momorantings

I've recently returned from Theatre Communications Group's Annual Conference , where the theme was "model the movement," focusing on new models and transformative ideas from the field. I was particularly excited to attend this year, as the speakers included Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company 's Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and author/marketer extraordinaire Seth Godin . Howard kicked off the conference with his speech "Theatrical Innovation: Who's Job Is It?," in which he compared the systems of our regional theaters to that of an assembly line, a theme that would resurface multiple times over the course of the conference. As regional theaters grew and became more complex, often times non-profit managers were encouraged to borrow best practices from corporate entities, designed to improve efficiency, streamline processes and increase return on investment. And it worked...until it didn't. You see, the process of creating art cannot be controlled...

Creating awareness is often rightly derided as an unimaginative advertising goal. But that doesn't mean it's an inherently bad goal. Indeed,  if you share my conviction that it is the user who decides what your product/service means to them, then you could argue that awareness is all you can genuinely hope to achieve. British Airways neither make grandiose claims that they won't match in real life nor do they fall in to the trap of boasting about their sponsorship status that, at best, comec across as faintly ridiculous. They simply suggest that people don't buy their product and stay at home to support the home team during the Olympics. Now, nobody is going to change their travel plans because of this campaign, but it  doesn't matter if people take them literally or not. They'll register British Airways being supportive as a sponsor should be; a little something will be added to their opinion of British Airways, and when they want to fly maybe that will increas...

1747 likes for a lecture which took place in a hall with a capacity much smaller than that, but which was not full. Draw your own conclusions. Social media are broadcasting media. They're predicated on self-validation rather than intent.

Without clear direction, success can never be achieved. We’ve all experienced situations where we run toward a goal as fast and furious as we can only to have the goal posts moved on us in route. When this happens over and over again, an organization is guilty of foolishly wasting precious resources at a moment when most are under resourced as it is. Success begins with leadership. As Michael Kaiser discussed in his Huffington Post blog, there must be a leader . All too often, arts managers try to lead by consensus. They don’t want to be the bad guy. They don’t want people to be upset with them. In complex situations, many times the answer isn’t clear, and trying to get a wide variety of stakeholders moving in the same direction can be tough. But this isn’t a time to postpone critical decisions in an effort to get senior staff, board members and other various stakeholders to agree on a course of action. The executive has been hired to lead, and lead they must. Part of leadership is ga...