"Research sounds nice, but I'm trying to run an arts organization with fires to put out." I recently heard this in a conversation with a leader at an arts organization with an absolutely incredible vision but with a ways to go to reach some strategic goals. I was talking about the "research" I'm involved in at the Advisory Board for the Arts and how we use insights to bring clarity to decision-making for arts & culture leaders. Research often gets a bad rap for being theoretical, academic, or disconnected. Enter "applied research" - or simply put, research that's geared toward getting you practical information to make critical decisions. "Data-driven" has been an incredibly popular buzzword in our field in recent years. How do we gather data? Through research! And we're not just talking numbers on a chart (although those are super helpful!) - we're talking about actionable insights to getting your organization to where it needs to be. Some of the questions that "applied research" can help with: ❓ "I've got to transform my board into a high functioning entity that grows my organization through strategic relationships. What are some best practices to make that shift?" ❓"We really want to start a young professionals program but have no idea where to start. Is there a good roadmap out there?" ❓ "We think we might need to rebrand. We're really struggling with market differentiation and we've got to become more visible to our community. What should I have in mind as we explore this process?" ❓"We're interested in exploring some innovative membership programs to supplement our existing subscription offerings. What works?" ❓"Staff turnover is at an all-time high. We've got to understand how we can better attract and retain talent. Are there insights we can use to chart a course for stability?" If you're eager to make data-driven decisions, you're going to need research. I love nothing more than talking to curious arts & culture leaders about how we can leverage insights from research to illuminate possible solutions to strategic challenges. ➡➡ Send me a message if you ever want to get a clearer picture of how we're using research to support arts organizations across the globe! #artsandculture #theatre #opera #orchestra #museums #performingarts #artsadministration
Research, like documentation, seems impractical in the current innovation incentives market. VC (fast money, only cares about highly liquid exits) and grant funds (slow, maybe inconsistent money) tend to differ widely in documentation requirements. "We are what we measure." At bootstrap, this leaves an incentives vacuum for standard operating procedures in organizational design. Without lively incentives the culture is quickly traumatized, predatory and pathological avoidance behaviors at different levels of the information dojo emerge. Organizations need consistent and accountability. What are you thoughts on Project Based Learning initiatives? A group carves a pathway for a project and then walks down it with some level of reflective documentation (research hooks). Then future groups use the previous pathway as rails for their project with the same/similar end goal(s), but can iterate and change the project pathway as seen fit. Change logs are available, making reviews and rollbacks of changes ubiquitous. All the while, data is actively collected on these iterations as groups use the pathways and "level up" or "dog food" the methodologies. Resulting in active research transpiring in the multiple dimensions of praxis.
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10moI am admittedly biased but I think it's the best way to learn from others It's often not so much that you don't have a sense for what you should be doing but that it's that you don't know which strategies and tactics are more likely to succeed (after all, enough money and you can probably get anything to work) This is especially true when you are making a strategic decision - the kind that will be difficult to reverse - this is where you can benefit from the experience of others