FOLLOWING THE ENORMOUS IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE ARTS SECTOR, THE SOUTHBANK CENTRE WERE LOOKING TO RECONNECT WITH WHAT MAKES THEIR ORGANISATION TRULY SPECIAL TO THEIR PEOPLE AND MILLIONS OF ANNUAL VISITORS. 

We were privileged to be a part of their rebuilding process, working alongside their senior leaders to shape a culture that would enable them to continue in their ambition to make world-class art accessible.

Through an in-depth discovery process we guided senior leaders to explore the challenge and create a solid foundation of language for the programme. This meant that key stakeholders were absolutely clear on this programme’s intent and how they could contribute to its success. We also co-created a shared understanding of what words like ‘culture,’ ‘values’ and ‘behaviours’ mean to them.

We engaged with hundreds of colleagues through both in-person and virtual workshops. Our goal was to test how well a set of draft values resonated with colleagues and understand potential challenges to them being lived today. What we heard significantly impacted the way we framed each of the value statements, enabling us to create multi- layered definitions for each value.

This included a high-level belief statement, an explanation of why this belief is key to the Southbank Centre and finally a short description of what this means in practice. The final values also had to work for audiences and artists so we worked closely with production and visitor experience teams to ensure we captured and represented these views.

The output was a stunning set of visuals carrying a story that was truly co-created by the Southbank Centre teams. ‘A conversation about our culture’ was launched at a specially curated event, for all colleagues, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Morgan team, alongside Southbank Centre ELT introduced the new culture framework and a celebratory video in an event headlined by their Chair (and Oscar nominated director) Misan Harriman and CEO Elaine Bedell OBE. Colleagues took the opportunity to share their stories of how the values support and help guide them in real, tangible scenarios.

We then ran a programme to train managers across the organisation to run their own conversations about culture, with a focus on identifying the specific behaviours that bring this to life. This collaborative process informed a set of behaviours that people care about and feel connected to. Equipping leaders to proactively nurture culture has also helped guide talent attraction and development which is critical for future success.