Organisational Development

Why you should create a speak up culture at your organisation

Creating an environment of trust, safety and transparency is crucial when pursuing a ‘speak up culture’. Organisations have much to benefit from this pursuit when their people feel respected and confident to speak up. The consequences when employees remain silent Establishing a successful not-for-profit organisation is hard; ensuring its continued success and longevity is even harder. Corporate scandals and wrongdoing have destroyed many large and profitable organisations. History provides no shortage of examples, such as Enron.

A Decade of Investment – Journey to Social Inclusion

It took more than a decade to transform Sacred Heart Mission into the organisation that it is today. It all started from asking two questions back in 2006: What impact are we having? Are we delivering on our purpose, our vision and our mission? It took the courage of the board, the executive team and the whole organisation to stand back and take a hard look at what we were doing and be prepared to face the truths that would be revealed from our investigation.

Adapting Through Collaboration – The NIACC Alliance

There has been a lot written and spoken about mergers and amalgamations in the NFP sector in recent years. Indeed it has been all but impossible to go to an industry conference and pick up a publication that doesn’t have a presentation, comment or story about the “urge to merge”. In some cases, government has encouraged or facilitated mergers between particular not-for-profit service providers or amongst providers engaged in discreet areas of service delivery, such as disability employment providers and homelessness services.

Digital Transformation & Governance

Not-for-profit (NFP) organisations, like government and private sector organisations, vary widely in progress on digital transformation. Ready or not, NFP boards are increasingly being asked to invest in digital transformation projects and to respond to the changing environment of online services, user-directed interfaces and integrated systems. The definition of digital transformation below sums up the broad strategic, operational and social factors that are encompassed by the term: Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritised way, with present and future shifts in mind.

Key Drivers Influencing Future Business

Society is changing rapidly and directors’ understanding of the changing context and drivers of future business are key to embracing and integrating a truly adaptive mindset. Whilst, there are a range of factors and trends that come into play to create the environment of uncertainty that we face today; the following key drivers go some way to explaining the emergent operating context for directors. Some of the key drivers of change are the:

Is Social Innovation the Missing Link in the National Innovation and Science Agenda?

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull launched the much-awaited National Innovation and Science Agenda on 7 December 2015 with a commitment to invest $1.1 billion to ‘incentivise innovation and entrepreneurship, reward risk taking, and promote science, maths and computing in schools’. According to the announcement, it aims to boost innovation and science in four key areas of Culture and Capital, Collaboration, Talent and Skills, and Government as an exemplar. The innovation and science agenda rightly puts ICT as the front and centre in Australia’s Innovation future.

NFP Merger

Sovereignty vs Sustainability – Strategic options for NFPs via mergers Most NFPs that DO NOT undertake a merger in the next 3-5 years will likely fail at some point. Most NFPs that DO undertake a merger in the next 3-5 years will likely fail to achieve all of the benefits. It seems to be a case of ‘damned if you don’t and possibly damned if you do’! But let’s reframe the above to be more optimistic and constructive.

Fragmented Brand Communication and its Impact on Organisations

What do a global industrial material producer, a not-for-profit research organisation, a business to business (B2B) tech services firm and a producer of Over The Counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals have in common? Over the last six months I had meetings with the senior management team and boards of these very different companies, where I addressed the issue of a fragmented brand communication that was affecting their brand equity. Research showed each to have a low brand awareness score (how well it was known) but medium to high brand health scores (how well regarded the brand was amongst those who knew the brand and its preference ratios).

Boards Driving Value: A How-To Guide for Your Board

One of the greatest challenges for boards and directors lies in how to define an ‘effective’ board. The different contexts in which boards operate (e.g., different legal structures, not-for-profit, family owned, etc.) and the various constraints they face (e.g., constitutionally imposed constraints, institutional forces) results in boards undertaking different tasks and having different attributes. In short, board effectiveness is contingent on the broad environment in which the organisation finds itself, and there are alternative paths to effectiveness.

Four Key Skills in Becoming a Great Media Performer

When you’re called upon to be a spokesperson for your organisation at a board or executive level, being accomplished and assured in front of the microphone or camera is a mainstay in your skillset, and can consolidate your presence as a figurehead. Crucially in times of crisis, a skilled media performer can highlight an organisation’s good governance. Crises aside, a well prepared spokesperson can help successfully present an organisation’s achievements to the community.