If you can't beat the paradox, use it. How to turn your organisation’s catch-22s into strengths

When you work in a cultural organisation, it can feel like you can never do right. The festival that works hard to diversify its fanbase, might alienate its existing audience. The commercial venue rental may bring in much needed cash, but it risks damaging the venue's underground reputation.

If you do too much of A, eventually you will end up not doing enough of B.

It is all so predictable. And that is actually good news. It allows you to use that predictability to your advantage. Look for patterns in your work that look like this: We need both A and B. But too much A means not enough B and the other way around.

Look for patterns in your work that look like this: We need A and B. But too much A means not enough B and the other way around.

As soon as you find at least one of those pesky catch-22 situations, you know you have found a main tension in your work. This is a game-changer: it allows you to let go of the useless questions ("Should we do A or B?") and focus on the interesting one: "Do we have just enough of A and B to pull off our balancing act?".

"Just enough", savour that phrase...

If you want to reach new audiences with your festival, do you have "just enough" to convince them that it's for them? But at the same time, do you have enough to offer the existing fans?

It also allows you to explicitly talk to your audience about the balancing act you are trying to pull off. In reality, the balance will be off most of the time, but that gives you a strategic plan for next year. "This year, we ended up focusing a bit too much on A, so now we are going to deliberately spend more time on B."

Suddenly, you no longer need to work as hard as possible, just hard enough.