Globally, there are hundreds of thousands of different social interventions and initiatives developed by not-for-profit organizations, groups or associations. From promoting family planning, to environmental sensitization, encouraging increase in school enrollment, or discouraging early marriage and female genital mutilation, peace building, among many others, the overall goal or intended impact of these initiatives are often to introduce systematic change in the way things are done and the way people think, behave or see life. It is very surprising, to note that despite the millions of dollars that International Development Organizations and multi-national corporates through their Corporate Social Responsibilities are pumping into Africa and other developing countries, there problems seem not to be going away. There are many projects that reach high number of target beneficiaries but the level of change adoption among these beneficiaries is low.
PROJECTS WITH HIGH NUMBER REACH, BUT LOW CHANGE EFFECT ON BENEFICIARIES
During my few years in the nonprofit space, I have seen many massive projects struggle to achieve the desired change or the intended impact because of poor change management. Indeed, the risk of failure is high due to many missing links and change gaps in the programme design. I recall one of the projects where a U.S based company approved a $125,000 grant for teacher development in one of the states in Nigeria. The project focused a lot on introducing new teaching methodologies, empowering the teachers with 21st pedagogic skills and technologies, including boosting subject competencies of educators among others. After the training which reached over 4,000 beneficiaries in that state, it was realized that the teachers were not applying what they had been taught. The monitoring and evaluation team came back with reports like, ‘it is too stressful’, ‘this strategy cannot work in a public school’, ‘we don’t have the luxury of time’; ‘we don’t even understand what to do’ ‘the school leader said we should do it the old way’ among several others. This is an example of a change project that succeeded in reaching large numbers of stakeholders, but struggled to actualize effective behavioural change in the beneficiaries or the host communities.
I equally recall another safe water intervention in one of the Eastern parts of Nigeria. The not-for-profit wanted to provide access to potable clean water for residents of that community and went on to install boreholes across strategic parts of the community. Few months after the project completion, the M&E team visited the community and realized that the people were still fetching water from the streams and dirty rivers. Resources were mobilized, activities were completed, but the people resisted the change by ignoring the boreholes for unclean water. The people didn’t understand why they had to suddenly stop their age-long practices and start getting water from hand-operated boreholes.
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THE MISSING GAP-
Overtime, I realized that many of the project leads in most not-for-profit organizations are not trained or certified project managers or change practitioners. These project leads have wonderful, evidence-based interventions but are unable to properly implement the technical and the people side of the interventions because of project management and change management competency gaps. Where project management competency is within the organization, change management is lacking. For grant-making organizations to get value for their social investments, it should be a competency requirement for fund-seeking organizations to have a certified project manager and/or a certified change management practitioner on the project team. Building a strong project team with these competencies to executive change initiatives can be the game changer and boost the chances of achieving successful change. Funding requests by nonprofits without these competencies need to be questioned going forward. Where these competencies are lacking, and the proposal is promising, the funding organizations should ensure that key leaders on the project are empowered with these skills. Not-for-profit organizations are significant players in global development. As the third sector of the economy, not-for-profits fill up the gaps that the private or public sectors could not fill up. They have the capacity to record notorious growth and contribute significant to the overall achievement of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The possibilities are endless with not-for-profits if they begin to build professional competencies in implementing and leading change.
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WHY IS PROSCI CHANGE MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATION IS IMPORTANT FOR NONPROFITS?
It is important to note that the best and most innovative interventions would fail if the change process is poorly managed. In this article, we have highlighted a few reasons why not-for-profits should begin to invest in building change management competencies for their team.
- NOT-FOR-PROFITS ARE ALL ABOUT CHANGE.
Nonprofit organizations are arguably in a perpetual state of change. Non-for-profits must constantly scan, analyze, and adapt to the implications of the changing needs of clients, the community, funders, and government policy. Hence, the core competencies and capabilities of non-for-profits must include how to effectively manage change. The knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees, volunteers, and managers must include the competencies required to formulate and implement strategies to manage planned and unplanned change. Regardless of the objectives of any not-for-profit project, the desired impact is to achieve positive change in a community or among a group of persons through an intervention. Even the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals centre around thematic pillars to change how things are done, how systems operate, how people are treated etc. is what guarantees successful change results.
- CHANGE MANAGEMENT HELPS NOT-FOR-PROFITS ADAPT WELL.
Rapid transformation is now the new normal as workforces and technologies shift. Throw in a pandemic and being able to move quickly becomes even more important. For non-for-profits that want to build a change-agile culture, the Prosci Methodology and ADKAR Model offer an elegantly simple simple framework for enabling employees, volunteers and leaders to move through transitions and adopt change. We understand that not-for-profits are trying to do so much with so little resources which further justifies why agility, through change management competencies remain key. The world is a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous terrain and change management competencies help to build resilience to remain relevant and thrive in cases of emergencies. Different project beneficiaries are most likely to require different change messages and change approach. With Prosci Methodology, it becomes elegantly simple to adjust, adapt, and apply effective change strategies that reinforces the likelihood of change success. This goes a long way into the sustainability of the nonprofits and the projects they design.
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- APPLICATION OF ADKAR MODEL REDUCES THE LEVEL OF RESISTANCE FROM BENEFICIARIES OR STAKEHOLDERS.
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- IT GUARANTEES IMPACTFUL RETURN FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT.
You must have read that investment in change management is a smart investment: one that gives assurance of a good return on investment. Similarly, Prosci change management training for nonprofits increases quality project impact and the likelihood of project success for every fund put into a project intervention as social investments. Effective application of the Prosci Change Management methodologies can put an end to project execution without quality results impacts. Prosci’s research consistency shows that organizations with excellent change management achieve greater success with change. Results indicate that projects are seven times more likely to achieve their objectives; 4.6X more likely to stay ahead of the schedule; and 1.4X more likely to stay on budget.
- INCREASES THEIR CHANCES OF GETTING MORE FUNDING FOR MORE PROJECTS.
Most nonprofits bend over backwards to get funding. They deal with complex grants that prioritize direct delivery of services or projects, which creates additional pressure when deciding how to change. Grant making organizations and donors are always interested in the quality of the project implementation team. Having one or two members of the project team who are Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioners will boost donor confidence in the capability of that team to achieve the project objectives and this may be an added advantage. Possessing change management certification shows the donors that your nonprofit organization is equipped to navigate and implement changes effectively.
- REDUCED RESISTANCE TO PROJECT INTERVENTION OBJECTIVES OR INTENDED CHANGE
Source: Prosci Research Hub
15% of change management obstacles are associated with resistance to change. Statements such as ‘it is too stressful’, ‘this strategy cannot work in a public school’, ‘we don’t have the luxury of time’; ‘we don’t even understand what to do’ ‘the school leader said we should do it the old way’ as established in the earlier part of the article are characteristics of resistance to change. Resistance to change could be costly leading to delayed project, project abandonment, failed objectives, high financial risk, inefficient processes, poor outcomes or unachieved goals among others. Prosci’s 3-Phase process, is designed to prevent resistance and increases the level of buy-in, support, and adoption for the intended users of the change.
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- QUALITY PROGRAMME/INTERVENTION DESIGN
With a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner on a project team, the quality of the intervention design or proposal development is enriched. His/Her expertise of the change processes, its tools and methodologies aid the design or a practical, promising and effective theory of change. Unlike most projects that only have project plans, a change practitioner brings on board key expertise by designing effective change management plans and how to ensure all stakeholders are carried along throughout the change process, improve the chances of acceptance and less resistance. Furthermore, by enrolling on the Prosci Certified Change Management program, you will have access to dynamic tools and templates that will help the effective design, execution, leading, and evaluation of the change initiative.
CONCLUSION:
Change Management Certification will make significant impact and different in the not-for-profit sector and the results could be felt across the world. There will be more projects or change initiatives achieving their core objectives, increased change acceptance, more quality impacts and still delivered within time, scope and budget. Non-for-profits need to be intentional about developing key competencies in change management and project management. Similarly, international development organizations, funders, or corporate sociate investors could also allocate some percentages of approved funds to empower one or two members of the project team to acquire change management certifications. The results are obvious and the evidences are all over the internet that investment in Prosci Change Management Certificate program is a smart investment.
