Amsterdam University of the Arts

Project Challenge:

A new director of the Amsterdam University of the Arts started and wanted to meet the staff and organisation where they were at, on an appreciative level, and learn from them before implementing new own ideas for change within the university and the eco-system and industry it was part of. It was delivered as a praoactive process to secure the ATD as natoional leaders in the Arst and supporting the growth and developnet of the industry. So, KPLA was hired to lead a new vision, values and principles process towards a strategic and inspirational change.

Context

The ATD  is a renowned Arts University in the Netherlands, and as a school that was doing very well, it was felt that the time was right to be proactive in sustaining the brand and the industry for the next 20 years, instead of being complacent and then reactive later. So, the inspiration was to increase the creativity, innovation of art & the cultural business & industry in NL at the same time. To do so, a new co-developed vision, owned by all 17 faculties was needed to increase the ambition, purpose, values and impact of the ATD  on Cultural and its industry.

Concept / Result:

The KPLA designed and ran a 2 day new Vision creation process to Co-create, collaborate, shift, experiment and align 17 faculty directors around a new vision, values and principles towards a strategic and inspirational change for ATD . To imagine possible futures that will help create a vision and ideas that will be relevant in the long term & ready to inspire future programmes, and the strategy needed to implement it across each faculty. Then, with support & coaching from the director and Kaospilots, each faculty director started the upgrading and iterative improvements to all the existing curriculum in service of the new vision & high ambition.

Change / Outcome

• 16 out of 17 faculty directors developed and approved the new Vision, direction and implementation strategy
• There was a huge sense of ambition, direction, purpose and alignment for the first time across all faculties
• The directors with ownership, were prepared for the implementation & next steps to contextualise and align the new vision with their staff in their own faculties, and to secure stakeholder support and feedback.
• The initiative, lead to an increase of staff to staff and student collaboration, relationships, autonomy and trust.
• The vision led to the multiple inter-disciplinary, cross-faculty student performances and projects, heightening the overall level and engagement and appreciation of the multiple rolls and cultural crafts. This was possible as the faculty directors had also gained this through the Vision workshop.