It’s a common chain of events:
1) Core programming for an upcoming season is selected.
2) Marketing and community engagement are informed about those programs.
3) Those teams correctly recognize that specific programs will have resonance with a specific piece of your community (based on subject matter, themes, or the identities of the characters or artists reflected in those programs).
4) Marketing and community engagement begin to build relationships with leaders from that community in support of the program.
5) In the months leading up to the program, the organization is highly visible in that segment of the community.
6) The program happens. Audiences from that community attend.
7) Years go by before you have programs that are resonant to that community again.
Everyone had good intentions, but in practice, what you’ve done is swoop in, swoop out, and move on to the next segment of your community. That act of helicoptering in and out can do more harm than good in the long-term as you build good will.
How We Get There
You were trying to cultivate an audience that would connect meaningfully with what was likely an important piece of art. But because there was no thought given to what happens to that relationship once the program is over, the people who you seemed to care so much about for three months wonder why they aren’t seeing you again three months later. The entire engagement now feels to the community as if it were entirely transactional. You thought you were doing a good service by making the connection; they see it as if you are only showing up during the limited window when you assumed they could add to your bottom line.
When this happens with a community of color or another minority group traditionally the target of tokenism, the stain of helicoptering can be even worse. You have projected the impression you believe that, say, an African-American theatre-goer is going to only show up when you are doing a play by Susan Lori Parks: that members of that community aren’t capable of being interested in the works of Caryl Churchill, Nilo Cruz, or David Henry Hwang. You’ve essentialized an entire piece of your community because of their race.
That was of course not your intention. You were short on budget and wanted to make an efficient marketing spend. You only had so much room in your events calendar for the next several months and there were other projects to focus on. You had subsequent programs you thought might be too challenging for someone who had just become a first-time attendee of your art form. There are a hundred reasons. But intentions are never seen, only actions and results. And, in the end, perception is what creates reality.
So you need to face the reality that, yes, you’ve just helicoptered into a community.
Now, what do you do about it now? And how do you avoid doing it again?
How to Avoid Helicoptering
There are long-range and short-range approaches that can help you avoid falling into this trap again.
Looking at the structure of your organization and how it plans may be one of the strongest first steps. As programming is being developed, are you looking at it through the lens of community engagement? Are you able to come together with other members of your leadership team to agree as to what that lens should be? The more than you can provide consistency in your programming for all the key constituents in your community, the less you will find yourself prey to long dry spells of work that might resonate, say, with the LGBT community or with the Asian-American community. The more you can be “in the room where it happens” when programming decisions are made, the easier it is to advocate for that consistency.
Of course, that’s easier said than done - and much easier for a company producing 11 plays or 35 concert weekends each year than it is for one producing 4 operas each year or one with touring exhibitions that last for 6 to 9 months at a time. Even if it isn’t possible to offer core programming with an adequate frequency for every piece of your community you’ve engaged, you can develop auxiliary program that is still responsive. The scale doesn’t have to be huge, but a simple annual experience for a certain audience segment (an innovation night for the tech community, for example, or a consistent performance where a portion of your ticket sales go back to an organization that supports mental health awareness and suicide prevention) reminds one piece of your community that, even though you first might have talked to them because you were producing Dear Evan Hansen or The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, you still want to remain connected on an on-going basis.
Another parallel path may also be prudent, even though it may be a more difficult pill to swallow, as it runs counter to the intuitive desire of many of in the arts who strive to serve the entire community. Together with the rest of your staff leadership, you can come to the difficult internal agreement that your programming and your community engagement work will only focus on a select number of communities over a multi-year period. That may mean that you can’t represent every dimension of diversity every season, but it can lead to consistent relationships within specific communities.
However you begin your next community relationship, remember that timing is also critical if you want to avoid the perception of helicoptering. The further you can get ahead of things, the more opportunity you have to build an authentic relationship. You and your partners both have the space to be upfront and honest about your goals in building the relationship. Waiting until the last minute to begin to build a relationship only projects that this community was an afterthought - and one that will be easy to forget again once your current production is over.
Instead, once the first production of a partnership is over, stay in touch. Send a thank you note to your key partners. See if you can find time to grab coffee and debrief on how the project went. Even if you don’t have a project later that same year that addresses the Chinese-American experience, keep advertising in your local Chinese-American publication.
(And, yes, it’s ok if you aren’t buying ads that are as large or as frequent, as long as you maintain a presence. The publication may be delighted that you want to buy more than just a six week ad schedule and may arrange a rate to reduce the overall cost. If you don’t see further impact over the next year or two, before you cancel the media buy, talk to your ad rep, talk to the publisher - see if they have ideas.)
If your organization has a track record of helicoptering, recognize that it may be a little more challenging to start a new relationship, as community leader’s expectations of the relationship may be colored by previous experiences elsewhere. There are only two remedies for that: being honest with your current partners about how you are trying to improve your process and reaching back to partners from the past to begin to repair those relationships.
Ways to Repair a Relationship After Helicoptering Has Happened
If the helicopter has already left the building and you’re looking in the rear view mirror at the damage, all hope is not lost. Pick up the phone and call those former community partners. Tell them you’ve realized that you made a mistake in being out of touch for so long. See if they can carve out some time to talk. Don’t have an agenda to sell them on another show or a new project. Instead, listen, and work to understand their needs. Odds are there is a resource your organization has that their organization needs - be it space, talent, tickets, access, etc. To reboot the relationship, embrace the idea of radical generosity. Do something of benefit to them with no stated (or unstated) desire for reciprocity.
Once you’ve begun to repair the relationship, then see if they are willing to give you advice. Are there other programs you have coming up that they think would be of interest to their community? If yes, see if there’s something new you can develop together. If no, respect that answer and know that when there is a legitimate alignment in the future you can both be open to pursuing it. Add them to lists for special events throughout the year so that you are continuing to extend the invitation to stay involved - whether you presume that the event has a unique community resonance for them or not.
Brands that fail customers initially but then find a way first to compensate the customer and then to continue to surprise and delight them with excellent future service are brands that not only ultimately keep those customers, but also may even convert them into brand evangelists. Your relationships within communities are also customer service opportunities. After helicoptering in, you might not get complaint calls, but you’ll be able to sense the change in the relationship. Being the first mover, owning that you made a mistake, and then providing excellent service from that point forward - all of this will do wonders for the quality and authenticity of that relationship.
And in the end, authenticity is the antidote to helicoptering. So don’t be afraid to be vulnerable enough to embrace that as you build community.