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Curators don’t just belong in museums. We all have the responsibility to
be curators in our careers and life.
A curator is the person responsible for developing and maintaining
collections. And “collections” are everywhere. They can be personnel
and team members, your inner circle relationships, assets, a body of work, a brand, a great meal.
>” />Collections are the entities that when paired together correctly in our lives propel us forward. Thus when we think in terms of curating collections, we think of things that bring out the best in each other – whether that is team dynamics or great flavors.
In work, curators become linchpins. Seth Godin defines a Linchpin as “somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced—her role is just far too unique and valuable”.
Curating isn’t just about adding to. It’s also about pruning and pairing.
It’s about creating something that has personality, something that stands out, something that you believe in, something that makes sense and something you can stand for.
The process of curation is ongoing. You may discover pairing your favorite soup and salad at a local deli is your favorite. Do it for 3 months straight, and it will lose the magic. It becomes boring and average. Boring and average doesn’t engage.
In other words, keep life exciting through curation. Be mixing, pairing and matching regularly so that you don’t burn out your clients or teams.
You can’t automate great curation. The Industrial Revolution automated production, and the technological age automated just about everything else in our lives. But factories and technology can’t automate creativity, imagination and instinct. If you want to make yourself irreplaceable, start getting creative.
Curating Tips
37Signals has some great ways to curate your work and business in their new book REWORK. I’ve highlighted just a few of their chapters below.
Years of Irrelevance. Experience doesn’t equal talent. Remember this when curating your team. What skill set is missing? What addition or subtraction would make your team work even better?
You don’t create a culture. Cultures are created through consistent action. So act. What’s the best culture you have ever experienced and how can you actualize that experience in your current collection?
Build a Rockstar Environment. It’s not about a few rockstars. It’s about creating an environment where everyone gets the opportunity to shine. This continues to diversify and round out the energy, output, and tangible results of your team.
Send people home at 5. You want people who have lives, have priorities, have other things going on in their life aside from their work. Why? If you do the same exact exercise with your muscles, you plateau. You have to work with different weights in order to see results. How can you bring in
the priorities of your team to help evolve the company collection?
Don’t scar on the first cut. Too often, we are short sighted. When something doesn’t work like we want it to, restriction and censoring become the automated response. Remember that cuts teach us to be more thoughtful next time we use a knife.
Subtleties matter. Just one adjustment in a collection can completely change the way the collection looks, feels, and produces.
As always, I’m here for collaborating + coaching you to get the most out of work and life.
Your Wing Woman,
Jen
What’s coaching anyway? Click the image to see the new jen spencer
coaches film!
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[…] Even though computers may be capable of doing enormously complicated tasks, not everyone accepts that they would be good at doing curation. Jen Spencer is one of the doubters. […]
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