Open-source planning for arts organizations.
(Version #38)

Open sourcing allows an arts organization to have multiple points of access in a traditionally closed system so that individuals can share resources to create a better end result.

It is a way of allowing the input of many individual agendas and approaches at the same time. The organization benefits from the increased research and development, skills and other resources of a larger group of creative people.

You bring something to the table. You find other people that can use what you bring. Your input may be an original idea, a skill, money, equipment, in-kind work or something else of value. You take responsibility for your part and thus, you take ownership in the work.

Open-source thinking as applied to arts organizations is a development from the collectives and ensemble work from the last century, but it offers many new ideas to the ongoing, ever-developing conversation. Open-source systems are ever changing systems and each is unique.

Open-source thinking can replace the top-down hierarchies that govern most artistic organizations. Position, fame and/or title are replaced by the usefulness of individual input. The work speaks for itself.

The aim of this open-source thinking is to connect needs with opportunities and planning with the resources that are needed to reach the goals, thus expanding and strengthening the network of connections.

What is the “source” that is being opened?

It is the thinking at the source of the planning and the process:

• the reasons for the project
  
• the decision-making process
  
• the planning steps (objectives) and their time-lines (deadlines)
  

Open-source plans and proposals become global when allowed to be published on the web, and available to a wide range of active problem solvers and idea creators.

A project can be a film, a play, a personal development project, an organization or anything that would benefit from additional resources. A project can be open-sourced at any point: when it’s just a vague idea or after project work has already begun.

Open-sourcing is accomplished by means of publishing or announcing a plan or proposal and there is no guarantee that anyone will use your resource. There is no requirement on anyone to use outside input. Open sourcing is an option.

Personal responsibility

The old system of top-down hierarchy places many of the areas of greatest responsibility with the producers and directors: financial responsibility, the over-all time frames and project follow-up. These were all areas that directors and producers took care of.

When those in control sought financing for a film, funding for a theater, or a grant to fund a project, they begin by submitting proposals that articulated their exact plan. If they receive the money, the proposal becomes their contract. Then they hired people under them to help carry out their ideas.

Open-source thinking extends the possibility of this control to everyone who participates in the work – for their part of the project. The financial responsibility, times frames/deadlines, and follow up work are put in the hands of each participant. As an entire network of personally responsible and active participants, a wide range of support and resources are now available to better meet the tasks at hand.

Creating a flat hierarchy

Publishing your plan makes you responsible for your own work. You either do what you said you were going to do or you don’t. Others that you work with don’t need to police you, blame you or motivate you. Your partners know clearly up front what you’re trying to accomplish and can offer resources to help. If you use their resources, this can in turn advance their own planning. When you agree to partner you help each other accomplish the individual goals.

Your own planning establishes your own goals, deadlines and others know what your measurements are for success (metrics). Others have access to your planning. The progression of steps in your planning, along with their deadlines, is the contract you have with yourself and others.

Steps progress to goals. When you accomplish the goal of one step you build a track-record and create the opportunity to move on to the next step in your plan. With each step, hopefully, you will have additional resources for your next step. Progress over a period time is the desired result.

When a group or an individual works with you, you also work with them. You become partners, not employees. Some partners may have a small and large involvement in your project, but the partnership is based on mutual interests and shared goals. You don’t work for them, you work with them.

How does open-sourcing increase quality?

In the digital world, the emphasis is not on whether you are young or old, male or female, what country you happen to live in, your title, fame or seniority. The emphasis is on the work. If you can solve a problem and advance the quality of the system, your work speaks for itself. This is true in an open-source system as well.

Easily defining artists is hard these days. Debates are ongoing about what is “professional” and what is “amateur”. There are a myriad of opinions, but none serve much purpose beyond the vanity of title. Lines are increasingly blurred between specific job titles as well. Actors direct. Directors write. And writers publish. And everyone creates video.

Your work identifies you instead of your professional status. When a writer publishes his/her own work, is she a professional writer and a professional publisher? Is a director who pens one screenplay a professional writer? Is an American actor a professional actor or waiter?

In an open source system, you publish your own personal metrics. These are your own measurements for completing a goal. They are used to help define and measure your own work as it grows.

When your opportunities are based on metrics, there is a natural motivation to do what you say you are going to do. There is also a motivation to support those potential partners in their work. Their improvement creates a better resource for you and partnerships replace competition.

It is easier to stay motivated when completing tasks you have created. Completing goals set by someone else calls into question your motivations. Relying on the strength of someone else’s measure of success is an inefficient use of personal resources.

The importance of reviews, awards, personal associations, and other outside indicators are often misleading and time consuming additions to a productive team of partners.

Someone’s past credits and personal associations either help them today for a specific task or they don’t. Hopefully experience can be a resource that will benefit the group. If it is, this will be obvious. The work speaks for itself.

Creating a self-sustaining system

One major benefit to partnering or peer-sharing is that it creates opportunities and replenishes your numbers. As information and skills are shared you are able to step into a more desirable set of tasks. As you leave your old position, you actually create an opportunity for someone else.

For this system to work well and be sustainable, each planning stage should include steps toward learning new skills and passing on current ones. It is extremely important in this system to always have someone you’re studying with and someone to mentor. In this new age of communication and information, the term “self-taught” becomes hard to believe. Open sourcing is a way to make the sharing of information more efficient.

In open-source planning, focus is placed on how we develop our own skill level, how we use our development to move forward, and how we pass on our experience to create more resources and ever-expanding partnerships.

With efficient use of the human capitol, an organization is insuring that the years of experiences that have gone into developing the most productive members is used to replenish their numbers and expand the network.

This is a new approach to "succession" planning, making the endeavor sustainable beyond just a fleeting period, or the time frame of the person/people in charge. It reduces churn, keeping people from “graduating” or cutting themselves off from what they’ve help build up.

Frequently asked questions:

Understand that this is a process and it doesn't happen beautifully overnight. But the results are worth it. The path is the goal.

• What if I have a good idea and I just want to try to carry it out the way I envision? What’s wrong with this?
• How will open-source thinking help me carry out MY idea? What are the benefits?
  What if people who are not experienced want to be involved? Won’t they compromise my/the project?
• What's wrong with hierarchy? It works great in some cultures?
• What if I only want to work with skilled people?
• Is a mentor or mentee required? If so why? How do you obtain them? Is there a network?
• Seems hard. Are there examples of this working well?
• Are we really better than me?