• Home
  • Work with me
    • Design Your Organization's Future
    • Additional Services >
      • Do you have the right program mix?
      • Impact mapping
      • Create New Offerings
    • Results >
      • Catching up on growth
      • Focusing on the right things
      • Learning from one another
      • Emerging from a crisis
      • Building shared leadership
  • Goodies
  • Podcast
  • Learn More
    • Carol Hamilton
    • Contact
Grace Social Sector Consulting, LLC
  • Home
  • Work with me
    • Design Your Organization's Future
    • Additional Services >
      • Do you have the right program mix?
      • Impact mapping
      • Create New Offerings
    • Results >
      • Catching up on growth
      • Focusing on the right things
      • Learning from one another
      • Emerging from a crisis
      • Building shared leadership
  • Goodies
  • Podcast
  • Learn More
    • Carol Hamilton
    • Contact

Mission: Impact podcast

The downsides of reorganizations

1/22/2019

 
PicturePhoto by rawpixel.com from Pexels
​How many organizational restructurings have you been through? How many have actually improved how the organization worked? Too often in nonprofits and associations, restructuring and reorganizations happen for the wrong reasons.

​Reorganizing entire teams to solve one personnel problem

I have witnessed organizations that regularly restructured rather than dealing directly with problematic staff. A staff person was either ‘reorganized’ out of a job or their supervisory responsibility was taken away. Decisions about these changes were all done at the top of the organization. It seemed as though there was little thought given to how these changes would impact the work of those involved. One day people had one boss and a set of colleagues, the next day a different boss and new colleagues

Ripple effects

​The ripple effect of these changes lingers for weeks if not months. Energy is caught up in discussing the changes. Critiquing them, trying to discern the reasons behind them. For each new staff team they now have to adjust to a new boss, a new set of colleagues. They will have to spend time creating new team norms – whether explicitly or implicitly. Staffers have to learn the new boss’ expectations and communications style. More than just a ripple it is as if the water has been churned up in a pond or a river and you cannot see in front of you. While this churn is going on, actual work of the organization slows. The necessary gets done but any team that was in high gear and really performing before the reorganization is likely disrupted. Teams are knocked back to square one and have to rebuild.

​Down with Silos

Another reason organizations restructure is to promote “collaboration” or to be more customer centered. “We are breaking down the silos,” says management. Break them up, the thinking goes, and then people will work across team boundaries more easily. This may work for a short while people get used to the new structure. Yet if other aspects of the organization’s culture do not support cross-team collaboration, it will not last long. Over time the boundaries around the newly formed staff groups will get reestablished and the silos will rebuild. ​

​Finding the “right” structure won’t do it

​The key to promoting collaboration is not what the organizational structure is. It does not matter whether staff is organized by functional area, or geography or customer segment. Rather what regular cross-cutting mechanisms exist? Are there regular cross-cutting projects, task forces, committees that bring people together? These could be ongoing or for a specific project. Regardless of the topic, they serve to bring people together in different groupings. In these, people will build relationships and share information. 
 
Creating these cross-cutting groups – especially a series of short term projects that provide the opportunity for more people to be involved – will do much more than yet another reorganization for promoting organizational collaboration. Regular retreats can also help cultivate cross-cutting relationships. 
 
So consider restructuring with caution. Ask why you doing this and will it achieve what you are aiming for? Consider the ripple effects.

How many mistakes can you make today?

1/10/2019

 
Picture
Too many people – especially women – suffer from perfectionism. While it used to be that this was the perfect “weakness” to admit in a job interview, perfectionism gets in the way of performance rather than enhancing it. Perfectionists live in fear of mistakes. Gripped in this fear, they struggle with committing to a course of action, to get started, or to finish a project.

​Try and make mistakes

​I was talking to someone who was in the throws of perfectionism.  I joked – why not try and make mistakes? Set that as your goal. Make as many mistakes as possible today. I was joking but why not give it a try. You can’t learn without making mistakes so rather than avoid them why not try to have them? This seems very counterintuitive yet if you were to approach your day that way I am guessing you would jump into action – because how else would you up your mistake ante? Also I would guess that you are unlikely to make a lot of mistakes, but making that goal might make them seem a little less scary.

​What’s the “right” place to start?

​Another person was trying to figure out the “right” way to start doing more strategic work with her board. There were lots of reasons that the board was in an operational mode. Crises in the past had forced it to shift its focus to the day-to-day. With the crisis past it had not yet shifted gears. There were lots of possible ways to get started. But she was paralyzed with looking for the “right” one – the strategic one. Certainly there is value in being strategic for greater impact and efficiency. But searching for the perfect strategic action can also have the impact of not taking any action. My feedback to her – pick one and start as an experiment. See how it goes. It might not be the “right” one and if not, adjust and try something new. 

​Planning and experimenting

I love planning and love working with organizations to help them think through their future direction to help them be more strategic. At the same time, organizations trip themselves up when they fall into the trap of thinking that they can plan out everything in detail at the outset. You just do not know what of your plans will be a ‘mistake’ or a learning opportunity. The ‘mistake’ provides you the opportunity to shift gears and try something new. Try thinking of your plan as a series of experiments. This way you can hold the plan more lightly and be more open to learning. Identify a couple big goals to set your own or your organization’s direction. Plan in more detail for the first year of implementation, especially first actions. Then get started.

Need help thinking about how to get started? Inquire about a complementary coaching session.

    carol Hamilton

    My passion is helping nonprofit organizations and associations have a greater mission impact.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017

    Categories

    All
    Advocacy
    Associations
    Audience
    Awareness
    Board Development
    Book Review
    Branding
    Burn Out
    Business Model
    Change
    Change Leadership
    Communications
    Community
    Community Engagement
    Conflict
    Consultant
    Content
    Culture Fit
    Customer Centered
    Data Gathering
    Decision Making
    Decision-making
    DEI
    Delegation
    Design Thinking
    Digital Transformation
    Diversity
    Education
    Equality
    Equity
    Evaluation
    Executive
    Facilitation
    Funding
    Fundraising
    Grants
    Group Process
    Health
    Hiring
    Inclusion
    Influence
    Innovation
    Leadership
    Leadership Transition
    Lean Start Up
    Learning
    Lobbying
    Marketing
    Meetings
    Mentoring
    Messaging
    Mindfulness
    Mission Creep
    Money
    Nonprofit
    Nonprofit Life Cycles
    Nonprofits
    Online Meetings
    Online Organizing
    Operations
    Organization
    Organizational Culture
    Organizational Sustainability
    Organizations
    Pandemic
    Partnership
    Pause
    Poc
    Podcast
    Productivity
    Professional Development
    Reflection
    Reorganization
    Research
    Resolution
    Results
    Self Care
    Self-care
    Social Media
    Social Sector
    Somatics
    Storytelling
    Strategic Planning
    Strategy
    Strengths
    Succession
    Team
    Team Building
    Team-building
    Technology
    Transitions
    Trust Building
    Values
    Vicarious Trauma
    Virtual Environment
    Virtual Meetings
    Volunteers
    Wellness
    Workforce Development
    Workplace

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Grace Social Sector Consulting, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the Mission: Impact podcast, as well as the Mission: Impact blog with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.

Home    Work with me     Goodies     Podcast      About    Contact            


Telephone

301-857-9335

Email

info[at]gracesocialsector.com
Grace Social Sector Consulting, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in, including transcripts and audio of the Mission: Impact podcast and all content on this website, with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.
  • Home
  • Work with me
    • Design Your Organization's Future
    • Additional Services >
      • Do you have the right program mix?
      • Impact mapping
      • Create New Offerings
    • Results >
      • Catching up on growth
      • Focusing on the right things
      • Learning from one another
      • Emerging from a crisis
      • Building shared leadership
  • Goodies
  • Podcast
  • Learn More
    • Carol Hamilton
    • Contact