Here’s some food for thought. The term hierarchy was first used in the late 1880s to describe a system of organisation in the Church where priests were divided into ranks. It was also adopted up by the military and the state. The approach spread during the Industrial revolution as a result of a growing focus…
This week our main focus is going to be on organising. This is in part prompted by our forthcoming session on Thursday which is intended to open up the conversation about how the sector can organise itself better going forward and Build Back Better. I am deliberately using the term organising here, rather than organisations…
Some stories about change – about how it is made by people who care enough to challenge ‘the ways things are done’. The invention of rape kits The powerful story of how one woman changed the attitude of the criminal justice system to sexual assault, and how a man got the credit. We need to…
On Monday we wrote about why thinking about business cases rather than business plans could be a helpful shift in mindset. Today we want to share a tool that we are developing to support you in designing outline business cases creatively and quickly. The Business Case Canvas Susan The Business Case Canvas (BCC) is…
It is likely that most of the sector is looking at a period of substantial transition over the coming months. Given the extent of the crisis created by Covid-19 it is also unlikely that the required response will be a case of simply tweaking the current business plan. In most instances it will require a substantial…
How Google Docs became the social media of the resistance This piece from MIT’s Technology Review documents how people are using Google Docs to organise online in preference or in addition to social media People want a persistent artifact, [Clay] Shirky says. “If you are in an action-oriented network, you need an artifact to coordinate…
The Art of Organising: designing our organisations and organising for the new abnormal 25th June, 10 – 11.30am How do we step up to the challenges and the opportunities provided by this period of uncertainty and rethink the way we organise as a sector? What might our organisations look like in future? What are the…
‘We started by trying to amend our existing structure, but it wasn’t working. We know that we need to start with a blank sheet of paper but where do we start?’ This insight, and variations upon it have been a recurring feature of the conversations we have been having over the past few weeks. A…
I must admit I was slightly taken aback with the response to my post last week about organising creatively, it certainly seems like there is an appetite to rethink the way we are organised. To pinch a phrase from TED there is an energy to ‘build back better.’ I have been increasingly involved in organisational…
Five tips for re-opening your office As organisations are starting to think about and plan for a return to work, this is a really timely reminder that along with new equipment we will have to establish some new habits. Keeping employees and customers safe and healthy while doing business in an ongoing pandemic will not…
‘Everyone can make art, but I think that most people forget.’ (Damien Hirst quoted in The Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2020) When I was a child and then a teenager, I used to make a lot of things: cross stitch birthday and Christmas cards, American block patchwork cushions and quilts and embroidered cushions and hangings. …
I’m seeing a lot of discussion at the moment about how we take the arts and culture sector forward; that this moment of massive disruption should be used as an opportunity to make some important changes happen. I have seen pleas to give more recognition to our massive range of amazing freelancers (thumbs up from…
Another collection of goodies to amuse, intrigue and inspire. NASA If you want some perspective, or just to look at amazing photos from space, I really recommend signing up for the NASA Earth Observatory weekly email. From thinking about the next normal to making it work: What to stop, start, and accelerate A really useful…