Nonprofits are in the business of change. They change lives, hearts, and minds. They advocate for changing laws, and they even change how people see themselves.
Yet here’s a remarkable irony: An overwhelming number of nonprofit leaders manage change inside their own institutions poorly, whether it’s a reorganization, merger, or expansion. So focused on impact and their work with clients, nonprofit leaders often fail to understand the dynamics of a situation or read and understand the resisting forces so they can create strategies that make change a reality.
But what about the impact of growth or change on organizations and how that change is embraced (or not)? Do leaders focus on reading their teams, understanding why people resist change, or how best to communicate and listen to them? Not so much.
In 2020, societal issues will be front and center as political candidates work to engage Americans on a host of issues. Nonprofits should take advantage of this focus to raise their profiles and, by extension, their reach and impact. And that means nonprofit leaders have to move fast and potentially adjust strategies.
In an episode of my podcast, Nonprofits Are Messy, I tackle the subject of managing change with Michael DePass, a senior member of the team at the Center for Creative Leadership. His advice about rapid growth sounds so simple: “The better you manage the tensions, the faster you can go.”
There’s a presumption in that statement. Leaders have to recognize that growth creates tension. They should acknowledge it and engage all staff members in how best to navigate through it.
Change is hard. In Finding Nemo, the hero, Marlin, comes to a scary, dark tunnel. It seems like the best solution is to go around it: That would be longer but less dangerous. Meanwhile, Dory, the beloved blue fish with short-term memory loss, has been told to tell Marlin he must not go around the tunnel; it’s surrounded by deadly jellyfish. Dory communicates the wrong information, of course, and Marlin tries to go around. He barely survives. The moral is clear: Sometimes you can’t go around it; you just have to go through it.
Common but Risky Reactions to Tension Caused by Change
“Going through it” presents many pitfalls. Here are some common reactions to managing change that reveal leaders’ blind spots and may thwart a leader’s ability to navigate organizational change:
- I need to worry about feelings? Sure do. Leaders believe they need to be externally focused to raise money and get the work done leaving little (or no) time for ensuring that people feel secure with the change and clear about the reasons for it. (You simply have to listen to the folks who are making the work happen.)
- Isn’t everyone on the same page? Not necessarily. The organization needs to grow, and you assume that folks just get that. So what’s the problem? (The problem may be that you as a leader may not be spending enough time igniting the team around the promise of change — keep stoking the flames to inspire passion for your mission!)
- Can’t we just add people without changing the structure? Uh. No. A bigger organization is a different organization. It needs to be managed differently. There will be new people with new ideas who are different from the veterans of the smaller organization. (There must be opportunities for folks to offer you input on what they need in terms of resources and structure to be successful. So listen up!)
- You expect me to find time to address diversity? Yes. You need to move fast to get the work done, but it takes time to find new recruiting streams to ensure a diverse candidate pool. A rapidly growing organization can easily become homogeneous, and those folks who represent any kind of diversity begin to feel like outliers. (Consider staggering the hires and engage in an incremental strategy, but be sure to develop a few key tactics to diversify your outreach and thus your candidate pool.)
- Can’t I just let folks work out conflicts themselves? No. Many leaders are remarkably conflict averse: part of the curse of being a “pleaser” perhaps? (If you feel this way, consider professional development. You can’t be a strong leader without learning to have hard conversations well.)
Those five points are just a start. So please share other examples in the comments box of leaders’ behavior you’ve witnessed that impedes change.
Ways to Minimize Internal Tensions
Don’t view tension as a problem to be solved. Let’s say your organization doubles in size in a two-year period. Once it was small and scrappy, now it’s bigger with more policies and procedures. If you position this new organization as different, you may lose folks who like “scrappy” and also lose some of what has been core to the organization’s impact. How can you still value those qualities in a bigger organization? It’s important to figure that out. It’s not a choice or a problem to be solved but rather a tension to be acknowledged and a dilemma to be managed.
How can a bigger organization still be nimble and scrappy? Ensure that your goals are broad enough to allow for creativity and brainstorming. I just worked with a CEO who said, “I don’t like goals and priorities; they thwart creativity.”
Yet her team members said they wanted some goals and priorities. During our discussions, the team heard that she values creativity in strategy and execution and the leader learned that goals and priorities are important. Using another example, perhaps the folks who used to go out for drinks together at the small and scrappy organization could share the value of that experience with the new team and brainstorm together about how to bring that value to life in a different format.
Encourage staff members to voice their opinions and then listen. If your staff feels voiceless, you risk creating a toxic culture. Folks come to nonprofits not for big year-end bonuses but for the opportunity to be a part of the solution. To keep them motivated and inspired, their voices must be heard and honored.
Ask your teams what kind of support they need. Try saying something like this: “I know we are moving fast, and I believe we all agree that we feel a sense of urgency about serving more clients. So what do you need to be successful in this rapid-growth environment? How can I and other senior leaders support you better? What should we do more of? What should we be doing less of?”
Stop and consider the unintended consequences of change and growth, think about each department and consider the board, too. You’ll probably see a lot of ripple effects that need to be discussed, but don’t assume you know them all.
Gather folks and talk about the benefits and unintended consequences of the shifts. Talk about everyone’s needs, about how to move quickly and maintain a commitment to your organizational values. Commit to meeting some of their requests and regularly check in with the group.
Remember: you don’t lead alone. If you ask, listen. If you listen, be open to, and prepared for, change. Consider a slower pace. Nonprofit leaders can be like dogs with bones (persistent) who also can’t move fast enough (goal-oriented). Analyzing unintended consequences can often make a compelling case for slowing down.
Here’s a bonus idea.
Learn about polarity thinking. My interview with Michael DePass offers a nice primer. Polarity thinking is a simple tool that might work nicely as a framework for a discussion about decreasing the tension that is inherent in change.
Navigating change well means adhering to your organizational values, both in your work and at the water cooler.
A leader’s failure to acknowledge and manage change can create an organizational culture that suffers from the same kinds of challenges you are trying to address in your work: power imbalances, staff members who feel voiceless, people who no longer feel valued because the organization has shifted its emphasis to a new priority.
As you fasten your seatbelts for the roller-coaster ride that will be 2020, please commit to making sure that the values that drive your work, that are at the core of your ability to effect change, are reflected in your meetings and at the water cooler and become part of the DNA of your team.
