Cultural Confidence Is Looking Up

Here’s some good news to start your week: the latest cultural confidence polling cycle indicates things are looking up for the first time in several months. In particular, the numbers of respondents indicating current economic conditions at their institution are “good” is at the highest levels since polling began in October, 2008. In fact, for the first time in the poll’s history, the number of respondents indicating economic conditions were “good” exceeded those indicating economic conditions were “only fair”…

At the same time, those indicating current economic conditions were “bad” still outnumbered those indicating “good” by a large margin.

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Click to enlarge

Likewise, the economic outlook still favors those indicating “only fair” and “bad” over those indicating “good” by nearly four-to-one.

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Click to enlarge
good news is good news...
good news is good news...

I’m not certain why attitudes have changed for the better but I’ll take what I can get; however, I’m interested in hearing any theories or representative evidence indicating things are looking up at your particular organization. As such, take a moment to submit a comment and share. In the meantime take a moment to cast your vote in the current polling cycle: VOTE NOW.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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