Resources
Build a Communications Plan to Support Change
By Rachel Sams Across NRMC’s client portfolio, employees tell us they’re overwhelmed by time-sensitive requests from all parts of their organizations, on many different platforms. This sense of overwhelm holds true for people who work at three-person nonprofits and those with thousands of employees. A daily barrage of communications combined with a change management effort … Continued
A Step-by-Step Guide to Change Management
By Rachel Sams Many organizational change efforts will fail—up to 70 percent of them, depending on which experts you ask. What makes the difference? What factors make a change take hold, and what can make a change fall flat? I’ve led my share of organizational change efforts that succeeded, as well as changes that flopped. … Continued
What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know About Change
By Rachel Sams Years ago, when I was a reporter for a business journal, the editing team met behind closed doors each week to select stories for Page 1. Then our editor decided to make a change. She told us the team would gather for a weekly Page 1 meeting. Each reporter would pitch one … Continued
Build a Communications Plan to Support Change
By Rachel Sams Across NRMC’s client portfolio, employees tell us they’re overwhelmed by time-sensitive requests from all parts of their organizations, on many different platforms. This sense of overwhelm holds true for people who work at three-person nonprofits and those with thousands of employees. A daily barrage of communications combined with a change management effort … Continued
A Step-by-Step Guide to Change Management
By Rachel Sams Many organizational change efforts will fail—up to 70 percent of them, depending on which experts you ask. What makes the difference? What factors make a change take hold, and what can make a change fall flat? I’ve led my share of organizational change efforts that succeeded, as well as changes that flopped. … Continued
What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know about Change
By Rachel Sams Years ago, when I was a reporter for a business journal, the editing team met behind closed doors each week to select stories for Page 1. Then our editor decided to make a change. She told us the team would gather for a weekly Page 1 meeting. Each reporter would pitch one … Continued
Navigating Change Management Risk
Change fatigue presents major risks to the mission of every nonprofit as the pace of change continues to increase. But a few best practices can help nonprofit teams navigate change and continue to improve their service to the community.
Ready for Change: Risk Imperatives for 2024
by Rachel Sams and Melanie Lockwood Herman Are you and your team reeling from a constant barrage of pivots, reinventions, and reimaginations? Hoping change will slow down in 2024? Not a chance. The pace of change for nonprofits and the world around us won’t even stay the same. It will accelerate. Those rapid changes hold … Continued
Traveling via TARDIS: Managing Risk with the Risk Time Machine
Prepare for risk events while traveling in style and across time like The Doctor. Doctor who, you ask? This time The Doctor is YOU! Attend this webinar to learn how to use NRMC’s Risk Time Machine worksheet to assess a specific risk while practicing both reflection and foresight. Learn how to lead a team through … Continued
Pace of Change Worn You Out? You’re Not Alone
By Rachel Sams I led dozens of change management initiatives in my years running a newsroom. But the toughest professional change I ever faced came when I unexpectedly got a new boss. That’s a common reaction, according to an article from consultancy Gartner. Changes that affect someone’s daily work life, like an assignment to a … Continued
Lessons from the Pandemic: On the Road to the Next New Normal
Risk programs have been forced to adapt rapidly during the pandemic. All nonprofits have had to pivot in myriad ways to respond to the ever-changing situation. This “Black Swan” event left many nonprofits scrambling to adapt risk assessments, policies and procedures, and risk management practices. In this webinar, we explore graceful adaptations and silver linings … Continued
It’s About Time
By Whitney Claire Thomey I recently succumbed to a barrage of ads and installed Blinkist on my phone. If you haven’t heard, this app is a crib-notes tool for lovers of nonfiction audiobooks. The app distills a vast array of nonfiction books into 15-minute soundbites. The app’s bold promise? To turn your unallocated time into … Continued
2021: Are You Ready?
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. – Rosa Parks By Whitney Claire Thomey A common sentiment among anyone surviving the first year of this new decade is, “I can’t wait for this year to be over!” … Continued
Business Continuity Planning: 5 Steps to Build Resilience
Join this fast-paced webinar to learn the fundamentals of business continuity planning for nonprofits. The presenters will share 5 steps to building resilience that can be applied to any organization. They will also help you understand the key insurance-related issues and considerations applicable to business interruptions and continuity planning. Worried about the ‘next’ interruption or … Continued
Name the Elephant: Coping with the Biggest Risk to Your Mission
By Melanie Lockwood Herman This week I’m reading An Insider’s Guide to Risk Management, by David M. Rowe. In Chapter 8, Product Innovations and Insurgent Competition, Rowe explores the intersection of change and risk management. One of the themes in the chapter is what Rowe describes as the tendency to “concentrate so much on the … Continued
How to Prepare for 2021: Insights from NRMC Advisors
In early 2020 NRMC formed a Corporate Advisory Committee (CAC); the employers of CAC members provide financial support for NRMC’s educational mission. We invited members of this new advisory team for their insights on the impacts of COVID-19 and the recession, as well as their ideas about how to best prepare for 2021. For this … Continued
Learn, Adapt, Repeat
“Those at the top of an organization typically used to say that the answer lay in a sound plan. . . The reason for this is the underlying conceit that we can both know the future and master it. That has always been a dubious claim, but in today’s uncertain environment it is patently ridiculous. … Continued
Find Inspiration in an Epic Fail
“It’s extremely liberating and honest to admit that we know very little about almost everything. This is not to make us feel small and insignificant, but rather to make us feel excited about how much we still have to learn.” – John Hunt, The Art of the Idea By Melanie Lockwood Herman It’s not often … Continued
Question Everything
“The ability to ask questions is the greatest resource in learning the truth.” – Carl Jung I’ve just finished reading Questions Are the Answer, by Hal Gregersen. This terrific book has inspired me to scribble more than usual. I’ve been jotting down questions on scraps of paper, adding questions to our staff meeting agendas, and … Continued
Got Growth? Managing Risk When Your Nonprofit is on the Rise
By Christy Grano and Melanie Lockwood Herman For several years our NRMC team has had the opportunity to work with a number of nonprofits that have grown rapidly from a small capable corps of nimble and idealistic pioneers to strong, sustainable organizations with functions, departments, and even signs of bureaucracy. We’re grateful for the opportunity to … Continued
Resolve to be Resolute
Eat healthy, exercise more, save money-sound resolutions, all. How many of us will still be at it after January? Surveys suggest that somewhere on the order of 80 percent of resolutions fail. This may explain why 30–day challenges have become popular, and in many cases have replaced the yearlong commitment of a New Year’s resolution. A quick … Continued
Risk Management Activity Planning: How to Get Unstuck after a Risk Assessment
Risk assessment can sometimes be overwhelming, resulting in a lengthy, daunting list of risks that need to be managed. Prioritizing the list of risks is another challenge, often resulting in arbitrary numerical scores. Attend this webinar to simplify your approach to risk assessment, and to focus your energy on implementing risk management activities instead of … Continued
Managing Risk in a World of Change: Turn and Face the Strange
By Melanie Lockwood Herman Three of the questions we often ask during NRMC Risk Assessments or ERM Engagements are: What is the most significant, recent change in your organization? What disruptive changes are going on now? If we were to return a year from now, what would be decidedly different? As you might have guessed, … Continued