Adaptistration – Drew McManus on the orchestra business.

How To Apologize Like A Boss

Wednesday, July 6th, 2022Wednesday, July 6th, 2022 by Drew McManus

While airlines aren’t something businesses would want to pattern themselves after right now, there’s a great article from inc.com by Bill Murphy Jr. that diagrams what the author describes as an effective corporate apology. He breaks everything down to five key components: Excitement Contrition Self-confidence Gratitude Confidence What’s perhaps most useful is how concise Murphy is with the analysis, it won’t take more than a few minutes to get through the …

Advanced De-escalation: When You Can’t Avoid Controversial Topics

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022Tuesday, July 5th, 2022 by Drew McManus

In a time when stakeholders are more on-edge than ever, it pays to brush up on basic de-escalation technics. To that end, I wanted to take a moment and point out something from Kelly Leonard, Executive Director of Learning and Applied Improvisation at Second City Works, who promotes a concept he calls “thank you, because…” H/T Holly Mulcahy for bringing this to my attention because if there was ever a time …

#TBT Donor Advised Funds Are Still A Bad Thing

Thursday, June 30th, 2022 by Drew McManus

I wish I could say Donor Advised Funds are less of a problem now than they were several years ago, but the reality is they are much worse. H/T to Joe Patti for pointing out the article from inequitable.org by Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery that reports Donor Advised Funds are now the largest cumulative recipients of Charitable Gifts. I wrote something about why Donor Advised Funds are bad for the …

Deciphering Four Times The Traffic

Tuesday, June 28th, 2022Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 by Drew McManus

Yesterday’s post about the impact Roe v. Wade being overturned will have on orchestras operating in states that outlaw orchestras didn’t garner any extraordinary social media engagement metrics. But that’s only one set of metrics to measure impact and data from Google Analytics confirms the article garnered 4x the amount of average daily traffic. What this indicates is something I don’t see much but is always fascinating when it happens: the …

Planning For The Post Roe v. Wade Operating Environment

Monday, June 27th, 2022Monday, June 27th, 2022 by Drew McManus

Shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, companies started announcing policies to offer benefits to their employees who may need access to abortion services but live in states that have criminalized the reproductive health care practice. For arts and culture organizations, orchestras in particular, the situation forces a new subject into the growing list of social issues that organizations are staking positions, such as the decision by San Francisco …

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