Change Management
A framework or three
I’ve been consulting with Nonprofit organizations for over 15 years. Many of us Consultants, myself included, can be very proprietary about our own “secret sauces” to success with clients.
However, I think this can be a detriment to the wider community of consultants and Organizations. In my experience, I have learned from my colleagues doing work in the same spaces, and we all have our own philosophies, training techniques and priorities.
When I started my consulting practice in 2011, my main concern was making a difference for the organizations who hired me. I didn’t “know” how to be a consultant per se.
What I did know is my brain knows how to strategically solve problems and I understand the challenges most organizations experience in different life cycles.
I’ve since learned from many change management processes with clients, that typically the challenges were less about the changing, as we often could all agree on the end goal.
Rather the difficulty often showed up during discussions around implementation, or that the employees and leadership didn’t feel confident in the result or have an understanding a clear path forward. i.e “The Process.”
I quickly realized I needed to be better at articulating a framework, and steps to be able to achieve incremental wins along the path towards the finished project.
My style and process began to solidify. I discovered the change model that was really intuitive to my brain is a comprehensive mix of the Kotter’s 8 step Change Model, a fair amount borrowed from the McKinsey 7S and Deming’s 14 Points for Management.
In my practice, I tend to go for a less top-down approach to change than is outlined in Kotter, however, without the leadership of an organization on board, (bad pun, sorry) as a consultant, I won’t be effective without complete buy-in at all levels, including the leadership.
Change, even when wanted is often challenging — but it is entirely possible to fully integrate the change with patience and intention towards creating a more effective organization.
This article was originally posted on Medium in April 2023.
What I’m thinking about today : Time is a flat circle. There are still moments coming out of the pandemic where it hits me how much time has passed and how I still feel like I missed gaps of time in the past three years. It’s still very much a collective trauma we all experienced and sometimes it pops up in ways I least expect.
Favorite link of today: I have several friends looking for a new family member. Humane Societies are my go to place to start.
I’ve adopted both from the one in MN and the one in OR. I’d love to hear about your pet adoption story!
Favorite Podcast: Let’s Go to Court - a true crime comedy podcast. Yes, you read that correctly.
