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Strategy Development: Grist for the Mill
A number of years ago, I developed a two-day seminar that applied learning organization and systems-thinking principles to the performing arts.
As a part of the seminar experience, I wrote a series of discussion exercises for seminar participants to read, analyze, and discuss. These discussions were really rewarding. Not only were they fun to listen to, they were instructive and engaging. I loved watching the people in the seminar apply their experience and skill to these cases. As seems to always be the case, the real value that is created in seminars was created by the participants.
It occurred to me that I might put these exercises up on the blog site as grist for discussions, especially among people who are interested in organizational strategy development as it occurs in the real world.
Among other networks, I know that the Emerging Leadership groups out there might enjoy - and even benefit - from engaging in discussion of these cases. My hope is that the comment threads might be instructive or entertaining - and might even connect people to one another for other fruitful engagement.
In our consulting practice, the challenges we encounter are seldom simple. In fact, they are often tangles of historical dynamics, wrong-headed assumptions, good intentions, not enough resources, etc. Inevitably, some tipping point comes along - usually an unanticipated threat materializes as a reality — and the organization is trying to cope with it all.
I hope that this scenario creates an opportunity for YOU to create value, for yourselves and for your colleagues:
THE SCENARIO FOR DISCUSSION:
The Dance Now Series has been presenting dance since 1978. Over the last twenty years the organization has become well known throughout the local and national dance community for presenting a challenging spectrum of dance events, ranging from modern to experimental dance. Many well-known national companies have been presented by Dance Now over the years, and some were presented long before the public more broadly knew them. As a result, Dance Now enjoys both the respect and the gratitude of major dance figures and companies. Artistic courage and a willingness to take risks are often cited by peer presenting organizations and the professional dance community as the traits most admired about Dance Now.
Dance Now has a staff of six positions: Executive Director, Development Director, Marketing Director, Technical Director, Business Manager, and Office Manager. Of the six staff, only the Executive Director and the Development Director have been with Dance Now for over two years.
The Executive Director who is the founder of the organization and a former dancer-choreographer is respected for her keen sense of artistic quality and dogged commitment to the organization, however she has been criticized for her poverty consciousness. She has kept staff salaries so low that staff has frequently turned over. The organization has a history of hiring young people who are just beginning their careers, but after a year or two of hard work and sacrifice, staff members become frustrated with a lack of reward and move on to other organizations or careers.
Like many other organizations, Dance Now has begun to experience financial hardship. Last year, Dance Now lost a major foundation grant due to grant-making changes at the foundation. Coincidentally, in addition to losing this funding, another fairly large, nationally-based private foundation--the Mackinaw Foundation--decided to discontinue funding for operating expenses as well, due to a change in emphasis from funding the arts to funding K-12 educational programs.
The loss of these two funding sources resulted in diminished funding of nearly $150,000, a cut so large as to cause a quiet panic to set in among both staff and board members. Plus, one of the largest employers in the region was recently the target of a merger/acquisition, and resulted in almost a third of the manufacturers’ staff being laid off. The layoffs have caused a strain on social service providers, generally making the fundraising climate more competitive. When Dance Now recently approached two new large gift prospects for help to make up for the cuts, the prospects expressed having other priorities right now.
With the advent of these funding cuts, the organization responded by making substantial cuts in the marketing and promotions budget. Ticket sales have fallen off. Some staff and board members have speculated that sales have declined because of restricted promotional spending. Staff has harbored reservations about the competence of the current marketing director who is only in his second season and who is generally inexperienced. Some key volunteers blame community malaise caused by rising unemployment.
However, for the first time, a majority of board members are pushing a re-emphasis towards programming dance events that have a history of drawing larger audiences in hopes of replacing some lost funding with higher earned income. “We must temporarily avoid high-risk events,� the Board President opined at a recent Board meeting, “if we are to get our house in order for the long haul.�
Dance Now’s Board of Directors has 16 people, 4 of which are local Dance professionals who act as an artistic advisory committee of the Board. Because of this emerging emphasis on ticket sales considerations in program development, the artistic advisory committee and the Executive Director have found themselves at odds with the majority of the Board of Directors. The Executive Director and artistic advisory committee claim that such a change would undermine the reputation Dance Now and might jeopardize the organization’s good will among other funders and audiences.
After the Board Meeting last week, the Development Director walked back to the office with the Executive Director. As they entered the office, the Development Director announced her intention to resign with one month’s notice: “Things are getting progressively worse, no matter what I do. Too much is out of my control. With these changes in program, I don’t know if I can succeed in raising the money that we need. I’m nearly 40 years old. I’ve got no savings. No retirement plan. I want to buy a house. I can’t even afford to buy my apartment and its going condo in six months. I’m sorry; its time I began taking care of myself.�
You are the Executive Director. How do you respond? What actions ought to be taken?
DISCUSSION GUIDE
1. What values are in conflict?
2. What dynamics and assumptions are driving the system?
3. What behavioral or cognitive patterns are in place?
4. What lessons need to be “unlearned?�
5. What assumptions underpin the scenario?
6. Describe the organizational culture.
7. What do you need to know that you don’t know?
8. How will you find out what you need to know?
9. What learning needs to take place in the organization?
10. What are the barriers to successfully resolving problems?
11. How has audience learning or growth been affected by organizational issues?
12. Where would an intervention in the system be most effective?
Posted on February 5, 2007 09:38 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Excellent article!
Nicholas Del Carlo, M.S.M.O.B.
This is a very interesting article and case study. I think the biggest challenge the dance studio faces was complacency. Too many times when organizations start faltering they keep trying to do what they have always done. They forget to recruit new blood, create a common purpose, and a single focus. Sometimes the most effective solutions are the simple ones.If the leaders of the company would reach out to others, people who are different from them, solicit honest feedback from their customers, and then trust the ability to make a change, organizations can usually survive. This studio lacked innovation.