39 Forces for Organizational Change

What informs an organization that it needs to change? What are the driving forces or events that require an organization to shift how they do their work, how they interact with the community, how they can be more effective, and question if they should even exist?

The forces for organizational change come from both external and internal forces.

External Factors or Forces for Change

There are so many external impacts on an organization, which require a shift in strategy and will likely include:

1. Demands by the community, often in response to tragedy: One example is the demand for justice and police accountability after the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and far too many others who lost their lives to law enforcement officers. Other examples include climate-related impacts on the local environment, mass shootings, mental health crises, etc.
2. Change mandated by policy: Policy-making bodies (school boards, city councils, county boards, state government, Tribal government, Federal government, etc.) pass laws and policies on a regular basis that require an organization at the local level to change how they do their work. These policies could expand access to services, such as policies directed to increase equity, or they could reduce access, such as adding eligibility guidelines for accessing needed supports such as food assistance.
3. Trends or shifts in context or funding that require a shift in strategy: One example is the COVID-19 pandemic which required a shift in service delivery, scope of work, and work environment due to public health concerns and economic impacts. Some organizations quickly established remote work environments, used technology to maintain service delivery or connection with colleagues, or expanded services to address unmet needs (like food insecurity).  Other examples include social media or technology trends, demographic shifts, etc.

Internal Demands or Forces for Change

Internal demands or forces for change are often responses to thoughtful outcome and process evaluations. As noted in the Evaluation chapter, one of the primary reasons to engage in evaluations is to identify how your organization needs to shift how they engage in their work to achieve your intended outcomes or in response to unanticipated harmful impacts.

Common evaluation results that demand change include:

• Evaluation results show the intended outcomes were not achieved. This requires an analysis of factors impacting the lower achievement.
• Evaluation results demonstrate that your organization is consistently not culturally relevant to the community that you serve. In other words, your organization is either not serving particular populations or they are not being served effectively, which requires a change in tactic, education, and accountability.
• Evaluation results show inconsistent results between staff and/or services. Inconsistent results (either positive or negative) should be closely examined and understood; they may require stronger training, assessment tools, and consistent work structures. This is often referred to as ‘positive outliers’—positive outcomes that are clearly evident but not consistent—which may point to outcomes that could be achieved for others if changes were made in the delivery of services.
• It is difficult to recruit and retain staff and/or board members. This hinders your agency’s ability to consistently provide the needed service and requires a close examination of recruitment, retention strategies, reputation, and competitiveness.
• After examining your agency’s data you realize you are serving a different population than you had intended or planned for. This tells you that the need is growing and you likely need to expand your services.