I carry out general and specific assessments, identify challenges, build on identified stakeholder value systems, and set up governance structure and process. I will help you define and execute stages within a jointly developed change management plan.

Looking Within: 3 Things That Successful Organizations Do

Are you are a very successful organization? Here is why you may think so:

  1. Everybody says so, you are getting positive reviews, you have even won recognition and your opinion is valued.
  2. Everybody wants to join your membership: you are oversubscribed, and you are clever enough to know that keeping people in a waiting list makes you more competitive.
  3. You are recognized amongst your peers: you win all the important competitions; you get to attend all the best events.
  4. You are associated with some of the world’s best.

Sounds great doesn’t it? If your organization or club is experiencing this, you are definitely in the top 5-10% in your field, so why worry?

While you are sitting back and enjoying your laurels, everybody is working day and night to catch up or take over! Remember that by now, you are probably the most talked about, and therefore, probably the most exposed. What can you do to stay ahead of the competition?

Be innovative

For every activity that you carried out, be sure that there is always another way to make it more efficient, accepted, exciting or valuable. It always pays to study your area of expertise more. Find out what others, including the competition, are doing, and seek ways to improve. Most importantly, be ready to learn. Nothing stays static. In sports, new materials are often developed and used to build sports equipment, and sports facilities, there are new apps for assessing skill building and matches. In sports for development organizations, joining https://www.sportanddev.org/ provides you with valuable learning and opportunities to attend workshops.

Improve Your Capacity To Deliver

Is there any area that you need to take a second look at? Surveys are an interesting way to gauge your delivery of service, your facilities and your staff. Consider running a survey amongst your clients, staff or partners. This could be regularized so that it is taken quarterly or longer. Most surveys that are run too often lose meaning, as everyone begins to find it a bother, including the person running it! Make sure that you share the results with everyone immediately after the analysis is taken, in order to influence change. When taking the survey, be aware that some people may not act, depending on the manner in which it is presented. I recently ran a survey amongst the membership at Karen Country Club, a premier golf and gymkhana club. I had already been warned by Management that members rarely read information that did not immediately affect them, and that chances were that only a few would bother to fill the questionnaire. In order to ensure that I reached a reasonable number amongst the stratified membership, the questionnaire was presented online, through individual interview and discussion groups, and through direct postage (snail mail). This strategy led to a very successful survey, with new and interesting results, and served to provide Management with better insight into membership needs.

Understand You Staff

I have often heard managers talk about the need to pay higher salaries or improve on health or retirement benefits in order to retain staff. This may be one way, and is often not the only one. Many businesses are finding it extremely difficult to maintain staff and remain fluid financially, and, considering the current negative financial growth internationally, using this as a way to retain staff, and keep them away from your competition may be counter-productive. Many non-profits depend largely on fundraising, and face a limitation on how much may be spent on staff remunerations. In my experience, staff who stay with a company often give interesting reasons for staying, which include:

  • “I feel appreciated”
  • “I get a chance to leave a little early to pick up my children from school”
  • “We get training opportunities often”
  • “I am learning new skills”

How well do you know your staff? Find out what the staff think about the organization and its management. One time I had a rare moment on a busy Monday morning to step out and watch an amusing tennis match between some of the volunteers students from a local university at my Sadili Oval. We got chatting, and I was surprised to discover that the main reason that we had such a large number of applications from local volunteers was because we also gave them the freedom to learn and improve on any sport they chose. Apparently, a  number moved on to join their college teams! Now we have incorporated this into our offer, and found that it also works with job applicants applying to join the organization. Imagine being able to work in sports gear all day (just remember to take a shower, please!).

You can transform your business to a revenue-producing asset that lets you work as much or as little as you want.

Now answer these questions as truthfully as you can:

1-2: Not at all, 3-5: a little, 6-7: Fairly well, 8-10: Quite well

Unity can be powerful, and sharing knowledge and experiences ensures that you do not have to go through a new learning experience, that can be expensive.

This can be very valuable, and well help you improve. Decide how often you would like to run your survey.

Communication ensures that your stakeholders buy into and support your goals. Choose your channel(s) of communication with care, depending on the type of stakeholders you have, and how often.

Compare yourself with similar organizations and consider what would make you unique, and build on it.