Agile and Design Thinking Application in Music Education Strategies
Project Overview
Summary: Iberacademy‘s In Crescendo program aims to foster musical growth, community engagement, and build bridges with partner music programs in 52 municipalities in Antioquia, Colombia. I was called by the program to design and lead a reflective and practical seven-week action session using agile methodologies and design thinking principles to review and reflect on ways to improve their artistic and educational strategies for the In Crescendo por Antioquia program.
✦ Project Title: Agile and Design Thinking Application in Music Education Strategies.
✦ Role: Project Manager, Advisor.
✦ Year: 2024
✦ Industries: Project Management, Music Education, Music for Social Change, Music for Social Impact, Social Music Programs.
Deliverables:
✦ Sessions planning and coordination: Careful planning and coordination of a seven-week consulting and coaching series to ensure a structured and effective approach to the program’s improvement.
✦ Coaching and reflection sessions: Facilitation of coaching and reflection sessions tailored to program leaders, cultivating a mindset shift and strategic refinement.
✦ Feedback and evaluation reports: Comprehensive report that provides valuable insights to refine current strategies and guide future initiatives, including recommendations for improvement.
✦ Materials and resources: Compilation and provision of materials and tools used during the sessions to facilitate continued learning and implementation of strategies beyond the consulting period.
Context
Client/Organization: Iberacademy
Objective: My goal as a project manager and advisor was to help the In Crescendo por Antioquia team evaluate and improve their community engagement strategies. I used Agile and Design Thinking to help them strengthen current strategies and develop new ideas that would help the program have a bigger impact on participants.
Background: Iberacademy (The Iberoamerican Philharmonic Academy), based in Medellín, Colombia, has been dedicated to developing young Latin American talent through music and leadership since its inception over a decade ago. Impacting 35 communities in Antioquia and five countries throughout Latin America, the program aims to inspire and nurture future leaders through orchestral practice, pedagogy, and creative entrepreneurship. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Iberacademy launched the “In Crescendo por Antioquia” initiative, which integrates music education with values development, cooperation, and community building to provide emotional support and life skills to students, mentors, and teachers in the region.
Challenges: The In Crescendo por Antioquia program faced significant challenges that led them to seek external expertise and guidance. These challenges included:
✦ Align community engagement with program goals: The team needed to ensure that their community engagement efforts were effectively aligned with the overall mission and goals of the In Crescendo program through a structured and reflective process to evaluate and refine their strategies.
✦ Improve existing strategies: The existing strategies, Mi Escenario and Audiencias had shown some success but needed to be reviewed and improved. The team aimed to understand the effectiveness of these strategies and make adjustments to maximize their impact.
✦ Cultural Sensitivity and Adaptability: The team wanted a methodology that would allow their strategies to be sensitive to and adaptable to diverse communities, ensuring that engagement efforts were effective and respectful of local contexts and dynamics.
Approach to Agile and Design Thinking
To address the challenges faced by the In Crescendo por Antioquia team, I led a series of sessions using agile and design thinking methodologies. Key steps included:
1. Initial contextual analysis: The process began with a thorough contextual analysis involving key team members to review Iberacademy’s and In Crescendo’s current strategies, goals, and existing community engagement efforts (Mi Escenario and Audiencias).
2. Introduction to Agile Mindset: The concept of Agile was introduced to the team, highlighting its core principles and how they could be applied to music education and community engagement. Sessions focused on familiarizing the team with agile practices such as iterative planning, continuous feedback, and adaptive learning.
3. Review and adaptation of the Agile principles and manifesto: The team reviewed Agile principles, adapted them to their needs, and created a customized manifesto. This manifesto, which emphasized community engagement, collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement, became the guiding framework for all future activities and strategies.
4. Application of Design Thinking: Design thinking principles were introduced to encourage creative problem solving and human-centered approaches. The team engaged in brainstorming, prototyping, and audience journey exercises to develop practical and innovative solutions to the challenges.
5. Stakeholder analysis: A stakeholder mapping exercise identified and categorized key stakeholders based on their influence and interest in the program. This analysis helped the team understand different perspectives and expectations, enabling tailored communication and engagement strategies at all stages.
6. Defining success criteria: Success criteria were established for each community engagement strategy, incorporating stakeholder perspectives. This included setting SMART goals and KPIs to track progress and evaluate effectiveness.
7. Improvement of existing strategies: The Mi Escenario and Audiencias strategies were refined based on the findings of the initial analysis and stakeholder engagement, reviewing their administrative, logistical, artistic, and pedagogical aspects to closely align with the program’s mission and principles.
8. Prototyping ideas: The team used prototyping to test and refine their ideas, ensuring that the strategies were practical and feasible. This iterative process helped identify potential problems early on, allowing for adjustments that resulted in more effective community engagement strategies.
9. Final report and recommendations: The final phase produced a report outlining the process, findings, and recommendations. It offered actionable steps for improvement and highlighted the need for ongoing reflection, stakeholder engagement, and adaptive strategies to sustain the program’s impact.
“Working with Claudia was a very pleasant experience, not only because of her seriousness and professionalism but also because the sessions provided opportunities to analyze ways of thinking and working; spaces for reflection that provided me with new tools and perspectives for my daily life. I am left with a lot of information that I can apply to the tasks in my institution, but that also extends to my personal projects.”
Juan José Muñoz – In Crescendo Team Member
Reflections
✦ Organization’s core principles: The journey with the In Crescendo team emphasized the importance of a shared understanding of core principles. Embracing the Agile Manifesto’s principle of “communities and people over processes” helped the team stay aligned with their mission and reinforced the need to make all decisions with the community at the center. This approach encouraged a more inclusive and impactful music education strategy.
✦ Design thinking for continuous improvement: The implementation of design thinking emphasized the importance of empathy and a human-centered approach to ensure that strategies and solutions are both relevant and effective for the communities they serve.
✦ Prototyping, testing, and refining: A prototype mindset removes the initial pressure to achieve perfection, allowing the team to refine strategies through real-world feedback for more effective and impactful results.
✦ Team collaboration: The use of Agile and Design Thinking methodologies has underscored the value of a collaborative, team-based environment in arts and cultural organizations. Moving from a hierarchical model to a more collective approach, in which each team member is aligned with common goals, is recommended to improve the success of strategies and initiatives.
✦ Stakeholder engagement: Clear communication channels that consider stakeholder interests and power dynamics are vital for successful community engagement. Setting defined success criteria across areas like accounting and marketing, along with regular updates on progress, needs, successes, and challenges, helps maintain momentum and prevents information silos.
✦ Continuous assessment and adaptation: Constant reflection and evaluation are key to adapting to changing needs and maximizing resources. Regular feedback from stakeholders and beneficiaries should guide strategy adjustments to optimize results and resource use.
✦ Consideration of the triple constraint: Arts and cultural organizations should consider the triple constraint theory, which emphasizes the relationship between scope, time, cost, and quality. Changes in one area can affect the others, especially the well-being of human resources. Prioritizing quality while managing these constraints helps ensure sustainable and impactful initiatives.
✦ Simplify administrative procedures: A key takeaway was the importance of simplifying administrative processes to better allocate resources, allowing artistic and educational teams to focus on their core mission. This streamlining helps organizations prioritize their most important goals while ensuring efficient operations.
Conclusion
This case study highlights the success of combining agile and design thinking in arts and culture programs. By fostering a collaborative, adaptive, and human-centered approach, the In Crescendo team was able to improve its community engagement strategies. This experience demonstrates that with continuous reflection, stakeholder engagement, and agile methods, arts organizations can achieve significant impact and sustainable growth.