While many of us in the arts understand the term 'social capital', it is often hard to understand for those people who cannot raise their eyes above the bottom line. Something that looks highly risky in the "for profit" world simply would not be pursued if it was not going to yield a large return in the short or long-term. It's not what shareholders and increasingly, not what governments want, to fund a risky business. "We'd love to, but hey?"
Financial Markets and Shareholder Value/Making Investment Decisions
This morning was spent looking at how "for profit" companies account and analyse finances in order to inform and reach decisions. This process was then compared to the "not-for-profit" sector, which by another name can be called "for social value" organisations. In other words, what is often missing in our equation, and made our bottom lines look so dodgy, was the 'social value' of the work we do. And, more importantly, the financial impact of what would happen if our services were not provided.
Vaccinating children is a good example, regardless of where you stand on the issue. Vaccination has gone out of fashion in the USA like many other advanced countries. Now, diseases that were once eradicated have returned and are killing vulnerable children. Just recently a number of children died in the US from whooping cough. If children are not vaccinated what will be the cost to a government, especially if there is an outbreak of epidemic proportions? What is the social cost? Law courts now evaluate the pain and suffering caused by trauma as well as loss of wages in particular cases. We know only too well that negative impacts on society have economic ramifications.
The challenge for non-profits like Downstage is the question of evaluating investment opportunities when there is so much uncertainty concerning outcomes. This session again looked at what can be carried over from the "for-profit" sector and be applied to "non-profits".
This class was one of the most stimulating to date and provided some clear steps to help us value our work in real terms. Not just quantifiable artistic, social and economic benefits or even the intangibles but, in dollar terms, the impact on our communites or market failure of not doing what it is we do.
Change Management
The afternoon was spent in the company of Chip Heath of Made to Stick fame, which I'm sure many of you know about, if not read. It's in the ilk of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. In his latest book Switch, Chip looks at how to change things when things are hard. Let's face it, in the non-profit sector where resources are scarce and in some cases non-existent, it's always hard. Chip posed the idea that knowledge does not change behaviour. He says it is the small adjustments that lead to big changes. He cites some wonderful examples, in particular, the story of Jerry Sternin who worked for Save the Children.
Sternin went with his family to Vietnam and was given six months to reduce the rate of malnutrition in children, in a country where he couldn't speak the language! He didn't do it by listening to government funding bodies or by acting on data provided by on the ground experts.He called that kind of information TBU (true but useless). What he did was a gather a group of mothers and asked for their help. He sent them out to the villages and asked them to measure and weigh all the babies. Once they had done this, they identified those families whose children didn't suffer from malnutrition and investigated why.
What they discovered was a practice by some mothers in one village that was a deviation from the norm. (This led Jerry to explore Positive Deviance). Then by getting mothers from other villages together in groups of ten to work with those women whose babies weren't malnourished, and by teaching them to make a couple of very simple adjustments to the way they prepared and served food, a miracle happened. Today, as a result of that programme over 2,000,000 children have escaped malnutrition.
I realise I'm not revealing how all this new learning relates to the theatre's current situation or what I plan to do with it. This is a conscious choice. I intend to use everything I have learnt to enhance what we have already started at Downstage but I am not willing to do this until I have had a chance to share ideas with Board and staff. But I will say I felt a decision I made when I first entered the theatre was the right one. I decided to speak with artists and our audiences before our founders and key stakeholders. While everyone has a part to play, artists and audiences are our raison d'etre, without them there is no Downstage.
Now we skipped study group tonight because we were all soooo tired and most of us - including myself - have a huge amount of reading to do on tomorrow's topic - Social Entrepreneurship.
A quick weather report. While it is still winter, I am still enjoying a quasi Kiwi summer - sans wind. We are experiencing bright sunny days, turning to cloudy and occasional showers in the afternoon with a sharp chill at night.
No comments:
Post a Comment