- Empowering Cultural Organisations
From Stumbling to Steering: How Cultural Organisations Can Thrive in the Digital Age
Together, the two have over thirty years of experience in the cultural sector and are now using this to transform organisations in digital times. Not with ready-made methods, but by guiding organisations in developing their own course and mindset: with room for artistic content goals, adjustments in the work process, and autonomy over employees’ own activities. Because according to them, real change with a positive effect comes from within.
Tanja Zuijderwijk: “For ten years now, policies have spoken about making the cultural sector more agile and resilient, a need that was strongly underscored by Covid. But there are no tools or practical guidance provided. Agile working is the way to make your organisation adaptable, and therefore more resilient.”
As an award-winning digital producer and driving force behind the nationwide success of Cultuurloket DigitALL, Tanja knows the complexities of the cultural sector inside out. Together with Linda Thoen who, after leading successful digital start- and scale-ups, has focused in recent years on implementing innovative work methods for the cultural sector, she believes in the power of agile working. Not as a buzzword or quick fix, but as a practical approach with sustainable impact. In fall 2025 they will continue their work together in the new company Tò Mò (Vietnamese for “curious”).
In the tech world, agile working has long been commonplace as a proven work form, and it has also been applied in other sectors for a long time. This way of working is particularly suitable for the specific challenges of the cultural sector, Tanja sees: “Subsidy providers ask in multi-year trajectories to tell what you’re going to do in four years and how. That’s virtually impossible. Four years ago, for example, we weren’t doing anything with AI on a large scale, and nowadays it’s in many annual plans. That rigidity from funding is a major bottleneck. Additionally, many cultural institutions are organised in departments that operate separately from each other. There’s an island culture. People come to the director with separate plans, without mutual coordination. We help to structure that collaboration.”
"Working agilely means daring to course correct, while keeping the end goal in sight"
Linda Thoen explains: “What often happens now is that organizations work linearly in the back office. They must predetermine which activities they will carry out each year and how. But the goals tied to subsidy plans are not always fully internalized by the team. As soon as you begin an activity, you learn. Sometimes you realize you need to turn left instead of right. Agile working means daring and being able to make that course correction, while keeping the end goal clearly in sight.”
For Linda, the crux lies in setting goals while letting go of rigid step-by-step plans: “Agile working does not mean working without a plan, but remaining flexible in how you achieve your goals. Creating a roadmap, restructuring team meetings, and building in regular reflection are simple but powerful tools that deliver immediate results.”
In an agile organization, the management team can still set the frameworks and goals, but ownership of the execution lies with the teams. “As MT, you are responsible for the end result, but you don’t always have to think about which activities or in what way this is achieved. From agile theory and practice, we see that the person who decides how the execution takes place should also be the one who actually carries it out. This makes the work process more democratic and also opens up space for inclusion, multiple voices, and different thinkers,” says Tanja.
Tò Mò consciously opts for medium- to long-term projects, Tanja explains: “You can’t implement this in one afternoon. Organizations often send people to separate workshops—on entrepreneurship, or breaking down organizational structures. But those remain isolated interventions, while in reality everything is interconnected. You need to go back to the foundation of your organization and rethink how you approach activities.”
Linda: “We also often see goals and means getting mixed up. A BIS application or a subsidy application should not be a goal in itself, but a means. Creating a collection plan as a museum is also not a goal in itself—it should be a means to tell your story and protect and share heritage. Agile working is exactly the same: never a goal in itself, but a very effective means.”
"A funding application should never be a goal in itself, but a means"
Change thus often starts with the management team, but affects the entire organization. “We always start with conversations with the director, the artistic director, and someone from audience engagement,” says Tanja. “With them, we determine the real goals and find out where the complexity of the issue lies. Sometimes this only comes to the surface properly after multiple conversations. Often the goal we’re there for turns out to be different from the goal they asked us for.”
Linda: “It’s also very exciting when you break open a hierarchical structure. That’s why it’s important to be well guided in it. You don’t have to change everything at once. A trajectory spans months, with space between sessions. This allows people to practice and reflect.” She mentions the example of a large museum that wanted to develop a digital audience strategy. “In the end, it turned out that the challenge mainly lay in collaboration across departments, and in formulating clear goals. That’s what we worked on.”
“Digital transformation is often reduced to the introduction of tools and software,” says Linda. “But what we’re really concerned with is making cultural organizations future-proof by supporting them with the transformation needed for this digital age.”
According to both, agile working is not a rigid framework, but a collection of practical principles that help achieve goals. Tanja: “People overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can do in a year. When you work together towards a shared goal, suddenly much more becomes possible.”
"People overestimate what they can do in a day, but underestimate what they can do in a year"
“Agile working reduces work pressure, increases job satisfaction, and lowers staff turnover,” Linda continues. “And that makes organizations more attractive to younger generations.” Tanja: “It ensures that your annual plan is internalized in your organization and is leading. So not looking back after a year thinking ‘what have we actually done’ because your main goal has been lost in the activities”.
Although the duo has made it their work to identify and make transparent complex problems in the cultural sector, they are optimistically inclined. Tanja: “In a European context, Dutch cultural organisations are actually quite up-to-date. Often the cultural sector is seen as not at all renewed and old-fashioned in organisation. I don’t agree with that. We’re in rough waters, that’s true. But very beautiful things are being made. Because we’re such a small country, we’re also a place for research and development, where you can try things out. And we have a very good technical infrastructure and a lot of knowledge. So all the elements are actually already present, we just need to give them direction.”
Linda: “I think most people working in the cultural sector already have agility in their DNA, through their passion and creativity. That’s why what we do resonates so strongly. I’m amazed again and again by how easily staff adopt this way of working. The challenge is not with the individual, but in embedding this approach across the organisation, and even across the sector as a whole.”
"The cultural sector is often seen as slow to innovate. I really disagree with that"
Tanja: “The benefits of sector-wide adoption of this new way of thinking ripple out in many ways. Organisations can connect around shared values, which makes collaboration easier. That leads to stability and professionalization in the sector.”
Linda concludes: “It would also strengthen the sector’s image with policymakers. If we, as a sector, are more visible and connected to society today, it reinforces our legitimacy and the survival chances of cultural organisations. And by increasing autonomy, breaking down hierarchy, and boosting job satisfaction, the sector becomes more attractive to a new generation of workers—so we can keep renewing and surprising with fresh ideas.”
Feeling inspired?
Tò Mò works with medium to large organisations on organisational development and digital strategies. Tanja: “The first step is simple: plan a no-obligation conversation. Often that’s already enough to find the right direction together.” Fill in the contact form for this.
