Intentional or Accidental? A Case Study in Creating Powerful Organizational Culture

Picture this: In seven years your traditional orchestra, with five decades of history, has morphed to include a rapidly expanding community social outreach component. From an initial pilot project, now you teach 900 children daily, in 7 locations, with 50 Teaching Artists from 5 countries.

The changes demand that you acquire new skills and create a new culture. You must nurture the original best-talent, audition-only orchestra, while accommodating new direction – children with no proven talent, participating without audition, and who are younger, from at-risk communities. You grow from one orchestra to more than a dozen; from an annual budget of $200,000 to more than $3 million; and, from a staff of 3 to more than 50.

The scope of change and growth would be challenging for any organization.

That’s the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, and in particular, its Sistema NB program, the largest of its kind in Canada and still growing.

One success factor has been the orchestra’s creation of an intentional organizational culture.

Ken MacLeod, Founder and CEO, unpacks the ‘NBYO Experience’ – defining organizational culture, its importance, and how culture both is nurtured daily, and sustained for the future. This session describes the NBYO journey to create an organizational culture to generate:

1. Greatest impact among those served;
2. Strong consensus and high commitment among employees, board and volunteers;
3. Highest level of satisfaction among all stakeholders.

Such results cannot be left to chance. In face of the pressures of people, change and growth and a mission to engage the wider society, an empowering culture must be deliberately created.

MacLeod defines organizational culture as – “A matrix of shared values, beliefs, assumptions and expectations that defines “normal” and determines how people in an organization will do their work.”

He sets out a model for intentionally creating organizational culture, the product of: how we think (mission, vision and values); how we act (the pledge); and how we sustain the thinking and acting over time (the 20 minute dress rehearsal).

Organizational Culture = Think x Act x Sustain

Intentional action to think, act and sustain generates empowering organizational culture, which generates momentum and drives health and excellence in our organizations.

Insights discussed in this session are aimed to help your organization align individuals, and your entire team with an empowering common understanding of who you are together, and how you’ll have your greatest impact.