplace and inform the way people treat each other.” Those values do not appear by accident; they are intentionally created, honed, and nurtured.
So how are we doing on organizational culture across our field? Major strides have been made in recent years in advancing the success and recognition of women in the classical music world—as musicians, conductors, composers, and executives. Yet it’s important we acknowledge what all women and non-binary individuals in classical music know, which is that their safety and dignity are still too often at risk. Meanwhile, as we work together to eliminate racism and improve diversity on and off our stages, people of color continue to encounter biases, micro-aggressions, and significant impediments to their career journeys. And sadly, we hear far too many stories of workplaces where people don’t feel valued and included. None of this is unique to orchestras, but our missions to create positive impact in the world require that we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We can’t do good in our communities if we’re not taking care of our own families. So there is work to be done, rooted in our ability to build and sustain inclusive and caring cultures.
When you make workplaces better for those who are marginalized, you make them better for everyone.
There is a saying in equity, diversity, and inclusion work that when you make workplaces better for those who are marginalized, you make them better for everyone. I find this a beautiful concept: build good cultures and everyone wins. Sharing power, welcoming differences, and making people feel part of something bigger than themselves are fundamentals of effective leadership. And these attributes become even more critical as our employee populations become gradually dominated by younger generational cohorts, who bring a values-based approach to the workplace, coupled with a legitimate desire to protect their boundaries that can cause confusion and even frustration. But pushing back won’t work here. Better to understand, embrace, and respond by building the kind of cultures the next generation wants to work in—and learning from them along the way.
All leaders face strenuous near-term challenges and demands on their time and priorities, and the orchestra field is no exception. Conductors and musicians are appropriately focused on building artistic quality and producing thrilling performances. For executives, raising money, selling tickets, and working for good financial outcomes dominate their lives—necessarily so, as these are the fundamentals of sustaining a large non-profit with many employees in an increasingly turbulent economic environment. And for board members, exercising their fiduciary and strategic responsibilities is central to their work as governors. But in all these roles, moving culture to the center and focusing on it deliberately can be the difference between organizational success and failure.
Build good cultures and everyone wins.
But it’s about more than just organizational success—there’s a moral dimension too. It’s about common decency and allowing everyone to be themselves, find pleasure in their work, develop and grow as individuals, and flourish in the workplace. People don’t choose to work in the arts for economic gain; and this places a heightened moral responsibility on leaders to deliver on just about everything else in the workplace that supports personal satisfaction for employees. We spend about a third of our short time on earth at work—and life is literally too short for that third of anyone’s life to be consumed with stress, anxiety, or feeling diminished.
A long time ago, the person I reported to told me a harsh truth. Improve your teamwork with your colleagues, he said, or you won’t be successful in this job or any other. A stick is rarely better than a carrot to manage people, but on occasions a starkly honest nudge can be career-defining. I can trace back to that day my commitment to be a collaborative colleague and to try to build happy cultures. Even if you don’t always succeed—and of course I haven’t—it’s still one of the finest things you can devote time to. Bad cultures breed hurt, under-achievement, and employee turnover. Good culture is the magnificent multiplier of all the human talent and potential in your organization.
Sharing power, welcoming differences, and making people feel part of something bigger than themselves are fundamentals of effective leadership.
And leading from culture is not necessarily innate in the attributes that leaders bring to the workplace. It’s an acquired skill that can be cultivated as a central leadership discipline. It requires an acute radar for power dynamics and how best to mitigate them, coupled with a willingness to take a route that might take longer, but that brings more people along with you. Perhaps no better example exists than Anne Parsons, the late president and CEO of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, after whom we have been honored to name one of the League’s important leadership development programs. Anne worked tirelessly to bring people together around vision and values—however long it took—and the Detroit Symphony’s ability to thrive and not just survive following a period of financial crisis and sacrifice is the proof point of her leadership priorities.
So if you are an orchestra board member, senior executive, artistic leader, or other individual with positional authority, consider today what employees on and offstage in your organization are experiencing and feeling—and then address what you hear. Hire and advance those who exemplify humanity, positive energy, and a commitment to inclusion; vow never to tolerate racism, misogyny, and every other form of discrimination; don’t allow talent to blind you to negative personality traits; work to minimize power dynamics; facilitate conversations about the values the people in your organization share and crave; let information flow freely so everyone can feel part of the success story; hold people accountable and reward integrity; cherish differences, be kind, and look after all the humans in your orbit.
It’s the best investment you can make.
