managing risk & safety

Melanie Lockwood Herman703.777.3504 | Melanie@nonprofitrisk.org

Risk Lessons and Insights from COVID-19What Next? What Now?

PART 2

About NRMC

The Nonprofit Risk

Management Center

inspires effective risk

management and Risk

Champions.

We help leaders identify

and manage risks that

threaten their missions and

operations, and leverage

opportunities to take bold,

mission-advancing risks.

www.nonprofitrisk.org

Overview

Teamwork Truths and Consequences

RESILIENCE: Time for soul-searching!

Closing Thoughts and Resources

Practical Palette: Resilience-Building Tools

Teamwork Truths and Consequences

“We may be hard-wired for power

struggles, greed, and workplace conflicts.

But as social creatures, we also derive

enormous pleasure from creating,

sharing, and implementing new ideas

with other people.”

Amy C. Edmondson

The pandemic: similar, but different

Multifinality: the same starting point may branch and lead to different ends

Working from home: blessing or curse?▪ Camera on? Camera off...▪ Headset, adapter, ring light, check!▪ Peaceful setting or chaos central?

Supervisor (dis)satisfaction

Wake up call: remote team members are engaged and effective

Frustration: direct reports are distracted and disengaged

Disconnections and inefficiency

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▪ “One of the big insights from our work has been that, just because you went to the meeting doesn’t mean you know what happened.”

– Leslie A. Perlow, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School

▪ Did the inefficiency of your team meetings IMPROVE, or WORSEN at your organization?

TRUST is the single biggest factor associated with contentment at work.

Just... “trust me”

▪ How are you doing?

▪ What do you need?

▪ What can I do to help or support you?

Begin EVERY check-in with a check-in

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▪ Go around the call (virtual room) to invite and encourage the participation of all team members

▪ Remember, it’s a teaming exercise, not a lecture!

Go around and around

▪ Staff expectations

▪ Compensation and benefits

▪ Tenure

▪ Onboarding / on-ramps

Next up: Change

A Turnover Tsunami is coming

▪ “A shock to the system often causes people to reassess things in their lives.”▪ Richard Alderson, founder of global career-change specialists Careershifters, says

▪ The “jolt of the pandemic” has caused many more of us to ask fundamental questions about our life choices and whether or not these align with our core values.▪ www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201112-has-the-meaning-of-work-changed-forever

New ways of doing things

▪ what tasks or processes have you ditched or redesigned since the pandemic began?

New ways of thinking about things

▪ what were you ‘dead wrong’ about last year?

Flexibility and backup plans build strength and resilience

▪ “Belt and Suspenders: Redundancy in Risk Practice,” Risk eNews

What’s Next

RESILIENCE: Time for soul-searching!

Programs

▪ How were our programs resilient?

▪ What aspects of those programs made it manageable to change course?

▪ What aspects of those programs made it especially challenging to change course?

▪ Which programs (or approaches!) are broken?

People

▪ How were our people resilient?

▪ Where and how was it MOST challenging?

▪ Were supervisors flexible and resilient? If not, why not?

▪ What do members of our team really want in their jobs and workplace?

▪ How do we know?

Systems, Processes and Policies

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▪ Which systems were essential to the new way of work?

▪ Which processes and policies were essential?

▪ Which systems, processes and policies were NOT helpful? Counter-productive? A complete waste of time?

Practical Palette:Resilience Building Tools

Initiate Candid Conversations

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▪ Ask, don’t assume what people want, need and what worries them

▪ Acknowledge your doubts and worries psychological safety

▪ Listen, don’t lecture

▪ “Listening to employees will not only help make the most effective decisions, but It also builds trust, a scarce [commodity] during a crisis.” – Scott Galloway, Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity

▪ New web application from NRMC; 3 pathways: 15 minutes – 2 hours

▪ BCP Overview

▪ Intermediate BCP

▪ Comprehensive BCP

▪ Step by step approach to build on what you’ve already created

Create a BCP using My BCP

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Complete a Business Impact Analysis

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”Unpack” risks with a Risk Bow Tie

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Create a Risk Action Plan

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Use our Fillable PDFs

▪ https://nonprofitrisk.org/resources/e-news/ready-set-learn-get-ready-now-for-whats-next/

Type “Ready Set Learn” in the search box!

▪ How are you doing?

▪ What do you need?

▪ What can I do to help or support you?

1. Begin EVERY check-in with a check-in

Yes, even for familiar teams!

▪ What’s your favorite film of all time?

▪ What’s your #1 irrational phobia (note: catching a virus is not irrational!)

▪ What’s a sport, hobby or pastime you yearn to do more of?

▪ What is something you’re looking forward to in the next year?

2. Continue with an ICEBREAKER

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▪ Go around the call (virtual room) to invite and encourage the participation of all team members

▪ Remember, it’s a teaming exercise, not a lecture!

3. Go around and around

Team Member

TOPIC #1 TOPIC # 2 TOPIC #3 TOPIC #4

Katharine

Whitney

Kay

Glenn

Create a tool to track participation

1. Attention: we listen at 25% efficiency

2. Attitude: keep a positive attitude and open mind

3. Adjustment: be flexible; follow the speaker along the detours!

Barriers to effective listening:

▪ Anticipating: remind yourself that there is ALWAYS something new to be learned!

▪ Judging: don’t judge based on superficialities

▪ Reacting Emotionally: leads to anticipating!

4. Listen Actively (and effectively)

Source: Lumen Learning

Closing Thoughts and Resources

Inspire your team to be ‘active architects’

▪ Adam Grant’s colleagues, Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton, found that:▪ “...in every line of work, there are

people who become active architects of their own jobs. They rethink their roles through job crafting—changing their daily actions to better fit their values, interests, and skills.”

Equifinality: multiple paths to the same end

Multifinality: same start point can be a path to different ends

Use Lenses and Frames

▪ Be humble: ▪ acknowledge what you don’t know;

recognize that your view of an issue (risk) may be biased or obstructed

▪ Be resolute:▪ resolve to see risks from different

angles and perspectives; multiple frames are better than one!

Ask more questions!

“People often hesitate to ask questions

because they would rather not gain

information that would make them

confront a need for change.” – Questions Are the Answer, by Hal Gregersen

Use a Belt and Suspenders

• Practice redundancy: cross training, succession planning, written plans and procedures

• Strive for stretchability: stretch assignments, anticipate multiple futures/possibilities

Stay focused on the future

▪ Two years from now, where do we want to be?

▪ What 5 factors will shape this future?

▪ What bold risks must we embrace today to get there?

Books that inspired this presentation!

Resources!

▪ Sign up for the RISK eNews here: https://nonprofitrisk.org/resources/e-news/

Resources!

▪ Consider attending the 2021 Virtual Risk Summit; learn more at www.2021RiskSummit.org

Free for CAAs!

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Resources!

▪ Check out the plentiful resources on the Assessment and Risk Resources website!

www.nonprofitrisk.org/CAP

Coming Soon!!

▪ Resilience Toolkit for CAAs

This publication was created by the National Association of Community Action Agencies -Community Action Partnership, in the performance of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services Grant Number, 90ET0469-01-01. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

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Questions?!

Thank you!Melanie Lockwood Herman

703.777.3504 | Melanie@nonprofitrisk.org