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It seems that most of our industry colleagues find themselves in one of two scenarios right now: being completely overwhelmed with managing workload on reduced staff, or trying to work out how best to utilize staff now that their department’s priorities have completely changed.

For those who have found themselves able to retain a full – or close to full team – this is the time to demonstrate the essential value of your team and maximize, or build on, the skills that naturally live within your team. It is also the perfect moment to tackle those projects that feel impossible to complete during normal operations. We recently worked with a client to map out their departmental priorities for the next eighteen months, and figure out together when special projects could be scheduled in and around their revised programming timelines. We’re looking forward to working with more clients in this capacity.

For those of you who find yourselves with a reduced team, we recognize that this has been and continues to be an incredibly difficult time. With diminished resources, and pressure to deliver new digital programming and support new fundraising efforts, now is the time to identify what is crucial and essential to achieve at this time, and start to push back internally on the non-essential. Easier said than done, we know, but hopefully some of these thoughts will help clarify the ‘essential’ part.

In thinking about what priorities look like now (with or without a full team), here are the principles that we think should be guiding these decisions:

Our relationship to our audience is not on pause. We need to find ways to stay in touch with our core audiences (a phone call or personal letter at this time will have impact for years to come) but also start thinking about and planning for what our future relationship with them looks like.
We are all fundraisers now. With other revenue sources on hold, the entire organization needs to get behind creative fundraising efforts. Marketing and development teams are more essential to each other than ever before.
Our digital presence is our brand at this time. Digital programming should be clearly supporting our key brand values and helping deliver on the above: audience connection and fundraising efforts.
We cannot return to normal operations post-shutdown. As this crisis continues, it is becoming increasingly obvious that we will need to rethink how our venues operate and the experience that our audiences have in our venues (and likely continue to have online) will also need to be rethought. This is the time to seriously consider the strategy, structure, support and skills that your organization will require post-shutdown.

There’s been much made of the fact that this time is giving our earth a moment of rest and regeneration. And it seems that it’s a moment for us to do that too. If we can lift our heads above the day to day struggle to adjust, we might be able to accept that this time we’ve been given as a gift. A gift that allows us time to stop, reflect, rethink and retool. To tackle all the projects we’ve been stalling, to build the team that we really need, to rethink our operations and approaches, and to deepen the relationships we have with those who are most important to us.

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Rani Haywood is a Senior Consultant at 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. For over fifteen years Rani has held senior marketing roles at an array of performing arts and cultural organizations in Australia and the United States, including at The Metropolitan Opera, Roundabout Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company.