Change Happens – How to Take Charge as a Nonprofit

Movementum Moment – Episode 6

How prepared was your nonprofit for the changes in 2020?

As Philip Crosby, an expert on total quality management once said, “Good things only happen when planned; bad things happen on their own.”

Nonprofit’s experience ongoing change due to numerous and often simultaneous external factors that are beyond their control. Many of these factors can be uncovered and managed through conducting a SWOT analysis discussed last week. But, in the end, it is your people that have to accept, adapt and act on the change. Your nonprofit’s success culminates in your constituent’s desire, knowledge, and ability to make it happen successfully. So to build and implement an effective change management strategy you need to address both the process and the people. To be successful you must take an assessment of your change management process and ensure you answer the important questions concerning how you assess, prepare, manage and reinforce the necessary change.

To assess your organization’s ability to change you need to identify any roadblocks that may be in the way. As you prepare for the change can you need to assign a lead who can establish a sense of urgency and ensure the knowledge is acquired and as many of the roadblocks identifies are removed? When you begin to manage through the change you need to identify the short-term wins and celebrate them to build momentum. And finally, once implemented how do you ensure the change will be sustained? What are the plans to reinforce and anchor the change into the culture of the organization?

As you work through the process you also have to simultaneously address the change down to the individual level. The ADKAR model is a great coaching tool to support individuals through the process.

1. Each individual in the organization needs to have a clear understanding and awareness of the need to change.
2. They need the desire to support and participate in the change.
3. They need the knowledge of how to change through education and training. 4. They need to have the acquired skills and resources giving them the ability to implement the change.
4. They need continual reinforcement to sustain the required change.

Understanding each of these steps and providing an assessment of your organization’s ability to implement them is critical to your success.

For a copy of the How-to-Guide, “Creating A Strategy Playbook Through Change Management”, click on the link. For a copy of the Roadmap that takes you through each step of the process to build a strong strategy marketing brand and digital marketing strategy, click here.