Improvisation Over Strategy: What Nonprofit Managers Can Learn from Theater

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When Sara Razavi came to the US from Iran as a 10-year-old with her family, "the idea that we would make all these sacrifices and then do the arts" was "just assumed that you would never do that."

But she majors in sociology and theater, has a master's in business, and is now CEO of Working Solutions, a California-based nonprofit that provides small-dollar loans to startups and early-stage businesses, NPR reports.

"I tried really hard to pivot out of nonprofits, but I had it really pegged in my mindset," she says.

"The fact that I found the CDFI space is really cool.

For a long time, I kept the theater talk limited.

But I find I draw on it quite a bit because theater is such a collaborative art, and I am talking more about the collaborative nature of theater.

And how good theater does not happen by any one person alone.

And an organization does not run by one person alone.

If you think about that, my interdisciplinary learning might not be out of the norm and hopefully becomes more the norm."

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