Happy New Year!
As we welcome 2017, the Brighter Strategies Blog will be exploring several core topics highly sought after by nonprofit leaders – people like you. As you read our posts this year, please share your ideas, opinions, and questions in the comment box. We want to hear your thoughts and answer your queries.
The first topic our clients have identified as vital to the work they do is organization development.
Organization development (OD) in simplest terms is the study of successful organization change and performance. Although the concept has been in existence since the 1930s, OD is enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the nonprofit management space, most likely because of its impact on employee engagement. Leaders in today’s global, diverse, and mobile workplace are desperate to motivate employees in new and effective ways. The perks and practices that attracted and retained workers several years ago carry little weight for today’s modern workforce. With new talent models such as contingent and contract work and new career expectations from multiple generations, the engagement rules are changing. Employers realize that motivating staff depends on the structure and health of organization-wide systems and processes, rather than “one-off” human resources or talent management initiatives.
Does this hit home for you?
Organization development and culture
During the next several months, we’ll discuss OD as it relates to culture.
Culture is certainly a buzz word today in the nonprofit sector, but what does it truly entail? Your culture encompasses shared norms, values, and behaviors. Often culture is so embedded in the collective experience of the organization and its employees that it’s difficult to define. At Brighter Strategies, we focus on strategic change, performance, and learning as a means for both identifying and transforming organizational culture.
Change:
As you seek to grow your organization by maximizing its culture, certain changes will be necessary. This month we’ll look at how change competencies can be developed within your nonprofit to create the culture that best serves your organization’s strategy.
Performance:
Strategic organization change that aims to transform culture is ultimately about improving performance – both in your organization’s processes and its people. Next month we’ll unpack the priorities of performance.
Learning:
Organization development is an ongoing process that is best accomplished in nonprofit agencies that champion learning. In March we’ll look at how organizations with rich cultures of learning are more adept at change and boast higher performance.
As you can see from the above “culture components,” change, performance, and learning build upon each other and contribute uniquely, yet simultaneously, to effective organization development. This idea serves to reinforce Brighter Strategies’s belief that organizations are living organisms with systems designed to work together, not in silos. Our goal is to help your organization make the most of your people, processes, and plans so you can deliver on your promises and perform at the top of your game. Click here for more information on our customized organization development and change management work.