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CASE STUDIES

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Note: This article was written by the consultants, Maria Coolican and Jeannette Jackson of TransForum Consulting, Inc., to Planned Parenthood of East Central Michigan with input from the CEO/Executive Director Jim Richardson.

OVERVIEW: PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN AND TRANSFORUM CONSULTING

Planned Parenthood of East Central Michigan (PPECM) launched their journey with the Best Project in the Spring of 2004 by participating in a comprehensive capacity building approach beginning with an assessment process designed to determine organizational readiness for capacity building * Phase 1* . The results were clear: PPECM was ready to engage in capacity building specifically to work on building organizational culture with the desired goal of growing the organization to serve more patients/customers. PPECM hired Maria Coolican and Jeannette Jackson from TransForum Consulting, Inc. (TFC) to design and facilitate the capacity building work * Phase 2 * for the next year. The scope of this work encompassed the entire organizational system from the Executive Director to the Leadership Team to the entire staff, board and patients/customers. At the end of this time, the Best Project arranged for a follow-up assessment *Phase 3* to determine if real change happened.

When the consulting team (or TCF) first walked into the conference room at Planned Parenthood of East Central Michigan, the chill was palpable and the body language spoke volumes to the TFC consulting team. Arms were crossed, individuals were not making eye contact with the consultants or each other and it was apparent that this meeting was not something to which they were looking forward.

TFC had spoken at length prior to the meeting with Jim Richardson, the CEO/Executive Director and he had been very honest regarding PPECM’s recent journey. They had survived, albeit with significant scars, a major conflict within the leadership of the organization. This conflict over workplace values, staff accountability, and staff management had created staff factions as well as distrust and organizational disarray leading Mr. Richardson to seek assistance through the BEST Project. In particular, he wanted to explore various technical assistance and capacity building options of healing the organization and moving forward.

Mr. Richardson, the executive director, characterized the issues as the following:

• a negative workplace culture creating poor employee morale
• poor customer service
• loss of business
• lack of trust
• racial tensions
• employee to employee conflict
• inadequate communication
• loss of income
• a general lack of future purpose

He recognized there were organizational conditions that must change to achieve a new positive work culture and he sought external assistance to identify and implement a process of organizational change. The assessment process confirmed Mr. Richardson’s analysis that the internal culture of PPECM was a critical priority in order to move the organization forward. Perhaps more importantly, the assessment brought this awareness more acutely to the employees and board members. From the perspective of TFC, this awareness was a key factor in getting everyone in the organizational system on board to start the hard work of reworking the organizational culture. Without the confirmation of assessment data, it might have taken a considerably longer period of time to reach consensus regarding the need to spend resources focusing on PPECM’s culture.

The BEST Project recognizes that many non-profits experience management challenges just as those faced by PPECM. The approach offered by the BEST Project was appealing to Planned Parenthood as it funds a holistic, comprehensive capacity building process involving multiple points of engagement including:

• a detailed qualitative and quantitative organizational assessment prior to engaging a consultant in a capacity building work process
• ongoing access to leadership skill development for the Executive Director, Staff and Board Members
• access to a pool of vetted consultants
• a well thought out method and documents for contracting with consultants
• pre-established pricing for consultant work
• a follow-up assessment to determine the actual progress made

This holistic approach is also characterized by a level of accountability for the consultants as well as the agency. The mere fact that everyone knows they will be measured by an evaluator helps to keep the “eye on the prize”.

It was clear at the outset that a systemic approach was needed, and TFC worked carefully with the executive director and the leadership team to create that approach. The entire organizational triangle—executive director, the employees and the board—needed work, and the consulting design would need to encompass that whole triangle. What resulted was a six-part proposal for moving forward, focused primarily on the leadership team, the board and the executive director.

PHASE ONE: ASSESSMENT

JULY – AUGUST, 2004: Assessment Phase
The first part of the process actually occurred prior to TFC’s involvement. Another consultant, J.B. Bardouille, first began working with PPECM in July 2004 prior to TFC’s involvement. Ms. Bardouille was vetted as a BEST consultant; she served as the lead consultant for PPECM managing the activities of the assessment phase. The Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM) was contracted by BEST to conduct the quantitative data gathering for all the nonprofit organizations who participated in the Assessment Phase of the BEST Pilot Project. Board and staff members completed a survey about the organization. Then, the results were then analyzed by CNM, highlighting organizational strengths, challenges and areas that were at risk of negatively impacting the organization in the near future. This data was combined with Ms. Bardouille’s qualitative assessment of the organization and presented in a final report to the agency; the executive summary of the final report provided recommendations for capacity building and highlighted areas in need of immediate attention. In particular, they found that PPECM showed the greatest weakness in the areas of Organizational Climate and Staff Development. PPECM was interested in creating a high performance work culture characterized by the following elements:

• creating a place where people look forward to coming to work;
• trust existing between employees and employee groups
• continuous learning and interest in professional development
• employees taking the initiative to develop new ideas
• individual/team commitment to organizational goals
• to become an organization with efficient and productive work systems

Ms. Bardouille and Mr. Richardson developed a plan to address these challenges by focusing on individual and organizational alignment through establishing and committing to a shared vision, values and principles of practice—or, in other words, how they work together. Due to personal reasons, Ms. Bardoullie was unable to continue with the engagement. As a result, Mr. Richardson contacted the Lead Consultant for the BEST Project, Anne Glendon, for additional consultant recommendations and support in making this change. TransForum Consulting was recommended by Ms. Glendon and was selected by PPECM to continue the work.

PHASE TWO: CAPACITY BUILDING

SEPTEMBER 2004-DECEMBER 2004: ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGNOSIS AND ACTION PLANNING
The second part of the process focused on beginning to work on the Vision, Values and Principles of Practice, as well as to work with Mr. Richardson and the board concurrently. TFC met with the leadership team, which consisted of the supervisor of the clinic managers, the development officer, the finance officer, the clinic managers themselves, and a manager in charge of quality control. The group met approximately every three weeks, usually on Tuesday morning for three or four hours. The first meeting is the one described at the beginning of this article, one in which enthusiasm was at about the lowest point possible and one in which the interest and willingness on the part of the leadership team to participate was virtually nonexistent. TFC’s approach as a consulting team includes action learning and highly engaging activities that are designed to help participants offer and clarify their thoughts. Specifically, the approach aims to:

• benchmark those thoughts against the organizational mission
• engage in structured conversations with colleagues to explore similarities and differences in beliefs and practices
• explore and practice various elements of leadership behaviors
• frame the above around the “real work” of the organization.

TFC oftentimes includes provocative and/or humorous video clips as a way of launching conversations, and is intentional about spending time to get to know the individuals with whom they are working. Following this first meeting, the consulting team walked out and commented on the fact that despite what they believed were some highly engaging and interactive activities, they felt the flat affect of an organization in trouble.

The primary focus at in this stage was on the challenge of establishing a viable vision and the values associated with that vision. The visioning work quickly brought out resistance, rooted largely in thedisconnect between who and what we say we are and who and what we actually do. As is typical in unhealthy organizations, there were multiple visions around which individuals were coalescing; in addition, some of these visions resulted in behaviors that were diametrically opposed to the stated vision of PPECM.

Below is an example of a key conflict that emerged in establishing a shared vision:

Given this type of content in the visioning conversations, and given the poor communication patterns combined with the lack of personal trust, the resulting conversations were tinged with hesitancy, fear and mistrust. When the notion of establishing the values that would be tied to the vision statement arose, the tensions continued and perhaps even heightened.

Subsequent meetings continued to reflect the feelings of resistance and trepidation on the part of the participants. However, as the PPECM group slowly began to get to know the consulting team and the consultants became more familiar with the PPECM staff and board, all of the participants carefully began to build trust and the tenor in the meeting room gradually brightened. The group came to agreement on a vision statement that everyone could support with enthusiasm, and worked then on the values that would support that vision.

JANUARY 2005-APRIL 2005: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Ironically, the “real work” did not even begin until six months after phase Phase Two started, when the group began to identify and concretely clarify the Principles of Practice for PPECM. Together, PPECM and TFC defined Principles of Practice as the way we work together. This was a way of making the vision and values become living statements that could be characterized by specific behaviors. These were tough meetings, underscored by a definite willingness to explore the issues and to grapple with some ambiguous ideas, but at the same time a reticence to share opinions too strongly or to engage in productive disagreements. This residual fear of the unknown stemmed largely from the fact that the healing process of organizational transformation was still relatively new, and the genuine belief that this process would yield a healthier, happier work place was not yet firmly grounded for everyone.

Nonetheless, TFC deepened the work at this point by beginning to identify and then work on various skills that the leadership team identified as needing some focus. They included such things as managing conflict; customer service; dealing with change; employee evaluation; hiring; coaching; and, providing feedback across the organization. These became the action-learning lenses through which TFC was able to engage the conversation and behavior practices of leadership development. Toward the end of this phase, concrete ideas had developed regarding the Principles of Practice and how they could become guiding constructs for the entire organization. The PPECM Principles and Practices is provided below:

During the capacity building phase, it also became clear that the Board of Directors needed to be significantly involved in the journey toward becoming a healthy and vibrant organization. Various staff members attended a board meeting and briefed the board members on the nature of the various activities being undertaken with TFC. This briefing included background information as to why this project had been undertaken; the hopes and fears in terms of its eventual success; examples of the work that had been produced up to this point; and, conversations with board members designed to address their questions, concerns and ideas. This meeting was a perfect “test case” for the leadership team to highlight their emerging sophistication as a team; the meeting was tremendously successful. The Board was invited to attend several of the leadership skill development sessions held by the Best Project that were designed to serve all the non-profits involved in this first group of BEST grant recipients. Later on in the process, Mr. Richardson asked TFC to facilitate a board meeting to share successes and challenges and lay the initial groundwork for what was to become a conversation about succession planning and leadership transitions.

During this phase, numerous small conflicts arose that allowed everyone to begin to practice, in very concrete ways, their leadership skills. Most of the conflicts involved either members of the leadership team who felt a reluctance to fully participate in the process or members of the team who were feeling as though some of their teammates colleagues were not visibly supporting the changes and new behaviors that had been agreed upon during the meetings. These were perfect test cases, and despite the fact that some of the conversations were predictably difficult, the results highlighted a team that had definitely emerged from a place of confusion, uncertainty and fear to a place of renewed clarity and commitment to continued improvement.

APRIL 2005-JUNE 2006: INTEGRATION AND ALIGNMENT

This period of time during the project was one of significant shared successes. With a leadership team that had adopted and fully embraced its Vision, Values and Principles of Practice, PPECM was able to move forward with substantive improvements to core organizational practices. Perhaps the most critical aspect of these improvements was that focused around recruiting, hiring and evaluating employees. This was a true measure of the commitment to the new ways of working that had been emerging over the past year and a half, and it was gratifying to see a team of individuals offer ideas, share with one another, disagree with passion and respect, and relate to one another on a truly professional level. The resulting documents, including a new employee evaluation format that was implemented during this phase, were evidence of an organization that created healthy and productive ways of living its Vision, Values and Principles of Practice.

The final meeting together in June of 2006 was rather bittersweet. Both TFC and the PPECM team came to the meeting thinking about the journey that they had traveled together, and the fact that this journey had led to some very close and personal relationships among many. Trust had palpably measurably deepened, old friendships had grown and new ones had emerged, and we had a rhythm in one another’s lives that was now about to change. For almost two years, we had spent many Tuesday mornings together and we were now at our final meeting. We met for lunch, and spent much of the meeting sharing with one another how we had been personally and professionally affected by our time together, as well as our thoughts as to how the organization had grown and been strengthened by this work. We focused, too, on the issue of sustainability; how would PPECM be able to sustain both their commitments as well as some of the new work practices that still felt as though they were in their beginning stages of development? It was both humbling as well as gratifying to TFC when the team began to share ideas as to how they could continue to maintain the “Tuesday meeting momentum” that had been established over the past two years. They offered various options, including committing to one Tuesday a month at which they would rotate running the meetings. The commitment to continuing the learning was obvious, as were the energy and difficult work that would be required to maintain that learning.

We, PPECM and TFC, left that final meeting with powerful comments being shared. We left, too, secure in the knowledge that the very structure of the BEST Project would help PPECM to continue its transformation. The BEST Project is designed to transfer the skills and knowledge that had been gained during this process, and we felt as though we were leaving PPECM with the tools and processes for continued success. Both TFC and the BEST Project had established a relationship with PPECM that allowed for periodic check in and support. The organization was healthy, dynamic and poised for continued growth—all of which was supported by the BEST Project infrastructure designed for long-term sustainability.

PHASE THREE:  META-EVALUATION

During this time, evaluation data gathering focused on the extent to which this work made a difference at PPECM; this was part of the overall evaluation of the BEST Project conducted by the TCC Group out of Philadelphia. The evaluation included formal data gathering from the agencies, board chairs, consultants, funders and customers/clients. In addition, less formal data emerged from the leadership team as we began to wrap up our work together.

The BEST Project is anchored in using data to identify, frame and measure the use of resources for capacity building and technical assistance. At the time this article was written the meta-level assessment had not yet been completed. The meta-level assessment will be similar in scope to the initial assessment. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered to assess the extent to which the BEST Project has been successful for PPECM.

SUSTAINING THE CHANGE: OUTCOMES AND SUCCESSES
Reflecting upon 2006 as a year full of challenges for PPECM, Jim Richardson says,

“We’ve faced a lot of major challenges this year and we’ve had a lot of work we’ve had to do to meet them. The difference between when we started this process and now is that the attitudes of the employees have changed dramatically. Previously, the attitude would have been doom and gloom. We have moved from this attitude to a can do, will do, want to do attitude and the difference is amazing. We have moved from having people who wouldn’t work together to people who seem to enjoy working together. We have had a dramatic turnaround in patient numbers due, in part, to the new PlanFirst program from the State of Michigan. The clinic atmospheres feel palpably different and more positive. Perhaps one of the most significant processes that has continued to reinforce our vision, values and principles of practice is the new evaluation system. Once we began to apply this system, employees really had to face what they were and were not doing to support the work and culture at PPECM.”

Interestingly, in December 2006, as they prepared for the end of year gathering, PPECM decided to call it an End of Year Celebration as opposed to an end of year party. It was a gathering celebrating the work that each individual had done to contribute to the success of PPECM. The contrast between the sense of excitement and celebration that characterized this End of Year Celebration with the previous year’s holiday situation during which the organization was still entrenched in dysfunctional work practices was, quite simply, striking.

CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED
Participating in the first cohort of the BEST Project was not always easy for PPECM. Being involved in the Pilot Project meant that some of the kinks in the system were still being worked out. As a result, program components such as expectations, reporting requirements and some of the management mechanisms were sometimes difficult to navigate. The BEST Project internalized “Lessons Learned” during the Pilot resulting in permanent staff and a new management structure which is making things much easier for everyone involved.

One of the lessons learned by both PPECM and TFC was the importance of being flexible. In this case being flexible meant staying in touch with the needs of the organization, which meant we sometimes deviated from the strict structure of the contract. We worked together to make the work meaningful to the individuals involved and all the while continued to pursue the goal of creating a high performing organization. Sometimes this meant TCF/PPECM changed the content of our work, sometimes it meant conducting mediation sessions, sometimes it meant extra meetings or altering our timeline. Both the organization and consultants were generous with their time and resources due to their commitment to meet the desired end goal.

According to Mr. Richardson, he felt the transformation really start to occur when TFC began working with the values and principles of practice. He said

“In the course of developing the values and principles of practice, the differences in attitudes and ideas really came out. We all had to look at them and work with them. We had to take each value and principle of practice and work with it in the organization before the value or principle of practice would be finalized. Applying these concepts into real organizational situations gave people a whole new perspective on what was really going on. The technique and methodology of action learning that uses real project work to make the process work is what really made things happen. This, truly, is a key hallmark of the process.”

CONSULTANTS’ PERSPECTIVE
TransForum Consulting, Inc.’s experience with the Best Project has proven to be one of interesting growth in our consulting practice. By way of brief background, we provide organizational change and leadership development consulting services to a wide variety of organizations in the non-profit, educational and corporate sectors. We have always had a significant focus, both in interest and in actual business, in the non-profit world, but our participation in the BEST Project has brought us much more deeply into the world of non-profits. We were impressed by the process set up by the BEST Project in that it required all consultants to go through the same vetting process, to work together with other consultants and to operate from the same contract. Clearly, this gave the non-profits a well-qualified pool of candidates. It really puts the non-profits in control of reaching their defined goals.

We participated in several of the professional development sessions that were made available to us by the BEST Project and found them to be a very helpful way to get to know the community of individuals (non-profits, consultants, funders and other content experts) involved. We made connections within this group that now operate outside of the BEST Project and continue to inform how and with whom we conduct our business.

The structure of this project gave us a significant timeframe to conduct our work with PPECM and allowed us to go to a depth that we suspect is rare. Additionally, through our work with PPECM and the support of the BEST Project staff, TFC has taken on additional work within and outside of the BEST Project. Over the years, TFC has brought several ideas to the BEST Project staff and while not all were accepted, a few key ideas were and they gave us the resources to make the ideas happen. Specifically, TFC suggested and will facilitate a structured roundtable conversation for the executive directors of the first group of BEST Project grant recipients.

As we reflect on our involvement in the BEST Project and consider the growth and learning opportunities that we as consultants have had, we realize how rare an organization the BEST Project truly is. The notion of community sustainability is one with which many thoughtful individuals and organizations have grappled, but the rare combination of partnership, structured data analysis and collaborative learning render the BEST Project one of the strongest organizations with which we have ever worked.

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What are the components and process of the two phases of the BEST Pilot Project?
Assessment Phase: • Nonprofit organizations serving Genesee County undergo a thorough organizational assessment, which has proven to When did the BEST leadership feel the need to hire staff?
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