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Jill S. Robinson closes out season 1 of Leading the Way with a retrospective considering the patterns and through lines of her conversations this year. Innovators or disruptors all, the guests of Leading the Way point to not only the key pillars of TRG Arts, but also the direction of necessary attention for arts and cultural leaders heading into 2024 and longer, 2040 and beyond.
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Key Topics & Chapter Markers:
Introduction to the Final Episode (00:00:00.330): Jill S. Robinson introduces the final episode of the "Leading the Way" podcast, reflecting on the leadership thoughts and examples discussed since late 2023, focusing on the sector's recovery and resiliency.
First Pillar - Financial Stability (00:00:00.330): Conversation with Vincent Van Vliet (Phoenix Theater) and Jill Anderson (Syracuse Stage) about financial stability in the arts sector, highlighting positive growth during the pandemic.
Second Pillar - Customer Relationships (00:01:49.600): Discussions on customer relationships with Tom Bird (Sheffield Theaters) and Ross Benny (Cleveland Orchestra), focusing on relevance, future audiences, and innovative membership programs.
Third Pillar - Organizational Frameworks (00:03:31.570): Highlighting the importance of organizational frameworks, with examples from Boston Children’s Chorus's new framework led by Andres Holder and Akiba Abaka.
Fourth Pillar - People-Centric Teams (00:05:21.330): Discussion with Andrew Taylor on the "overhead myth" and its impact on people-centric teams in the arts and cultural sector.
Wrap-Up and Broader Conversation (00:06:49.970): A broader conversation with Alicia Lawyer (Roko) about disruption in classical music, touching upon all four key pillars.
Four Provocations for the Future (00:06:49.970): Jill S. Robinson shares her thoughts and provocations on the current state and future of the arts and cultural sector, focusing on the rigid nonprofit mindset, the need for growth capital, the "Great Shakeup," and setting sights on 2040.
Conclusion and Thanks (00:17:02.200): Closing remarks, thanking listeners and inviting suggestions for future inspiration.
Podcast Closing and Invitation to Subscribe (00:17:55.510): Conclusion of the podcast episode, inviting listeners to subscribe and visit the website for more resources.
Contact Info:
letstalk@trgarts.com
Creators & Guests
What is Leading the Way with Jill S. Robinson?
Leading the Way with Jill S. Robinson is a journey into the international arts and culture industry. Join Jill, a driving force in the sector who has counseled arts leaders for more than three decades, for conversations with some of the most insightful and daring minds leading the way to a resilient 21st century.
[00:00:00.330] - Jill S. Robinson
Jill S. Robinson, here solo for our final Leading the Way podcast episode. Leading the way. We started toward the end of 2023 by surfacing leadership thoughts and examples with an eye on our sector's recovery and resiliency and more. As I reflect on the folks who were so excellent and thought provoking and kind enough to spend and invest time talking to me, I realized they resonated with me because they've connected to the four pillars or key areas that at Trgrds we've seen playing such a vital role in our sector's recovery and in the work, the urgent work that's required. Now, if you haven't had a chance to listen to some of these conversations, I urge you to check out Apple podcasts or Spotify. These folks and their conversations were a gift to me. I think they'd be the same for you. Whom did I talk to and why? We opened with Vincent Van Vliet from the Phoenix Theater and Jill Anderson at Syracuse Stage. The pillar was in my mind around financial stability so key for our sector's recovery. But their financial stability that they have grown during this pandemic time is something that they were able to convey and communicate in a spirit of positivity and belief, clarity about what is going well and what isn't, not shying away from what's hard.
[00:01:49.600] - Jill S. Robinson
But their narratives were definitely a counternarrative to what we were hearing this fall about the fate and state of American theater. The next couple of conversations were about customer relationships, which is a core part of TRG's work. One was about relevance. I spoke with Tom Bird, who's the chief executive at Sheffield Theaters, england's largest regional theater. We both read the book The Art of Relevance by Nina Simon, and we talked about relevance between the organizations that Tom has led and the markets that those organizations, the people that those organizations serve. Dating back to his work at Shakespeare's Globe during London's Olympic hosting was fascinating conversation, followed by another one. Ross Benny and I spoke. Ross is the chief brand officer at the Cleveland Orchestra. And for the past ten years, for a decade, that group has been focused on and dedicated to something they call the center for Future Audiences, opening doors to young people under 18 audiences of the future, but also models for audiences of the future. Today, alongside their subscription program that they still invest in mightily they're experimenting with membership programs, rewards programs. Ross and I talk about what it means to invest a decade in this kind of work and what it might mean for the next decade or two for the orchestra in Cleveland.
[00:03:31.570] - Jill S. Robinson
The third area that we focus on with our clients and in the field is organizational frameworks. There are many of them. Whether you know you have them or not, there are often frameworks at work. The folks at Boston Children's Chorus purposefully have a new framework. Andres Holder, who's the executive director, joined me with his new team member Akiba Abaka, who's their new director of Good Trouble. If you know anything about Boston Children's Chorus's history and intention, you know that they want to be in good trouble. And her work is designed not just to be a silo in and of itself, but in fact a framework for the future of Boston Children's Chorus. A fascinating conversation. I know you'll enjoy people centric teams. That's the last of the key and urgent areas of work from our point of view. I talked about it with Andrew Taylor, although it may feel indirect. Andrew and I talked about something called the overhead Myth, and it was inspired by an article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy earlier this year. How am I connecting something that we measure in accounting overhead with people? Well, people often make up overhead, and you'll listen and hear fascinating unpacking of the attitudes and history, the realities and intentions that this measurement has meant to serve and the realities of it today.
[00:05:21.330] - Jill S. Robinson
We wrapped up the year with a conversation with Alicia Lawyer, who's the founder of Roko, the chamber music ensemble in Houston, Texas. Talked with her about disruption, positive disruption. But boy oh boy. This far reaching conversation talked about financial stability, which they've had for 20 years in their philanthropically supported, almost exclusively model people centric teams that are about artists as much as they are about the internal administrative staff, team and board customer relationships, because customers are at the center. And that's what leads to a different organizational and production and presentation framework. Really interesting new model in a part of our field, classical music that has been fairly unreasonably traditional. All of these conversations were fascinating. I hope you'll find time to listen. And as I'm wrapping up this podcast year, I find myself and we find ourselves wrapping up a calendar year. And it's with that in mind, really, that I've developed some thoughts, maybe some provocations that I hope will provide some inspiration. It's a little bit of a rant, maybe some thoughts about what I'm seeing in the arts and cultural sector now and what I think it may mean for you as a leader in terms of your action.
[00:06:49.970] - Jill S. Robinson
There are four provocations, and I'd like to start with the first, which is an observation that the nonprofit mindset in our field has gotten more, not less, rigid in recent times. This mindset often starts with boards, and it seeps into our leadership attitudes and action. It's really curious. To me, the charitable and nonprofit model is a tax status shouldn't be an attitude, but I find that it almost always is. What do I mean by that? I find the nonprofit attitude and set of assumptions everywhere. It's in the assumption about overhead that Andrew and I talked about the Chronicle of Philanthropy article, Myth Busts with research and data that holding overhead as a proportion to overall expenses to around 20 or 25%. That myth that that's best practice was busted by this research. And this research was focused on arts and culture specifically. It's a very interesting read you can see on my LinkedIn post if you follow that, and it suggests that investing more, not irresponsibly, but more, can lead to attendance, customer and other growth that holding to a ratio that is best practice can prevent. I think it's got to be tested and challenged now.
[00:08:32.050] - Jill S. Robinson
I see it in the media almost everywhere this term. Groups, some very large arts and cultural nonprofit businesses are called arts groups, theater troops in the media this term, groups or troops. I fear it infantilizes the work. It adds to the mindset that arts organizations don't know how to run like a business. And in boardrooms, where boardrooms, where board leaders want arts organizations to run like a business, I also hear it. And yet in those same rooms there's discomfort, discomfort with investment and associated return. It's often inconsistent and impatient. And I promise you that the investments we need to make now are going to take five to ten years to return. I was just talking with a group of team leaders from a large arts organization earlier this week, and in talking about an investment, yeah, Jill, we can make that investment. We think though, if we did, it probably we need to see something in the next six months or so in terms of return. Six months. Six months is part of the nonprofit mindset. Finally, I see this mindset and organizational culture in spades, where the scarcity mindset really rules, where we say, well, we can't overspend here and we couldn't possibly start this new program now, and there is no way we can pay what they pay over there.
[00:10:19.190] - Jill S. Robinson
And my very favorite right now is everybody back in the office now and are they working 40 hours at their desks? All of these statements and biases and attitudes reign louder now than they have before, and really on the heels of such flexibility and nimbleness and dynamism that we had to, but that we operated with and from during pandemic times. So what do we do about all of these realities? I would ask yourself to evaluate how many entrepreneurs do you surround yourself with on your board as business associates, as even colleagues or friends. And then I'd say surround yourself with more of them, especially at the board or kitchen cabinet level. The folks who've built and lost businesses, who love creativity and believe in its role in communities, who have the energy to rebuild and build things new. This is what those types of personas love to do. But more than that, more than that, put them in positions to challenge. Challenge your assumptions, challenge your fear your operations. Put them in a position to challenge you. The second observation I've got is that cash is running out. And you would say, right, Jill? Yes, cash is running out.
[00:11:53.430] - Jill S. Robinson
But the cash we did have, we invested in various ways. Now, though, is the time for growth capital, resiliency capital, rebirth capital. Call it what you like. Some of the regions we work in, Canada and the UK, for example, benefit from ongoing annual investment that's systemic at the federal level, not just limited to pandemic times, and that provides them, I hear it a different kind of runway. And still, let's not assume that that kind of systemic. Third, not third party, but outside investment yields growth and rebuilding and recovery. It doesn't automatically you'll see that in our latest benchmark report that reports on the recovery of Canada, the UK and the US compared to 2019. And this kind of investment doesn't automatically mean the speediest, resiliency or recovery. Why? Well, there'll be a lot of different answers, but my observation over almost 30 years of talking to leaders like you is that this kind of outside investment can come with specific requirements and intentions. And those intentions can be inconsistent over time. And it's 2023. With all of the demands on outside investors, be they foundations, sponsors and businesses or governments, I wonder how sustainable this outside investment is.
[00:13:42.870] - Jill S. Robinson
It's at least a question you should be asking. So what do we do about that? I would say focus the outside investment you do have on growth and rebirth, and then do what some of our clients are beginning to do, which is building an investment task force, not a finance committee task force or a board committee to find investors in your community's creativity community. Builders who know that and understand that a vibrant, creative community yields a vibrant business community, a vibrant social and educational infrastructure. And while you're at it, ask the hard questions about your endowment, your capital campaigns. Are you saving now for a future you can't easily describe? If so, now might be the time to invest in the capacity to describe and plan for that future. Capacity and growth capital is what I observe is required now. Which brings me to number three, the Great Shakeup. Yeah, we've all been through a global pandemic, but it's bigger than that. We're operating in the context of what I'm beginning to think of and call the Great Shakeup. Whether it's skyrocketing costs of operations, regular shifts in staffing, realities, relevance and whether or not we're relevant with and to our artists, with and to our communities AI and what it might mean to the art we produce.
[00:15:27.890] - Jill S. Robinson
The relationships and way we communicate, the way we work, demographic changes in our communities, age related demographic preferences for work and the way that donors and customers engage with our organizations. My gosh, we're operating in a time where change is happening at a pace we've never seen before. So what does this mean? I think it means we must leapfrog. Leapfrog over old practices and assumptions to a new place, a completely new place. And to do that, I think we need to change our destination, our sights. Which leads me to my final point, let's set those sites on 2040. It's only 15 years from now, and to understand that future, we need to first get real and understand where we are today, what our communities want and what they're likely to need, and how we can join those two things up in real, relevant and right ways. The leaders I'll be talking to in 2024 will be leaders who are digging in on recovery and resiliency, facing their realities with courage and action. But you can anticipate some of them will have their eyes squarely set on 2040 like the ones I spoke to in 2023.
[00:17:02.200] - Jill S. Robinson
This past set of months, you'll hear evidence of incremental changes that are delivering real results now. Disruptions to assumptions, business practices and belief. Belief in the power of community creativity. I bring them to you and will bring them to you moving forward in hopes that they'll inspire and encourage you. And if you know of somebody that you think is inspiring in this way, let me know. I'm always on the lookout for inspiration. Thank you for joining me for this Leading the Way journey. I wish you and your teams and family families a hopeful and restful close to 2023 and energy for the journey that begins in 2024.
[00:17:55.510] - TRG Arts
That's all for this episode of Leading the Way with Jill Robinson brought to you by TRG Arts. Thanks for listening and believing that insightful, daring, and innovative leadership is the way to a more resilient future for the arts and cultural industry. Make sure to subscribe to Leading the Way on Apple podcasts and Spotify. And if you found this episode helpful, please rate and review the show for additional resources and to sign up for the podcast newsletter, we invite you to visit our website at leadingthewaypodcast.com.