Hello.
We are people make it work – a group of 60 freelance cultural leaders who work together with a shared mission.
Together, we support the cultural sector to change and develop.
We do that with transformational programmes for organisations, leaders and creative individuals, direct strategic consultancy for organisations and cities and by offering free tools, guidance, advice and resources that everyone can access.
We do all this to realise a fairer, more representative, resilient and relevant cultural sector.
Our Existing Programmes - take a look... they have a strong peer learning element, with a social justice focus
Green Light: Programming for Environmental Responsibility.
people make it work are collaborating with Invisible Dust (who work with leading artists and scientists to produce unique and exciting works of contemporary art and new scientific ideas exploring our environment and climate change) on a new programme called Green Light: Programming for Environmental Responsibility – creative inspiration for your NPO application.
The Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries programme.
It supports 50 salaried jobs in arts and cultural organisations across the UK, for individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds. We work in collaboration with the Jerwood Arts team to build a development programme, leading the Organisational Development strand that supports and enables organisations to lead change in relation to inclusive practice as well as a Professional Development programme for Fellows as they start their new roles with the organisations.
CULTURE RESET
Our programme was created by people make it work as a practical rapid response programme to inspire more relevant and impactful cultural organisations and practices.
Born out of the devastating impact of Covid-19 and inspired by the urgent need to accelerate change and respond to the experiences of a broader diversity of people, the programme provided expert support and dynamic stimulus for 192 arts and cultural producers, makers and directors across the UK over the summer of 2020.
Change Creation
This programme is now in its second edition and is working with 45 organisations of different scales and art forms across the UK to lead and embed lasting change.
In 2020 the programme adapted to provide urgent support for organisations facing uncertain futures, focussing on iterative business planning, social injustice and inclusion, new working practices, income and value, and understanding and meeting emerging audience needs in a changed environment.
The National Cultural Education Partnership leadership Programme.
people make it work has developed a programme, funded by Arts Council England, to support a national movement of Cultural Education Partnerships to connect, learn and reimagine their future role collectively. With 162 participants and 97 CEPs represented, this marks the first national gathering of these place based partnerships and has been entirely co-created with the participants themselves and with Bridge Organisations, recognising the ecology of cultural learning provision across the UK.
Coventry City of Culture Leadership Programme
people make it work is the lead delivery partner for the Coventry City of Culture Leadership Programme, delivering a co-created programme with the cohort of 15 Leaders who reflect the city and come from all artforms, areas of Coventry, levels of expertise, ages and backgrounds. Many of the group have characteristics that are under represented in the sector including being disabled, being people of colour, having mental health conditions, being neuro-diverse, coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds or having a migrant experience.
Our programmes developed in partnership - get involved...
The Office of Leadership Transition.
Led by Sandeep Mahal, this new programme is designed to enable cultural organisations to transition their leadership - allowing new perspectives, new people, new forms and more openness. With a range of expert services (related to IP, financial arrangements, transition planning etc) cohort based programmes (supporting groups of organisations that want to learn together how they might transform their leadership) through to positive action initiatives, recruitment services and governance/culture change support, the office will offer a broad range of support and programmes.
Organisational Development for Global Majority Cultural Workers
A programme that is being developed in partnership with Suzanne Alleyne at Alleyne&, designed to be a co-created initiative with cultural sector workers of colour who would like to deepen their skills and pratice in the area of Organisation Development (OD), Culture Change and Change Management.
Recognising that while many celebrated OD practitioners within the cultural sector are people of colour, there is an under representation across the OD workforce in the sector, and with Suzanne we are planning to create a collaborative development space with a community of cultural workers of colour (in employment and freelance) who would like to evolve their skills in this area.
Transforming Governance
Led by Anisa Morridadi and in partnership with Beetfreaks, this project is designed to fundamentally shift governance within the cultural sector. Not just how effectively it is being done, but who it is being done by, and how they are choosing to rethink governance for the 21st Century.
With direct support for individual trustees, collective support for organisations and a campaign to enable a broad range of under represented groups get access to our sectors board rooms, the programme is designed to be truly transformational.
Creating Transformation
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.
Alongside our programmes, we also provide strategy development, change management, facilitation and consultancy to cultural organisations, cities and individual cultural practitioners.
See some of those consultancy services below, and get in touch if you are seeking to develop your business plans, create change in your organisation, shift your culture or increase your impact. People in our team are sure to be able to help.
We can offer the complete change management consultancy...
from helping you develop your new business strategy to building the plan to deliver it. From developing ideas as leaders to getting everyone involved in delivering the change. From identifying new opportunities to supporting you as you engage your other stakeholders and build momentum. We can even develop the training courses that might be needed to create the new skills and behaviours that the strategy requires.
Organisational Development
Helping organisations change and develop is what we do. Everyday. We offer a wide range of solutions from complete, holistic Organisational Development consultancy to discreet projects or a combination of services that focus on specific teams, divisions or geographies. We’ll work with you to design and fine tune a package of support that meets your unique needs.
Change Management
Change Management is at the heart of our work. Our approaches, processes and tools have been developed over decades by some of the best change management experts working across international business today and we bring them to an arts and culture context because agility, relevance and resilience have never been more important.
Leadership development
We work with senior teams, chief executives and trustees to help you realize your organizational mission, engage and empower your teams, and maximize your impacts. Whether it’s coaching, facilitation or formal development programmes, we support you to deliver.
Employee engagement
Great leadership thinking has no value if it isn’t understood, believed and acted on by the whole organization and we are experts in employee engagement. Change is done by people not to people, so everyone gets to lead when you work with us.
Strategic development
Our combination of commercial acumen and cultural experience makes us well placed to help you develop powerful transformative strategies and models to reshape your business. Our work on Resilience across the UK is helping cultural organisations build stronger more diverse futures.
Partnership management and collaboration
We believe that collaboration and partnership working are amongst the essential characteristics of successful organisations. Working with new partnerships at the local, regional and national level, we bring a spirit of commitment, break down barriers, work through concerns and forge powerful alliances that transform delivery.
Coaching
Leadership coaching is a powerful tool in creating real organisational change and supporting your most important individuals to really have the greatest impact and create even better results with the people around them. Creating a coaching culture in your team can extend the transformation from the personal to the organisational.
Training
With 30 years of training and development experience, we offer an extensive range of training courses and services that can help create organisational change and we develop tailored courses for leadership teams, managers and front line staff. We deliver training that works, and have the feedback and measured impact to prove it.
Facilitation
Our facilitation is designed to create ideas and energy, to build relationships and generate commitment and action. We offer a range of facilitation services and can facilitate sessions from 6 – 6,000 people. We facilitate small groups, teams, boards, networks, conferences and consultation events. We make communication flow and people feel heard.