Every year, thousands of people from across the U.S and around the globe visit the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts to experience one of the oldest dance festivals in existence. But when you hear the name Jacob’s Pillow, you may not necessarily imagine this place for what it is - a treasured 220-acre national landmark, recipient of the prestigious National Medal of Arts and home to America’s most influential dance icons, including the man who started it all, Ted Shawn.
More recently in January 2016, Pamela Tatge was announced as the new Director of The Pillow after serving 16 years as the Director of the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, overseeing robust programming and acclaimed artistic initiatives for dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts. At Jacob’s Pillow, Pamela succeeds Ella Baff, and will now set the artistic vision and strategic goals for all aspects of the organization, including Festival programming, education, preservation, audience engagement, fundraising, marketing, and more. Let's dive into some of the biggest lessons I've learned in our conversation.
1. Importance of Establishing Shared Values
“Do core values really matter?” And is a company’s value statement actually helpful? The answer to that may be relative. For example, a particular value statement may be true for dancers but have no meaning for producers. Or it could fit well in the office, yet seem irrelevant in the field. That’s why creating a value statement is so difficult. It’s challenging to reflect a truth that is shared throughout the organization, particularly one that crosses every classic organizing force used throughout society ranging from geography to socioeconomics, religious ideology, race, gender, education and more.
The Pillow’s mission and value statements are simple yet comprehensive. On first impression, they resemble corporate buzzwords that have been rinsed and repeated. That’s until you start connecting the dots and realize that the simplicity is what makes them understandable and adoptable by the slew of people representing the community across time. Each point is accompanied by an existing programme created to deepen and diversify the Pillow’s offerings. Under Creation for instance, the Pillow Lab and the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award serve to recognize the brightest minds in the nation. Under Preservation, their renowned archives have assembled the most seminal of photography collections, films, library, exhibits, and video viewing stations that are free and open to the public.
Central to it all is their adoption of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access), which we’ll get to later on. But as impressive and inspirational as core values are, just as many lose meaning today because they spring from a base of conflict and confusion, empty words without a team’s contribution. Hence, Pamela’s tenure at The Pillow began with the collective transitioning from the “I” to a “We” by engaging both Board and Staff, workshopping together and once again highlighting the importance of Establishing Shared Values within an organization of such history and heritage.
2. Importance of Rattling Around in Other People’s Universes (Liz Lerman)
One of my favorite life stories is that of my uncle Billy who was once the General Manager of Hyatt Regency Hotels. He often spoke about his trials and tribulations in the hospitality industry and how he eventually succeeded despite being a late bloomer. The secret? By always undertaking every available task until he understood and mastered everything in a hotel. Even as a manager, he would sometimes clean rooms and do receptionist work alongside his juniors in those departments. As such, he was never shorthanded nor outsmarted by his employees, even earning the trust and admiration of those around him due to his sheer dedication towards knowledge seeking.
One of the Pillow’s most prominent alumnus is Liz Lerman, a writer and choreographer who was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship in 2002, and who also produced performances that integrate physics and genetics into dance. She proposed a contemporary mindset of learning by moving away from the conventionally vertical world in favour of what she calls “hiking the horizontal”. As work evolves into an increasingly non-hierarchical environment, specialization in one area is no longer a competitive advantage, with many employers preferring a breadth of ideas and skills that facilitate one’s exploration through different subjects and personalities. In other words, flexibility and creativity make for a better long-term career.
Now the leader of such a historical community, Pamela remains faithful to Liz’s commitment to spending time in other domains, with people who are different from you in order to understand more about oneself and one’s organization through constantly changing times. However, etched permanently into The Pillow’s lore are Liz’s once famous words while teaching at a conference, and I quote “Creativity is about rattling around in other people’s universes.
3. Me. Here. Now. (Jerry Zinser)
As an aspiring leader, I struggle with the common conundrum of whether leaders are born or made. Admittedly, I am more biased towards the latter, being a psychology graduate and fervent advocate of nurture over nature myself. But across various experiences throughout my life, I’ve come to learn that being a leader means so much more than mere skills and determined work ethic, which are arguably the two foremost characteristics in any respectable leader that I know of. The thing that sticks out to me though, is mindfulness and the capacity to to be both present and forgiving of yourself .
Let’s start with presence. Being present as a Leader is about much more than simply showing up, or being in the room. It is, in fact, one characteristic upon which good-to-great Leadership rests. Lots of Leaders show up, but are not in the moment. They find themselves distracted by whatever other crisis, issue or meeting they have to deal with and this really undermines their ability to gather the necessary intel and effectively judge situations to make the best decisions. As mentioned before, such an in-demand job brings about high-octane pressure and the weight of an entire organization upon a leader’s shoulders. One mistake leads to self-criticism, which then leads to self-doubt which eventually leads to severe self-victimization and degrading mental health. Most leaders are perfectionists and narcissists, thus why they can be rather harsh on themselves. No secret, just facts.
So Pamela turned to none other than her very husband, Jerry Zinser for advice. The results? Three words - Me, Here, Now. A subtle expression emphasizing empathy and trust as fundamental to her leadership approach. In Pamela’s own words: I think it’s about learning forgiveness. I cannot do everything at the level that I would like to because my plate is so full. It helps me tremendously to be in this moment, and not thinking about 10 minutes or 10 days from now. As long as I’m focused, and I know that I am truly doing the best that I can during the time that I have with the tools I have access to, then it’s okay if everything doesn’t come out precisely the way I envision it.
Despite being the figurehead of such an institution, I was truly inspired by her humility and willingness to share her knowledge to more dance leaders of the future. Don't forget to catch our newest episode of a brand new season!😁
| 19.05.2024 |
