By Hsiao-Ting, LI
Governments leverage the professional capabilities and resources of educational institutions, enterprises, or civil organizations to manage public spaces, aiming to provide the public with improved service experiences. This operational model of collaboration between the public and private sectors has become commonplace in the arts and culture industry.
Since 2016, the Hsinchu City Art Site of Railway Warehouse has been operated by the Accton Arts Foundation (AAF). AAF has taken on the mission of “promoting cultural and artistic education,” “establishing a database of Taiwanese artistic talent,” “advancing community-based arts and culture development,” and “building creative cultural art communities.” Within the parent company, Accton Technology Corporation, the Humanities and Aesthetics Department comprises three leading organizations, with all work coordinated and supported by a social worker, two project planners, and an administrative specialist across the three foundations. There is the “Accton Arts Foundation,” which specializes in arts promotion; the “Accton Cultural and Educational Foundation,” responsible for cultural education affairs; and the “Taiwan Public Service Association,” dedicated to emergency relief. The three foundations have different missions and goals, and how the teams operate and what synergies they can generate greatly test the leadership of their directors. In such a team where every member needs to possess multitasking skills, each day requires extensive communication processes and learning to think from others’ perspectives, helping others understand one’s value and aspirations. What Lee Yu-hsuan learned is that managers should be flexible, and flexibility doesn’t mean having no principles, but instead being able to more elastically gain recognition for the concepts you want to express while maintaining your principles, enabling the team to achieve its goals.
An organizational leader’s leadership style will influence the organization’s development direction and is a key element affecting the team’s future. At the same time, each person’s current manifestation is the sum of their past life experiences. Lee Yu-hsuan, director of Hsinchu City Art Site of Railway Warehouse, has traversed several different dimensions of life experience—from Japanese literature to education to art—all supported by the belief that education can occur in different venues, sustaining her continued service in related fields. From not knowing how to manage subordinates to being able to set aside ego and understand the thoughts of bosses and internal team members, Lee Yu-hsuan has adjusted her rhythm through experience, becoming a manager capable of integrating organizations and listening to partners’ opinions. A good team leader is one who can effectively play the role of a mentor. Today’s organizational structures mean that leadership behavior increasingly occurs in team formats. The challenges and tasks of managers have also transformed accordingly, with skills such as “willingness to share information,” “trusting others,” “delegating authority,” and “understanding when to intervene” replacing authoritarian management as key areas for team leaders to cultivate. Lee Yu-hsuan’s cross-disciplinary background, combined with continuous learning and self-adjustment, allows her greater flexibility when working with different types of teams, enabling her to think from various perspectives, understand the decisions of other units, and empathize with the situations of work teams. She has cultivated her own unique leadership strengths through her deft handling of situations.
The primary funding for the Hsinchu City Art Site of Railway Warehouse comes from service procurement by Hsinchu City’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, as well as revenue from licensing agreements for artworks featured in collaborative exhibitions between the art village and artists, the development of cultural and creative products, and related arts courses. The key to the art village’s operational vitality lies in exploring various collaborative possibilities as much as possible, accumulating experience in cross-industry cooperation, and avoiding self-imposed limitations. Facing various stakeholders—from artists to government departments to private enterprises—each organization has its own interests and operational methods. Lee Yu-hsuan believes that all problems and confusion can be resolved through communication and interaction, ultimately leading to the establishment of a consensus. Therefore, she enjoys bringing together team members and future stakeholders related to a project during the planning phase, having everyone sit down together to share views and discuss. Through this process, everyone can start from the same point and share the same language. All decisions by the art village director must be accountable to the foundation’s executive director and Hsinchu City’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs, facing two units with completely different positions and operational attitudes. As art village director, how to flexibly switch between various roles as team leader—coach, liaison with external stakeholders, conflict manager, problem solver—and become an outstanding coordinator among various departments and organizations, becomes an issue requiring managerial attention.
Manager’s Intuition: Decision-making Power
When the team took over management of the Hsinchu City Art Site of Railway Warehouse, the site was overgrown with weeds, and everything was new for them—whether collaborating with Hsinchu’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs or operating an unfamiliar venue, which required adjustment. Since the early operational period involved exploring various possibilities, and stakeholders still had some gaps in their expectations for the art village, the team initially did not set clear execution goals. The team’s objectives were gradually constructed through the process. Through six years of trial and error, Lee Yu-hsuan recognized that to maintain long-term stable organizational operation, they needed to develop a set of know-how that would allow the organization to operate regardless of changes in venue or environment. Within the scope of arts organizations, being able to quantify experience in human resource allocation and resource distribution for spaces of various sizes enables them to replicate their space management experience, much like an amoeba, continuously reproducing it in other spaces.
In this multifunctional work team, where everyone collaborates daily with colleagues from various backgrounds and positions, Lee Yu-hsuan has learned to set aside ego and empathize with others’ challenges. They focus on connecting with others by understanding the difficulties they face. Smooth and effective communication skills can mitigate management risks, whether during internal project execution, external collaboration, or artist exhibitions. When making decisions and managing strategy, managers typically face several different situations: certainty, risk, and uncertainty. To navigate these circumstances effectively, strategic management procedures offer a framework that managers can follow, spanning from initial planning to execution and final evaluation. Interviewing Lee Yu-hsuan reveals that effective communication with both internal and external departments, along with the strategic use of various resources and the foundation’s inherent flexibility, are crucial factors in managerial decision-making.
The Importance of Communication in Strategic Management: Communication Skills from Internal Teams to Interdepartmental Collaboration
After establishing the organization’s current goals and strategies, managers must analyze both the external and internal environments. To balance the interests of their private enterprise and government departments, team members choose to respect each other’s positions and attempt to coordinate the needs of both sides, seeking the greatest common ground. When the opinions of the company and the government department diverge, the director must intervene appropriately as a mediator to effectively fulfill the role of art village manager. During collaboration, it is essential to regularly confirm whether decisions align with contractual relationships and to ensure there is consensus on resource utilization and the overall direction of the project. These discussions are daily aspects of working within the art village.
While collaborating with government departments, the team clarified the logic and structural framework of government operations. They recognized their advantage as a foundation, possessing the flexibility to mobilize available resources freely, which benefits foundations. Government departments face challenges in cross-departmental collaboration and connections with other venues and institutions. These challenges can be addressed more flexibly through the foundation’s identity and position, which facilitates more beneficial cooperation. When dealing with communication across departments and external organizations, the most common challenge encountered is the differing concepts of resource exchange. This issue becomes particularly evident when the arts industry collaborates with other sectors. Private enterprises often use performance indicators as evaluation criteria, making the conversion between input and output essential for achieving execution goals. In contrast, organizations and individuals in the arts industry often view personal relationships and services as forms of currency in financial transactions. This perspective requires art village managers to find ways to integrate these two distinct team management strategies to achieve a common goal: serving as a talent incubator.
Internal team management and analyzing strengths and weaknesses are essential components of strategic management for leaders. When facing different types of team members, organizational leaders must adopt tailored management strategies. How managers respond when team members question task objectives is a crucial test of their capability. During six years of operation, the Railway Art Village team considered withdrawing from the project. This situation arose during a transition in executive directors, when the team encountered challenges from both the Bureau of Cultural Affairs and internal company issues. Without established operational policies, the entire management team of the Railway Art Village felt powerless in pursuing their goals. In the fourth year of managing the art village, Lee Yu-hsuan faced a significant bottleneck. To address this, she discussed potential options with the Bureau of Cultural Affairs regarding the possibility of the team withdrawing. She also took the time to understand the thoughts and future plans of the other team members during internal meetings. Fortunately, during internal team meetings, the members uncovered additional future possibilities. Lee Yu-hsuan recognized that as a leader, it’s important to sometimes relinquish personal attachments. When one path is blocked, many other options are available. By staying flexible and embracing continuous self-renewal, leaders can guide their teams toward a broader future.
Hsiao-Ting, LI