an blog | AJBlog Central | Contact us | Advertise | Follow us:
You are here: Home / Archives for Conversation

Tell me about a time…

Posted February 27th, 2013 by Leave a comment
WeWantYou

Hearing about how our colleagues in the field address challenges can be extremely motivating and energizing. But sometimes, it’s hard to see how the steps one organization took can be translated to our own work. There’s no carbon copy solution to the issues facing the field but we can certainly benefit from understanding others’ experiences. What’s important is to find the key lessons that emerge from an experience rather than focus on the how-to of a particular example. At NAS, we love digging into stories from the field to find these … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation Stories from the field | Themes: , , ,

What’s your mandate?

Posted January 20th, 2013 by 3 comments
What is your mandate?

My fellow cultural leaders, I am here today humbled by the task before me, grateful for the trust bestowed by ArtsJournal and mindful of the sacrifices borne by my predecessors. We live in a time of unprecedented challenge. And, as we navigate the rough seas of uncertainty, we must set our course toward a guiding light:  the will of the people – our mandate. (Applause.) There have been many conversations here in the U.S. in recent weeks about mandates. What is President Obama’s mandate? What is Congress’ mandate? It’s a feature … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation | Themes: , , , ,

The Competing Values Framework

Posted December 9th, 2012 by 1 comment
Competing Values Framework

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: We’re looking for new ways of doing things. We are a highly collaborative organization. Our work is dictated by process. Our staff is goal-oriented. We’ve all likely made at least one of these statements, each of which are indicative of an implicit value contained within our organizations’ cultures. The issue, however, is that some of these values are in opposition to each other. So, while we may have said these things, hopefully it was not in the same breath. Welcome to the world of the … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation | Themes: , ,

Voices from the Field: Young Cultural Leaders

Posted October 24th, 2012 by 1 comment
Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Leaders

What does it mean to be a cultural leader in this day and age? What are the global and local contexts within which we work? Why do the arts matter and how can we communicate this within our communities? What challenges are our cultural organizations facing and how can we effectively lead change? These are the questions in the back of every young cultural leader’s mind… and they are at the heart of the most pressing issues faced by leaders in our field. Next week, we will dig into these questions with a fresh perspective at the Salzburg … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation Young Cultural Leaders Forum | Themes: , ,

Is crisis necessary for change?

Posted September 30th, 2012 by and Leave a comment
Don't panic!

While it can be invigorating to hear stories of how organizations overcome crisis, we started to wonder: why does crisis tend to be such a common motivator for change? What implications might a crisis have on the changes effected, and how might that crisis affect an organization in the short and long term? In this post, Gail Crider and Sunny Widmann share their experiences and ideas about how crisis impacts change, for better or worse.   Sometimes, but it’s risky. By Gail Crider Crisis generally means loss of strategic perspective, … [Read more...]

Topic: Conversation | Themes: ,

an ArtsJournal blog