Strategic framework development for a cultural organisation.
The brief
We worked with colleagues at a major cultural organisation to bring together the history of the organisation, everything that it had learned during the pandemic, and its ambitions into a single strategic framework.
Background
The team had recently undertaken some work on values, and the Artistic Director had developed an Artistic Vision for the future. The need for a strategic framework arose from the desire to integrate all these elements, creating a cohesive plan.
Our approach
We worked with the Senior Leadership team to understand the different strands and create a renewed articulation of mission and a group of goals. We tested these with the Board during their annual away day. We then worked through what the goals implied as programmes and considered how these would yield outputs and outcomes, effectively producing an impact map.
We consulted with external stakeholders on the work at this stage, and they provided useful feedback in terms of the positioning of programmes and language that was meaningful to them. This en that the strategic framework was inclusive and resonated with all stakeholders.
Results
The organisation used this work as a framework for its NPO application. It subsequently built a management dashboard using the framework that allows it to monitor and evaluate its work whilst also building long-term value stories. It has also used the framework to position funding bids and as the architecture for its annual reports.