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TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Aubrey Bergauer: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the final episode of season three of the Offstage Mic. It's really amazing to see the growth of the podcast every season and especially this season. So many of you listening are new here, and I'm just so happy this podcast is bringing high value to your work in arts management.

I'm recording today from home in San Francisco. And when this airs, I'll just be back from speaking at the Opera America National Conference and getting ready to hit the road for a few book tour stops and other conferences this summer. And today we are talking about a topic I get a lot of questions on no matter where I'm at, whether I'm here at home, on the road, or even abroad working there, and that is the topic of how to lead.

Change. So really, the last two episodes of the season, I would say, are about change. The last episode was about change at my own business. And this [00:01:00] final episode of the season is about how to lead change at your business. I get this so much. For example, Aubrey, how do I bring others along in what I'm trying to do?

Or I love your content and strategies, we really think the same way, but how do I get a buy in from my fill in the blank artistic director, my boss, my board, whoever? Or sometimes the question takes the form of, Aubrey, I am the decision maker, the chief executive, or department head, or founder, or insert leadership role, and I am in for new ways of doing business, new approaches to arts management that serve our art and field better.

But where do I begin? That is actually a question that is about leading change. If any of those thoughts or questions resonate with you, this episode is for you, my friend. So here's the agenda. We are going to cover what the experts say about fear of change, resistance to change, barriers to change, all of those kind of things, and how that applies to us working in arts management.[00:02:00] 

We're then going to talk about three misconceptions about change at arts organizations. And then lastly, five things that actually work. If there's three misconceptions, what are five things that we can actually do instead? This season we have talked about so many important tactical strategies, how to grow subscriptions, the playbook for major gift fundraising, the math and money on the table when we diversify our audiences, better copywriting.

All of those things are really important to the business of running an arts organization. And to our bottom line, right? It took me a long time though to understand that the biggest part of my work isn't actually growing audiences or retaining newcomers or creating places of belonging. And all of that is a huge piece of my work, a huge piece of my business.

So what I came to realize, whether back when I was leading an orchestra or in other art management roles, or now over the last several years of running my own business, the biggest part of my [00:03:00] job is in fact this topic, the topic of motivating change. And maybe that sounds odd. It took me so long to realize that given that the literal name of my business is Changing the Narrative.

That's named after the blog I started. About 10 years ago now, which as an aside, wow, that totally blows my mind. It's been a decade now. But the point is this topic of leading change is actually one of the most important skills we can build as arts leaders, no matter your role or title in this field of arts management.

We'll get into it all in just a moment, but first I have to tell you about a free masterclass I have coming up that really brings all of these topics this season together. The topics of building audiences, boosting subscriptions, expanding the donor base, and this topic today. Of bringing others along on this work with you.

So if you're listening to this episode in real time right around when it comes out, I am teaching this masterclass live [00:04:00] online later this month. It's called the Audience Growth Masterclass, Four Steps to Building Audiences and Revenue. And it is, by design, a combination of the tactical elements and strategies you've heard me talk about.

All season long and this idea of leading your arts organization forward, leading new ways of doing business, no matter your role in the org chart, I'll share more at the end and how you can save your free seat. But right now we have some things to talk about how to lead change at an arts organization.

There is so much to share with you on this topic. Let's get to it. The final episode of season three of the Offstage mic starts right now. I'm Aubrey Bergauer and welcome to my podcast. I'm known in the arts world for being customer centric, data obsessed, and for growing revenue. The arts are my vehicle to make the change I want to see in this world, like creating places of belonging, pursuing gender and racial equality, developing high performing teams and leaders, and leveraging [00:05:00] technology to elevate our work.

I've been called the Steve Jobs of classical music at the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony. I've held off stage roles managing millions of dollars in revenue at major institutions. And as chief executive of an orchestra where we doubled the size of the audience and nearly quadrupled the donor base. And now, I'm here to help you achieve this.

In this podcast, we are sorting through the data inside and outside the arts. Applying those findings to our work and bringing in some expert voices along the way. All to build the vibrant future we know is possible for our institutions and ourselves as off stage administrators and leaders. This podcast is about optimizing the business around the art, not sacrificing it.

You're listening to the Offstage Mic.

Have you read CoreStorm's new State of the Arts report yet? It's a data driven resource for all [00:06:00] things arts education in the past year. This one is for all the executive directors of non profit arts organizations, teaching artists, and other leaders in the arts and culture community. Imagine tapping into more than 10 years of exclusive class registration data to uncover invaluable insights for your organization.

CourseStorm has done the legwork so you can make informed decisions. Things like what day and time is best to hold your class. When do most people register? And which digital marketing channel is most effective? Discover the successes and strategies of arts education programs that not only weathered the pandemic storm, but are thriving.

Yes, you heard that right. Thriving. I love that the State of the Arts report shares exclusive data from the top class registration software company, CoreStorm. I got to see trends discovered from CoreStorm's analysis of more than 1 million class registrations. And you'll want to see them too. So if you're ready to elevate your education program, don't miss out on the state of the arts report.[00:07:00] 

Visit corestorm. com slash SOAR that's slash S O A R like the acronym for state of the arts and download the free report today. 

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[00:07:40] Aubrey Bergauer: All right, let's get into it.

I'm going to talk about one truth about change, then three misconceptions about change. So, the truth, the truth is change is a necessary and often inevitable part of running any organization. Not just an orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus, theater, [00:08:00] museum, opera, or dance company, but any organization. If you want to do things like implement new processes, adopt new technology, restructure the org chart, or reframe your approach.

Anything like that. You want to do something differently than how it used to be done. That's change. Particularly, that is change management, which is what we are really honing in on today. That is essential. Change management is essential for growth and progress. We all know change can be met with resistance.

I guess that's another truth, but we all know this. We've probably seen that play out. in our own like personal lives too, if we're being honest. I know I have definitely at some points been resistant to change. So that's the truth. Change is necessary. Change is inevitable. And yet, there are some misconceptions.

Misconception number one of three to share with you today. The number one misconception about change is that it's a matter of willpower. That is not true. [00:09:00] According to a Harvard researcher, lecturer, and author, Her name is Lisa Leahy. She's the author of Immunity to Change. That's her book. She is specialized in identifying personal and organizational barriers, basically, to change for more than 30 years.

She has said most people basically have one model of change that we rely on, and that's this willpower model, or in other words, kind of the New Year's resolution model, right? We go for change based on what we know. She has a whole book on this, as I said, but the very fast explainer is I've heard her say, Sometimes willpower can work.

So let's be honest, let's be fair. Sometimes willpower can work, but often it's more complex. Those are her words. And that willpower model doesn't give you purview into all that's going on. So what's really important is that resistance to change is usually about something deeper going on within us, usually, whether that's at an organization or in our personal lives, something deeper there.

We'll get back to that. For now, part of this [00:10:00] misconception is that more often than not, Lack of change is not about lack of desire. That is what Lisa Leahy says. She says the real crux of it is that we were never taught the right framework to begin with, right? We had New Year's resolution model on display for us for our entire lives, right?

So we kind of learn that way. Instead, what's really kind of bubbling beneath the surface, this is what Leahy and her co author Robert Keegan call competing commitments. That's what's going on. Competing commitments are unknown or subconscious thoughts or beliefs that conflict with the new goal. For example, when we are trying to get the board on board with the new idea, it feels like a big undertaking, or we fear that having some success in our role will have a result of even higher expectations for delivering even more, which feels like a never ending slog.

Some people say that about revenue goals. If I'm successful, they're just going to raise the [00:11:00] goal any next year, right? Or, you know, just thinking of adding something else to an already full plate feels overwhelming, even though it could save time later down the line. These are all examples of competing commitments.

None of those things aren't wrong, but they do compete with whatever level of desire we have to do something differently, again, in our lives or in our organizations. So therefore, challenging those thoughts often means, to put different words to it, it often means we're challenging closely held beliefs that we have or long time assumptions that probably served us in the past.

Long held beliefs, long held assumptions, probably. We've developed those beliefs and assumptions because they did serve us at one point. So the competing commitments are really something that challenges that, which may be necessary to move forward, but that's why barrier to change is there. With that groundwork, the point is willpower [00:12:00] is not the way through that.

You don't muscle your way through something that competes with a deeply held belief, value, or assumption that you previously had. And that is true whether we want to lose a Few pounds thinking more on like the New Year's resolution track or in our arts organizations if we want to move a team of people forward also doesn't work.

We're going to talk more when I get to the five things that do work on like how do we start to address these competing commitments. But for now, second misconception is that people are lazy or just don't want change. Here's a true confession for me. This is one big myth I believed for a long time. I thought that some people were just intractable, or if I'm being honest, I thought people, some people at least, were lazy.

This is, I mean, kind of a common misconception, but the truth is the longer I'm around in this industry, the more I agree with this idea that lazy isn't [00:13:00] really the right word. We're in a sector where people work their asses off on a daily basis. I see that all the time everywhere I go. We're going to talk about working smarter.

There's a whole other conversation to be had about working smarter or what's the most effective work or better use of our time. For now, suffice it to say, I'm going to talk about I realized that laziness or obstinance just isn't quite the right way to describe why people in arts and culture can be resistant to change.

And the experts back this up. To bring in another expert here, another set of experts, Chip and Dan Heath, they're brothers, they're both professors at different schools, they're bestselling book on change, it's called Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard. And they write Point blank, people are not lazy, they're exhausted.

Okay, so what does that mean? We just talked about the competing beliefs or competing commitments, competing thoughts we hold. So [00:14:00] Chip and Dan Heath, they tackle this internal tension and they describe it instead of competing commitments, they talk about the tension between our rational brain and emotional brain.

Some examples. Rational brain would say, I want to look great in a swimsuit. But our emotional brain says, but I can't stop eating pumpkin bread this fall. This may or may not be based on personal experience. Somebody tell me you're with me here. Our rational brain, to give an example for our organization, says, I want to do things X, Y, Z at my organization because I think it could make a difference, think it could make an impact, think it could bring in more revenue, whatever.

But the emotional brain says. I think we need more resources or money or people or whatever before I can begin. That one I've definitely thought many times before in my own roles I've held over the years and I literally talked about it in the last episode about my own business. This emotional, well, I called it my own limiting belief in the last episode.

[00:15:00] So emotional versus rational is the tension here. The problem with all of this is this is the equivalent of a mental seesaw. Whether we're consciously aware of it or not, that's what's happening in our brains, and that is taxing and tiring for our brains. And the Heath brothers write that, quote, When you hear people say that change is hard because people are lazy or resistant, that's just flat wrong.

The opposite is true, they go on to say. Change is hard because people wear themselves out. So now whenever I see behavior that looks like laziness, whether in myself or in others, I. try to reconsider that there's likely an underlying mental exhaustion going along with that competing commitment. We're going to talk about how to crack that net again, how do we get unexhausted in a moment, but right now let's talk about the third misconception, which is that discipline and creativity can't coexist.

That's wrong. That is a misconception. Discipline and [00:16:00] creativity can coexist. For whatever reason, humans tend to think that creativity and discipline are enemies, or that the two are somehow a version of the competing commitments we were just talking about. I don't know why that is, the humans just feel like they can't go together, and maybe there is some truth to feeling like the two compete, but To me, this one is completely backwards.

The other one, the first two misconceptions I definitely personally identify with a little more. Let's break it down a little bit. This is another expert here. So former Stanford professor, Jim Collins, he is one of the OG business authors. If you're familiar with his work, he says that his research showed that this thinking is backwards, that creativity and discipline are enemies.

That is backwards. He says it's not a binary choice of one or the other. The very quick summary of his research, to put some context here, is he compared good companies versus great [00:17:00] companies. And how he defined that is great companies outperformed their peers in whatever industry, whatever sector, over time.

Like 10 years or more had sustained growth, sustained success, sustained revenue, all those kind of things, compared to their competitors. And across industries, across sectors, he sought out to measure. Why? Why is that happening? What's the difference between a good company and a great company? And he found, he found a lot of things, but on this topic, he found that both creativity and discipline are needed in a successful and sustainable organization and for its employees.

Now this is no matter your sector. We're not, this Definitely true for arts and culture, but true whether you're talking about any kind of industry, manufacturing, transportation, technology, I mean, you name it, this is true. Both creativity and discipline are needed. I think the reason why this one is so much more clear to me is because the best example I can think of of why this is [00:18:00] backwards, comes from our own industry.

It comes from our artists. I'm going to use musicians as an example here, but I think this is true for pretty much any artist in any artistic discipline I can think of. But to be specific, there is no successful musician I have ever met that got there without having discipline in their own work.

Discipline in the practice room for sure. Successful musicians, especially the ones winning orchestra jobs, you know, You know, you all have played scales how many times, how many ways. You practice it fast when the passage is slow. You practice it slow when it's technical or fast. You practice it slurred.

You practice the notes staccato, and on and on and on. You play the excerpt and iterate on the success. You make it better and better. You analyze what didn't work along the way, and then you address it. That is what practice is. Even musicians, successful musicians, you know, it's self recording and then listening back to really assess what went well.

Okay, do it that way again or do more of [00:19:00] that. And assessing what could still use some improvement. Try it this way or this other way next time. The most successful artists are the definition of disciplined iteration. So disciplined to be able to do all of those things in the practice room for hours and hours on end.

And yet, Artists, as we know, are also the bedrock of creativity, showing us, exemplifying for us that these two things are not a dichotomy, they are a false choice, but rather both creativity and discipline are essential for change or improvement. Just hands down, this is so clear to me. So the idea that creativity and discipline can't go together.

Should not even be up for debate in my mind. There's just way too much evidence, including the evidence staring us in the face, in our own field here. What is the harder concept or harder thing, I think, is to put them together in the context of an organization. Here's some examples. First for a musician again, and then the [00:20:00] comparison example of, or analogy to within an organization.

If you're a musician, too much rigid discipline and the line you're playing or the excerpt you're playing sounds almost robotic, right? Like it's technically accurate, but the delivery doesn't allow for too much or for any maybe musicality to come through. That's if you're too rigid, have too much discipline.

If you have too little discipline, keeping time becomes fuzzy. That's not going to work when you're playing with the rest of an ensemble or even playing an audition. But we know when we hear that exceptional sweet spot, right? Like we know when we hear that sweet spot when a musician or a section plays a line that just really sings expressively.

And yet, the band is together, they're balanced, you know, all of those other things that matter too. These things are difficult to achieve simultaneously, is what I'm trying to say. And that is precisely why professional musicians represent this pairing of discipline and creativity so well, because the balance is very [00:21:00] difficult to strike, and yet, they do it so well.

every single day. And so it is off stage too. So here we go talking about organizations now. It is very difficult, I think, to pursue both creativity and discipline simultaneously. So let's name it. It's hard, but that's why we're here. We're learning. We're trying to get better. So Jim Collins, to go back to him, he says it this way.

He says, entrepreneurial success is fueled by creativity. Imagination. But as a company grows, he says, lack of planning, lack of accounting, lack of systems, create friction. Problems surface with customers, with cashflow, with schedules. End quote. The analogy for our businesses, our arts organizations, is that if we're too creative, That means planning and updating our workflows, our systems.

That's all undervalued. So anyone listening to this who feels like they're always a hamster in a wheel at their organization, you are a victim of this. Like too creative, maybe, or not [00:22:00] enough on the discipline side. If you are too rigid and too disciplined as an organization, then the organization becomes a bureaucratic hierarchy that snuffs out creativity completely, or at least snuffs out creativity.

to some degree, and deflates talent. So, plenty of people listening probably have fallen victim to this one too, right? We've been there. Not enough discipline, too much discipline, too much rigidity. That's how it plays out in our organizations. But, just to wrap this up, Jim Collins concludes, quote, When you put these two complementary forces together, a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get a magical alchemy of superior performance and sustained results.

Let's talk about how do we find this magical alchemy of superior performance and sustained results. So what do we do about all this? five things we can do that actually help move change forward. Okay, I'm moving [00:23:00] right along pretty quickly here because there's so much for us to cover. So thing number one that we can do that actually works to drive change is Name those competing commitments, put a name to them.

Lisa Leahy, who I mentioned before, the researcher on this, she says the first step in overcoming the hidden competing commitments are just that, to name them. She says, what are the things you do and don't do that work against the goal you named? So you can start there, because sometimes it's hard to flat out name things or bring it to our consciousness, but you can start by saying, what are things you do and don't do as an organization.

that work against the goal you named. What do you do that works against it? What do you don't do that works against it? This is important. We are not analyzing any of these things yet, or we're not problem solving yet. That's going to come later. All the point of this step is, this exercise is, is just unearthing, unearthing these things.

You want thing A to happen, Whether that's grow audiences, expand the donor [00:24:00] base. You want to reflect the community in your audience, in your staff, in your teams, in your art. You want to improve company culture, et cetera. Like whatever that is you want thing A to happen, fill in the blank, that would be commitment number one.

But then you have to ask yourself what else is true. For example, if I make the program notes more accessible. I feel like it devalues all the knowledge of the art form I've worked so hard to learn over the years. Does this make sense? Like, wow. If somebody feels that way, suddenly it makes sense, the resistance to change.

That is a deeply held belief. I feel like it devalues all the knowledge of the art form I've worked so hard to learn over the years. Wow. That is a competing commitment with the idea that you want to become more customer centric and Accessible and approachable and welcoming and creating a place of belonging, right?

And we need to change our copy to do that. Like those two things I hopefully, hopefully you're tracking with me like, yeah, now I see the competing commitment and no wonder there's barrier to change. The [00:25:00] key here really is just no judgment, do not judge the behaviors or feelings. Name them. Just name them.

Often researchers say people actually feel relief when they are doing this, when they identify their competing commitments. And One, it's just bringing light to something. Usually when you bring light to something that was previously hidden. Usually there is some relief there. It can reflect a vulnerability, it can reflect a fear we have, like in the example I just gave.

So that's true, but also true is what I said earlier, is that these previous beliefs, values, competing commitments we have, have probably protected us at some point. That's why we feel these things. So no shame in the game, no shame in identifying them, no judgment, but identifying them and giving voice to them usually begins to unlock the next steps, and relief is the first part of that next step.

Because suddenly it all makes sense, kind of like I was saying in the example I gave, or at least makes more sense than it [00:26:00] used to. And that is absolutely the beginning of unlocking the path forward. Okay. Thing number one, name the competing commitments. Thing number two, that actually works to drive change, is to start with emotion over analysis.

So here's another true confession. Oh baby, this one is so hard for me. I am very analytical, if you know anything about me, and I am historically pretty bad at acknowledging my own emotions. But I will say I've gotten a lot better. about this in the last few years because I've worked on it. I have really tried to focus on naming my emotions, uncovering my emotions, because I see and I know how necessary it is.

Hard for me, but we can all do it. We can work on it. It's a skill we can build just like anything else. Why start with emotion over analysis though? Going back to Chip and Dan Heath, they write that, quote, in almost all successful change efforts, the sequence of change is not [00:27:00] analyze, think, change. Like, we might think that sounds correct.

I think on paper it does. You analyze it, you think about it, you change it. But no. They say, rather, The sequence of successful change efforts is see, feel, change. You have to see what needs to happen. You have to feel, tap that emotional side, feel why it needs to happen, and then change can follow. The truth is on all of this, we talked earlier about the emotional versus the rational, and that can be the competing commitment, and it often is.

You know, rational, we want to grow audiences. Emotional, if I feel devalued, like my knowledge of the art form is devalued. Continuing that example, okay, that's a, that's a rational and emotional competing commitment. So the truth is we have to activate both emotional and rational sides of our brain in order to do this.

But in terms of what comes first, if it's rational or analysis first, that brings us right back to willpower. And that, as we said, doesn't work. The rational side of our brain [00:28:00] might. be what helps us identify the goal in the first place, but it's the emotional side that actually motivates us to take the first step towards that goal.

I hope this makes sense. So how do you do this? How do you tap one before the other? How do you do this? Lisa Leahy's version of all of this is to connect why the goal is important to you. So we can, we can name the goal that's very rational, That can be competing commitment A, but then you need to connect it to why that matters.

So for example, write this down if you need to. This is the, this is like the sentence framework structure for you. I know if I do this, or if this happens, fill in the blank, if I know if I do this, if this happens, the outcome is. Blank. So, for example, I know if we focus on customer experience and patron retention, the outcome is we make our budget goals.

The board is happy. We serve more people. You know, whatever that answer is for you, that is the [00:29:00] exercise. So, do that exercise for yourself. Do it with your team. Do it with your board. Bring it to the next board meeting. You know, whoever needs it, that is the exercise you can do. I know if I do this, or if this happens, the outcome is blank.

Okay. To illustrate this, the Heath Brothers, they actually give a really great story that kind of exemplifies this in their book. They share this story, uh, this is a major study in the 1980s of corporate change efforts. And this study was looking at all kinds of corporations, and they found, the researchers conducting the study concluded.

that quote, financial goals inspired successful change less well than did more emotional goals, such as the goal to provide better service to customers or make more useful products. So they would say that was a more emotional type of goal than just financial goals. And so I think this is so true for our organization.

[00:30:00] How many times, you know, the goal is driven by the budget, that's a financial goal, versus some of these other things we were saying. Our outcome is we're serving more people. Our outcome is an audience that reflects our community. You know, whatever those important things are for you. So, how many times do I say, the product is not the problem?

Not true in arts and culture, not true in this corporate study in the 1980s. Like, it's just not about the product driving any of these things that we need. The idea of leading with emotionally connected goals, or even we could say mission driven goals, perhaps, for our arts and culture organizations is, it's just so important, even when we are doing that budgeting work.

Things like sell more tickets, not going to motivate better financial performance. Raise more money, Not going to motivate better financial performance in our teams than saying things like we're going to center the people we're serving. Think about that outcome instead is the point of all of this exercise here.

So if we do that, fill in the blank. Remember, if we do this, [00:31:00] more people will feel welcome here and want to come back again. That is the beginning of a healthier budget any day of the week. Okay, thing number three that actually works to drive change. Don't try for a silver bullet, instead go for small change that adds up.

This is great news for us. So let me back up though. As humans, we often want to solve big problems with equally big sweeping solutions. This is what the research tells us. This is what humanity tells us. We want to cut costs. We want to program blockbusters. We want to launch a grand new initiative, a festival, blah, blah, blah.

That's not what the research says works. The research says the opposite approach is what more effectively drives transformation. The way Chip and Dan Heath say it, they say, shrink the change. That means you execute multiple steps, multiple strategies, small things. Big results are made of many small steps.

That is Potentially [00:32:00] the biggest takeaway from this whole podcast episode, at least in my opinion, when we're talking about arts management and applying these things to our work, that is how change works. It's not big sweeping transformation, big sweeping change. That's also way less scary. So for the barriers to change, small steps definitely help address that too.

So many people ask me, Aubrey, how am I going to turn this big ship? How will I ever get my board to buy into XYZ strategy? And the answer is, don't go for it all at once. We are not swinging for the fences here. Little by little, step by step, is the proven way to go. This is such good news for us. So to back it up, Jim Collins, he found the same thing in his research.

He found that when he sought out to measure what defines great companies that outperformed their peers consistently, he found that Precisely this, he said it was not a lone big move ever. Quote, he writes, no matter how dramatic the end result, the good to great [00:33:00] transformations never happened in one fell swoop.

There was no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no wrenching revolution. Instead, he found exactly what we're saying, that a lot of little changes being iterated over time is what really made the difference. He calls it the flywheel effect, and he says it's a cumulative process, step by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheel that adds up to sustained and spectacular results.

I talk about the flywheel analogy in my book. I think it's so true for arts management, for managing change. Little changes add up. Momentum builds. It's just, it's so amazing. It works, but it starts slow and small. And I think that that, that's maybe a whole other podcast episode, slow and small, but in that can be the part that.

It's a different kind of challenge, I guess is what I'm trying [00:34:00] to say, but that is what's effective and that is what drives big results in the end. Again, this is great news, I think, for anybody wanting to initiate some kind of change at your organization. You do not have to go from zero to a hundred. In fact, I say this to clients a lot.

You don't go from zero to a hundred. No matter your role, no matter your level of seniority, start small. Think of the smallest, babiest step, whatever your scope, purview allows, and do that small baby step. And then share the results widely like a cheerleader. This is kind of like the Aubrey stamp on this.

I think it's so important because people need to know that the small step worked. Gotta be the biggest cheerleader for these things. And so. With every organization I work with, we talk about this. The small, easy steps we can do first, and then which steps are going to come later. And then, again, as the one leading the change, really you got to blast it loudly, widely, when things do start working.

So people, it builds comfort, basically, is what happens. Like, oh, that little thing was actually, Quite successful. [00:35:00] Okay. Now what? We're hungry for more. Okay. Number four of five things that actually work to drive change, to lead change. It is to get in the weeds and give crystal clear direction. This is so important.

So right on the heels of what we were just talking about, how do people know which tiny steps to even take? The answer is to give specific direction. This is one that I think it's confused a lot. We think that change has to come from some huge grand vision, and there's nothing wrong with visioning at all.

But, how do we get there? Goes right back to this small steps with specific direction, crystal clear direction. And this is another reason why leading with analysis alone isn't completely effective. If you've ever heard or experienced analysis paralysis, that's basically what happens in absence of a very clear path forward.

If you don't have a very clear next step, especially, this is how Chip and Dan Heath say it, they say, in tough times, you [00:36:00] see problems everywhere. You can tell me, does this sound like something you've seen at your organization? Identifying tons of problems, tons of challenges, maybe a long list, or maybe even overwhelming, and you're banging your head against the wall.

When there is seemingly resistance to do anything about it. Tell me I'm not the only one who's seen or experienced this. But what looks like resistance, the Heath brothers say, is often lack of clarity. So if you want people to change, you must provide crystal clear direction. I think this is a huge just learning from all of their research.

So what happens is that these small, clear, easy steps start to build new habits. That's really what's happening. We're literally guiding ourselves, guiding others on our team to rewire our brains by these little steps at a time. And when we have new habits, then guess what? Our brains aren't tired anymore.

Remember that from above. It's like It's not laziness, it's that we're exhausted. So little habits, little steps, building these new things, rewiring our brains, makes our [00:37:00] brains not tired. Not tired means not lazy and not resistant. I hope you all are seeing and hearing, like, how this is coming together now.

Okay. How does this play out? How do you lead people with baby steps? Make a standard operating procedure document, for example, make a step by step document, a how to document, a handy checklist, you know, a template, anything to help make something easier the next time around. Like whatever it is that you're trying to develop a new process around or a new procedure around or just a new even approach to like break it down.

Literally, like, write out the steps if you need to. That is how you provide crystal clear direction. So whatever it takes to get in the weeds, this is true. We oftentimes tend to think that getting in the weeds is, like, something for somebody lower on the totem pole. I sort of understand where that logic or thinking comes from, and in some ways, practically it does.

That does play out that way. But if you are trying to lead change, again, no matter your role, you need to get in the weeds and you need to provide crystal [00:38:00] clear direction because that is what the research shows works. Learning this, I have to say, helped me change completely how I work with organizations.

I said in the last episode that I used to do a lot of two day workshops when organizations brought me in. I'd come in for a couple days and I shared in the last episode, I came to the conclusion that that wasn't bringing lasting change. This is why. This is exactly why. You go in for a two day workshop, that's not crystal clear direction.

That can be inspiration, that can be vision, that can be ideating, but it's not the type of crystal clear direction, listing steps, getting in the weeds, that brings lasting change. Anyways, for anybody who had listened to that episode, just connecting the dots there. And it's really, really changed how I work with organizations now.

Okay, last one. Thing number five of five. How do we effectively lead change? The answer is follow the bright spots. That's how the Heath brothers say it. They say, follow the bright spots. And I mentioned this before. It's like this, be the [00:39:00] cheerleader thing. That's exactly what this is. In other words, when you do see victories, you're Whether at your own organization, if you're getting started and you're trying to cheer things on or somewhere else, you see some good work somewhere else that you want to be a part of your organization, you wish your organization could do that thing, emulate that thing, whatever it is, celebrate them, celebrate those victories.

So again, cheerleader and follow them. You have to say literally, like, this worked. Here's the data. Here's the thing that validates this. It worked. So let's do it again. This thing, whatever it is, again, fill in the blank, moved us closer to the goal. Now we're kind of connecting back to step one, right? Like, listing those goals and everything.

the whys we had for that. This thing moved us closer to that goal, closer to where we want to be. You have to say it again and again. You do have to be kind of a broken record cheerleader maybe is, is the way to say it. And of course you can refine, of course you can iterate, you can absolutely say, you know, next time.

What, whether that's next week, next month, next [00:40:00] concert, whatever, we're, we're going to tweak it. We're going to do this, these things a little differently. That's called iteration. So that's fine. You absolutely can notice how to improve, but just make sure that there is a next time to do that small thing again, because that's part of the repetition that builds the organizational muscle you need.

That's exactly how the musician does it in the practice room, right? Going back to that, you do it again, you repeat the success. Or even anybody who played an instrument growing up, did you ever have to do like the M& M exercise or the jellybean exercise? Like when you play it right, you move the jellybean to the other side of the music stand and you have to play it right 10 times in a row or something like that.

I don't know. That's the idea though, organizationally, repeat the success. Do it again, repeat the success. That's bringing in that discipline. Okay, one other way to say this is don't obsess about the failures. That's a good one for us, and we haven't really talked about all of this in the, in the context of failure yet, so the Heath brothers say it that way.

They say instead of obsessing about failures, [00:41:00] Investigate and clone the successes. So now we're right back to iterating and doing these steps. Here's why this fifth and final point is so critical. Why being a cheerleader, even if you're not the cheerleader type, why is this so important? Two reasons. One, it helps us acknowledge the progress we're making.

We, us, our team, our organization. and feel those successes. So really bringing in more of that emotional piece. And reason number two is because it keeps our eyes on the prize. That future vision we're working to achieve, like we're doing these little steps, but the big vision is still out there, the big goal is still out there.

And that is how we marry These long term goals with short term gains, rational, emotional, I mean, this is just, this piece just connects so much together in all of these steps. This is why, when I learned all of this, this is why my book has case studies in every chapter of arts organizations seeing successes.

We're cheering it on. Like, I'm literally [00:42:00] following this step in my book. I think it's really easy in an industry like arts and culture that's facing a lot of challenges to get bogged down. I just said the Heath State don't obsess over the failures. I think that's hard. It can be, it can be heavy some days and It is when people see a brighter future is possible that it motivates emotions, not of fear, not of negativity, not of despair, but emotions of hope.

And hope drives action. Talking about tapping into the emotions, the emotion of hope drives action. No matter your cause, whether you are at an arts organization of any kind of artistic discipline, Or, on your own, hope drives action. I want to wrap up with a final lesson I've learned on change, and that is that people find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey [00:43:00] than to be at the starting gate of a shorter journey.

That is according to the research, and that is exactly why, if we're thinking about development work, the conventional wisdom in development circles, fundraising circles, is that you don't publicly announce a fundraising campaign for a charity until you've already got 50 percent of the money in the bag.

50 percent of the money is committed already by donors, right? Anybody who's worked on a capital campaign or maybe a big endowment campaign, you don't announce it publicly until 50 percent of the money is in the bag. And that is because of this. People find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey.

than to be at the starting gate, basically. And the same is true for all of us at our arts organizations. There really is so much positive movement that is budding before our eyes. We are not at the start gate, folks. This is just, if I got to leave you with one thought, consider that. We are out of the start gate.

Ten years ago, I started a blog called Changing the Narrative, and 2014, now we're in [00:44:00] 2024, and the narrative is changing. We are out of the stargate. So whatever your thoughts are on change or wherever your organization is at, I hope this episode helps you to understand the misconceptions and also feel a little more empowered to lead change at your organization, whatever your role, whatever your seniority, knowing some real steps you can take to do that.

Because when we are talking about changing a narrative, It is on us, you and me, to be the change we want to see, right? It's true. No willpower, laziness, or lack of discipline about it. Okay, Offstagers, speaking of leading change, taking small steps, and giving crystal clear direction, I have one final free resource this season to give to you before I go quiet for a few months.

If you are struggling with making your revenue goals, balancing the budget, I With declining subscriptions and raising enough money, I want to invite you to my [00:45:00] free upcoming audience growth masterclass where I will be sharing the exact steps you can take as clearly as I possibly can in order to give you the path forward to growing revenue.

Go to my website right now, www. AubreyBergauer. com slash masterclass to save your own seat for free. Plus, if it's helpful to you to bring others along as part of this effort to lead change within your own institution, invite as many others in your organization as you can. It's literally free for everyone and it will be packed with value from the very beginning, I promise.

It's my audience growth masterclass, four steps to building your audiences and revenue, AubreyBergauer. com slash masterclass. That's all for today, folks. Thanks so much for listening. And if you like what you heard here, hit that button to follow or subscribe to this podcast. If you're new, welcome. I am so glad you made it.

And if you've been listening for a [00:46:00] while, I love so much that you are getting value from this. So if that's you, please take just two seconds to leave a quick one tap rating, full on review, and Isn't even required if you're short on time to all of you once more. Thanks again. I'll see you next time, right here on the Offstage.

Mic, the offstage Mic was produced by me, Aubrey Bergauer, and edited by Novo music and audio production company of all women, audio engineers, and musicians. Additional podcast support comes from the changing the narrative team and social media brand management by classical content. This is a production of changing the narrative.