Case Study: Culture Change Labs

Project description 

How can Beacons help foster change within institutional culture? This was the starting point for the Manchester Beacon Steering Group, who recognised that this change could be encouraged within certain contexts. 

Purpose

In order to facilitate this encouragement, it decided to convene a series of strategic staff engagement events called ‘Culture Change Labs’, which were attended by the executive directors and senior leadership teams of each institution.

• The Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Culture Change lab explored best practice around PE from within and outside of the Higher Education Sector, with case studies from the Universities of Brighton and Newcastle, Manchester City Football club as well as property developers Urban Splash. The event was facilitated by a creative agency called four23.
• The University of Manchester (UoM) Culture Change lab explored what PE would look like if embedded within the University, from which they identified key themes and priorities. Following on from this, they held two events with University senior managers and staff involved in PE, facilitated by the change management company Success Factory.
• The Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) Culture Change lab explored the museum's PE priorities for inclusion in the Museum's 2020 vision. This event was facilitated by the social enterprise, the Institute of Cultural Affairs.
• The University of Salford (UoS) have recently appointed a new VC and PVC (strategic partnerships), who both intend PE to be a unique differentiator for Salford. Their learning around embedding two-way PE through operational processes, including social procurement, will be shared through the task groups.

After the labs, project sponsors were assigned to cross-partnership task groups to pilot projects to embed PE into policies and procedures. These groups also included representatives from non-University partners.

Results/ Outcomes

The first round of Culture Change projects were delivered in December 2009, with PE training delivered for Manchester Metropolitan and Salford University staff and students last Autumn. The findings will be disseminated at joint workshops, including a cross-partnership workshop on Reward and Recognition. 

Lessons Learned

• The team managing the change are now well connected to the operations of the organisations that can implement the necessary changesIt is essential to have strong leadership at a senior level to influence policy changes and engage peers
• A communications strategy is key to obtaining staff buy-in around culture change
• Celebrating successes is as important as reward and recognition
• There is a need to engage more personally with those resisting the culture change. 

Photographs show one of the Manchester Beacon Culture Labs. Photgraphs are copyright: Manchester Beacon