Communicating change to an engaged audience at World Vision Australia
"Commitment to the cause'"is not generally a challenge when you work in a not-for-profit organization, but creating the time and space to successfully engage staff in significant change can be. Here, we look at how World Vision Australia successfully guided its leadership team through a planned approach to change communication.
One of the wonderful things about being an internal communicator in an organization like World Vision Australia (WV) is that our employees are already committed to what we do. However, that commitment comes with a caveat; the value of change may be challenged.
WV is an organization of very engaged employees and this is because our return on investment is demonstrated through higher standards of living for disadvantaged children. The issue for us isn’t that we need to get employees to feel connected to what we do; it is that we need them to understand why we might change how we do it.
We have many employees who are career-long development professionals and for them coming to the office is about more than just “work”. Employees are keenly aware of the differences that can be made through the resources that are generously donated to us, and many will cite our value of “good stewardship” when considering if something is worth doing.
It is an organization that feels very different to any other I have experienced. For this reason, some of the communication ideas that work well in other organizations would not work for us. I need to continually identify ways in which we can communicate big change using low cost, impactful resources that are the right fit for WV.
In mid-2010, I was asked to support one of our key divisions as they worked through a major change project – the development and implementation of a new operating model.
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