An investigation into the competencies, qualities and attributes which will enable creative practitioners and organisations to thrive in the challenging environment of the 21st Century.

The uncertainty and unpredictability inherent in our messy, complex and constantly changing 21st century are challenges that are being felt in the UK’s arts and cultural sector at every level and in all aspects of work, placing significant new stresses both on individuals and organisations. MMM’s proposition is that key to the success of the arts and cultural sector’s navigation of this turbulence will be the people who work in it, however there is currently inadequate infrastructure for people development in the sector.

In tandem with this reality, MMM’s work has identified several strengths in the arts and cultural sector that suggest it might be fertile ground in which to grow 21st century competencies, qualities and attributes – ways of being and doing, that enable a significantly higher tolerance for and management of complexity, uncertainty and not knowing.

Why might this be so? First, the substance of the arts is intimately connected to meaning making – making sense of the buzzing confusion of our world. Second, the sector is generally loosely organised and configured with plenty of room for personal passion and innovation. Third, our observation of leaders in the sector suggests that some at least are already growing with and through our powerful times in ways that are less available to colleagues in the private and public sector.

MMM has interrogated these ideas through a national research project which has enquired into the competencies, qualities and attributes that the sector might need to thrive in times of massive change and complexity. In terms of what is meant by ‘thriving’, the research team has developed its own definition: adapting to changing conditions in a life-friendly way to people and planet in order to maintain the function of making great work happen.

The research team identified 78 such competencies, qualities and attributes developed from a review of literature in this area and tested in a national survey and in interviews and has looked at these in the context of the factors that help or hinder the ability to use these.

In response to data from the research, MMM is proposes three sets of recommendations including recognition of the limited nature of the concept of skills and the necessity of building further on the assets the sector already has by adopting MMM’s more holistic definition of thriving.

Read a summary of the report here

Read the full report here