Objectives and objectivity

Four years ago the ‘Yorkshire 6’ theatres – the six producing houses in Yorkshire – organised some joint training in the form of ‘Managing People: A Workshop for Heads of Departments’. For the first time, Heads of Departments (HODs) started talking about what it meant to manage people, their role within their team and the competencies of a good manager. The training also provided an introduction to setting objectives. Enthused to do more, the senior management team set about putting together some organisational objectives. How did we pin down our artistic ambition? How could we express our desire to move the organisation forward? How could we give staff a shared responsibility to effect change within our creative environment? We needed to improve communication, but how would we measure that? We settled on five objectives and presented these to all staff. With support, HODs considered how their departments could formulate some departmental objectives with their teams. This helped to clarify and embed what we were trying to achieve.

We then created a staff handbook to communicate our artistic policy, new-found ‘Objectives, Aims and Aspiration’ and all of our policies and procedures, available on our intranet and part of an induction to the organisation. We started reviewing our policies and procedures by creating cross-departmental working groups, aiming for mixed groups of people who would not normally work together. The resulting document marked a real improvement in team-working across departments and ‘up and down’ reporting structures – a new way of working.

The desire to move on was tempered by our busy day-to-day jobs. The only way we could effect further change was to work towards a frame-work, a process and a goal. A company which supports the training and skills sector approached us about a funding opportunity and support to work towards Investors In People (IIP). We hesitated, but decided to give it a go.

Involving staff

We distributed a staff questionnaire – the first time that many had been asked for their views. The results were mixed and the comments heartfelt, but senior management were robust and we collated and published the results in full. A plan followed which focused on the common threads and, with one eye on our organisational objectives, we decided to tackle another area – the dreaded appraisal. Not all senior managers did appraisals, so we needed an organisation-wide process. We devised preparation forms for both the manager and the individual and six months later, managers and staff were sent off to have a go. The response was carefully monitored and a resounding success. Appraisal forms were completed by all permanent staff and their managers, and a learning and development plan was collated for the organisation.

We were feeling good about our achievements and ready for IIP assessment. The criteria are very clear, and the rigorous process involves the assessor deciding whom to meet (16 people across the organisation) during a whole day of individual interviews to ascertain whether the standard has been met. Our assessor had never worked with an arts organisation before. She was impressed by everyone’s commitment and dedication to the work and by how open and welcoming staff were – things that we take for granted in our industry. She had to show what we had achieved and, in the end, decided that we had not had long enough (it had been less than a year since we had set our organisational and departmental objectives), and that staff and managers weren’t clear about what was expected of them.

Manager capabilities

We decided to tackle manager capabilities. Another cross-departmental working group of managers and staff discussed what we all expected from our managers. We wanted managers to think about how they represent the organisation, how they manage their departments and how they engage with organisational objectives. We devised a questionnaire for managers, with headings including providing leadership and direction, delivering excellent results, motivating and managing people, making a personal impact, taking responsibility and learning and sharing. We asked managers to score themselves against examples and behaviours. Each manager filled out the questionnaire themselves, and asked both a colleague at their level and someone whom they manage to do the same. All three met to discuss the results. This sounds scary, but managers were now ready to self-assess and hear constructive feedback. The timing was such that this happened just before preparation began for the second year of appraisals, so the results fed into that process.

Eighteen months on we did another staff questionnaire. There had been improvements, and although there was still some way to go, we were encouraged to be reassessed for IIP. We had now reached the standard. The assessor said managers understood the priorities of their teams, how these linked to departmental objectives, how needs would be addressed and how the impact could be evaluated. She said that it was clear from the interviews with managers and staff that emphasis continues to be placed on providing equality of opportunity and encouraging ideas on how to improve performance. We were thrilled.

Embedding the results

If it wasn’t for IIP and the structure of our process, we would not have achieved as much as we did. We needed a champion to steer us through. We needed to ensure all staff were involved, all the way. It only worked for us because we were able to communicate the benefits and we kept re-enforcing the messages. The achievement was the journey but the recognition of IIP was also a positive endorsement that we all deserved.

The challenge now is to ensure these processes are embedded in how we work. Through training and development we continue to invest in our staff. By talking about how we can do things better we can continually challenge ourselves. We are all encouraged that staff feel valued and appreciated – that they are involved in decision-making and feel they make a positive difference. The organisation has made positive steps over the last four years to improve – strong leadership, appraisals, objectives settings, cross-department working, manager capabilities, questionnaires, staff meetings and the general atmosphere through the organisation have all contributed to this. I am hopeful that all staff now think that these are also things that we now do well as a matter of course at York Theatre Royal.