Tackling Organisational Inertia
A Holistic Approach for UK Non-profits
Organisational inertia, defined as resistance to change and adherence to the status quo, is not exclusive to the for-profit sector; it's a pressing issue for non-profits in the United Kingdom, now more than ever. Post-pandemic, CEOs of charities and non-profit organisations face an uphill battle. They are grappling with financial strain due to decreased donations, soaring operational costs amidst a cost-of-living crisis, and a troubling dip in pace and productivity. More concerning is the growing disconnect staff feel from the organisation's core purpose, leading to a lack of initiative to innovate or even sustain operational efficiency.
However, there's a silver lining. Some leaders have effectively counteracted inertia by reinvigorating their organisation's purpose, crystallising strategy, shattering operational silos, and rebuilding trust. These success stories underscore the power of robust internal communication, employee engagement, continuous learning, and a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
This article explores the complex nature of organisational inertia in UK non-profits, focusing on purpose, operational excellence, relationships and values, and trust. It offers practical strategies for those ready to tackle these pervasive challenges head-on.
Context: A shift in work dynamic
Before delving into the specifics of organisational inertia, it's essential to acknowledge the profound challenges and changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The enduring impact of COVID-19 on work dynamics and continuous social tensions have significantly challenged even the most resilient corporate cultures. The pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work, agile practices, advanced technologies, and automation. Workers in central London, for instance, now spend an average of 2.3 days in the office per week, showcasing the significant shift towards flexible work arrangements.
This transformation in work dynamics has prompted organisations to reassess the role of traditional office spaces. While many considered offices critical to productivity and fostering company culture, the pandemic has revealed that remote work can offer increased flexibility, reduced commuting times, and access to a wider talent pool. However, it's important to recognise that the impact of remote work varies across individuals and job roles. While some have thrived in this new environment, others have faced challenges in maintaining productivity and a sense of connection with their colleagues.
The post-pandemic has shown how important employee engagement is in creating lasting changes in behaviour, culture, and the way organisations are structured, especially in how employees connect with their work. It is crucial to understand that employee engagement is about the emotional commitment of an employee to their organisation, not just job satisfaction or monetary rewards. It is a critical consideration necessitating strategic efforts from senior management to foster strong emotional bonds that encourage long-term commitment from employees.
Diagnostic: Is your organisation suffering from inertia?
Our work with UK charities and non-profit organisations has highlighted common symptoms of inertia:
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Purpose ambiguity: The organisational mission seems unclear or not resonant with current societal challenges and needs.
Uncertain focus: The activities delivered by the organisation are not fully aligned with the mission and purpose due to a lack of clarity on what is impactful.
Static thinking: Leaders and managers are unable to understand the impact of the change in the ecosystem, and question current practices.
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Resistance to new ideas: Fresh initiatives often encounter pushback with classic retorts like "This isn't how we operate."
Reluctance to Adopt New Technology: The organisation is steeped in inefficient ways of working despite better solutions being available.
Reduced pace and productivity: Projects and activities are delayed and potentially paused due to a perceived lack of time
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Lack of trust between teams: Teams do not value or question the functional expertise of other colleagues, leading to a duplication of functions and activities.
Low talent retention: Changemakers are frustrated and leave while employees who are resistant to change stay.
Decreased engagement: There is a drop in engagement from stakeholders, suggesting your offer and ways of working might be perceived as outdated.
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Diversity and inclusion issues: Lack of representation and inclusivity at all levels hints at a stagnant organisational culture resistant to modern societal changes.
Cultural stagnation: The organisation's culture promotes the status quo, discouraging experimentation and new methodologies.
Action: Eight areas for consideration
To navigate these changes effectively, organisations must break free from the inertia of the past.
This means realising the necessity of strategic focus, operational excellence, robust relationships, and strong value systems.
Strategically, it is vital to revisit the organisation's purpose, ensuring it resonates with current societal needs and provides a clear, motivating direction for all stakeholders. This clarity in mission must be matched by a clear strategic direction, eliminating ambiguities, enhancing collaboration, and ensuring a concentrated effort on impactful activities.
Operationally, excellence should be the continual pursuit, instilling a drive for quality and innovation in every team member. The post-COVID era demands a reconstruction of traditional ways of working, integrating the efficiencies of remote work while retaining the benefits of in-person interactions, all streamlined by optimised and automated processes.
Relationally, restoring trust is paramount. The foundation of all internal cooperation, trust enhances productivity and innovation. Parallel to this, revamping employee engagement is critical. Engagement, now more complex in remote or hybrid models, requires a holistic approach, balancing employee needs with organisational goals and fostering a transparent, trust-filled environment.
Values-wise, diversity and inclusion must move from buzzwords to practices, with tangible goals and accountable measures ensuring a variety of perspectives enrich decision-making. Simultaneously, nurturing a culture of confidence and adaptability, particularly through continuous learning and upskilling, prepares employees for ongoing changes, sustaining organisational resilience and excellence.
In essence, the road ahead for most charities and non-profit organisations is one of introspection, strategic clarity, operational agility, relational trust, and an unwavering commitment to values. Although you will need to assess the root causes of your potential organisation’s inertia and determine your own journey, here are eight actions that you may consider:
Strategic Focus
Reaffirm Purpose
The organisation's purpose is your driving force, and periodically realigning it with the current context and societal needs is essential. By revisiting and reaffirming your mission and theory of change, you ensure that your efforts remain relevant and impactful. Regularly reinforcing the mission's significance helps sustain motivation among team members and maintains a clear direction for your organisation. This process is critical when you need to prioritise some activities and potentially make difficult choices. It helps to re-ignite a sense of purpose and cultivate a shared commitment to your overarching goals.
Communicate Strategy
More than a marketing statement, a well-defined strategy fosters alignment among your stakeholders, engages your board and staff members and enhances action through clear objectives and performance measurements. Additionally, it acts as a powerful antidote to organisational silos, as it encourages collaboration between teams and functional areas. As part of the strategy, we have seen the benefits of having an impact framework to help the organisation make conscious decisions considering both impact and financial sustainability. Often, we have seen examples of organisations doing too many things and being unable to focus on what matters the most to the achievement of their goals.
Operations
Define Excellence
Excellence is the cornerstone of a thriving non-profit organisation. Excellence is not a static destination but a dynamic pursuit of continuous improvement and innovation. By fostering a culture of excellence, you encourage team members to aspire to greatness in everything they do. This shared understanding of excellence acts as a guiding principle that steers decision-making, influences behaviour, and shapes the organisation's culture. Moreover, it promotes collaboration as teams align their practices, tools, and language to consistently pursue quality and excellence. To support this culture, you can encourage team members to brainstorm and suggest improvements regularly. As initiated by a children’s charity, periodic in-person problem-solving sessions can serve as a starting point for generating fresh ideas and enhancing ways of working.
Reconstruct Work
Comprehensive reevaluation of processes and practices is essential to prevent corporate inertia, especially in the post-COVID era. non-profits must embark on a transformative journey to deconstruct and rebuild how work is done across the organisational value chain. This entails embracing the integration of remote and hybrid working models, harnessing the potential of new technologies and data, and pinpointing core responsibilities and capability requirements. By reimagining and reconstructing processes and practices, non-profits lay the foundation for an improved operating model that effectively blends the strengths of both in-person and remote work environments. This transformative approach encourages organisations to clarify accountabilities, eliminate redundant tasks, streamline workflows, and optimise resource allocation. Furthermore, it fosters a culture of collaboration by breaking down traditional silos and fostering cross-functional teamwork. By deconstructing value chains and reimagining workflows, a major health and social care non-profit has been able to overcome these challenges and pave the way for a more agile, responsive and resilient organisation
Relationships
Restore Trust
Trust is the bedrock of effective collaboration within non-profit organisations. Restoring trust, especially among teams, and fostering respect for each other's functional capabilities and knowledge is paramount to preventing corporate inertia. Rebuilding trust entails recognising the expertise that each team brings to the table and acknowledging the value of diverse perspectives. This needs to be considered in the redefinition of work (as mentioned above) as you want to have a clear and common understanding of the role of each functional team in your value chain. When teams trust one another and have confidence in their colleagues' abilities, they can work together harmoniously towards shared goals. This collaborative spirit enables you to harness the full spectrum of your collective abilities, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency. Moreover, a culture of trust fosters innovation, as team members feel empowered to experiment with new ideas and approaches.
Enhance Employee Engagement
Valuable lessons have emerged for enhancing employee engagement post-Covid 19. Defined as the emotional commitment employees have towards their organisation, employee engagement goes beyond mere satisfaction or compensation. It is an organisational imperative that requires attention from leadership. To boost engagement, you need to adopt a 'supportive management' approach with regular check-ins and coaching-like feedback. It is important to foster a positive work environment by ensuring work fits into employees' lives with options like remote work, childcare facilities, and mental health support. However, this needs to be balanced. Delivering the purpose of the organisation remains the priority and the work needs to be done in an effective and efficient manner. It is important to have this dialogue with employees so that your ways of working consider both the organisation’s goals and the employee’s needs. Finally, you should encourage 'trust in leadership' by maintaining transparent communication, investing in employee learning and development, and establishing feedback loops to sustain trust and engagement.
Values
Prioritise Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity is a necessity for a healthy organisation. There are proven benefits in introducing variety in experiences, backgrounds, and thoughts at each level of the organisation. This diversity can lead to more inclusive decision-making and richer perspectives, which are essential for driving innovation and resilience. However, despite growing awareness of the importance of diversity, progress in this area has been slow. Leaders must create accountability for progress by setting clear diversity goals, articulating them, and identifying new actions required to achieve them. Through our work on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and in particular evaluating DEI initiatives, we have seen the benefits of starting to measure DEI in an organisation, benchmarking the results, developing DEI strategies and introducing programmes such as training and mentoring.
Build Confidence and Adaptability
The change in ways of working through the adoption of new technologies has created knowledge gaps in most organisations. Beyond recruiting new talents, ensuring continuous training and learning is instrumental in achieving organisational excellence and fostering adaptability. This commitment to ongoing learning empowers employees to stay updated with the latest skills and knowledge, which is paramount in maintaining high standards of excellence.
By organising regular training initiatives, you can equip your teams with the tools and expertise needed to excel in their roles. Additionally, it cultivates a culture of adaptability, where employees are not only open to change but actively seek opportunities to improve and innovate. This dedication to ongoing learning is not an isolated effort but a continuous journey that aligns with your organisation's broader goals. It serves as a linchpin for the successful implementation of redesigned processes and the adoption of new ways of working.
Conclusion
In navigating the complexities of the current environment, you must remember that your purpose remains their guiding star. By reaffirming your mission and theory of change, your organisation can stay relevant, focused and motivated, even in challenging times. Additionally, clear strategic direction, trust among teams, innovative ways of working, and a commitment to excellence are the building blocks of resilience and impact. Furthermore, prioritising diversity and inclusion, along with continuous training and learning, ensures that your organisation remain agile and responsive to evolving needs.