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An introduction to Move on Up Strategic change coaching programme st for 21 Century arts organisations Move on Up has provided a catalyst to bring all staff on board through a creative strategic process that has revealed a confidence and excitement about our future. EUAN MURDOCH CEO, Chamber Music New Zealand “ ” Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Introduction Creative New Zealand, in partnership with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre (MHM), launched Move on Up in 2007 to facilitate a change process within organisations wishing to become unequivocally artistically-led but relentlessly audience focused. Eleven organisations have completed Move on Up since June 2008 – Centrepoint Theatre (Palmerston North), Fortune Theatre (Dunedin), Chamber Music New Zealand (Wellington), Taki Rua Productions (Wellington), Circa Theatre (Wellington), The Physics Room (Christchurch), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery (New Plymouth), Artspace (Auckland), Footnote Dance Company (Wellington), Toi Maori (Wellington) and Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. Creative New Zealand has invested in Move on Up for four years and it is our flagship organisational development programme. The programme has been evaluated and the outcomes over the past 3 years have exceeded all expectations with participating organisations making bold, exciting changes and in some cases re-imagining themselves in such a dramatic fashion that they have inspired audiences, funders and their own staff. Move on Up has had such significant impact on New Zealand organisations that Morris Hargreaves McIntyre has exported the programme to the UK, North America, Scandinavia and Australia, where it is commonly known as the ‘New Zealand Model’ with New Zealand graduates cited as centres of exemplary practice. Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation How do you become unequivocally artistically-led but relentlessly audience focused? Well, let’s start with how not to do it… #1 Marketing You can’t become more audience-focused through marketing. Marketing has never and will never win the hearts and minds of arts practitioners. Marketing will always be a function not a philosophy. #2 Top-down You can’t impose passion any more than you can force creativity. But you need both for real change, and no board or senior management team can hand them down from on high. #3 Management consultants Arts organisations are so much more than businesses and audiences are so much more than customers. Every time we try to transplant this reductive business-think and worse, that mind-numbing business- speak, into the arts a little bit of our creativity dies. #4 Business planning Got to be done but don’t confuse this with real planning. Instead of writing a mission statement, you need to be on a mission. So, tear it up and write a manifesto instead. Once you’ve got zeal, the business planning is easy. Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation OK, so what works? Four things we do… #1 Understanding the prevailing culture MHM and Creative New Zealand operate outside your organisation but have insider knowledge of the sector. So we come with understanding and empathy. Our examples are relevant and our questions are informed. #2 Insist on being artistically-led The art and your expertise about that art. And did we mention the art? We’re a bit one-eyed here. We believe that’s virtually everything that matters. So we put that front and centre. Actually, we’d go further – compromise one jot and you stop being an arts organisation. #3 Involve the cleaners We get everyone involved; board members, CEOs, artists and even the cleaners. If we are embarking on a big journey, we should leave no one behind. In our experience, great ideas can come from anywhere; staff from the foyer usually have the best view of the audience. #4 Scaffolding That’s all we do. We provide facilitation, guidance and some very useful structures and models. You do the rest. In short, we scaffold your development rather than lead you by the nose. Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Who is Move on Up for? Ask yourself… #1 Are you a strong artistic leader? Those who lack passion and conviction or who are looking over their shoulder to see what their peers think need not apply. This programme is built around you and your ideas. Bring your best game. #2 Are you solvent? This programme takes you from good to great – it’s not designed to rescue you from the red to the black. #3 Do you have faith in audiences? We don’t buy the cascade of disdain that rains down on audiences’ heads. We don’t believe that big audiences mean it’s bad art. We think audiences are amazing, intelligent, interesting and interested. If you have faith in yourself and your art to connect, engage and transform, then that faith in the audience will be repaid. #4 Are you up for a challenge and open to change? No point if you’re not. But if you are, you stand a good chance of real renewal. Ironically, arts organisations are often some of the least creatively run companies around. Let’s make your organisation as creative as your art. Move on Up: The 21st Century Arts Organisation Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Background reader A strong theoretical base The workshops in Move on Up are dynamic, creative and designed to generate ideas. But before staff and stakeholders get to the workshops, we want them to do some thinking. Our background reader, Insight required, challenges many of the shibboleths about audiences and opens up a debate that results in richer more informed workshop sessions. This is available from our website: http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/assets/ckeditor/attachments/69/7_pillars_of _audience_focus.pdf Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Start with the end in mind, so here are the outputs: OK, let’s get more specific… #1 A manifesto Articulates your beliefs, values, ethos, aims and impact. Ten times more powerful that the cookie-cutter vision statement. #2 Seven Pillars scorecard Every member of staff scores the organisation on 35 questions and they then compare, contrast and resolve. This produces three things: a score, an internal debate and a list of actions to increase lower scores. Of these the debate is the most useful and the list the most practical. #3 Strategic brand model The brand model is your DNA code – you at your best. Forget logos – it’s more about what you do. The resultant brand audit generates yet more actions for improvement. #4 Strategy Tree The ultimate one-pager, relating every action to a strategy and every strategy to an objective and all objectives to your mission and vision. #5 Written change plan All the above in a pithy, focused 10-pager. Dream it. Do it. Prove it. Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation What are the Seven Pillars? They provide the structure for the programme: #1 Vision-led To what extent are you unequivocally artistically-led, and relentlessly audience focused? Do you believe that the audience is as important as the art? Do leaders champion the art and audience equally? #2 Brand-driven Does your brand codify your essence, beliefs, personality and impacts? Does the brand inform all aspects of your operation? #3 Interdisciplinary Is it everyone in the organisation’s job to understand, think about and respond to the audience? Or do you work in silos? #4 Outcome-oriented You believe that your art transforms, but how exactly? And how will you measure it? #5 Insight-guided Do you have a deep understanding of your different audiences? Are they segmented? Is this insight your lifeblood? #6 Interactively engaged Do you believe that the audience is intelligent and creative? Do you want them to be as challenging to you as you want to be to them? #7 Personalised What do you do to help each member of the audience to fully engage and respond socially, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually? Scorecard for the Seven Pillars Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation #1 Answer 35 questions Every member of staff and each stakeholder is asked to score the organisation out of 10 for 5 questions in each of the seven pillars: Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Scorecard for the Seven Pillars #2 The scores There is a point to the scores – they are a closely debated metric and #1 Visualising the results offer the chance to repeat in, say, a year and measure progress The 35 questions from the scorecard are answered by every member of #3 The discussion staff. Staff then compare and harmonise in departments, generating This makes the scores look like a by-product. Colleagues from your actions to improve lower scores. It’s not uncommon for different department or from other parts of the organisation often score the departments to have very differing views of their organisation. same question completely differently. The ensuing discussion goes the The chart below illustrates this. These are then also compared and heart of most misunderstandings and creates a sense of common harmonised, generating yet more suggestions. understanding. #4 The action lists At every stage: individually, in our departments and between departments, we generate lists of how to improve individual scores. Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Strategic Brand model #1 The model Our model below is anchored by the four key brand elements: - ESSENCE (the big idea) - VALUES (what you believe) - PERSONALITY (what you’re like) - BENEFIT (what they get) It then defines the attributes that help you to achieve the three core objectives of all arts organisations: - TO ATTRACT - TO ENGAGE - TO IMPACT Move on Up | The 21st Century Arts Organisation Strategic Brand model #2 The example Here is one that has been populated through Move on Up: #3 The audit We then ask every team to review every aspect of what they do and to list each activity in one of three boxes: - ON BRAND (celebrate, disseminate, repeat) - NEARLY THERE (refine - some elements wrong/missing) - OFF BRAND (exit strategy needed) #4 The action list For each box they then generate the list of actions that will help them repeat, refine, exit etc.

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