The choreography of projects

I get in touch with clients from time to time to see where we are on their projects. It’s part of the choreography in getting processes to work, individually and around each other.

Which would suggest that every project is dancing the same steps, to the same tempo, in the same shoes. But there are projects with fancy footwork; programmes that can (and should) go at a stroll; commissions that bounce energetically from stage to stage…

So along with what you’d expect a creative practitioner to be doing, it’s my job to make sure that projects don’t collide, fall over or get lost. And when something unexpected happens, the adaptability that’s part of creative work goes into adjusting a schedule or working method.

This project management stuff is all very well, you might be thinking, but can you dance these steps? I wouldn’t. I made them up, for illustrative purposes only…