2021 Book Review
Books for Arts Administrators
What. A. Year.
While 2021 saw its ups and downs for arts and culture — going from “can we gather safely?” to reopening our concert halls, to trying to recoup ticket sales to pre-pandemic levels, to now a new virus strain shuttering many venues again — we made it this far, a feat not to be overlooked. For me personally, the year definitely had its own share of ups and downs as well (ending on a high I’m happy to report as I publish this from a beach in Mexico, but wow sometimes life dishes personal challenges, even aside from a pandemic, amiright?). Nonetheless, through it all, what’s been true every year remained true again: the books I read were a part of my growth journey.
This is now the fifth year of my book review posts, and like the previous roundups, the titles I included helped me professionally. These books pushed me, challenged me, brought clarity to me, and inspired me, and I hope they do the same for you. Because let’s be honest, the last two years have been roughhhh for pretty much all of us—but it turns out the lowest low is only the barometer for how high we can go too. I believe that’s true when we raise our eyes up and look beyond our own role/industry/bubble to do the work to make the change we need, both personal and professional.
If you’re new to my book reviews (welcome!), listed below in chronological order are the business-related books I read this year, along with a note about why I read each one and/or what I got out of it. Cheers to another year of learning and growing and working towards a new peak — we all deserve it.
Unapologetically Ambitious
Shellye Archambeau
Shellye Archambeau knew what she wanted to do with her career since high school (same!), and she was laser focused on her goals every step of the way while simultaneously navigating marriage, motherhood, and being a Black woman CEO in tech. Archambeau is strategic and measured in the best way, practical in how to get it all done, and driven yet warm (the holy grail of how a woman is expected to operate in this world) in her masterclass on how to go for what you want without shame or hesitation.
One Life
Megan Rapinoe
I had followed the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s fight for equal pay when they were outperforming their male counterparts by just about every metric, and I knew of Rapinoe’s signature pink hair and arms outstretched victory pose…but I didn’t know how she was one of the first pro athletes to also take a knee in support of Colin Kaepernick, or just how much she spoke out against our then-President’s racist behaviors, or how she came from a mostly conservative upbringing and still managed to become a forward-thinking, justice-driven person (I took notes). Rapinoe lives her values, uses her talent and platform for the greater good, and doesn’t back down, all the way to the top of her game—literally in this case. I want to be just like her.
Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
Stacey Abrams
She’s running for governor again! But back when I read this in early 2021, I was still enthralled with how, just a few months prior, she created a movement to help Georgia voters show up unlike ever before in the Presidential election. The title says it all: Abrams knows what it’s like to be an outsider, but that doesn’t stop her from building the future she believes in. Whether in politics or the performing arts, Abrams is the kind of changemaker we need. She is an expert in her field — with undeniable chops and depth of experience no matter your side of the aisle — and she knows how to savvily bring others along in a white, male dominated landscape. She’s making waves which clearly scares those who prefer the status quo, but the tsunami she’s forging is bigger and unstoppable.
Decolonizing Wealth
Edgar Villanueva
In my own journey to understand not just my privilege, but how I contribute to systems of power and oppression that need to be dismantled, I’ve learned that the typical nonprofit fundraising model is…well, often problematic. From a white savior approach to arts education programs (to many nonprofit programs, to be clear), to foundations whose namesake wealth was acquired at the exploitation and trauma of others (i.e., slavery, land ownership), my eyes were opened by Villanueva’s treatise on how philanthropy isn’t destined to be canceled, but rather how it can absolutely be made better.
It’s not that we shouldn’t be aggressively asking for support, or that organizational hierarchies should go away entirely, or that we shouldn’t have to cultivate our donors. Villanueva instead contends that a culture of healthy access to power means that everyone feels empowered within their own role, that we shift from our obsession with individual leaders to a focus on organizational design, and that transformational gifts can do just that — transformationally heal and repair.
Side note: A musician in the San Francisco Symphony recommended this book to me, a whole lesson in itself that these aren’t just issues for administrators; there are artists willing and wanting to learn with us. I highly recommend this book for anyone on stage or off who, like me, cares about raising big gifts for causes close to your heart.
Option B
Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant
Anyone who follows my work knows it’s no secret I love me some Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. I’d read all their books except for this one…until the going got tough this year. And while it started as more of a personal read, I decided to include the book in this list because at the end of the day, this manual on building resilience might be just what the doctor ordered for arts organizations. In the end, the research-backed themes of how to believe in new possibilities (yes, a new normal is achievable!), how we can fight back against the idea of permanence (no, we don’t have to do it the way it’s always been done!), and how hardship can be used to propel us to seek out new options (the pandemic has pushed us to innovate!) are all about finding ways to move forward. Psychologists call this “grounded hope” — the understanding that if you take action you can make things better, no matter if at home or the office.
Cumulative Advantage
Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer has made my annual roundup three times now (previously here and here), and how to compound a small advantage in your field to an increasingly larger advantage is the subject of his latest title. Here he gives a five-step plan to take your initial advantage as an employee or organization, then find the seam of timely opportunity, surround it with a sonic boom of promotion, and reach out to higher orbit through constancy and consistency. Like his other books, Schaefer is well-researched, easy to read, and leaves me full of action items I immediately put into practice (and then see the results).
Untamed
Glennon Doyle
Doyle is a wordsmith genius, dropping wisdom left and right in this New York Times bestseller. And even in a book so focused on the individual, she still had applicable truth bombs for the workplace on confidence (“the way others respond to your confidence is not your business”), the reward for enduring hard things (“finding [our] potential, purpose, and people”), and boundaries (“a boundary is a root belief about ourselves and the world”). As Doyle says, building the most beautiful life/organization/world we can hope for is “not a pipe dream; it’s our marching order” (emphasis mine). I can’t get enough.
Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment
William Byham
An oldie but goodie. A 1:1 client I was working with wanted to read this together, and it so happened that after Decolonizing Wealth (mentioned above) left me thinking about how to distribute power to others, Zapp! was a timely counterpart guide to empowering teammates from the ground up. Offering a step-by-step playbook on how to encourage responsibility, acknowledgement and creativity so employees feel they own their jobs, this bookshelf staple is a classic for a reason.
The Blueprint: 6 Practical Steps to Lift Your Leadership to New Heights
Douglas Conant
He’s the former CEO of Campbell’s Soup, and years later Conant has a method to help others find their leadership purpose, leadership needs, leadership values, and leadership practices. I love exercises like this, and Conant’s process was no exception — I literally have some of what I came up with printed out and taped to the bathroom mirror (fine, to the inside of the medicine cabinet…gotta keep it neat and tidy). The second half of the book was less original than the first as Conant shared his heard-it-all-before advice, but the first half on building my own leadership blueprint gave me clarity on a topic I never get tired of studying.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Robert Cialdini
Another classic closed out the year for me in Robert Cialdini’s research packed tome on influencing others. From reciprocity (a colleague did me a favor, so I feel compelled to pay them back), to social proof (everyone else likes Squid Game so I should watch too), to commitment and consistency (I already filled out a ton of the paperwork, so I must really want to buy this car and I’m convinced it isn’t overpriced), every chapter is filled with example after example of how each psychological framework motivates human behavior — and by extension consumer behavior. The year is ending with my mind buzzing about techniques I’ve employed with success in the past and now understand why, and more so, buzzing with a host of techniques I can’t wait to employ with the organizations I serve going forward.
Thus concludes my business reading of 2021, and I’ve got a growing queue to tackle in the new year. It’s hard to believe this is the fifth year of this book review roundup, so if you want more inspo for your reading list, I’ve got a ton for you in previous posts here. I’ve ended the last four year-end posts by saying how I hope the coming year is when we continue to apply all this knowledge and change the narrative for our field. That’s still how I feel, except I think the change is happening now, before our eyes. May 2022 be the year we come out of this two-year pandemic valley, the year we deliver on something newer and better for our organizations, and the year this work pays off in the best way yet for ourselves and those we serve. May the pages we turn help us along the way.
Interested in more data-backed strategies to grow revenue at your arts organization? Pre-order my book, Run It like a Business: Strategies to Increase Audiences, Remain Relevant, and Multiply Money—Without Losing the Art.
You’ll learn how to:
- Grow audiences and keep them coming back again
- Make our organizations more inclusive
- Get younger attendees in the seats and on the donor rolls
- Generate millions more dollars in revenue
- Continue to create the art we love — without the stress of figuring out how to afford it
Just because your arts organization is a non-profit, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t make money; it means the money the organization makes goes back to fund the mission — whether that’s music, visual arts, theatre, dance, or one of many other mediums that enrich our lives. www.aubreybergauer.com/book
About the Author
Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer) and “Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony” (LA Review of Books), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for the performing arts. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), she’s held offstage roles managing millions in revenue at major institutions including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As chief executive of the California Symphony, Bergauer propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.
Bergauer helps organizations and individuals transform from scarcity to opportunity, make money, and grow their base of fans and supporters. Her ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together, earning “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). With a track record for strategically increasing revenue and relevance, leveraging digital content and technology, and prioritizing diversity and inclusion on stage and off, Bergauer sees a better way forward for classical music and knows how to achieve it.
Aubrey’s first book, Run It Like A Business, published in 2024.
A graduate of Rice University, her work and leadership have been covered in the Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, and Southwest Airlines magazines, and she is a frequent speaker spanning TEDx, Adobe’s Magento, universities, and industry conferences in the U.S. and abroad.
