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

Flexibility becomes more important as the stakes get higher.

Workers, in turn, must understand that working in present

time is part of the process, that the manager is not simply

going out of the way to be difficult by throwing them a curve.

As we’ve seen, part of getting this right involves making sure

the workspace is safe enough that workers need not fear what

will happen if they miss when they swing hard at a curve ball.

Improvisation and Control

As we have seen, improvisation has a paradoxical center:

The more thoroughly prepared you are, the more preparation

and homework you’ve done, the more creative and unpre-

dictable you can be. This idea harkens ...