Our time together on Monday - Liz
It was a real delight for me to be part of Monday evening, and our time together on Monday has stayed with me through the course of this week, with resonances of it popping up at unexpected times. I have been particularly struck once again by the re-confirmation that at the heart of all that we do, the work on ourselves remains fundamental to our well being and our success. Knowing who we are, what we need, what gives the meaning and purpose to our days, and what we value is the foundation from which we need to move. Our time together has been a gentle reminder to me to go back to reflecting on these things and I trust that you will too. There must always be time to think about what really matters to each of us and allow this to be a compass, otherwise it is too easy to be swallowed up by the hecticness of every day and to squander precious time. Cultivating our capacity to discern and exercise good judgment is so critical in navigating knotty issues of integrity and value - and I believe that this only comes through real consistent attention to ourselves. On a practical note, I am a firm believer in taking and adapting tools and ideas to make them work in our own situations so in terms of the models and tools that Elaine and I shared with you - take what works, apply it, adapt it - push the boundaries of the ideas and the frameworks. They are simply there as aids so feel free to use, test, adapt and discard as you need to. As Bradley has so aptly put it, this course is about prompting the right questions so that you can develop the answer that will work best for you - and I would love to see the outcomes of that process. So E - please invite me back again!
Conceptualising and Concretising Your Project
So Monday was hard for me. i am used to being in a space where I design processes and programmes. Monday was about stepping up to the plate - delivering with my design partner whom I have closed mulit-million rand deals with on actually running a process. monday for me was about integrity and self trust - being able to integrate the Flash with the Fear and Fundamentals. A model for real business practise/ Yes. Thank you to you all for challenging the models I brought with excitement from the business school from kick -ass expensive international consultants . Yeah - maybe Exchange IS NOT always about a misunderstanding of what the perception of value looks like. Nice to have a group who don't buy into sexy words. i think you all rock! And I am very proud to be your guide on this Journey. *Yay*
Feedback from Rob on running the First process on Mon
Robert Poynton | rob@oyf.com | oyf.com | IP: 196.14.132.5 Hola. This is Rob. He of the loud T shirt. Monday night may well not have been what you were expecting from a business course. Which is perhaps a learning in itself. Personally, as someone that straddles business and creative worlds I think Fletcher was right - its not ‘us’ and ‘them’, which I think implies not so much learning a new language, but learning to find a way to use what you already have in a new context. If you feel like an imposter when you step into the business world you should remember that so do most business people, most of the time. The other thing I think is huge, is to disconnect price and worth, in your own mind (or heart). Price is what someone will pay for something, worth is a completely different question. So what you charge is not what you are worth. If you don’t make this distinction it can be hard to charge proper money, because you are always putting your personal worth in play. By the same token, even if you can charge a lot, that doesn’t make what you do necessarily good. For me it was a revelation when I realised that most stuff gets sold because of how much energy and work people put into selling it, not because of how good it is. When some other improv group got hired for a big job I used to think they must be better than us. They might be, but it doesn’t necessarily follow. Realising this helped me a lot. I am talking about my stuff, business stuff, here, though Max’s story, which I thought was very helpful, made the same point about art (when she dressed up to deliver her work to a gallery). Being business-like isn’t alien. It just requires common sense and clarity and energy and discipline just like anything else. Hopefully, by the end of the course, you will end up wondering why any of this ever seemed strange at all…..
Business Acumen for Artists - An Online Learning Log
I am programme directing the Business Acumen for Artists thirteen week process as part of UCT Graduate School's Corporate Social Investment. I have created this blog as a space to share ideas around the learning that comes out of this journey - insights for business and creatives. We kick off tomorrow night with Robert Poynton of On your Feet fame . We have brought him to South Africa to run the process underpinning the Executive Leadership Programme at UCT GSB and he kindly volunteered to run the first process on the programme. The course is part of our voluntary involvement with the Observatory Community centre and all the monies will go to renovating the Victorian house that the centre operates in.
We have had to close the applications because of the phenomenal reponse we got from the market; helped largely by the blogging efforts of Max Kaizen and Dave Duarte (tx*). So the profile of the delegates (26 in total) is an extraordinary cross section
MusicianSingerFine artist/freelance illustratorTheatre makerVisual artistGraphic artistMultimediaArtistCeramic artistJewellery, T-shirt designRadio, production companyTheatre directorJewellerProducing diary of performing artsCeramicistFilmmakerArtistGraphic designerVisual artistDrama teacher and painterClothing designerFine artistMusicianGlass & toy making
I have also included a breakdown of the timetable to give you a sense of what we are trying to achieve with this. You are welcome to use any concepts or ideas that come out of this learning - my request is just that you share back the findings that you have. My hope is that this space will be a geminating ground for much discovery and joy. Here's to the celebration of one of the most important mash-ups - Business and Art!
|
SESSION |
SUBJECT | FACILITATOR |
| ONE – MON 20 AUGUST | IMPROVISATIONAL LEADERSHIP | ROBERT POYNTON – |
| TWO – MON 27 AUGUST | CONCEPTUALISING AND CONCRETISING YOUR PROJECT | LIZ DE WET & ELAINE RUMBOLL – UCT GSB |
| THREE – MON 3 SEPT. | MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE | ELSPETH DONOVAN – UCT GSB |
| FOUR – MON 10 SEPT | BRANDING YOURSELF – NETWORKING AND ADAPTING, CREATING & ACCESSING A MARKET | ELSKE |
| FIVE – MON 17 SEPTEMBER | PR SKILLSONLINE WEB SKILLS | JANE NOTTEN – ROTHKO
DAVID |
| SIX – TUES 25 SEPTEMBER | LEGAL RIGHTS AND COPYLEFT |
ANDRE RENS -SHUTTLEWORTH FOUNDATION |
| SEVEN – MON 1 OCTOBER | STORYTELLING AROUND PRICING YOUR PRODUCT | TBC |
| EIGHT – MON 8 OCTOBER | NEGOTIATION SKILLS, PITCHING IDEAS AND CLOSING DEALS | ELAINE RUMBOLL – UCT GSB |
| NINE – MON 15 OCTOBER | PROJECT MGT | DENNIS COMNINOS – UCT GSB |
| TEN – MON 22 OCTOBER | ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS | PAUL ABRAMS - LIGHTWORK |
| ELEVEN – MON 29 OCTOBER | INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL AND ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE & TAX FOR FREELANCER ARTISTS | JANINE BLIGNAUT, UCT GSB |
| TWELVE - MON 5 NOVEMBER | CASHFLOW AND BUDGETTING CONSIDERATIONS | JANINE BLIGNAUT, UCT GSB |
| THIRTEEN – MON 12 NOVEMBER | EXECUTING THE BUSINESS CASE | ELSPETH DONOVAN – UCT GSB |
Initial thoughts
Hi Here are some initial thoughts on the process plus Ruth and Jutin's comments on project tools and an event. E