Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Published weekly, with an original illustration. Two series: Becoming and Advisory Notes.
Most the creatives I know and work with have little property but plenty of debt, and are only able to survive by servicing the needs of the high earners. Our world has been in a massive state of change for a while, with a seemingly unimaginable damaging impact on our lives. And it just got…
The concern for the economy over people is deeply disturbing. The profiteering from the virus is horrible. The misleading advice for political gain is disgusting. Depriving healthcare and other workers from the gear they need to stay alive. To stay healthy is appalling. I don’t know how to contribute other than helping my community adjust…
A free Overture Creative Cooperative Zoom workshop Join us Tuesday April 7th 10-11:30 AM Pacific for help with… 1 What to do to get new work 2 How to hang on to existing work and 3 How to build relationships virtually The workshop includes: -A presentation on the survival questions above -A Q&A session that…
A small creative service firm with four working partners as owners. Their conversation… “We own the building! Well, we own part of it with the bank. We can use the equity to pay our staff – or at least partially pay our staff – through this pandemic…” “But, That’s our retirement plan. The building’s our…
Brie completed the introduction. Elizabeth stood and walked briskly to the front of the room. She paused. The entire Overture team and a group from Circle City filled the room. They waited quietly for her to begin. “To understand what has happened, it’s important to recognize that slow-moving changes have more social weight than fast…
Angry that my creative energy has been used to build, sell and enable things that don’t make the world better. Angry that we helped create an idealized reality that isn’t sustainable. Angry that I and all creatives have been getting an increasingly smaller and smaller portion of the wealth this economic system provides. Angry at…
Hierarchical System We live in a hierarchical system, where we’ve been trained from birth to respect those who are in charge. To be deferential. To respect authority. To do as the authority tells us to do. To be afraid to not do as we’re told. Pleasurable work We love the work that we do. In…