Vision
- Why is Future Leadership a critical investment?
- Who are the professionals we most need to invest in today?
- How do current leaders – current executives, board members, funders, search firms, consultants, and others – help realize this vision?
- What are the immediate benefits for my work and my organization?
- Is Future Leadership just an online initiative?
- What is the first step in realizing this vision?
- And the second step? How do you get there from here?
- Will NAS deliver all the services needed for the next wave of cultural leadership?
- What does our field look like when this vision is realized?
Process
- Who will be involved from NAS?
- How do I register for the Future Leadership™ community discussion?
- Do I have to register?
- Do I have to use my real name?
- What if I forget my password?
- Can I change my registration information?
- How do I see all of the conversations posted to a specific audience?
- How do I reply to a post?
- How do I start my own conversation?
- How do I use the search feature to find posts?
Q: Why is Future Leadership a critical investment?
A: We believe that the approaching retirement of long-standing
executives across all nonprofit sectors will present a critical challenge
for the cultural field as well. New cultural patterns here in the US
and the globalization of culture in general will require new experiences
and perspectives in the next wave of leaders. Smart investments today
in the development of these future leaders can help ensure there are
leaders ready for these top positions, tap the unique experience of
young professionals working in our field today, and help ensure the
continuation of our institutions.
Q: Who are the professionals we most need to invest in today?
A: We believe new executive education efforts need to focus on developing the skills of arts, culture, and preservation professionals who can be ready to take on a leadership position in the next five to seven years. These are professionals who have worked in a cultural discipline for five to ten years, with a moderate to high level of management responsibility. Some of these professionals may also be in for-profit creative businesses, with a demonstrated interest in the arts and culture sector through volunteer projects or other experiences. We anticipate these professionals will take on new positions as heads of existing organizations, founders of new organizations, and as senior managers in major institutions. We believe these experienced professionals are best positioned to take this next step and lead cultural organizations with multi-million dollar annual budgets.
Q: How do current leaders – current executives, board members, funders, search firms, consultants, and others – help realize this vision?
A: If you take a random group of people and set them to a big task, some will become great leaders through their own hard work and innate ability. But if you want to increase those natural odds – and create more leaders who are even more effective – you need to create an ecosystem that fosters leadership development. We think this requires the perspective, expertise, and influence of current leaders across our community, including current executives, board members, search firms, and funders. Your first step in realizing this vision is sharing what you know: your experience of what the executive job is really like, and a clear picture of what you look for when you hire an executive. The second step is actively changing the environment by identifying talent, providing time – and money – for their professional development, and creating projects specifically to help these high-potential staff develop the skills they need in making this next step.
Q: What are the immediate benefits for my work and my organization?
A: The last thing any group of not-for-profit professionals needs is to find another way to sacrifice for the general good. We believe great ideas for a community succeed when there are great benefits for each individual as well. Future Leadership will help our entire field by helping each of us succeed in our own work and our own visions:
| Prospective Executives: | Gain the specific knowledge you need most to win an executive position, and succeed once you are there. |
| Current Executives: | Move your own vision forward by building the expertise, loyalty, and motivation of your most talented staff. |
| Board members: | Provide long-term stewardship for your organization by ensuring a deep pool of prospects and a faster transition for your next executive director search. |
| Funders: | Amplify the impact of your grants and support the long-term stability of your grantees by sharing your expertise too. |
| Search Firms: | Identify high-potential staff beyond the usual suspects for your executive searches. |
| Agencies and Services: | Discover key needs and concerns in our field, and develop additional services for this next wave of leaders. |
| Consultants: | Connect to current leaders and the next wave of executives across the United States and internationally. |
Q: Is Future Leadership just an online initiative?
A: Our research and discussions with cultural leaders and education experts have convinced us that a mix of online and in-person activities are needed to achieve this vision. Online activities, like the community discussion, reach professionals across the broadest geography (anywhere in the world, really), allow you to participate whenever the time is right for you individually, create a public record and history we can all use over time, and create a “7x24” resource for the field. In-person events allow us to teach complex skills and leadership judgment that research shows are most effectively taught in-person, and also create opportunities to deepen relationships and networks built online. Over time, we’ll develop a full mix of in-person and online services.
Q: What is the first step in realizing this vision?
A: We believe the best way to realize this vision is to take the first step – to start the journey – and “experiment forward” with our entire field. We have established this online community as a place for all of us to collaborate. Our first step will be to work with all of you to design our first professional development event specifically for the cultural professionals who will take on the top executive role in the next five to seven years. Here is how we see things unfolding in 2008, though the timing may change a bit based on what the community needs most:
January - June: Discovery
July – September: Design
October – November: Delivery |
We believe this first experiment will help the community take shape, unearth important issues for the future of leadership in our field, and launch a top-quality professional development experience.
Q: And the second step? How do you get there from here?
A: We expect to learn a lot this year that will help answer this question, but our basic approach is to use ongoing cycles of experimentation and development to meet more and more of the needs of these prospective executives and their organizations. We want to use community discussions, educational events, and rigorous evaluation to build out a comprehensive leadership development service for the next wave of cultural leaders. We envision in-person and online services that support individual needs assessments; in-person, residential, and distanced learning; peer-to-peer community building; coaching; applied projects and fellowships; and career advancement and placement.
Q: Will NAS deliver all the services needed for the next wave of cultural leadership?
A: Absolutely not. We are one player – and we hope a key player – in the solution, but there is no way we can realize this vision alone. There are exceptionally smart people in and outside our field who focus on professional development and leadership. One of the great benefits of our Future Leadership approach is that the knowledge our community generates will be sitting there in public. The discussions, the ideas, the complaints, the experiences – they are all material for creative thinking and creative solutions by our entire field. NAS will develop the services we feel best positioned to offer, and we will work with partners inside and outside the cultural sector, as we have always done, to encourage other services and help coordinate meaningful investments.
Q: What does our field look like when this vision is realized?
A: One day, many steps further down the road, we hope to see that succession isn’t a periodic, urgent concern for individual organizations. Rather, professionals throughout our field talk about leadership as a continuous set of cycles, where one cycle naturally fosters and leads to the next cycle. Current executives actively foster this next wave of leaders, with the help of resources from across the sector, including a vibrant community of peers. A rich mix of professional development services are also available to help the highest potential professionals make the next step in their careers. These services are complements to each other, thanks to the public conversation about these professionals’ needs and the first experience as an executive director. All together, the investment by cultural organizations, grantmakers, and service providers help identify, support, and retain the most creative and visionary leaders for our field – and that we believe is the key to ensuring the future of the arts in America.
Q: Who will be involved from NAS?
A: The Future Leadership
program, including the online community discussion and the educational
events for prospective executives, is led by Gail
Crider. Fielding
Grasty leads the online community discussion itself, moderating and facilitating
the conversations. The entire NAS staff will also take part in the online
community and the executive education events. While we at NAS will share
our thoughts, the discussion is driven by arts and culture professionals
like you.
Q: How do I register for NAS' community discussion?
A: The upper right corner of each discussion page will have the following message:
You are not currently logged in.
Posting to this conversation requires registration.
If you have already registered, click here to log
in.
If you have not registered before, click on "registration." A form will appear asking for specific information including an email (which will be used as your login) and password. Once you complete this form, you will be asked to log in using the information you just provided. If you are a member already, click on "log in" and type in your email address and password.
Q: Do I have to register?
A: You do not have to register to view the conversations in the community
discussion. Registration is only required if you wish to reply to a
conversation or start your own conversation.
Q: Do I have to use my real name?
A: In an effort to build a national professional network that supports
online and in-person interactions in the field, we encourage you to
use your actual name. However, we respect any participant's preference
for anonymity and control over when and where you share your identify.
The online discussion site allows you to use a display name different
from your own.
Q: What if I forget my password?
A: Click on the "Lost Password?" link of the log in page and
your password will be emailed to you.
Q: Can I change my registration information?
A: Once you have logged into the community discussion, the upper right
corner of each discussion page will have the following:
Welcome, Your Name Here.
Edit your profile | Log
out
Click on "Edit your profile." This area lets you change any of the information you listed upon registration. If you would like to delete information, please contact us at info@artstrategies.org.
Q: How do I see all of the conversations
posted to a specific audience?
A: On the community discussion page, click on any of the audience names to see those conversations.
Q: How do I reply to a post?
A: You must be logged in to reply to a post. Once you are logged in,
you will notice a "Post reply" link within each post. Simply
click that link and enter your post in the window at the bottom of the
page. When you are finished, click the "Post it" button.
Q: How do I start my own conversation?
A: On each audience page there is a link to "Start a new conversation."
Simply click that link and enter your post in the window at the bottom
of the page. When you are finished, click the "Post it" button.
Q: How do I use the search feature to find posts?
A: Each audience and conversation page has a link to "Search Community
Discussion." Click this link and select from the many options of
searching. You may refine your search by keyword, by a specific member
or by a particular audience.
