It may not be easy, but it’s amazing what people—namely you—are achieving from home right now. Like many, our work has been confined to Zoom meetings (“am I on mute?”) and conference calls (“Hello?! who just joined?!”). Regardless of the medium, we are working every day to help organizations navigate these turbulent times, and come out stronger on the other side. If you’ll indulge us, here’s just a little about what we’re up to at TOCG, beyond our search and recruitment work:

Structural Consultations: Keeping Human Systems Humming Along

TOCG was recently engaged by a performing arts center for a review of internal marketing structure and operations, to make sure that the department could properly support the organization’s various programs and sub-brands. In this case, the goal was not to reduce headcount, but to advise on a structure and workflow that would allow the current team to work together more effectively with an eye on long-term, big picture strategy and beyond day-to-day projects. This project was completed from start to finish via videoconference, through a series of stakeholder meetings with everyone from junior staff to Executive Leadership. We can’t wait to visit for a performance when we’re safely allowed.

Marketing Operations: Planning for a Pandemic

We also recently worked with a classical music organization to map out their departmental priorities for the next eighteen months and determine when vital infrastructure projects could be scheduled in and around their adjusted live and digital programming timelines. All of these plans needed to be built to flex along with their possible scenarios (sound familiar?). Together–again on videoconference–we mapped out different scales of operations to suit each scenario, enabling them to plan for how each shift will necessitate different staffing and third-party resources. The framework that we built with our client can, and will, continue to be adapted as realities change.

Coaching: We don’t know any sports metaphors

Our coaching clients have always looked to us to help create space for sound and well-reasoned planning, as well as to overcome their own individual challenges as leaders and communicators (newsflash: we all have those, even in the best of times). As marketing leaders continue to try and achieve more with less, pivot to becoming primarily digital media companies, and often while grappling with the survivor’s guilt that can accompany layoffs and furloughs—we are happy to help them carve out time, space, and permission to think beyond today’s emergencies.

Do you see yourself or your organization in these stories? First, take heart in knowing you’re not alone. And if you’d like to connect, we’d love to hear from you.

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Tom O’Connor is the President of Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a New York City-based arts consultancy offering strategy, assessment, executive search, and leadership coaching services to organizations across the US—all with a focus on audiences and revenue outcomes. Tom has spent over 15 years working in the cultural sector, is on the faculty of the graduate Theater Management program at the Yale School of Drama, and received his MSW in Clinical Social Work from Fordham University.