Nnty

Harmony
TM

FORUM OF THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INSTITUTE NUMBER 11 • OCTOBER 2000

Cultural Change in the Pittsburgh Symphony Organization

A Roundtable Discussion

To subscribe to Harmony or provide support to the Institute, contact:

Symphony Orchestra Institute
1618 Orrington Avenue, Suite 318 Evanston, IL 60201 Tel: 847.475.5001 Fax: 847.475.2460 e-mail: information@soi.orgwww.soi.org
©2000 by the Symphony Orchestra Institute. All rights reserved.

Cultural Change in the Pittsburgh Symphony Organization
A roundtable discussion

T

he Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) faced harsh fiscal realities in early 1997. The orchestra formed a task force to review a revised business plan. A member of that task force, Tom Witmer, a PSO board member and chief executive of acompany widely recognized for its approach to total quality management, suggested the use of a Japanese planning method, “Hoshin.” The PSO adopted this technique to address specific goals toward which musicians, board members, volunteers, and staff could work jointly. In the October 1998 issue of Harmony, we reported on the early stages of the use of the Hoshin process. Two years have passed sincethe Harmony report, and three years have passed since the PSO’s first Hoshin meeting. The Hoshin facilitation team recently met with the Symphony Orchestra Institute to review the organization’s progress, current status, and future outlook.

Institute: We are eager to learn of your progress since you adopted Hoshin. So please introduce yourselves and we will begin. Scott Dickson: I’ve been withthe orchestra for three years, and am currently the PSO’s manager of the Pops and Heinz Hall Presents series. I hold degrees in piano and voice performance and maintain an active performance schedule as an accompanist. Hampton Mallory: I am a cellist in the orchestra and currently chair the Access Music team. I am also a board member of the American Symphony Orchestra League. Ron Schneider: I am ahorn player, and have served as chair of the orchestra committee, a representative to the PSO board, and a member of the board of advisors of the Symphony Orchestra Institute. Linda Sparrow: I am vice president of education for the Pittsburgh Symphony Association, the orchestra’s largest volunteer organization. And I am also chairman of PSO Outreach for the Northern Allegheny area. Bob Stearns:I’m the president of an organizational development consulting firm and the director of human resources for CoManage Corporation. I also 24 Harmony: FORUM OF THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INSTITUTE

Cultural Change in the Pittsburgh Symphony Organization

serve the PSO as its Hoshin facilitator. My professional life is dedicated to developing and implementing strategies to develop high performingorganizations. Kathy Kahn Stept: I am a member of the executive committee of the Pittsburgh Symphony Society board and chair of the volunteer leadership committee. Tom Todd: I am currently president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Society. In my “day job,” I am a partner with a law firm, practicing in the area of mergers and acquisitions. Gideon Toeplitz: I have been executive vice president andmanaging director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1987. Rudolph Weingartner: I am a member of the Board of Advisors of the Pittsburgh Symphony. I’m a retired philosophy professor, former dean of arts and sciences at Northwestern University, and former provost of the University of Pittsburgh. Institute: Think back and explain to our readers what life was like in the Pittsburgh Symphony inpre-Hoshin times. Toeplitz: Before we started Hoshin, we were in the same position that many of our orchestral colleagues are today. We focused very much on labor relations and tried to resolve a lot of unnecessary confrontations. Our energy was going in directions which were not very productive for the organization as a whole. Mallory: Our focus before Hoshin was always either on the present or...