HOW DOES THE TOOL WORK?

You will be asked to provide answers to a series of questions, selecting from options on a continuum or scale.  Your responses will be plotted to create a spider diagram (or diagnostic profile) against the following three key issues for your organisation:-

1. Measures of success  – understand the level of engagment you have with your community.
2. Strategic risk - understand the challenges and opportunities you have in delivering your programs.
3. Outlook – understand the challenges and opportunities giving your organisation the ability to grow.

WHAT YOU WILL SEE

Plotting the responses will create a visual representation of each issue and you will be able plot your organisation's progress against each criteria.  BizLab will plot three diagrams.  At the end of the exercise you will calculate a numerical score between 1 and 100 that indicates the overall progress of your organisation.

  ^{Sample spider diagram}

 

INTERPRETING YOUR SCORES

Determining the progress of your organisation allows you to plan for changes and/or new opportunities.   BizLab gives you a benchmark on which to base  future progress. 

THE THREE AREAS EXPLAINED

Measures of Success

Your responses to questions 1 to 15 will be plotted to create a spider diagram for MEASURES OF SUCCESS.

This section addresses how well you understand what your stakeholders want.  It also addresses areas of planning and what you may need to consider in relation to changing tastes, demographics and spending patterns. It also addresses how well your organisation understands potential competition and partnerships.

Strategic Risk

Your responses to questions 16 to 25 will be plotted to create a spider diagram RISK PROFILE.

This section addresses how changes in the Arts environment can impact on your organisation negatively.  It also measures how changes may impact your organisation in a positive way and access how well prepared you are to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Outlook

Your responses to questions 26 to 40 will be plotted to create a spider diagram addressing your BUSINESS MODEL.

The final section addresses the resources and skills your organisation currently has and how changes in these can impact both positively and negatively.  It looks at your planning process in terms of resources and how this could be strengthened.

SOME TIPS:

• The key is to focus carefully on each response in order to understand how it interacts with the others in the same category. 
• You are looking for a well-rounded profile in which the line uniformly extends toward the outside edge of the diagram. 
• Look carefully at any responses that fall towards the centre of the profile.  Questions with (d) and (e) responses usually warrant further investigation.
• It is important that you are totally honest in your answers to give you the most valuable benchmark to progress from.
• As you proceed through this assessment process, you should always be asking yourself, what can our organisation do to produce a more regular diagnostic diagram.  Is there anything that can be done to improve our progress?
• Your organisation works in niche environment, keep thinking about what is unique about that environment and the opportunities it offers.