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Three Strategic Planning Challenges

Posted June 5th, 2013 by 1 comment

I’ve been part of a group helping the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) review their guidelines for graduate-level education in strategic planning. I’ve found myself thinking about three challenges in strategic planning that we see in our work, and I wanted to release these thoughts into the wild and see what happens. On the one hand, I hope raising these questions sparks your thinking about your strategic planning challenges. On the other, I (and I have no doubt our entire community) would love to hear stories about how … [Read more...]

Topic: NAS Experience | Themes: , ,

Raising the Tide of Value

Posted May 10th, 2013 by 4 comments

Editor’s note: Over the next two weeks, we’ll feature posts around the final convening of our Chief Executive Program, The Summit at Sundance. We invite you to participate in an online discussion of four major issues facing the cultural field. In this post, Dallas Shelby introduces the last of the problem statements. Why do the arts matter? Why does creativity matter? Why do you matter? What value do we create? We should all be able to answer these questions, and the easier it we can make it to do so the better off we will be.  We may … [Read more...]

Topic: Events NAS Experience The Summit at Sundance | Themes: , , ,

Developing Transformative Employees and Systems

Posted May 7th, 2013 by 3 comments

Editor’s note: Over the next two weeks, we’ll feature posts around the final convening of our Chief Executive Program, The Summit at Sundance. We invite you to participate in an online discussion of four major issues facing the cultural field. In this post, Fielding Grasty introduces the first of the problem statements.   Problem to solve: Develop employees and organizational systems that will transform our organizations and the field.   The global financial crisis has passed for much of the world, but an era of uncertainty … [Read more...]

Topic: Events NAS Experience The Summit at Sundance | Themes: , ,

Mapping the Issues

Posted May 6th, 2013 by Leave a comment
IsleofIssues

How do you incorporate feedback from audiences, donors and other stakeholders to design a season, exhibit or service? This is a common question among cultural organizations striving to become more relevant and inclusive, and NAS is right there with them. Throughout The Chief Executive Program, we heard from leaders that they desired the time work together to find solutions to their toughest challenges. We knew that we wanted The Summit at Sundance to be the place for participants to do just that. Our task was to figure out the “how” … [Read more...]

Topic: Events NAS Experience The Summit at Sundance | Themes: , , ,

Collaboration is key in D.C.

Posted April 17th, 2013 by Leave a comment
Flag_map_of_Washington_DC

This post appears as part of the ARTSblog Emerging Leaders Blog Salon, in which emerging leaders from around the country were asked, “What would make where you live a better place or bring it to the next level?” I moved to Washington D.C. four years ago, after living in a village of 600, and I absolutely love where I live. I enjoy trying new restaurants, seeing world premiere plays, watching drummers and acro-yogis perform in my favorite public park and the proximity of it all. Although I cannot deny the benefits of living near … [Read more...]

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Defining Our Value

Posted April 11th, 2013 by 8 comments
Battersea

The recent flurry of articles around the “failure” of the creative class to save our cities—as Richard Florida’s writings have been characterized as promising—and the challenges of measuring the value of “creative placemaking” has me wondering if we are nearing the end of the road for all of the instrumental arguments we have been making for the nonprofit arts over the past 30 years.  Or perhaps we ran out of road a while back but just didn’t notice. One of our most beloved arguments for support of the arts has been the idea … [Read more...]

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Board Membership: Finding the Right Fit

Posted March 21st, 2013 by 4 comments
exec

As an emerging leader, it can be difficult finding a nonprofit board to join. I am full of passion, curiosity, hunger and drive, but figuring out the right organization in which to invest this energy can be challenging. Having taken the board and governance elective during my graduate school program, I am now interested in turning theoretical knowledge into practical experience. With an ultimate goal of becoming an executive director, I hope to start gaining governance experience as soon as possible. How do you begin to search for nonprofit … [Read more...]

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Avoiding Brain Freeze: Wellness in the Workplace

Posted March 11th, 2013 by Leave a comment
CC image by Krosk@

Working in the arts can be extremely stressful. Coordinating exhibits, performances and openings takes much work, organization and cooperation. Personally, I love controlled chaos of starting a new run, but I know how mentally taxing it can be. As an emerging leader, I have not yet encountered mental burn out from working in the arts. I also manage to maintain a pretty good work/life balance. However, I have participated in and overheard conversations with many senior leaders about the challenges of maintaining balance while holding high-demand … [Read more...]

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A Single Customer Promise?

Posted February 21st, 2013 by Leave a comment
Program-level positioning statements

There is a question we get all the time in our Strategic Marketing seminar: should an organization be able to create a single positioning statement for the entire organization to summarize its value promise, or should it have a collection of positioning statements for different programs and target audiences? This always leads to interesting discussion but I've never felt we had a galvanizing way to answer the question. Earlier this week, Gail Crider and I were working on the design for a program in cultural entrepreneurship for a potential … [Read more...]

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Change at Work: The NAS Wellness Challenge

Posted January 6th, 2013 by 1 comment
photo: Mike GL via flickr

No alcohol for 30 days! Daily workouts! Low carb from now on! It’s a new year, and like every January, many of us are guilt-stricken over holiday indulgences and bad habits. We resolve that this year, we will be better. But inevitably and despite our best efforts, life takes over. February 15 comes around and we’re back on the bread, feeling even guiltier than we did on New Year’s Day. While personal change is on many of our minds right now, creating change in our work can be just as difficult. What can we learn from personal efforts … [Read more...]

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