Supporting organisations to Address change

Supporting Organisations to Address Change

Steve Coole, Strategic Support Unit Manager

This session

• Discussion and reflection on your approaches to stakeholder engagement

• Overview of NUS’ membership, challenges facing students’ unions and an outline of the diagnostic process

• Other frameworks that utilise stakeholder engagement methods

• Case studies of how the process has enabled students’ unions to create organisational change

• Q&A and further discussion

Who are your stakeholders?

In pairs take a moment to reflect:

• Your organisation and its purpose• Who your key stakeholders are• Why are they your key stakeholders?• What influence do they have over your organisation?• What do you think their current perception is of your

organisation at the moment and why?

Who are your stakeholders?

• Feedback from pairs

• When was the last time you tested stakeholder perception of the organisation and it’s strategic direction?

• What processes, frameworks or practice do you currently use to test if you are creating positive change in line with your organisations purpose?

• What does impact look like and how do you measure it? Can you think of any recent examples?

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NUS, students’ unions and diagnostics

NUS

• 600+ Students’ Unions in membership across the UK in higher and further education

• Three parts to the NUS Group - NUS UK, NUS Services Ltd and NUS Charitable Services

• Students’ Unions are funded by colleges and universities to the tune of £0 - £1,000,000+. Students’ Unions also generate their own income as democratic charities.

• 7,000,000 members across students’ unions in the UK

A diversity of development need

• One size certainly doesn’t fit all (600+ students’ unions)

• The Strategic Support Unit established in 2011 to offer products and services to support students’ unions

• The Unit developed the diagnostic model with a view to supporting students’ unions to change one by one, alongside a self-assessment Quality students’ union model

• 7,000,000 members, means different values, politics, priorities and behaviors that produce newly elected leaders across the UK on an annual basis

Challenges for Students’ Unions

Key issues for 2014/15• Trustee Board performance• Impact measurement and articulation• The purpose of commercial services• International expansion of education and student recruitment, plus

many other challenges

Known challenges• Institutional relationships, reliance on personality rather than

strategy• Elected officer teams changing on an annual basis• Doing things the way we always have, coasting becomes crisis• Funding and/or demonstrating VFM• Lack of a research culture

Symptoms of poor organisational health in students’ unions

• Recurring financial deficits and no reserves• Poor management account reporting• No strategic plan or one of poor quality• No key performance indicators, or regular reports• The absence of a people strategy or performance reviews• Strained relationships between staff and elected officers• Governance and lines of authority / staff structures not

being followed• Low student participation in democratic activity, services,

clubs, campaigning and decision making• No synergy between institution and union strategy• No culture of research and membership involvement• Struggle to demonstrate outcomes and impact

The Diagnostic process

• Goal setting• Desk based research & Organisational health self-

assessments• Onsite visit and structured stakeholder interviews

(Trustees, staff, officers, minimum of 2 senior university/college staff)

• Report – SWOR, Key Data and demographics, Analysis, Examples and Recommendations

• Post diagnostic support

• Any questions about our process?

Other projects using stakeholder engagement

• Impact measurement using Social return on investment (SROI) and the why, how and what theory

• Values and behaviors assessments for developing charters and strategic plans

• Chair of the Trustee Board review, using a 360 approach against a good governance framework and structured questioning

• Organisational health self-assessment master classes

Why stakeholder engagement is important to the process

• “Holding a mirror up” and using that as a key evidence base for the analysis and diagnosis of issues

• Line of questioning that encourages the people involved to find solutions for improvement or change by themselves

• The self-assessment element is like a health check with a GP, the diagnostic is the follow up MRI scan, using specialists (in line with the specifics of the goal)

• Draws out the opportunities and areas where there is consensus and agreement on areas for improvement

• The funder better understands how it will achieve value for money, and how the organisation will deliver for its membership

Example Wins

• An additional £170k to annual block grant at one students’ union, with a formal agreement to review the need to extend this further next year

• Payment for the interim management contract @ c. £48k and payment of the severance costs.

• An additional £45k to the annual block grant, specifically for the employment of a Membership Services Director

Example Wins

• A one-off payment of over £70k to cover an operating deficit

• A £40k increase to the annual block grant to allow investment in development staff

• A total of £370,000 investment by institutions into students’ unions

Every assignment is different because people are different, presenting different challenges

• Poor senior leadership compounded by no scrutiny or performance management from the trustee board

• A hostile stakeholder group to the diagnostic process, or indeed towards another stakeholder group

• Strategies built on individual personality and relationships

• Split trustee boards over the recommendations

• Generally, it all comes back to leadership qualities and assessing the position, influence and perceptions of those able to create change

Quality of Leadership is vital to change

Thank you

Comments or questions?

Steve CooleStrategic Support Unit Manager