Organizational Review
Organizational reviews are essential for associations and not-for-profit continuous improvement and success.
A Piper review assesses an organization’s structure,
processes, performance, and culture.
Offering insights into the gap between your strengths and areas for improvement. An organizational review helps evaluate your organization, identify key issues, gather insights, and establish a strong foundation for success. It also helps an organization align the often many demands of its stakeholders and competing priorities with the right governance and operations structure to deliver on its mandate.
At Piper, we conduct a review by examining your goals, hopes, plans and aspirations, evaluating finances, benchmarking practices, and leading the organization through an environment scan.
It is the combination of discovery work and drawing out the wisdom within, coupled with our deep knowledge of the sector, that enables us to recommend solutions to better align your organization with its own hopes and goals. We also provide a roadmap for implementation with clear steps and a timeline, enabling your organization to better achieve its mission.
While the process for an organizational review is often similar
The goals for a review depend on your goals as an organization. Perhaps you sense that there is a misalignment between the board of directors and staff leadership or that there is a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities.
Consider a governance review.Your organization has grown tremendously in the last few years or there has been a shift in your areas of service and the staff structure doesn’t make as much sense as it once did. Consider an operations review.
Internal conflicts limit your organization’s effectiveness. Sudden changes in executive staff or volunteer leadership have been compounded by an inability to come to a common purpose. There is high turnover throughout the organization. Consider a crisis review.
A chief staff officer has announced their intention to leave the organization and is committed to leave the organization in a strong, stable position also ready to meet its future. Consider a succession plan or an organizational redesign.
Outdated tools and practices are hampering your ability to succeed and the staff’s ability to function at their highest level of capabilities. Consider a workflow review or an organization redesign. As your organization has grown and priorities have shifted it has become harder to track progress, files, and deadlines.
Team members important contributions are hampered by miscommunication and disorganization. Consider a project management and software
review.
Could Your Organization Benefit from an Organizational Review?
Case Studies
A new CEO, promoted from within, inherits an organization that needs some fresh thinking. Staff are reluctant to follow this new lead and volunteer directors are unsure how to proceed in an environment of growing tension. Piper is hired to conduct a thorough organization review and make clear recommendations regarding new policies and organizational structure, while also supporting new strategies and a fresh direction. With the CEO’s mandate reconfirmed the redesigned organization is poised to thrive under its new staff leadership.
An industry association with stable finances, membership and services, experiences sudden growth. They are unsure how to make best use of staff resources and how to support their new, emerging direction. There are conflicting messages from the board on the importance of meeting emerging needs while preserving legacy programs. Many new technologies are being introduced to members, the industry, and the association whose traditional role in professional development is being challenged. Piper is hired to conduct an organization review and redesign that brings together staff leadership with the volunteer board who, together, create a clear path forward.
A member-based organization has gaps between its strategic plan and operations, especially in the balance between legacy systems and new directions. Piper is hired to conduct an organizational review. Staff skill sets, responsibilities, interests, and workload are analyzed in comparison to the organization’s stated goals. Recommendations are made to support a new staff structure, including the creation of a new department to manage the growing advocacy and member services portfolios.
Two associations, each with their own practices and traditions and overlapping service areas, decide to combine resources through an amalgamation. This will enable the new organization to expand in new directions. Piper is hired to reassign staff to best match
their skills with emerging service needs, eliminate overlapping roles, and combine the two teams into one new organization complete with new job descriptions, reporting structure and salary structure all flowing from the inaugural strategic plan.
The board of directors is at a standstill with two camps emerging around the concerning level of staff turnover. Both camps are reluctant to step into daily operations but sense that the organization must uncover the true sources of discord. With a process weighed in favour of an individual staff interviews and member focus groups, Piper can make recommendations to manage the immediate crisis, mitigate risk and make recommendations to return the organization to stability. Piper is hired to conduct a crisis review, mitigate risk, and create a path to return the organization to stability.