I JUST FINISHED READING THE REPORT from two focus groups conducted by one of my cultural clients. This client, like many of my clients, had never talked with constituents in quite this way before. It's funny that a concept so basic to the for-profit world is so largely overlooked by the nonprofit world -- at least in the cultural corner. I've even had clients tremble with fear at the thought of talking to stakeholders about what their nonprofit does. In one case, a client was barely able to identify a group of "non-member" community leaders to invite to a focus group. Despite all the talk about how the current economy is forcing nonprofits to rethink their work and their relationships, many, it seems, remain in a curious bubble of isolation. The two focus groups in question raised a wide array of perspectives about my client -- a lot of it good; some of it critical. Some of it, I'm sure, is well known to the client. Others of it might be c...