A punchy, outspoken argument for how nonprofit arts organizations should be run.
An example-driven new map to success in the realm of nonprofit theater.
“What good is a program without results that show impact?” asks theatrical director and producer Harrison, a 30-year industry veteran who’s spent decades thinking about the essential questions people involved in nonprofit theater should be asking, such as, “What can my nonprofit theater do today to make my community a measurably, quantifiably, and tangibly better place to live?” In this latest installment of his Scene Change series, the author once again looks at various organizations that are pursuing what he views as the essential mission of community arts, which is to improve the community, using theater and other arts as means to that end. Harrison contrasts this vision of nonprofit arts organizations with the way they’re too often seen by the people who run them as for-profit commercial enterprises in which box office revenue is the most important thing. In these pages, he first breaks down the logistics of how nonprofits work and should work, from the nuances of marketing to the nitty-gritty of IRS filings. The author then examines the working methods and cultural impact of some nonprofits that’ve shaken off what he views as wrong-headed priorities and are both serving and challenging their communities. The Louisville Orchestra receives a good deal of attention, with Harrison noting that “The music is dynamic, contemporary, and bespeaks the lives of the people of the commonwealth in ways that cannot be adequately described as words on a page.” He also discusses other programs, like Out of Hand Theater (“there is no better example of using theater as a tool for community impact”) and Out of Hand’s Creative Kids program (“They’re not bussed to some fancy, frighteningly off-putting monument”), in detail.
Harrison is glowingly enthusiastic about all of this, the perfect ambassador for introducing the world of nonprofit arts to newcomers; he’s also the perfect blend of cheerleader and tough-love coach for those already in the nonprofit world who may not be keeping their priorities straight (or may not quite know what those priorities should be). Harrison’s prose reflects his expertise but is often light and humorous. He can sometimes get hung up on trivialities, as when he notes that, “for a real debate to happen and to expose local and American issues for what they are, it would have to include the niggling disagreements such as how close the word ‘niggling’ is to a vulgar one.” But the author is refreshingly willing to ask hard questions about the realities of nonprofit art groups today, reminding readers that, in addition to their missions, nonprofits have their own rules and responsibilities. Harrison’s analysis of the root of nonprofit problems—he believes they too often devolve into entities to please big donors (which “begets toxicity among donors, executives, and board leadership, and provides an elitist barrier to participants”)—is astute and characteristically pulls no punches. The author is equally frank in addressing the social issues that affect community projects, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the Covid-19 pandemic. Anyone involved in the nonprofit arts world will gain immeasurably from reading this book (and its two enjoyably opinionated predecessors).
A punchy, outspoken argument for how nonprofit arts organizations should be run.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781803419770
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Changemakers Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.
Helbig and Norman present a game plan for making leadership more responsively human.
In this expanded update to The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human (2023), the authors provide “practical strategies for responding to resistance, sparking change, embodying the change we want to see, and moving forward deliberately,” specifically in a business setting. They suggest ways to encourage what they call “changemakers” through the use of five key “plays” from their playbook: Communicate Courageously, Master the Art of Listening, Manage Your Reactions (“shift from automatic reaction to conscious response to stay better connected to yourself and others”), Embrace Risk and Failure, and Design Inclusive Rituals. The goal is to ensure that organizational cultures promote psychological safety, guided by leaders who “walk the talk” by emphasizing their own humanity at every turn. (“We must be the first to share our own failures with our teams, which will start to make it possible for others to do the same.”) This call for example-setting is sounded throughout the book as Helbig and Norman urge their target audience (leaders and would-be leaders) to go beyond mere instruction and instead embody the qualities they want to see in their subordinates, such as continuous learning, active curiosity, and self-reflection. Each chapter includes a detailed “Recommended Reading” section and text with extensive numbered and bulleted points formatted to make the core concepts more immediately digestible. The authors effectively employ clear and empathetic prose to assure readers that psychological safety is slow to build and quick to break, observing that such safety requires steady attention and delivers outsize payoffs as a result. They refreshingly ground a great deal of the material in psychology and neuroscience, pointing out, for instance, that research has demonstrated that the parasympathetic nervous system responds to honest appreciation, which improves creative thinking. Some wistful readers might consider some of the authors’ suggestions beyond the reach of their own organizations, as when group facilitators are advised to “gently intervene when someone dominates the conversation,” but hope springs eternal.
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9798993550503
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Crazy Idea Press
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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