The Crossroads and the Moment

My life often seems divided between how I approach work, and what I do for dance and other more artistic pursuits. When I read articles for businesspeople about how to be effective or innovative, they are sometimes inspiring but don't tend to resonate with me. When I turn to guides for artists on how to be improve technically or be creative, I get it more but am usually at a loss on how to apply that to my work life.

Ne'er the twain shall meet? comes to mind each time I meet the crossroads.

The beauty of life is that sometimes, suddenly I get something. All my experiences and thoughts up until that moment have prepared me, and with the right trigger, I just get it. At least, I get the tip of the iceberg, the one realization that opens my eyes and thus the possibility of understanding.

Yesterday, I woke up sick, really sick. It had been building for some time - too many long hours at work and the stress that comes with it. After visiting the doctor, I decided to stop briefly at the local library to pick up some Dance Magazine back issues. What better time when stuck at home feeling awful to catch up on the dance world, the part of me I put aside all too often for the highly prioritized Work?

In the December 2010 issue, I glanced at "Ideal Gifts for Dancers: Three books and one set of films" from the column "dmrecommends". The first was "The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together" by Twyla Tharp. The review by Mindy Aloff was brief, but this led to my moment of clarity. Aloff lifts these two quotes from Tharp:

• "In a good collaboration," she writes, "differences between partners mean that one plus one will always equal more than two."

• "I learned with Robbins [Jerome Robbins, choreographer] that there is no ownership in a successful collaboration."

Immediately I thought of the struggles I'd been experiencing in my most recent project at work. I am working with a brilliant colleague, but we have very different styles. Plus, ambiguities about roles and ownership led to tense situations and confusion amongst stakeholders. Not good for the overall success of the project, much less for either of us as individuals.

Tharp's simple insights, gained from decades of amazing work in dance and theater, helped my brain click right at the crossroads. Suddenly I realized: I'm one of the people creating a new work. I can't do it alone. I have directors and investors. I have a co-choreographer, and a whole slew of dancers I already have and am hiring right now. When all is said and done, we have a show to put onstage, and it's not about me. It's not about my co-choreographer. It's about The Show.

Of course, I'm not putting on a show at the theater. My colleague and I are program managers, and our dancers are office workers. We have a team to build, an operations to run: The Show.

So instead of figuring out who owns what, I will think about how to use our differences towards united strength. Don't get me wrong; identifying roles is important. What I mean is, stop obsessing with the ego ("mine!") and instead focus on how we can divide the responsibilities such that we each play to our strengths.

My colleague is a real techie: I'll trust her to drive all engineering and product aspects, while I, a strong executor and less techie, will work out the operations side. Sure, we are capable of doing the others' area, but would we be as effective? Nope. Plus, if we try to do everything at once, by ourselves, we not only:

• spread ourselves too thin
• annoy the other ('Hey! I thought that was my job!")
• confuse everyone else involved ("Who's responsible for this project? Who's our point person?")

This makes for the perfect opportunity for politics, shadowboxing, and lack of trust in the integrity of the project. But now that I have a new frame for seeing this collaboration, I feel I'm in a better place from which to continue setting up this show.

Thanks to Dance Magazine and Twyla Tharp, I can honestly say that I had a moment of clarity. This in turn made me get up and start this blog, so that I can keep track of the inspirations, frustrations, and thought process for joining the artistic and business perspectives towards a healthy Working Spirit.