On Developing Our Leaders: From Professional Development to Intentional Learning

Our media arts organizations are engrossed in the mission-related activities of program delivery. We are in the trenches, engaging communities, forging partnerships, and advocating for independent media. We are hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals working for the collective good. But are our organizations, the stewards of this collective effort, adequately supporting our individual growth and development?

An organized, institutionalized, and intentional professional development program is a key component to building a more effective organization. Professional development is the process of identifying and strengthening the skills, abilities, and resources that individuals need to survive, adapt, and thrive in an often fast-changing workplace. Common skills addressed include leadership, advocacy, training, speaking, technology, and organizing.
 

Why “Do” Professional Development?
An organization that adopts a culture of “lifelong learning” stays fresh and adaptive to change. Organizations that neglect tapping into the potential of staff and board risk becoming irrelevant. Professionals in many fields, like education, medicine, and psychotherapy, require continuous development in order to keep licenses to practice or to maintain membership within an association. Other fields that don’t require professional development still invest heavily in it because they know that in order to stay competitive and effective, the people working in the organization need to feel they are learning, that opportunities are available to them, and that they are contributing in a significant way.

It’s no secret that media arts professionals accept relatively low pay and work hard. For most of us, this is a trade-off for the opportunity to engage in meaningful work. But nonprofit organizations are susceptible to overtaxing their staffs and draining their energy. Enlightened organizations offset low salaries with cost-effective professional development opportunities. While an organization might not be able to give an employee a $3,000 raise, a fraction of that could be used to offer a suite of workshops, trainings, and networking opportunities. That organization is sending a positive message to staff that they are valued and worth being supported, while leveraging minimal financial resources. This strategy is especially pertinent to attracting emerging leaders, who weigh benefit packages and quality-of-life perks heavily when they decide where to work. If organizations don’t actively consider the growth and development of staff, it’s unlikely they’ll attract the right people, and those they do attract will be highly susceptible to burnout.

Investing in professional development also enhances other capacity building efforts. For instance, if an organization mindfully provides leadership development for its executive director, then that organization’s ability to build resources is enhanced, as savvy leadership skills are necessary to influence funders and policy makers.
 

Barriers to Professional Development
Why aren’t more organizations devoting time and resources to professional development? I think there are hidden assumptions in our organizational cultures that block us from adequately engaging in it. In his book Organizational Culture and Leadership, Edgar Schein defines culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group has learned as it solved its problems...that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.” Shared assumptions usually operate outside of awareness. Once formed and taken for granted, we become emotionally invested in them and we feel they are right and good.

I’ve identified four common cultural barriers to professional development in nonprofit organizations:

A Culture of Trial and Error
Most media arts professionals come to their positions through the back door. Many are artists, filmmakers, producers, curators, or have some other vocation; a career in arts management is a kind of a happy accident. Few of us are formally trained in the complexities of arts management. Instead, we undergo a long history of on-the-job learning, figuring out how to make our organizations work by trial and error. Along the way, we develop invaluable peer networks to assist us in our efforts. Yet this informal approach leaves holes in our knowledge of creating and sustaining viable organizations. In a “culture of trial and error,” professional development is seen as unnecessary.

A Culture of Sacrifice
Small to midsized arts organizations move mountains with scant resources; there is always more need in the community than organizations are able to meet. With funding scarce, budgets tend to be pared down to bare bones. Line items like staff development can be viewed as nonessential. In a recent membership survey, one NAMAC member commented, “I know it’s wrong, but if I have an extra thousand dollars in my budget, I’m going to buy a computer and not do a leadership institute.” Even when organizations do budget for professional development, when purse strings get tight, it’s the first line item to get cut. In a “culture of sacrifice,” professional development is seen as a guilt-laden luxury.

A Culture of Been There, Done That
In an organization where lifelong learning is not valued, experienced professionals can view themselves as having learned everything they need to learn. Learning is seen as a need born out of inexperience rather than an ongoing process of growth, development, and staying relevant. Professional development can also be viewed as an “intervention”—the underlying assumption being that a person “needs” professional development because of inadequacies or because she is not meeting performance measures—rather than as a vote of confidence. In a “culture of been there, done that,” professional development is seen as shameful.

A Culture of Go, Go, Go/Do, Do, Do
Our organizations are pressed for time. They are responding to the urgent needs of their constituencies and communities with little time to pause, reflect, or plan. Foundations demand more projects and programs, with precious little support for infrastructure and staff development. Many media arts professionals believe the front line work is ennobling, while administrative work is considered bureaucratic and monotonous. There is a compulsory need to look outward, and there is always more to do. In a “culture of go, go, go/do, do, do,” professional development is simply not seen.
 

Pathways to Development: Repatterning the Culture
What new assumptions must we adopt in order to fully embrace the practice of professional development in our organizations?

Embrace Intentional Learning
Within each of us is a deep hunger to learn, and we must orient our organizations to intentionally feed that hunger. A reframing of the idiom “professional development” is called for, as professionalizing is not necessarily the aim, particularly among organizations holding strong values of independence. The term “self-directed learning” more aptly fits the culture. Intentional learning is the antidote to the “culture of trial and error.”

Embrace Sustainability
If we believe in sustainability, then we believe in renewing energy, not just using it. Organizations must realistically adjust their activities to meet their resources—human resources included. Nurturing and regenerating must be seen as valued and as necessary as producing. Sustainability is the antidote to the “culture of sacrifice.”

Embrace Appreciation
In a culture of appreciation we say, “What’s wrong?” less and say, “What’s working?” more. We recognize the strengths of those around us and design developmental assignments to maximize those strengths. We see potential everywhere, especially within ourselves. In the words of organizational guru Peter Drucker, “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.” Appreciation is the antidote to the “culture of been there, done that.”

Embrace Reflective Action
Our organizations must perpetually challenge our assumptions and create practices that help us reflect and adapt to change. Leaders must detox from compulsory business and create intentional space for critical reflection. Reflection does not prevent action. It helps us fine-tune our actions, therefore preventing future runaway problems and helping us work more efficiently. In a culture of reflective action, we have difficult conversations, like, “Am I still the right person for this job?” and, “Does this organization need to exist?” We listen to the answers. Reflective action is the antidote to the “culture of go, go, go/do, do, do.”
 

To the Organizations Who Want To Change
When you are able to transform your organizational culture, you will want to amp up your commitment to professional development. There are various ways to begin. Below are some steps to get you started:

• Budget for professional development for yourself, your staff, and your board. If you do not influence your budget, be vocal about your desire for professional development. Ask for what you need.
• Seek funding. Many foundations, arts councils, and agencies offer funding for professional development, but it may not be obvious to you. Look for special programs focused on capacity building, technical assistance, travel assistance, and leadership development. Some foundations make resources available to organizations they already fund, so talk to your current program officers about what is possible. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations is a network of foundations that support organizational effectiveness.
• Find cost-effective solutions. Be creative with your professional development. Establish a mentoring relationship with someone in your community (find sample agreements and resources at peer.ca). Create a leadership book-study group (see ccl.org for some great titles). Find free seminars in your town, and encourage staff to take a “professional development day.” You could come up hundreds of other ideas—you just have to dream them and implement them.
• Embed a development plan in everyone’s annual review. Make sure your performance evaluation process involves development goals for each staff member, and involve them in co-creating the plan. Be sure that the goals are specific and measurable, with target completion dates attached. Make sure the goals tap into the person’s core interests and passions and aren’t merely corrective. If adapting the annual review process isn’t possible, take matters into your own hands and develop your own personal strategic plan. There are many free DIY career tools available at mindtools.com.
• Have meaningful conversations at work about what makes each person tick. If you want professional development to be transformative, then the activities need to be connected to individual goals, interests, and dreams, which, in turn, need to be aligned with the organization’s strategic directions. By setting aside time for meaningful conversation, you unearth real information, and you’re not relying on your own assumptions about the professional development needs of the staff and board. Also, when you inquire into each other’s interests with curiosity—and can then back this up with a meaty development plan—you establish trust, loyalty, and a sense of well-being.
• Take advantage of NAMAC’s resources.

Professional Development Fund: Get reimbursed up to $200 for workshops and trainings of your choice.

Media Arts Leadership Institute: A five-day intergenerational experiential workshop designed to build visionary leadership in the field. June 2008.

Peer Coaching TeleCircles: Give and get coaching, advice, inspiration, and accountability to help you reach your professional goals.

TeleSalons: Hear from and dialogue with experts on topics like succession planning, board development, and fundraising. Listen to recordings of past salons online.

Professional development does not need to be a cumbersome, dreary task that drains the organization of precious resources and time. If done right, the opposite is true. Developing the human potential of an organization is an essential component to building capacity, and is interrelated with resource development, systems development, evaluation, mission, and strategy. Though cultural barriers run deep, with enough commitment, innovation, and shifts in perspective, they can easily be sidestepped. When you invest in professional development, you embrace intentional learning. You not only help your organization stay competent, relevant, dynamic, and a great place to work, you also strengthen the field by stewarding future generations of media arts leaders.

DANIEL “DEWEY” SCHOTT is senior manager of leadership services at NAMAC. He wishes to express his thanks to Paula Manley for pointing him to the work of Edgar Schein.