ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the Obama administration and in the depth of the Great Recession, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (Emanuel, 2008). Although he was subsequently rebuked for what appeared to be a callous disregard for the very real suffering of people, a kernel of wisdom was embedded in this thought: when a crisis emerges and the old institutions, systems and perceptions of the world no longer seem to apply, there is an opportunity to try new approaches and create new solutions. That is the challenge that arts leaders face now and we would indeed lose an extraordinary opportunity were we to step away from that challenge. But to meet that challenge, we need to make significant changes in both how we assess the external environment and, most importantly, how we change the way we work if we are to develop strategies that move us forward rather than remain mired in current thinking that no longer applies. Our first step is to let go of some cherished assumptions about “the way things work” so that we can make room for the innovative thinking that is required of us.
