Sociocracy in museum workplaces development

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Sociocracy in museum workplaces development

Description

Triennale Milano is one of the most important art institutions in Italy, both public and private (70+ employees). Historically related to design, they are now leveraging a positioning based on the ability to create links between art practices (design, photography, contemporary art, theater, architecture) and engage people collaborating with them in using art as a tool to think forward and have an impact on the future. 

Triennale Milano went through many organizational changes and evolutions during last years. As a natural consequence we faced few challenges:

  • building a better sense of responsibility, coming from a strong hierarchical organization, going from an “ask for permission” culture towards self-empowerment
  • need to improve knowledge sharing and transparency, mainly caused by poorly structured processes to communicate across departments 
  • clarify accountability in managing cross-functional projects and improve project management capabilities
  • build an effective feedback culture, to invest on people growth, address issues or give rewards

and so, considering that Conway law claims “Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.”, to allow the strategical change, the institution wanted to foster a new way to value and empower the people who work at Triennale Milano, with their experience, skills and ability to contribute to the evolution of their strategic positioning. 

We found in Sociocracy the perfect methodology and approach to manage processes and practices and distribute responsibility and value creation while supporting internal transparency. 

After a few top down lectures, Triennale Milano managers were fully engaged with the principles behind Sociocracy and the structured approach proposed for decision making, but they needed to showcase proves of effectiveness to be shared with shareholders before going into a complete organizational change. 

So we started with a pilot project managed by a multidisciplinary circle made by people coming from every department, at different levels (including one seasoned manager as well as a new joiner). The aim of the circle was to manage and implement the “membership program” of Triennale Milano that has to be live on march the 28th, after more than a year of delay. It was a proxy of a possible “to-be circle” with the aim of engaging visitors with compelling and long term experiences. 

 3 months and 10 meetings later we reached the following results: 

  • 6 policies created
  • Autonomously defined circle’s Roles 
  • Planned of the whole project until the go live, and creation of a full backlog of prioritized activities 
  • Cross-contamination of knowledge on cross-functional topics: customer experience, pricing, sell history, theatrical production, qualitative and quantitative researches, how to manage Triennale spaces.

Bio

Lara Ermacora - - Sociocracy For All

Lara Ermacora. More than 15 years in consultancy and communication agencies, I became an indipendente consultant 2 years ago. Previously I led IBM IX Customer Experience & Design practice, responsible for Italian country.

Alessandro Fontana - - Sociocracy For All

Alessandro Fontana. After 16+ years I have decided to become an independent consultant.
Previously I was responsible for developing, selling and coordinating the delivery of EY’s Digital Strategy & Transformation propositions within the EY EMEIA Advisory Centre of Excellence and People Advisory Center of Excellence.

Marco Martello - - Sociocracy For All

Marco Martello. Digital Manager @TriennaleMilano | developing a comprehensive digital strategy for Italy’s foremost institution for design and contemporary culture

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