Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work

often try to isolate making processes from inessential unex-

pected events, events that slow things down without signify-

ing important changes or trends. For example, a company

might find itself innovating (scrambling) every day because a

supplier delivers materials late, in violation of the service

agreement between the two companies. In such a case, the

client company probably shouldn’t change its making process

before first insisting that the supplier address the problem. In

other words, the company should try to protect its process

from the uncertainty that calls for continual innovation

instead of changing its process to accommodate the uncer-