Download ArtsHub Workshop Summary: The Big Three issues for

ArtsHub Workshop
Summary: The Big Three
issues for the Arts Sector
25 FEB 2016
boccalatte.com
Overview
Boccalatte uses
design to transform
the way purposedriven organisations
do business
Over 25 years, Boccalatte has
used design to bring together
community, business and culture.
Our approach combines our
client’s leadership skills with design
frameworks that rally executive
teams, boards, employees and
consumers around common values
and purpose. This results in robust
actionable strategies, essential
to building impactful branding
and communication solutions.
Find out more at
boccalatte.com
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Executive
Summary
On 12 Feb 2016, Boccalatte presented
workshops at ArtsHub Conference,
Melbourne focusing on Issue Prioritisation.
Participants brainstormed out all of the big
issues facing them in their organisation
or practice. They then selected the issue
that, if solved, would create the biggest
positive impact to their organisation.
ArtsHub Workshop participants identified
symptoms or pain points of their organisation.
While these symptoms can be relieved with
quick-fix initiatives, leaders should go deeper to
investigate and understand the underlying issue.
Our analysis identified three main
underlying issues for arts organisations:
ISSUE ONE: WEAK ARTICULATION
OF CORE PURPOSE
A well defined Purpose helps forge stronger,
value-based connections with the people that
will make or break our business. Your Purpose
supports individuals and organisations to
reflect on their work from a wider perspective
and offers a framework for defining the
reason they exist beyond making profit.
Positioning explicitly defines a brand or product
and implicitly reveals what it is not. It identifies
the value to a defined audience and differentiates
the brand or product from similar offerings.
Positioning builds barriers to competition and
value to those keeping your organisation alive.
The next page shows the framework from the
ArtsHub workshop; Issue Prioritisation. You could
use this to address Issue 2: Scattergun initiatives
All three of the broad issues identified can be
addressed by facilitated workshops that follow
a robust framework for decision making.
For further information or to discuss any
of these issues please contact Martin at
Boccalatte [email protected]
ISSUE TWO: SCATTERGUN INITIATIVES
If you’re about to invest a lot of time and
money in a project or initiative how do you
really know where to invest? Successful
organisations use design-led decisionmaking at the outset of a major project and
employ a framework for qualifying issues
and optimising resources for impact.
ISSUE THREE: POOR POSITIONING
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
PRESENTATION SUMMARY FROM ARTSHUB, MELBOURNE
Issue prioritisation
So, you’re about
to invest a lot of
time and money…
Eg. Budgeting;
Strategic planning;
Website; Rebrand
Set up your project
to succeed
#1 No
guessing
Remove your
assumptions about
the solution and
focus on defining
the right issues
#2 Be
inclusive
Assemble a team
of decision-makers,
context experts
and other key
stakeholders. Don’t
leave anyone out!
Focus your team
on the big issues
#3 Get out all
the issues
Identify
themes
Context
Constraints
Go wide. Capture
all the issues in
your organisation
from multiple
perspectives.
Online survey?
Distill your wall of
issues into a series
of ‘big issues’.
Qualify each
big issue
Evidence
How do we know
this is an issue?
How would you
convince your CFO?
Turn soft issues
(Eg. Morale, brand
awareness) into
hard, quantifiable
issues (staff
turnover, campaign
response rates)
Impact
How will you
measure success?
Agree on one or
more metrics then
ask: What is it
now? What does
it need to be?
What is the value
over a meaningful
period of time?
Consider using a
priority matrix.
Eg. $ Impact vs.
alignment with
strategic plan
Who/what is affected
by the problem.
What knock-on
effects would a
solution cause?
Who, other than
the people in the
room, will need
to be engaged to
address this issue?
If this is such a big
issue, what has
stopped you solving
this until now?
Where/who are
the hurdles likely
to be this time?
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
WORKSHOP RESULTS
Finding the
real issue
The following four pages show a summary
of symptoms identified by the four
groups at the ArtsHub Conference.
Boccalatte identified three overarching
issues. Each Issue is divided into Themes
and then into Symptoms (identified on postit notes by the workshop participants).
Use this report to avoid spending time and
resources with band-aid solutions. Instead,
identify pain points or Symptoms in your
organisation and then look for the underlying
theme or overarching Issue as a better place
to start building a strategic response.
Start here
Then…
DIAGNOSE SYMPTOMS
AS BIGGER ISSUES
FORMULATE YOUR
STRATEGIC RESPONSE
Issue
STRATEGY:
PRIORITISE FOR IMPACT
Theme
Symptom
Symptom
Symptom
If you’re feeling
this symptom,
consider addressing
this larger issue
If you’re about to invest
a lot of time and money
in a project or initiative
how do you really know
where to invest?
Successful organisations
use design-led decisionmaking at the outset of a
major project and employ
a framework for qualifying
issues and optimising
resources for impact.
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSUE ONE
Weak articulation
of core purpose
Accessibility and
public perception
Connect with
future online
audience: musicians, teachers,
general audience
Need bigger
membership in a
small field open
up conversation
Engage the
local community
more effectively
with the arts
Worry of no
one turning up
Developing/
growing an
audience
1
Lack of understanding
of arts’ value
Council does
not value
highly enough
what we do
The value of the
arts is underestimated
Value of participation of the arts
in rural areas
General pubic
don’t value
what we do
Getting our
customers to
place financial
value on our
product/services
Slowly changing
the cultural
and historic
perception of art
STRATEGY:
DEFINE YOUR
TRUE PURPOSE
A well defined Purpose
helps forge stronger, valuebased connections with
the people that will make
or break our business.
Your Purpose supports
individuals and
organisations to reflect on
their work from a wider
perspective and offers a
framework for defining
the reason they exist
beyond making profit.
For help with purpose
contact Martin at Boccalatte
[email protected]
Insight: Clarifying purpose
and telling it like it is
http://www.boccalatte.com/
insights/2015/5/6/tell-it-like-it-iscreating-a-point-of-view
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSUE TWO
Scattergun
initiatives
2
Expectations
vs capacity
Efficiencies
Converting
low into high
investment
with high
engagement
stakeholders
Measuring
impact
Providing
valuable content
Creating the
dream team
Daily stressors
What are the
main problems
and solutions for
our arts clients
Staffing - where
staff not best
for the job
Collecting and
managing
data efficiently
(digital)
Take business
approach
Balancing
expectations
Stalled projects
(when projects
are parked)
Lack of
resources
Staff resourcing
High demand for
time & resources
Staff burnout
Volunteer
reliance
Big project
ambitions not enough
resourcing
Direction from
‘top down’ (what
bosses want?)
Team morale
Time
Lack of time
Time
management
Multi-tasking
(energy dilution)
Prioritising
development
tasks
Very broad
reach:
expectations
vs inability to
do all them all
the time well
Funding
Having enough
finances
to act as a
buffer against
unexpected
pitfalls
Instability with
external funding
Small state arts
funding budget
Low revenue
Staff
Silos
Negotiating fair
digital streaming
royalties for
our songwriting
members
Time it takes to
bring ideas to life
Change of state
manager
Lack of
executive
collaboration
Organisation
heavily
influenced by
the whims of
CEO
Staff morale
STRATEGY:
PRIORITISE FOR IMPACT
If you’re about to invest
a lot of time and money
in a project or initiative
how do you really know
where to invest?
Successful organisations
use design-led decisionmaking at the outset of a
major project and employ
a framework for qualifying
issues and optimising
resources for impact.
For help with prioritisation
contact Martin at Boccalatte
[email protected]
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSUE THREE
Poor
positioning
Positioning and
recognition
Brand
Who am i?
3
Purpose
What will our
long term
goals be?
Identity
Brand confusion
Restrictions on
how we market/
advertise our
business
Marketing
resources spending - time
Low profile
Where do I
start to get the
organisation
established?
Website as reflection
of what we do
Website not
reflective of
how great the
product is
New website
Servicing
conflicting
stakeholder
needs
Lack of good/
proper planning
Our mktg and
the way we communicate what
we do to stakeholders needs to
improve
Marketing
No one in
marketing role
Reaching new
and larger
audiences
STRATEGY:
POSITION AS THE ONLY
Lack of
direction
Support for
new directions
(processes and
conceptually)
A sense that Arts
Centre Melb is
not for everyone
ie. Lack of
ownership/
awareness
Public
awareness of
org. Needs
(lack of)
New website
Website
doesn’t reflect
who we are
Lack of defining
roles and
responsibilities
Visibility and
understood
Too many pots
No structure
and no one to
keep me in line
Too many/
competing
priorities
Over diversifying
- knowing which
direction to put
energy into
More time
for proactive
planning
Multiple ‘chefs’
& priorities
Positioning explicitly
defines a brand or product
and implicitly reveals
what it is not. It identifies
the value to a defined
audience and differentiates
the brand or product
from similar offerings.
Positioning builds barriers
to competition and value
to those keeping your
organisation alive.
For help with positioning
contact Martin at Boccalatte
[email protected]
Insight: Remaining relevant
http://www.boccalatte.com/
insights/2015/5/18/adaptation-remaining-relevant-and-thriving-in-a-changing-world
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
Other
issues
Risks vs
sustainability
How to make arthouse audacious
art while staying
sustainable,
commercially
viable
Isolated effort
Authenticity
vs commercial
motivation
Keeping up with
industry needs
Company longevity: is this for
the future or only
the present?
Having to do it
all - creating to
marketing etc.
Independent
artists are
invisible
IP. Stuck in
brains not paper
My business is
too dependent
on me
Uncertainty
Space &
Venues
Loss of venue
Finding a home
for our studio
An affordable
and large studio
space
©2016 Boccalatte Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.
boccalatte.com