We work with a lot of our clients on audience segmentation and engagement strategy. A few months ago, I read an article by Kathleen Riemenschneider, Ed.D., on ArtsJournal and was struck by the fact that our industry doesn’t often talk about staff as a core audience segment.

Engaging your internal teams around a concept or a project should be the first step in any audience engagement plan. If we expect our staff to represent our organization or institution they need to be aligned with the vision and mission, and, importantly, understand why we are programming the work we are programming and who we are serving with our work.

Most people who opt to work in the arts and culture industry already have an affinity for the artform they are working within, but as company missions and artistic visions change, it is beholden on leadership to bring internal teams along for the journey. Engagement with external audiences only really works if your internal audiences are also engaged.

I worked within large arts institutions for the best part of fifteen years, and have seen first-hand many instances of front line staff being out of the loop and often finding out what’s happening at the institution at the same time as the audience. I understand that this happens for a variety of reasons that are often not in the control of the organization, but I challenge you to start thinking about how you could action not only better information sharing practices but true engagement with every level of your team (especially customer-facing staff).

This is not an exhaustive list of actions, but here are some of the things that I have either attempted to implement or seen implemented over the years that have really helped garner internal engagement:

Building a dedicated staff briefing into any season launch plan that involves key artistic team members who can bring the wider team into their decision-making process and rally excitement about the program.
For any major announcements, crafting and sharing a staff-facing communication before any audience-facing communications, giving your team time to absorb key messages and specific staff-facing resources such as FAQs.
Ensuring that your artistic and management team make time or create a mechanism (Slack would be great for this!) to answer staff questions about a season, a project or any major management decision.
Creating opportunities for all staff to meet artists, not just executive teams. These can be formal ‘meet and greets’ at the top of a rehearsal period or exhibition bump-in, or more informal, social activities (shout out to the team who ran the annual Bake Off at The Met Opera which was fiercely contested by all!).
Setting up formal channels for feedback from audience-facing staff into management and artistic. You can send out all the surveys in the world, but your FOH team are the best source of immediate audience feedback.
In the case of major change like a rebrand or the introduction of new programming streams, creating opportunities for all staff to be involved at points in the process and be invited to make suggestions as to how they can bring the brand to life or support new programming through their own work.

Arts organizations often take the passion of their staff for granted. Even the most enthusiastic members of your team can become disheartened if they feel like they are not aligned with the organization’s values, especially if there has been significant change or realignment.

Bringing your full team on the journey with you not only serves the health of the organization internally, but it also ensures that the values of the organization are being lived by your whole team, especially by those who interact with audiences and represent the organization every day.

Rani Haywood is the Senior Vice President of Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a New York City-based arts consultancy offering strategy, assessment, executive search, and leadership coaching services to organizations across the US—all with a focus on audiences and revenue outcomes. For over fifteen years Rani has held senior marketing roles at an array of performing arts and cultural organizations in Australia and the United States, including at The Metropolitan Opera, Roundabout Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company.