Active, focused and designed to deliver.

Creating Transformation is a NEW programme co-designed and co-created with the sector. Starting in 2022 Creating Transformation provides sustained and immersive support for all arts and cultural organisations across the UK. With 18 months of intensive learning, workshops, mentoring, action learning, tools, resources and personal development Creating Transformation enables organisations to re-model, re-shape, realign, refocus and reimagine their futures. This programme is for organisations who are hungry to lead the sector to become more relevant, equitable, sustainable, resilient, dynamic, ambitious, creative and socially just. 

Designed and delivered by people make it work, an organisation with more than 20 years experience of supporting arts and cultural organisations, Creating Transformation works with and commissions incredible artists, leaders, freelancers, practitioners, consultants, fundraisers, place-makers, community ambassadors, advocates and trail blazers to share their experiences, learning, tools, practice and models. In this new programme we’ve embedded all our learning from previous programmes (Culture Reset, Change Creation) to create an offer that represents incredible value for organisations. By bringing together a cohort of leaders we can offer workshops at a fraction of the cost of consultancy support, whilst still providing a bespoke offer to each organisation. 

The tools, resources, insights and models have been developed over decades by some of the best change management experts working across international business today. If you would like to find out more about the programme we’d love to hear from you. Email us.

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Programme features

Immersive and intensive support for 18 months

We’ve developed a programme that offers immersive and intensive support for 18 months. With monthly 1:1s, surgeries, action learning sets, subject specific working groups, coaching and consultancy, peers work together to unblock the challenges and unlock opportunities that will transform their organisation. The programme provides intensive workshops for the whole organisation, and residential workshops for senior manager team members, totalling more than 300 hours of bespoke support for your organisation to engage and lead transformation. 

Equitable leadership and empowered teams

A diverse team of sector experts, coaches and practitioners dedicated to supporting your organisation to embed transformational change every step of the way by building confidence across leadership teams, creating working cultures and practice that enable and empower teams, creating happy organisations where everyone can bring their best. 

Peer Support, Co-coaching, Action Learning

We believe that being part of a close-knit community of peer learning and mutual support is the most powerful part of the programme, harnessing the knowledge and insights of the group, deepening learning, resolving challenges and transforming practice, long term. Creating Transformation is a network of  leaders, who are all ‘change hungry’ with  planned transformations with and in their organisation… learning from each others experience and insights, live and direct.

Senior Leadership Team support

Workshops for Senior Leadership Teams – 8 days of residential workshops that are designed to build relationships, share ideas and learning, challenge thinking, highlight emerging practice, maintain momentum, and to create an unstoppable cohort of ambitious leaders.

Digital Learning Hub

This online home for the Creating Transformation community is where knowledge, resources and ideas flow. Each organisation shares their learning, documenting their progress, connecting with other leaders, getting feedback, accessing tools and resources. This curated resource is available to your whole organisation with tools, presentations, insights, panel discussions, blogs and collective knowledge for you to share and learn from.

Whole Organisational Development

The programme is for the whole organisation. With a dedicated facilitator for each organisation, we ensure that  the learning flows back into your organisation to ensure that ideas, learning and opportunities are shared across teams, stakeholders and trustees. Digital workshops are freely available to all members of your organisation who are working on your transformation.

We create tools, resources and provide support to ensure that after every workshop you have a plan to embed and realise your transformation.

Through action learning every organisation will share challenges, explore solutions, test ideas and reflect on their learning to share to the wider peer network.

At a glance

  • Starting in 2022
  • Term-time only commitments
  • Open to all arts and cultural organisations across the UK
  • Discounted places for small / diverse-led organisations
  • Designed and delivered by people make it work – the leading organisational development consultancy for arts and cultural organisations with more than 20 years of experience
  • A learning environment dedicated to access for all
  • A straight forward application process tailored to your needs
  • 18 months of immersive and intensive support from a team of sector experts
  • Workshops for the whole organisation
  • Workshops for Senior Management Teams
  • Action Learning Sets
  • Co-coaching
  • A community of diverse leaders representing all arts and cultural disciplines
  • Tools, resources, presentations all free to use and share
  • Monthly 1:1s, check ins and action planning
  • Monthly surgeries and support from industry experts
  • A community of peers for support and knowledge sharing
  • More than 300 hours of dedicated support
  • Additional consultancy

Who is it for?

  • All arts, cultural and heritage organisations across the UK. We welcome applications from organisations of different scale, artform and location. Having a diverse cohort is essential to the programme’s value and we therefore encourage applications from organisations whose work, people and practice amplifies under-represented voices in the cultural sector. 
  • Organisations who are changing their practice to become more inclusive, resilient and equitable
  • Organisations who have a vision for the future and want support to realise their intentions
  • Organisations who need to change to reach more audiences, generate more income, strengthen their impact, become essential to their communities
  • Organisation who are applying to become an National Portfolio Organisation and want support to embed the Investment Principles into their practice and culture
  • Organisations who want to lead a particular change with ease, momentum and flow
  • Organisations who want to see a real shift in the cultural sector, and want to support, advocate and lead a culturally democratic sector
  • Senior Leadership Teams that are stuck or blocked in the status quo and need tools, resources, support and coaching to reshape and refocus their organisation.
  • Senior Leadership Teams who can contribute to and share collective wisdom in a peer programme that will bring new insights, new networks, new practice and new approaches.

What does our organisation need to invest?

  • Time – we are all busy, but leading your organisation effectively through changed times will take time and it makes sense to use your time wisely with peers, experts, support and 1:1s to keep you on track, energised and focussed. 
  • Energy and commitment – this is a peer programme.  There is incredible value in learning with and from leaders from a range of organisations that represent different voices, art forms, scale, location and purpose. All cohort members are asked to commit to sharing their learning for the benefit of the wider cohort. 
  • Infrastructure – this is a programme for the whole organisation. We ask you to nominate dedicated participants who will attend all of the workshops, but, with our support, you need to identify the ways in which the learning will be supported back in the organisation through communication, engagement plans, project plans, 1:1s,  etc 
  • Financial resources – we are offering a programme that represents a discount in excess of 75%, compared to average consultancy day rates. We will agree to a payment plan that suits your organisation’s cash flow and budget needs. We will offer discounted places to smaller, diverse-led organisations who need financial support. In addition to the programme fees, all organisations will also be required to arrange the travel and accommodation costs for 4 Core Workshops that will be hosted in arts and cultural venues across the UK. 
  • Two people – we strongly recommend that each organisation nominates at least two people to engage fully in the programme. This is to strengthen the learning in your organisation and provide resilience.  A diverse cohort is essential to the programme. We strongly encourage you to think about the right people for the programme, people who have the time, energy, commitment, lived experiences and crucially are supported and empowered within the organisation to lead the changes and address the challenges. It could be a member of your Board, a freelance artist that you want to ‘sponsor’ to lead the programme, emerging leaders in your organisation, a representative from a partner organisation, a member from your Senior Management Team. Choosing the right people for the programme is essential so we’d encourage you to think deeply and creatively about the choices you make.

Thinking of applying?

We’d love to hear from you and have a conversation before you apply. We strongly recommend this – our experience is that the people we talk to in advance feel better informed and more able to submit compelling applications.

We are committed to a process and a programme that is equitable and accessible. We are fallible and, despite our very best efforts, we will make mistakes, so if there is anything that you experience in the application process that excludes you or makes it difficult to apply, please let us know and together we will find the appropriate solution.

Please do get in touch.