Strategy work calls for cross-cutting missions

What is strategy work for you?

Strategy work is about taking the hard and courageous choices and opting out, focusing on what strategically needs to be prioritized and focused. It is crucial to take the strategy seriously and, in practice, act accordingly. It is central for both the board and the organization to work with the strategy in behavior and culture.

For me, strategy work is also the importance of involving the outside world, stakeholders, international partners and the 'critical friends' in interaction with the board, managers and employees of the organization. As a director, you must lead both upwards and outwards in the strategic processes.

“The Board of Directors of the organization must take an interest in how the activities and actions initiated are related to the strategy.”

What is the biggest challenge in your strategy work?

At the Bikuben Foundation, we work to catalyze systemic change by creating partnerships and alliances and running missions within our focus areas — young people on the edge and contemporary performing and visual arts. Being able to create societal and social change requires long-term commitment, and the ability to work across with a high degree of involvement of sectors and established systems. It can be complex and requires a high degree of patience before impact can be seen.

For example, we work to stop homelessness among young people and have helped to start the 'Hjem til Alle' (Home for all) alliance. It is a collaboration that has been going on for more than 10 years and with 22 actors from different sectors and disciplines working together to ensure that all young people have access to housing, support and networks. The alliance is a great example of how moving a field takes time, but also how we can create results if we manage to work together across.

How do you manage your strategy?

The management of the Bikuben Foundation's strategy realisation focuses on ensuring that we have the right competencies in the organisation. Over a number of years, we have moved away from a classic administrative and written case management approach to now working as development partners. As development partners, we actively contribute to collaborative processes, provide professional expertise and support, offer development pathways and processes to actors, facilitate meetings and events, and act as a 'matchmaker' of actors. Put another way, today we have chosen a more co-developing strategic role in interaction with our partners.

“Everyone who is in dialogue with the Bikuben Foundation must experience value creation — even when the dialogue does not lead to concrete collaboration.”

We also work to create dynamic learning in the strategic long-term processes we initiate. Part of our management approach is to support experiments and develop prototypes in the form of the 'minimum viable product' method. It is briefly described as setting up tests on a small scale, evaluating them and improving them in order to achieve rapid learning.

Strategy in the Bikuben Foundation

In 2019, we did an internal analysis which uncovered how we worked and what we could do differently to ensure we achieved the changes we are set in the world to create. It was this analysis that really kick-started the evolution of the way we work today.

The analysis guided us to the 5 movements that we have since been working on:

1. Community as a catalyst for system change
2. Development partner and capacity builder
3. Greater responsibility for the entire partner's journey
4. Systemic responsibility
5. Physical facilities that support innovation.

Since then, we have moved on in our strategy, because it is not a static size, and now systemic change is what sets the course for everything we do in both the social and the arts.

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