Is Your Organisation Ready to Implement Change

Introducing C.A.R.C.

Your future survival will depend largely on your organisations ability to adapt & change in evolving markets.

OPTIMUM NFP announces the launch of the C.A.R.C.Initiative (Cultural Assessment for Readiness to Change).

This initiative has resulted from PhD research undertaken by David Rosenbaum which represents the latest research undertaken on change management in the Australian Nonprofit sector. David has presented his research and findings at key international conferences in Italy, the United States and the United Kingdom and is scheduled to present further aspects of the findings here in Australia and in the Netherlands in 2017.

What was the research about?

• It recognised the uniqueness of the NFP sector and its people;
• It identified the impact that such uniqueness had on sustainable change management;
• It researched change from the perspective of people experiencing and managing it.

Why is this research important?

• Australian nonprofit organisations are currently facing many challenges that question their very existence, in the provision of disability services, aged care services,employment services, community services, health, education, etc.;
• Organisational survival will be dependent on the ability to change service delivery models, structures, and/or business models. The key to success is to realise that organisations do not change, rather, people within them change. So unless your people are ready for change, in every sense of the process, sustainable change will not be guaranteed, irrespective of the quality of your change plans;
• Change processes can be costly, therefore failure will cost your organisation at a time when you can least afford it.
• The application of the findings of this research will ensure that people within your nonprofit can cope with change, thereby minimising costly failure.

How flexible is the C.A.R.C.?

• As an interview-based analysis it caters for all organisational sizes and settings
• In the absence of a one-size-fits-all approach, which is characteristic of many organisation-culture assessments, the C.A.R.C. is built around your organisation’s unique context, environment, people and requirements.
• Investment is based on number of staff interviewed, and therefore caters to all organizational sizes. 

The following represents the 6 key steps in the C.A.R.C. process:

1. Reach agreement of expectations and deliverables
2. Undertake a situational analysis from within the organisation
3. Create a Change-Success gap analysis
4. Identify detailed list of remedial actions
5. Undertake executive-level discussions
6. Complete a detailed Change Readiness Report including Change Action Plan

Contact David Rosenbaum of OPTIMUM NFP at drosenbaum@optimumnfp.com.au or 0411-744-911 to further discuss this new initiative and how your organisation may benefit from its implementation. 

Change Management Podcast - David Rosenbaum and the Australian Institute of Management Business School

David Rosenbaum being interviewed by Professor Elizabeth More, National Academic Director, Australian Institute of Management Business School

1st AIM Business School Podcast series

  

Change management is one of those issues that resonates with just about every organisation, irrespective of industry sector, and irrespective of the organisation's positioning. It is one of those challenges that has been in existence for decades and the extent to which organisations continue to be challenged by it, is recognition of its complexity. In truth there is no simple answer, nor is there a prescriptive approach that guides successful organisational change.

In my own PhD research into change management in the Australian nonprofit sector, I have identified a number of factors which are considered ingredients in successful change, and findings from this research has now been published internationally.

In the first of AIM Business School's podcast series, Professor Elizabeth More, National Academic Director of the Australian Institute of Management Business School interviews me to discuss this very broad topic, both in my capacity as a consultant in change, a researcher and author on change, and as National Unit Coordinator for the Australian Institute of Management MBA Program in the Unit entitled Strategic Organisational Change.

You can access this podcast by clicking on the following URL link:

https://soundcloud.com/user-797298966/david-rosenbaum-change-management

Please feel free to contact David Rosenbaum of OPTIMUM NFP on 0411-744-911 or at drosenbaum@optimumnfp.com.au to discuss change management in your organisation or to obtain further information about the Strategic Organisational Change Unit at the Australian Institute of Management Business School.

Culture of Change Readiness - Best way to overcome resistance to change

Making Changes within your Organisation? – Maybe you need to assess the extent to which your organization is ready.

Organisational sustainability and change go hand-in-hand. Many organisations introduce change, or initiate and plan for change, in response to a wide range of internal and external triggers. For some it could be the result of key staff departures providing the opportunity to review and potentially refresh the organizational structure. For others it could be the result of difficulties with the external environment necessitating changes to long standing business models that have not been previously challenged.

Such changes can be viewed in many different ways by the staff within the organisation. Some will view these potential changes as opportunities by virtue of embracing the unknown whilst improving whatever the shortcomings of the existing position may have been.  Others will view them as threats by virtue of being uncomfortable with the unknown and the sense of possible loss of position, control, influence or power.

Research in this field of change management and specifically in the area of “organizational readiness for change” has been extensive over the years. Some have contested that the lack of change readiness may be a key reason for organisations failing in their attempts to manage the changes that are introduced. Others have suggested that organisations that display high levels of internal flexibility and a change ready culture are far better able to adapt and absorb changes as they come up.

A further approach has been to suggest that the management of change may in fact be more successful if continuous change is the norm within the organisation, rather than focusing on specific changes at particular moments in time. This implies a more fluid approach to change rather than an ‘episodic’ approach characterised by piecemeal changes as and when they are perceived as being needed.

Alongside this recognition regarding the readiness for change, is the associated research regarding change resistance, which in many ways represents the two sides of the one coin, in that the more ready the organisation is to actively and positively work with change, the less change resistance and therefore the more likelihood of successful change outcomes.

Currently, my own PhD research being undertaken in the Not-for-Profit hospital sector reinforces this duality of change readiness and change resistance and highlights a broad range of characteristics which shape change readiness. Whilst skill and care may be applied to change management via effective project management, this latter activity does not recognize the emotional aspects of change as felt by those that are experiencing the change.  As such, good project management does not equate to good change outcomes. Understanding your staff responses to change must represent the other side of the ‘mechanistic’ aspects of change.

In response to this research, OPTIMUM NFP has developed the ‘CARC Program (Cultural Assessment for Readiness for Change)’, a process for evaluating change readiness within your organisation, using a range of qualitative research techniques to assess your organisations readiness to work with, and absorb, proposed changes. Information gleaned from this process can then be incorporated into the change program to effectively reinforce the process and achieve better change outcomes.

Happy to hear from organisational managers wishing to further discuss the process by which this research at your organisation can deliver positive outcomes witih regard future change management outcomes. Contact David Rosenbaum at OPTIMUM NFP for a no obligation discussion on how the CARC Program can be economically applied to your organisation – before the next change!