CASE STUDY
A new era of impact & sustainability for Australian Music Centre
Background
The Australian Music Centre (AMC) is Australia’s national representative body for the promotion and support of art music and has facilitated the creation, performance and awareness of Australian art music nationally and internationally for 45 years. In mid 2019, the Chair of the Board, Genevieve Lacey, approached Leadership Space to be their partner for a high stakes’ strategic development project. AMC was approaching the end of 4 years of funding and the organisation needed to chart a reinvigorated pathway forward.
Our journey together
The AMC that we met in 2019 was at sensitive cross-roads. As a small, resource-constrained organisation it had been delivering steadily and meaningfully for many years with a committed staff team. Around the organisation however, including at the Board was a sense that it had great as yet unfulfilled potential and this needed to be powerfully grasped now and brought to life if the organisation was to have a viable long-term future. A new chapter seemed to be lying in wait. To bring it about would require strategic insight, patience, EQ, and an ability to engage a large complex stakeholder community.
We worked closely with the Chair and CEO, and with focused engagements with the Board over a period of 18 months. The approach was designed to be highly collaborative, engaging critical AMC supporters to shape and bring about the future AMC – a future that was owned by staff, funders, members, supporters, the Board and music community.
The approach included:
- Focus Groups to lay the groundwork for strategic planning workshops
- Facilitated strategic planning
- Board renewal
- And a responsive and deep thought partnership with the Chair
Each component of the work landed well:
“Your ability to facilitate a group with very different backgrounds and agendas; listen so deeply and attentively; and distil the things that matter most, was incredibly valuable. You have an ability to unravel a knot and figure out what matters... You were very brave in focusing our attention and preventing us from being deterred by challenges”.
– Genevieve Lacey, Chair, AMC
Impact
Today AMC is in excellent shape and positioned well for the future. The strategic plan was the basis of a successful bid for four-year’s worth of funding from the Australia Council, announced in April 2020.
The year ahead will see the reinvigorated vision of the organisation delivered through a strengthened partnership between AMC management and the Board, as all involved will be embracing transition, change and growth. As the music industry and artists across the nation face the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, AMC is an organisation that is increasingly able to respond to the challenges, work collaboratively and deliver digital services to support the long-term needs of their membership.
