An incremental approach

Back in the 1990s, Poole Arts Centre was generally agreed to be something of an ugly duckling and getting uglier. The fabric of the organisation was threadbare. Financially it was drinking in the last chance saloon and ‘time’ had been called. Artistic output was uneven. Engagement with the community was firmly rooted in passive consumption of work created elsewhere and the few opportunities to participate consisted of cliquey clubs for older adults. Our interpretation of customer service was to ensure ‘they’ caused us as little inconvenience as possible. The relationship between employer and employee was unmanaged. If clear policies or efficient processes had ever existed they had been mislaid. Staff recruited people they knew, and the ‘troops’ valiantly soldiered on, in spite of management and colleagues in irrelevant departments.

A new start

I arrived in Poole in 1997, recruited by Ruth Eastwood to partner her in leading change. We started with some vague ideas and a limited brief from Poole Arts Trust to jump on the Lottery bandwagon and take forward capital redevelopment ambitions. The Trust and staff saw physical redevelopment as the cure for all ills – the golden bullet. Ten years later, a transformation has been realised. Re-branded as Lighthouse in October 2002, Poole is now the largest regional arts centre in the UK comprising a large-scale concert hall, middle-scale theatre, studio theatre, gallery, cinema and conference/meeting rooms, and is the home venue of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

I wish I could say that back then we set out to make the organisation all the things it has become today and aims to be tomorrow. I wish I could say we had a visionary grand plan to:
• transform Poole Arts Centre into the award-winningly green, naturally ventilated, visually impactful venue;
• rebuild reserves and achieve financial stability;
• become highly regarded for managing our employee relationships;
• support artists to develop and produce work;
• make learning core, not complementary;
• make participation and community engagement fundamental to purpose.

In reality, these achievements did not emanate from an original strategic plan but because we took advantage of opportunities as they arose. We wrote plans along the way but frankly that was simply to persuade investors and funders. Nothing wrong with that – it is the function of business plans. However, the strategic processes we now use were a mystery to us in 1997.

Staff-centred

Ruth and I shared an instinct to work collectively with staff and stakeholders. We believed the culture and essence of the organisation should come from within and provide the internal strength that would remain whoever was at the helm. We could either lock ourselves in a room emerging with the answers and direct the troops accordingly, or enable people to participate in defining the future and how it would be created. We chose the latter; an approach that has been at times frustratingly slow and unpredictable but also immensely rewarding. For example our Technical Manager, Robin Cave has travelled via the management of a £9m capital development project, to the role of Programme & Centre Manager, a role that includes theatre programming. In 1997 Helen Donaldson booked conference and exhibition hires. Helen currently leads a project to develop our capacity to produce learning opportunities, and we believe her ideas will eventually provide a national model for receiving venues.

A set of explicit values underpins much that has been achieved at Lighthouse and guides our actions. Developed and agreed by all staff through workshop sessions, these go beyond abstract virtues that any organisation might adopt, and are articulated in terms of behaviours. For instance, the value ‘respect’ would be demonstrated by “always acknowledging customers and colleagues, making eye contact, saying hello!” Performance reviews now include an assessment of staff behaviour, as well as task-based expectations. We now have mutually agreed expectations of each other’s behaviour – the collaborative approach means that expectations of behaviour are not based on management’s view of how those troops should be kept in line. Prior to this process, discussion about negative behaviour was avoided and consequently went unchallenged.

Positive strategy

Over the years the organisation has become more sophisticated about defining and articulating its future strategy and has developed the understanding that resources must be aligned with ambition. On occasion that has resulted in restructuring and making roles (and therefore real people) redundant. We have become ‘good’ at it. At least three of four people whose roles became redundant last year retain a positive relationship with Lighthouse. Sarah Chapman was Head of Marketing and has now realised a long-held ambition to specialise in design. She says, “Being part of the management team, I had a clear understanding of the needs of the business and therefore felt positive during the redundancy process and was able to leave the organisation with a good relationship still intact. I continue to feel very loyal to Lighthouse, what it does and the way in which the organisation works.”

In the last financial year we demonstrated that the organisation can generate healthy surpluses, is stable and has choices about the future. Financial stability has not been rocket science. We set out long-term goals in tandem with strategic planning, controlled costs, identified opportunities, balanced conviction with pragmatism and managed risk. We monitored and re-forecasted with ‘spenders’ and ‘earners’ participating in budgeting – simple practices common to any well-managed organisation.

Lessons learned

I started at Lighthouse thinking that the ability to lead change was something you either had or did not have, as if there was a genetic component, and I probably deluded myself that I had the gene. I now believe that leaders become leaders and are not born leaders. Those blessed with leadership charisma, will have other attributes that need development if they are to be truly effective. Self-awareness, the ability to accept and in someway compensate for underdeveloped leadership attributes, is utterly essential. Being open about those shortcomings is extraordinarily liberating. Maintaining a front that one is fully formed, rather than a glorious work in progress, fosters an anxiety that you will one day be found out. Such anxiety is debilitating, unproductive and can result in a need for continual self-promotion and affirmation.

Asked by a friend, “What was the one absolutely essential thing you did, in leading change at Lighthouse?” I could only answer, “We stopped looking for the one thing!” There really is no golden bullet. You have to draw many things together and, unfashionably, take the long view. I certainly wish I had known it was going to be a marathon, not a sprint. In any event I have discovered that the finishing line should move steadily ahead of you and the point is to run together, not be the lone heroic champion collecting the gongs.