The structure of your arts organization is outdated

Recently, Changing the Narrative’s Aubrey Bergauer invited Julian Chender to discuss organizational structure on a LinkedIn Livestream, a follow-up to their article on the same topic. It was a fascinating conversation, and they provided compelling evidence that today’s arts organizations must move away from the prevalent (but so often siloed) functional organizational structure.

Chender, a seasoned organization development and design practitioner at global consulting firm Accenture (and who, coincidentally, is married to a Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musician), prescribed an updated, cross-functional structure—a considerable departure from the traditional vertical design that prizes deep specialization in each function.

Here’s why: In today’s complex and rapidly changing world, where consumers have a much broader conception of what constitutes culture, it’s no longer viable for arts organizations to see themselves purely as purveyors, curators, or gatekeepers of Arts & Culture. Now, the arts sector is expected to be part of what Chender calls the wider Culture of Humanity.

The world has changed right before our very eyes—and so has the consumer. Deloitte’s ongoing consumer research tells us that millennials are expecting more of brands in every sector. They’re “channeling their energies toward meaningful action—increasing political involvement, aligning spending and career choices with their values, and driving change on societal issues that matter most to them. In turn, they expect institutions like businesses and governments to do more to help bring about their vision of a better future.”

And yes, even arts organizations are now expected to play an active role in the social, geopolitical, and environmental conversations that affect their communities. Indeed, CultureTrack’s latest wave of audience research revealed that a preponderance of ticket buyers believe that “arts organizations have a responsibility to tackle social issues.”

Chender describes the traditional product-focused strategy as “serve the art” and hope to attract customers. But now, he says, being an integral part of the Culture of Humanity requires a more holistic strategy: “Serve the customer and the community,” which results in funding the art. (It’s important to note here that what’s being suggested is not the dumbing down of art—but rather the process of making the work relevant to today’s consumers.)

This holistic, customer-saturated strategy, says Chender, requires two elements: a vertical structure around revenue, product, and infrastructure, with customer and community needs as the horizontal focus across every team.

It is this integration of cross-functional collaboration around the north star of The Customer that provides organizations the agility needed to respond to our rapidly changing world.

The late business thinker Clayton Christensen would agree. He wrote, “Many companies have lofty mission statements…but almost as many companies struggle to translate these mission statements into everyday behaviors. However, when the [customer’s job to be done] has a voice in an organization, [it] provides a kind of ‘commander’s intent,’ obviating the need for micromanagement because employees at all levels understand and are motivated by how the work they do fits into a larger process to help [the customer.]”

Putting the customer at the center of every function “changes everything about what an organization optimizes for [and] shifts the critical performance criteria from internal financial-performance metrics to externally relevant customer-benefit metrics.” Meaning, organizations become much more connected to the context in which their offerings will actually be used. They begin to ask better questions and track more meaningful metrics. Simply put, how satisfied is the customer? And, in what concrete, measurable ways are we impacting our community?

With arts organizations now being called to address issues of social and racial justice, new audience development, public health (covid), digital transformation and more, this cross-functional obsession with the needs of customer and community is imperative. As Bergauer points out, addressing these issues through programming and repertoire is no longer enough. Consumers see right through that band-aid approach.

“Take Racial Justice, for example,” she writes. A cross-functional approach “means [Human Resources] is examining compensation practices and ensuring equitable pay ranges…It means our artistic personnel are working to create more fair and equitable audition practices, developing more inclusive substitute lists, and doing away with no-hire auditions and trial weeks. It means our content teams are using digital offerings to provide access. It means our advancement folks are not assuming BIPOC attendees and donors have lower levels of income. Every role and vertical function is contributing to this work.”

Chender points to another example: Sustainability. When this community need is prioritized, there are concrete community impact measurements to track. For example, how much paper do we save when we switch to digital programs?

How about the customer’s need for Belonging"? Prioritizing this need across functions “means [Marketing] is choosing images that reflect the customer…It means [IT is] doubling down on protecting our customers’ data. Artistic teams are programming repertoire representative of community makeup…Our finance people are developing budgets that prioritize all this work.”

So how does an organization begin to integrate this cross-functional work? Chender has several recommendations, from aligning metrics and establishing “integrator roles” that bridge two functions to creating task forces that pull team members across functions.The goal is to help every member of the team continuously view their work through the lens of the particular customer and community needs that your organization has decided to focus on. And the end result, writes Bergauer, “isn’t more work, it’s better work.”

Ready to become more relevant to your community and to grow your organization’s impact? Head over to the original article to take a deeper dive. This one’s a must-read.