Stop Kibbitzing Your Nonprofit Arts Marketers — They’re the Experts at What They Do (And You’re Probably Not)
Jerry Yoshitomi wrote a brilliant article last October. And in learning and unlearning of audience development skills, all too often marketing people are brutally disrespected by the other areas of the organization. I’ve heard marketing departments referred to as “a necessary evil” dozens of times.
Compare the following sentences:
“Anyone can market your arts organization.”
“Anyone can market your arts organization SUCCESSFULLY.”
“Anyone can act, paint, sing, dance, sculpt, direct, and play the tuba.”
“Anyone can act, paint, sing, dance, sculpt, direct, and play the tuba SUCCESSFULLY.”
Don’t be caught in ancient thinking. Just because all consumers react to marketing doesn’t make them good marketers. Treat marketers as you would treat other artists, because that’s what they are. They are the best interpreters of your product to the public. Don’t stand between them and your organization’s success.
Aphorisms for the Modern Arts Charity Leader
If it ain’t broke, break it. Then fix it.
You only read books in one direction.
Your legacy ends when you leave.
Institutional survival is not the goal.
Missions are gods; mission statements are bibles.
The best leaders are the best assistants.
Learn why before you continue.
Success is measured by impact, not excellence.
“Fiscal responsibility” is a business practice, not a mission statement.
Volunteers are employees who work for $0.
If your people are averaging 50+ hours a week, you’re failing.
Always use transitive verbs in your mission statements.
The cool kids are back in high school.
Sharpen your point of view; that’s why it’s a point.
Be completely, spectacularly wrong.
Treat candidates like employees.
Treat employees like human beings.
Treat human beings as though you are one.
Fire yourself regularly; interview yourself for your job.
Be funnier.
How to Build a Perfect Team in 5 Easy Steps
1. Never be the smartest person in the room. Hire candidates who are better than you. If you can’t, you’re probably an asshole.
2. Make clear what the goal is. In nonprofits, that goal is defined by the mission. If you can’t, your mission probably sucks.
3. Using their strengths (not yours), disseminate tasks rather than relying on calcified job descriptions. Create a human flow chart that leads to mission execution. If you can’t, people will keep quitting because of you.
4. Be their assistant, especially in small organizations, rather than insisting on having them be yours. If you can’t, you don’t really know what “team” means.
5. Don’t let “results” become your mood ring. Use “happiness” instead. Or “satisfaction.” If you can’t, quit your job so that someone else can do it better. If you think no one can, see Step 1.
Chief Instigation Officer: That’s Your Job, Too
A development director once told me that she worked “on behalf of donors.” No, not really. You work on behalf of the mission.
A marketing director once told me that “it’s all about the money.” No, not really. It’s all about the mission.
An artistic director once told me “we do it for the art.” No, not really. We do it to execute the mission.
Unless the mission, well, sucks.
Often it has fallen to me to gently (and sometimes not so gently) advise that without a compelling, singular mission that speaks to a specific, measurable societal improvement, a nonprofit arts organization is merely exchanging entertainment for money — like an organ grinder’s monkey, begging for pennies.
You are there to solve a problem. Make sure your company stands for something outside your little corner of the operation.
How to Recognize and Attack Stockholm Syndrome in Your Nonprofit Arts Organization
Two real cases (quotes paraphrased):
“Of course they’ll stay. Where are they going to go?” said a highly-paid nonprofit leader to his board after cutting everyone else’s salary by 25% because, you know, the economy and his vision.
“They came with no skills; I taught them everything,” said another leader when asked how he managed to avoid turnover.
To attack Stockholm Syndrome:
- Interact across the organization. SS leaders use employee non-communication to triangulate.
- Don’t work alone or in some ear-budded isolation. SS leaders crave isolation. What you don’t know WILL hurt you.
- Love the mission, not the leader. When an SS leader’s actions supersede the mission (if there is one), the ship is sinking, so…
- Continually seek new work. SS leaders may call you a deserter; do you want to work for someone who categorizes people like that?
Cultural Fit: FIFA, North Korea, the Kardashians, the Nixon White House…and Your Nonprofit Arts Organization?
I just read an op-ed piece in The New York Times about the over-utilization of “cultural fit” as a criterion for hiring. “One recent survey found that more than 80 percent of employers worldwide named cultural fit as a top hiring priority.”
To an extent, cultural fit is interesting, but a “top hiring priority?” In the broadest sense, someone with an affinity for and experience in the nonprofit arts industry would seem to possess it for a nonprofit arts organization, as opposed to someone from Walmart.
But when challenges face the organization, or if an organization is seeking to “be taken to the next level,” cultural fit is the last thing you want in a key hire. Adding wax to a candle just makes a bigger candle. It doesn’t light up the night until you add the fire.
Hiring 101: Post. Respond. Inform. Interview. Inform. Interview. Inform. Hire. Inform. (PS: No Taleo necessary)
From O’Reilly/Pfeffer’s “Hidden Value:”
Hiring based solely on job skills can be short-sighted and expensive.
If someone doesn’t fit the culture, either the culture will change or the person will leave.
If your company’s hiring practices are “industry standard” (by definition, middling), then its values are equally unimportant, no matter what greatness your company ostensibly performs. “One chance at a first impression” and all that.
- Post job.
- IMMEDIATELY upon receipt, respond to email applicants with receipt; (mail or in-person applicants with postcard).
- Managers: Compile three categories (Yes/No/Maybe).
Move “Maybe” into “No.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Interview “Yeses.”
Inform “Nos” of status. - Final interviews.
Hire.
Inform “Nos” of status. - Hire qualified (better: overqualified) and creative, not skillful and capable.
Look for values, not education.
Hire to fit, not proficiency.
And whenever possible: hire someone better than you.
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