Introducing The Royal Opera House…
The Royal Opera House is home to The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet, performing with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Combining a 2,200 seat main stage rep theatre that means up to five productions are in the building at any given time with a 400 seat Linbury theatre; along with a comprehensive learning programme, an international digital outreach plus a fundraising and commercial responsibility.
Our Change Creation Plan
Sustaining the level and quality of output that is expected from the Royal Opera House has meant a culture of ‘the show must go on’. Whilst a positive motivation, this also provides a series of risks. The company houses 1,100 employees and everyone is busy but ensuring all are pulling in the same direction effectively and efficiently can be problematic. With a dual need for structured decision-making and time to pause and reflect, taking action out of learnings as a group can be difficult to build in to the day to day.
The main shift therefore is towards coherency and simplicity.
The re-opening of the Linbury theatre allows an opportunity to build and establish processes that adhere to these ideals, with learnings to be adapted to the Main Stage. A meeting structure is now established and we are working towards action-orientated meetings with clear analytical and fact-based decision-making, with multiple stakeholders having equal opportunity.
However, the impact of changes we are looking to make have a cultural impact which require a shift in mind-set and behaviours, especially in regards to trust and transparency.
Our ‘change challenge’ is to treasure and sustain what is great about our culture whilst professionalising operations where needed.
Nick Peck
Nick is the Head of Planning and has been with the Royal Opera House for 10 months, prior to which he worked for Lego (Business Intelligence and Planning roles) for nine years. His background is largely commercial based within a company that experienced great change, firstly to survive but subsequently to grow and be sustainable.
You can read Nick’s Change Leadership profile here
Bob Brandsen
Bob is the Production Director and started at the Royal Opera House in November 2016 after working for Dutch National Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam for 28 years. He is focussed on international opera and ballet of world class quality, improving production processes and efficiency.
