Leaders Build Lasting Relationships

Anyone can be a follower. To borrow from Tolstoy, followers are all alike; leaders are leaders in their own way. Organizations that lead set themselves apart from the rest and provide unique experiences.

If we are to build organizations that survive—organizations that people want to make time to visit—then we need to lead, at least in the sense of maintaining curatorial responsibility. We all know that the public’s leisure time choices are exponentially growing and arts organizations need to compete for attention. Arts organizations are in a unique position to provide moving experiences that are unavailable elsewhere. That ability is perhaps their greatest asset in attracting public attention, inviting public interaction, and building lasting relationships. When we give up any part of that, we surrender our greatest asset. Here I echo the points of other participants Kelly Tweeddale and Jenny Byrd when they say that arts should have a point of view and that institutions must be bold and take risks, and of Michael Kaiser when he says that audiences want art that will engage, energize and surprise them.

The danger in following is that we will water down the artistic experience. That’s not the same thing as “dumbing down”, and I do not want to imply that audience members lack intellect because I know that they do not. What I do want to imply is that decision by committee or crowdsourcing curatorial responsibility will result in something less unique, less creative, less worthwhile. A recent article in The New York Times (The Rise of the New Groupthink, by Susan Cain, January 13, 2012) summarized research suggesting that work produced by a group lacks the creativity of work produced by individuals. This is not necessarily an elitist proposition; it allows anyone to be creative, but recognizes that creators need to be allowed to create. And if we are truly going to serve the public and deliver something the public cannot get anywhere else, the kind of experience that creates and sustains a love of the arts, we cannot deliver a watered down experience.

But that does not mean we should disregard the audience, follow our whims, and lead blindly. That’s a recipe for becoming obsolete rapidly. I would suggest the opposite: Good leaders respect and form relationships with those they want to lead. Good leaders, leaders who have longevity (be they in arts institutions or elsewhere) do not take their leadership for granted, but instead listen and are responsive to audiences. Good leaders understand that they are part of a larger whole. In making curatorial choices, they know what issues have social relevance, what questions society is pondering, and in many cases even what kind of emotional experiences audiences are looking for. Just as important, they work to understand how those audiences want to interact with them and what is important to them.

As one successful example, one of The Wallace Foundation case studies presented on the landing page of this forum (Building Deeper Relationships) tells how Steppenwolf Theatre Company listened carefully to how to its audience wanted to interact with Steppenwolf and the role they wanted dramatic work to play in their lives (namely, to challenge them and push them out of their comfort zone via creative exploration). Steppenwolf developed a successful engagement strategy that is building a satisfying relationship for ensemble members and the audience, delivering a strong experience that—because it has decided to lead and engage in a way that is true to what the organization stands for and its mission—only Steppenwolf could provide. Steppenwolf has created multiple avenues for the audience to explore the creative process alongside the ensemble and artistic staff in online forums, post-show discussions, events built around dramatic themes, and more. This engagement strategy is an extension of the ensemble model on which Steppenwolf is based, and at the same time, facilitates the exploration and meaning-making that audience research told Steppenwolf that its audience wanted. And because Steppenwolf has maintained complete control of what gets produced on stage, the audience is getting a strong “uniquely Steppenwolf” experience, with challenging, risk-taking theater that pushes them out of their comfort zone (again, what they are looking for—anything less would likely turn them away).

Audiences at Steppenwolf have engaged and responded. Subscription and single ticket sales have risen over the past four years since the engagement strategy was launched, and larger numbers of single-ticket buyers are buying tickets to multiple productions even if they do not subscribe for the season. Moreover, Steppenwolf’s understanding of its audience and its ongoing dialogue with that audience has emboldened its artistic choices. In the words of Steppenwolf Executive Director David Hawkanson:

We have more artistic confidence to do a wider and more challenging range of material than ever before. The conversations we have internally about new seasons have changed from the ones we had five years ago, when there was more of a consciousness about the presence of new vs. established plays during the season. That’s no longer on the table. Now our programming conversations revolve around the exploration of art and ideas, what projects the artists want to do, what our writers are trying to do. Thinking this way has given the artists a stronger platform in which they do not feel manipulated or smothered by management. (Building Deeper Relationships, p. 42, http://tinyurl.com/7x5fbqk)

That’s not dumbing down. That’s smarting up. And as the relationship develops, both the audience and the institution are growing.