I went to a seminar last week where Seth Godin talked about how to become a linchpin.  He talked about the things he usually talks about: being irreplaceable, spreading messages that are worth spreading, being willing to fail, etc.

Photo Credit: Wa-J on Flickr

It was an extremely engaging talk and got me to thinking about how the dance world could really benefit from his advice.

Dance is going through a very interesting and somewhat frightening revolution.  We are seeing a new culture emerge that embraces “the hired body,” the dancer that masters a set of techniques dictated by a specific dance vocabulary, almost like a checklist.

That’s a lot of jargony language, but basically what I’m saying is that today, dancers are being trained so that they can be hired.  They are being trained so that no matter what kind of movement a choreographer gives them, they will be able to do it.

The problem with this is that instead of becoming artists, instead of becoming linchpins, and instead of becoming irreplaceable, these dancers become cogs.  At the very best, they become exceptional at being told what to do.

Photo Credit: PhillyLambs on Flickr

We see this on shows like So You Think You Can Dance all the time.  They accept exceptionally trained dancers that can convincingly perform any style of dance that is thrown at them.  And they are all very good at being told what to do.

So what’s wrong with being told what to do? A lot!  It creates the impression that the only way to be successful as a dancer is to be a hirable body, when in reality if that is all you can do, you’ll be replaced by some 18-year-old by the time you are 27.

You shouldn’t be able to write down art.  Art is about self-expression but it seems that the emphasis in mainstream dance is trending towards perfection and mastery.  It makes people describe the dance world as “cutthroat” instead of supportive and innovative.

I’m not arguing that technique isn’t necessary.  I’m arguing that having good technique shouldn’t be measured by someone being able to execute a checklist of movements.

Singers and musicians aren’t respected just because they can hit high notes; they are respected because they put their heart and soul into their work to create true art.  Dancers should be judged no differently.

Photo by Yannick Bindert

So what do we do? We give dancers the tools to be successful while being different.  We create a community that allows people to fail in order to promote innovation.  I think we can learn a lot from the avant-garde fashion industry, which praises and respects designers and artists that take a chance, even if they (or their models) fall on their face.

We need to show dancers that you can still make beautiful art without pointing your toes all the time or being able to do a triple pirouette into a front flip suicide.

Let’s make real artists and not just hired bodies.

By slworking2 on Flickr

In a traditional company, employees roll into the office at 9 am, bleary-eyed and holding a cup of coffee, ready (or not) for another 8+ hour day.  This is the way it has always been, so why change things now?

Because the status quo in the workplace is changing.  The 9-5 workday is antiquated, inefficient, and needs to be re-examined.

A case study: 37signals, the makers of Basecamp and a slew of other cloud-based tools, instituted a 4-day work week a couple years back with the philosophy that with three-day weekends, people come back more refreshed on Monday and actually work harder and more efficiently during the four-day work week.  They found that about the same amount of work gets done in four days versus five days.

Here is my plea:

• Don’t mandate the hours that your employees work. Instead, tell them what meetings they need to be at in person and let them choose their own hours.  They will get their work done more efficiently if they work at the time that is best for them.
• Don’t measure employees’ performance by how many hours they work. Instead, measure their effectiveness by how much work they get done.
• Don’t micromanage your employees. Instead, hire people that are driven and don’t need constant supervision.
• Don’t expect your employees to work for 8 hours straight, unless you are going to provide them illegally with Ritalin and caffeine pills.

As Seth Godin has said, we might as well say goodbye to the office as it is archetypically defined.  You can embrace the changes and figure out how they affect your workplace or you can fight the changes and probably piss off your employees.

Changing the 9-5 work schedule might not work for all companies, but my hope is that companies stop blindly accepting workplace norms just because that’s the way things have been done.  Change starts with a simple conversation, so start a dialogue in your office!