Nonprofit technology change management is the art and science of helping people to prepare for changes or disruptions that will be occurring—or respond to changes that are already happening.
Change Management Is…
A good nonprofit technology change management approach relies on:
- Clearly defining and gaining agreement on the change that is to take place
- Identifying the impact of those changes on technology users and other affected persons
- Preparing for those impacts by leveraging good
- Leadership alignment
- Communications
- Training
- Support
Change Management Is Not…
Good nonprofit technology change management is not making everybody happy about the change—that is a frequent misconception. Change management is about making sure that everybody is ready for the change.
Of course, we would prefer everyone be happy! But generally speaking, as humans we are only a fan of change that we can dictate. It’s just not in our nature, so to speak, for us to be as change tolerant as we might want to be or should be. Good change management practices can help provide the supports we all need to be successful, and hopefully all find our happiness in that success!
Do You Need Change Management?
Nonprofits often ask us:
- “Do I need change management?”
- “What size of project requires change management?”
- “What complexity of technology project requires change management?”
The simple way to answer that question is: if your technology change requires people to adjust their behavior in order to achieve your goals, you need change management.
Need Some Technology Change Management Help?
There are a ton of books, articles, frameworks, and tools out there for change management—and the subject can often be presented with such complexity as to make it seem unapproachable.
But Build has simplified nonprofit technology change management to make it approachable and actionable for all sizes of organizations and projects. We use this approach through all of our nonprofit technology consulting services, including technology assessments and roadmaps, software selections, and software implementation project support.
We’re happy to schedule a free consultation to help you think through the first steps for implementing change management in your project. Let’s talk!
Watch one of our webinars about change management, or review our change management planning template here.