Managing Culture Change
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Change. Most people don’t like change. But it’s important to acknowledge that it is critical to growth, which means that we need to embrace it when it’s needed.
When you’re ready to lead your organization through a change in how you work (perhaps because you’ve adopted new technology or approaches), it’s important to note that change happens over time, and not all at once. As Ovid put it, “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence”.
You can lead your team through change by embracing people’s unique pace, and supporting their learning journey. You can’t force people to change, but you can create all the right conditions for their success.
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3 Myths that Surranna wants us to leave behind
You can’t afford new systems. We often hear that the upfront costs of changes in technology or ways or working are not justifiable. In fact, return on investment is relatively quickly realized.
Change means calling out people’s weaknesses. People think that supporting change means focusing on the struggles. Really, realising change means that you focus on your and your team’s strengths so that you can lead from abundance instead of from deficit.
We can’t afford to fail. Failure isn’t always a bad thing. Actually, failure can be productive as it highlights areas where growth can be achieved.
Surranna’s tips on managing culture change
Focus on the people not the tech. When navigating new tech or approaches to work, help staff recognize the benefits of the change on them and their work. They need to see how change will make their work more effective
Subheading. Find peer evangelists to help drive change. Colleagues supporting each other to see not just the struggles of adapting to change, but the clear benefits that result. Encouragement coming from a peer is more effective than a top-down approach.
Lead from Strength. Instead of highlighting people’s challenges and weakness, consider a “Strengths Finder” approach where you can identify people’s areas of strength and create an inventory from them. This will help identify what skills are still needed on the team as well as ensuring that you’re leveraging skills and abilities that you may not have known already exist internally!
My favourite quotes from today’s episode
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“So let's leverage everything with COVID to build good infrastructure and have the best tools in place that allow your clients to better access the services that you're offering that he greatly needs. I think that's critical for us to do.”
“I think the biggest success for us [when adapting to new ways of working] is when other frontline staff became evangelists. And they became super users and showed the value, and that was our missionaries. They're the ones who are pushing, so it wasn't just managers saying, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to do because in your goals," it's your peer saying, "This is amazing. I love it. This makes my life better.”
Resources from this Episode
The Small Nonprofit is produced by Eloisa Jane Mariano
