Creating a Shared Vision for Audience Impact at Vesterheim
Client: Vesterheim | Location: Decorah, IA
Through a series of workshops, conversations, and customized tools, we led Vesterheim through the Audience Impact Strategy process to focus the institution around a shared vision that puts audiences at the center of their work.
OVERVIEW
Vesterheim reached out to us because they recognized that, as a staff, they were all trying to do too much with too few resources. They wanted to unify their staff around a central purpose that could help them make strategic decisions for audiences. So, beginning in March 2022, Vesterheim began building their capacity in Audience Impact Strategy with our support. Staff across the entire institution worked with us over a two-year period to establish their intended Audience Impact and build audience-centered thinking habits needed to succeed.
APPROACH
Helping an institution build their capacity in audience-centered thinking takes time. Over two years, we led multiple workshops and conversations that took place virtually and in-person with staff from all departments and teams. This iterative process included:
Clarify the impact they hope to have on their audiences
Prioritize and describe four key audiences
Create an Audience Impact Framework
Activate the Audience Impact Framework for impact through alignment, reflection and evaluation
Sustain their momentum with coaching and a comprehensive evaluation plan
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Vesterheim demonstrated significant growth in audience-centered thinking as evidenced in how they rated the priorities of their work as an individual, department, and organization in a staff survey in 2024 as compared to 2022. Towards the end of our partnership, staff indicated strong interest and motivation to use their Audience Impact Framework for decision making. Staff also felt unsure how to proceed with making audience-centered decisions effectively and consistently. We assured them that being audience-focused begins with intention, then becomes an ongoing practice over time and through habitual actions.
In concluding our work, we facilitated a final workshop and delivered a learning report to transfer power and agency to Vesterheim staff. We celebrated the staff growth we had measured, recognized as a group their concerns, and encouraged them to adapt and utilize the tools we had left them–reminding them how they have grown across two years in their knowledge and abilities. Vesterheim staff have since begun implementing some of their departmental evaluation plans and have integrated audience-centered thinking into their current strategic planning. We have continued our partnership through prototyping labels in their galleries and additional evaluation coaching to continue practicing audience-centering thinking in areas they have limited capacity for on their own.
