Managing Change and Getting It Done Well

OPTIMUM NFP provides a change management masterclass that supports your not-for-profit organisation.

Research into organisational change management has been rampant globally for well over 60 years, but the pace of this research has accelerated in the last 15 years or so. It has resulted in over 2 million academic articles being written and dozens of models and approaches to change, all designed to provide the answer to the vexing question of how to implement successful change.

Interestingly, very little of this research has been undertaken from within the not-for-profit sector, either in Australia or internationally. Some suggest that differences between the sectors make no discernible difference in the manner in which change is designed and executed. Others, such as Dr David Rosenbaum, suggest that a range of unique attributes and characteristics associated with the not-for-profit sector, supports unique approaches to change management within it, and his research supports this.

Dr Rosenbaum of OPTIMUM NFP has recently completed his ground-breaking research into planned organisational change in the not-for-profit sector, and the findings of his research, which has been published and presented internationally, are now available for application within this sector through the OPTIMUM NFP Change Management Masterclass.

Whilst managing change can be viewed from one perspective as an art-form, it can also be guided by a range of events and activities that must be considered in terms of pre-change, during-change, and post-change activities in order to ensure that such change actually “sticks” and remains sustainable. Impacts of change that disappear shortly after the change was implemented, are a burden and therefore a cost to the organisation. The burden is felt through staff who become disillusioned with management’s apparent inability to successfully implement sustainable change. The cost is felt by organisations having to overcome change that has been poorly designed and poorly implemented.

One of the key shortcomings of many of the structured and organised approaches to change, is the often overlooked issue and challenge of organisational context. What may work in one organisation, does not guarantee success in another organisation. A structured approach that considers the theory of change only, and not the specific attributes and characteristics of the organisation, its people, its circumstances, and its challenges, may not be sustainable. Frameworks and models that are rigid in structure and purely procedural in nature may present a comfortable implementation and execution picture, that, when followed, will lead change leaders to the promise of success, but the reality may prove very different.

Such poorly considered approaches to the implementation of change often result in the rise of cynicism amongst employees. Research points to the negative impact on change outcomes as a direct result of increasing rates of cynicism amongst employees who lose faith in the planning and execution of organisational change.

Dr Rosenbaum’s research into change in the not-for-profit sector has resulted in the identification of a range of issues and considerations that nonprofit leaders should take into account when planning for change within their organisations. The change framework that has resulted from these findings, reinforce the contextual nature of change, as well as understanding the “people” ingredient to successful and sustainable change.

The timing of this NFP Change Management Masterclass is also important, as the entire not-for-profit sector is currently facing many direct and indirect challenges that leaders in this sector cannot avoid. These will directly impact them achieving their own strategic objectives, and, if left unchecked, will challenge their very existence. In this context, the findings of Dr Rosenbaum’s research, which forms the basis of the NFP Change Management Masterclass come at an important point in time, as organisational survival in this current market will be dependent on the ability for these not for profits to change service delivery models, organisational structures, and potentially, business models currently in use.

In the absence of a sustainable change management framework, these challenges may not be adequately addressed.

In response to the change management challenges that are connected to organisational sustainability, OPTIMUM NFP’s Change Management Masterclass for Nonprofit Organisations is being held in Sydney on Wednesday 12 September 2018, where participants will be introduced to NFP specific change management approaches which have directly resulted from the ground-breaking academic research.

Find out more about this innovative approach to change management and register your interest by following this URL – https://www.optimumnfp.com.au/masterclass.html