Managing Change in an Organization

Any organization undergoing transition is in the process of managing change. To manage change effectively, the organization’s leaders should look forward and ask themselves important questions, including:

1. Goals: What results are we trying to achieve? What does success look like for us? How will we achieve them?
2. Governance: Who makes decisions, and at what levels of the organization? What decisions should the Board of Directors make? What decisions should the chief executive and the staff make?
3. Capabilities: What capabilities do we need to be successful in achieving our goals?
4. Structure: How should we structure ourselves to optimize our effectiveness?
5. Culture: What kind of culture do we want? What values do we want to guide our behavior?
6. Feedback: How do we measure our performance? How can we design “learning loops” so that the right people have the right information at the right time?
7. Continuous improvement: How can we best assure that we are continuously improving the services and products we deliver?

A skilled outside consultant can be invaluable in helping an organization navigate change and address these different questions. The consultant can provide insights into where the organization is currently – and where it needs to evolve – in order to operate at a higher level. An outside consultant can also provide immense value by guiding the process and providing the perspective to focus the organization on the right things in the right sequence – so that the process of change occurs in a careful, thoughtful way – and to keep the process moving.

We work with Boards of Directors, executives, and management teams to achieve higher levels of performance by:

• Facilitating strategic planning processes to assure that leaders share a common vision of where the organization is going and what results it intends to achieve.
• Helping to clarify what the Board and executive staff need to do to achieve those results.
• Developing feedback loops so that performance measures are used at all levels to help people make decisions.
• Coaching Boards of Directors and leaders in the skills of effective governance, decision making, leadership, and management.
• Assuring that roles and responsibilities are clarified at each level of the organization.

LRI’s consulting is designed to achieve real, meaningful change for our clients.

Eric Douglas

Eric Douglas is the senior partner and founder of Leading Resources Inc., a consulting firm that focuses on developing high-performing organizations. For more than 20 years, Eric has successfully helped a wide array of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and corporations achieve breakthroughs in performance. His new book The Leadership Equation helps leaders achieve strategic clarity, manage change effectively, and build a leadership culture.