From vulnerable dependence to adaptive resilience

The diagram above is a classic 2x2 matrix, beloved of flipchart-merchants such as as myself for summarising really complex things into a deceptively manageable model. It should, therefore, be handled with caution.

I do, however, think most arts organisations I know would fall into one of the quadrants:

- vulnerable dependence: those with few adaptive resources and little orientation towards change
- coping persistence: those with good adaptive resources, but little orientation towards change
- frustrated innovation: those with a strong orientation towards change, but few adaptive resources
-adaptive resilience: those with both the adaptive resources and the desire to change.

The importance of this is two-fold. For organisations, you can actually be culturally productive in all four quadrants, but you carry greater degrees of risk and vulnerability in some rather than others. Vulnerable dependence is obvious: funder changes, you're at risk. But there is a risk of Rigidity in Coping Persistence and what I call the Exhaustion Factor for the Frustrated Innovators

These quadrants are not alternative business models as such, as I've said here previously. They are, I hope, helpful in looking at where an organisation's - or a sector's - current behaviour and environmental reality puts them. There's much more on this in the full publication - available just a little to the right of this screen,

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