May 3, 2017 Change Management, Leadership, Managing People Well

Three positive ways to lead your NFP through uncertain and troubling times

It’s no secret that the not-for-profit sector has faced unprecedented instability in recent years, with uncertainty fast becoming the ‘new normal’.

The drastic drop in donations caused by the GFC, constant fluctuations in government funding and sweeping sector reforms like the NDIS are just three examples of massive change – and that doesn’t even touch on the increasingly volatile political climate both in Australia and overseas.

To start developing skills to help lead teams during these uncertain times, and to prepare for change in the future, here are three important lessons for leaders at all levels of your NFP.

March 1, 2017 Change Management, Organisational Strategy

Four key ingredients to building an innovation strategy for your NFP

“Innovation” is all the rage in Australia right now. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has urged an “ideas boom”, investing billions of dollars to promote private sector innovation.

But what about NFP organisations? NFPs need to innovate too, even though it’s by no means easy.

December 12, 2016 Change Management, Organisational Strategy

This new tool will help disability organisations plan and develop your workforce under the NDIS

The rollout of the NDIS has left many in the disability services sector with questions about what their future workforce will look like. Now, there’s a free online tool that aims to help answer all your questions.

October 5, 2016 Change Management, Health & Wellbeing, Human Resources, Organisational Strategy

Six steps to ensure your staff are ready when natural disasters strike

Just this week, we’ve had floods in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania and cyclonic storms in South Australia. Natural disasters – whether floods, droughts, heatwaves or bushfires – are rarely far from the headlines in Australia. Which makes it all the more shocking that 25 percent of community organisations say they might need to close permanently after an extreme weather event, while half think they’d be out of action for at least a week.

That’s why the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) suggests that community organisations are generally ill-prepared for disasters and emergencies. To help address this, ACOSS has developed a toolkit to help community organisations measure and improve their resilience in such circumstances.

July 18, 2016 Change Management, Leadership

How should a leader manage change? Oxfam Australia’s CEO Dr Helen Szoke shares her insights

In the lead-up to her keynote address at the 2016 Not-For-Profit People Conference in November, we spoke to Oxfam’s Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke about leading teams through transformative change – the highs, the lows, and what you can learn from one of Australia’s leading international aid and development NGOs to apply to your organisation’s change processes.

April 18, 2016 Change Management, Leadership, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy

Capacity Building and Change Management: A guide for community services

Did you know that up to 70 percent of organisational change initiatives fail?

A new guide to change management can help ensure yours isn’t one of them.

June 17, 2015 Change Management, Human Resources, Managing People Well

How to support staff – and yourself – through redundancies: a guide for NFP leaders

Have funding cuts and uncertainty left your organisation considering restructuring and/or redundancies? People are at the heart of all NFP organisations, so when the going gets tough ensuring people are treated with dignity and respect is of utmost importance. A new guide created specifically for not-for-profit leaders aims to help NFP leaders to manage staff […]

June 3, 2015 Change Management, Leadership, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy

Four elements of change management that every NFP leader should know

Frontline leadership expert and former human resources practitioner Karen Schmidt recently presented on “Leading people down the path of change” at a series of Not-For-Profit People Breakfasts in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. In this guest post, Karen uses her ‘Workplace Gardening Philosophy’ to outline four vital steps NFP leaders need to take to manage change […]

April 15, 2015 Change Management, Managing People Well, Organisational Strategy, Professional Development

Breakfast event: Leading people down the path of change

The not-for-profit sector in Australia is undergoing a period of unprecedented change. From government funding cuts to sector-wide restructures and government pressure for mergers, managing change is something virtually unavoidable for NFP leaders and HR professionals. So how can you not only cope, but thrive, in this environment of limited resources and constant change? The […]

November 25, 2014 Change Management, Human Resources, Managing People Well

HomeGround survived five organisational restructures in four years. Here are their HR team’s lessons for other NFPs facing change.

Could you imagine having to manage not one, not two – but five organisational restructures in four years? That’s the task that homelessness organisation HomeGround Services was faced with when it had its funding was cut and staff found themselves having to reinvent the organisation multiple times in in just four years. Not only did General […]