I have a love of sport and over the years have been involved in swim, bike, run, triathlon, climbing, rowing , canoeing and climbing. I have also been involved in the Island Games and the Commonwealth Games. Over an extended period and in different roles I have quite a bit of experience working with clubs and I can tell you: It can be hard!
Unlike businesses where they may be some functional or hierarchical organisation which suggests some rules of protocol, clubs can be a free-for-all based on personality and charisma, either positively or negatively.
Businesses will generally choose the product and customer base, which they collectively feel will best fit the business and the employees are expected to fall into line or leave. It is important to talk with staff, and union representation can be a good thing, but let’s be clear businesses are not true democracies!
The problem with a club is that your “employees” and your “customers” are one and the same, couple that with a pretty flat structure, and management is a non-going and tiring negotiation. People are passionate. Probably a lot more passionate about their sport, club or society than they are about their job. Sport is also a great social leveller so the best at swim, bike, run, triathlon, climbing, rowing, canoeing and climbing isn’t likely to be the best doctor, lawyer, accountant or other professional. This is an organisation where everyone thinks they are the CEO, and at the next AGM could well be the next CEO!
How do you cope?
I have previously blogged about Change Management in Clubs and Community (See link 1 below)
In that blog I offered a number of good examples of successful Change Management in Clubs and Community. The themes were broadly around my ideas including the following.
1. Having a vision, goal, mission or other lofty ambition is a good thing around which to rally people. Their focus becomes the thing to achieve rather than the people, personalities, cliques or cult.
2. Making change visible, tangible and real, is important so that it isn’t just words spoken or a directive written but something that touches people. This can be branding, logos, social media, notice boards, videos. There are all sorts of ways that you can change the environment and social perceptions to make clear that something different is happening.
3. Start making life easier. Improve the admin, streamline the processes, make communication and feedback easier. One of the problems of “selling” is that people push harder and this simply encourages people to resist harder. Often success comes from making it easy to buy, making the task easy to do, making the conversation easier to have. If everything is easier people will perceive it is better and they are more likely to endorse the people, processes and technology which go with that.
4. Reach out and recruit allies. It is important to recognise that it is unlikely that you’ll get someone who if 100% negative about your change to be 100% positive about your proposals. But maybe the people who are 60:40 might tip to 40:60. The idea is to create a tipping point, not to convince 100% of all the people. Careful curatorship and stakeholder management can help, particularly where you can create alignment between individuals ambitions and goals of the organisation: for example a “youth team” a “masters trophy” or something similar.
5. Give people a role and a reputation to live up to. The devil makes plans for people with idle hands and keeping agitators busy doing stuff for the benefit of the club is likely to be a better employment of their energy and generate some kudos for them if they are the “organiser for the XYZ event”.
6. People who are great “people people” should be made captain of this, team leader for that, person-in-charge of the other. These will be the orators and communicators of your vision and values. Others may be better directed to tasks (well away from the potential of creating a mutiny) and they can work independently on “special projects”.
Satisfaction is the enemy of progress
The challenge of the above is that what do you do after you have steered the ship away from the rocks and there is no imperative, no urgent action required, nothing to galvanise and focus the troops?
I have seem a club virtually disintegrate through lack of momentum or passion. The club still exists like a shabby corner shop surviving in the shadows of supermarkets and on-line retail. They have faded trophies, nostalgic membership and know full well that once their tenure is over the doors will close for the last time.
In these circumstances you are likely to have a power struggle or identity crisis. The questions will be “Where do we go from here?” and the response is likely to be “Do we need to go anywhere?”. It’s like being at a crash scene in a desert, are you better staying put, or striding out?
As a leader in these situations do you split the group or stay together. If you split the group, are you the one who stays put, or ventures out?
I have to admit I have a bias for action. This is not necessarily a good thing!
When it comes to shepherding cats, I’m likely to start walking and see who follows. If they choose not to then that is their prerogative and not my responsibility. My duty has to be to the ones that do follow, because if they are following I am their leader.
LINKS
http://projectspeoplechange.blogspot.com/2013/05/change-management-in-clubs-and-community.html
THE AUTHOR
Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the Incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.
Tim HJ Rogers
PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner
www.timhjrogers.com | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051
Curator TEDxStHelier www.TEDxStHelier.com
Founder ciChange www.ciChange.org
No comments:
Post a Comment