E-008 Podcast-Lineup-How to Lead Change at Grant-Funded Organizations
### Quick Episode Summary Grant Talks Podcast [#008]
*Intro ***.43***
* Review of Episodes #006 and #007 with Johna Rodgers GPC ***:45***
* Getting Started-What to Expect with Change Management? ***04:56***
* The Three Stages for Processing Change ***06:06***
* Tip #1: Describe the Journey ***9:27***
* Tip #2: Reduce Uncertainty ***12:06***
* Tip #3: Communicate the Purpose ***14:50***
* Tip #4: Provide an Outlet ***17:58***
* Tip #5: Normalize the Pain ***20:18***
* Tip #6: Make the Future Real ***24:28***
* Tip #7: Celebrate Integration ***27:20***
* Change Management Meet Grant Management Trends ***28:51***
* Grant Talks Line-up Episodes #009 and #010 with Adam Roth and Jillian Neimeister from StreamLink Software-makers of Amplifund- “Real-World Change Management Strategies” ***33:59***
* The Last Word with Lucy Morgan CPA***36:11***
*Outro Audio GrantTalks Podcast with Lucy M. Morgan CPA ***39:02***
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- Listen to Lucy’s Welcome Message in Episode 001
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Introduction with Lucy Morgan CPA
Intro: 00:04
Welcome to the Grant Talks podcast with Lucy Morgan. Lucy is the CEO and Director of MyFedTrainer.com, a leading provider of grant management training and templates for federal grant recipients. This show is for grant professionals looking to gain confidence managing their grants. In an age of increasing complexity, you'll hear from leading professionals on the best practices surrounding grants, what's involved in successfully managing the grants lifecycle and how to make sure your grants are managed correctly. Now here's your host, Lucy Morgan.
Lucy Morgan CPA: 00:43
Welcome to the Grant Talks podcast. I'm your host, Lucy Morgan.
Review of Episodes #006 and #007 with Johna Rodgers GPC
Lucy Morgan CPA: 00:45
Have you ever thought to yourself "My boss is going to hell or jail!" If so, you'll want to check out episodes #006 and #007 with Johna Rodgers GPC in a fun interview, Johna shares her take on how to keep your head when everyone around you is going into panic mode.
In episode #006, Johna discusses characteristics of great bosses when you are working in the grants field. She also shared the concept of "more" and how that gets grant managers and their bosses into trouble with funders. If you've ever had to have those kinds of uncomfortable conversations with bosses from a grant professional perspective, you know how intimidating that can be. One of the things I love about Johna is her positive perspective on the world. And she provides some great insights on how to build a culture of greatness for both grant and non-grant staff in this episode as well. And that was just the first interview.
Johna came back in episode #007 to share some lessons learned when "My boss is going to hell or jail." In this second interview, she shared her favorite tips for dealing with difficult grant situations at work and yes, that includes working with difficult people during the grant’s life cycle. We had a great discussion about feeling a bit out of control with grants and I loved her thoughts on what we really have control over when it comes to grants management.
In this episode (#008) I want to expand on some of the concepts that Johna and I discussed in episode #006 and #007 specifically the concept of how do you lead change in change-resistant environments.
Let's face it, we've all worked in those organizations where people do not really want change. I know there's an old saying that "Only babies like change" and I think sometimes that's really the case.
The number one question that I get is I go out and work with federal grant recipients or do training is 'How do I get "fill-in-the-blank" to do "fill-in-the-blank"?'
- "How do I get the grant folks who are working on the programs to listen to the finance folks?"
- "How do I get the finance folks to listen to the grant folks?"
- "How do I get my boss to understand we could go to jail?"
All those types of "fill-in-the-blank" questions, I get that question over and over again. And when or if you feel like "Your boss is going to hell or jail" it's important that you have some more tools in your toolbox for tackling that elephant in the room.
And that elephant is "How do we get people to work together better?" This is really the core of any type of change management. So, does that sound helpful?
I wish I could see your heads nodding out there and I'm going to get to more of that in just a minute, but I also want to tell you what else is in this episode. At the end, I'm going to share a little sneak peek about what's coming up in our next future episodes. And what we have are two interviews with Adam Roth and Jillian Neimeister from StreamLink software. You might know StreamLink as a developer of Amplifund software.
Adam and Jillian recently presented at an NGMA conference about their experience at implementing grant management systems in both the state of Illinois and in the country of Puerto Rico. And they are going to share some lessons learned about engaging all the various stakeholders when you tackle a large project (that I think applies to even small changes as well.)
So, thanks for checking out the GrantTalks.com podcast. I want to let you know that your feedback is welcome and appreciated and you can always contact me at [email protected] and you can find all the past and future episodes on GrantTalks.com.
Oh and if you'd like to hear about my personal journey into grants, I hope you'll tune in to episode #004 as I discuss how I became what I call an "accidental" grant manager as well as covering some hot topic issues with federal grants and how the rules around non-competitive practices are evolving for grant recipients.
And if you are a grant consultant or grant writer, you'll want to tune into episode #004 because there's some important information in there. So, thanks for tuning in.
Let's get started with seven tips for leading change in a change-resistant environment.
Getting Started-What to Expect with Change Management?
Lucy Morgan CPA: 04:56
First of all, what does change management mean to grant professionals? We're often called on to tackle shifting priorities and lead change within our organization. Now sometimes that's a formal process of some change that we're going to do like a big system implementation. And sometimes it's just those small little changes like how do we change an attitude or a culture of “How we've always done it in the past is good enough.”
So, what I hope to share with these tips are some ways that you can help lead change in your organization in a very upfront way, but also in a not so obvious way as well. And I'm going to talk about some of the strategies that encourage collaboration amongst different participants in grants. I also want to talk about how you can improve communication and increase that culture of innovation at your organization as well.
So, the first thing to remember is organizations don't change. It's people that change. So, any strategy for how to lead change management has to deal with people. That's what you're really trying to tackle. That's the issue. It's not about getting an organization to change is how do you get people to change.
The Three Stages for Processing Change
Lucy Morgan CPA: 06:06
So, I'm going to ask you this question. Are you setting the stage for failure with your change initiative or not? That's something to consider because oftentimes we have unrealistic expectations of what change management means.
I read about something called the Kubler-Ross Change Curve in the past. Now some of you may have heard of this in terms of how do we deal with loss. And what that did is it looked at how you have different stages that you process a loss or even a change.
- The first stage is shock and denial. You might have heard of this when people just go, "I can't believe this is happening."
- Stage two is when people, sometimes they get angry. "I can't believe we have to do this. It was working just fine in the past. Why do we have to do this now?" And there can even be a bit of depression around this, for those "good old days" when we didn't have to worry about things like the Uniform Guidance and all these rules.
- Stage three is when you move into a phase of integration where you're starting to accept the change and you're saying, "Okay, all right, I know that this is different, but we can make it through this."
Now, one of the things that I want to bring to mind when you think about this is the fact that there are three distinct phases. And the reason that that's important is because two of them have people in a state of shock, denial, anger, and depression.
Too often, especially if you're a manager or maybe you work with managers who have the idea that we're just going to announce this change and everybody's going to be on board tomorrow. And those managers might've spent months and months discussing the change, integrating that change into their acceptance of the change. But when they roll it out to the rest of the organization, everybody's supposed to be on board within 24 hours. And that is not a realistic expectation, nor is that a recipe for success.
So anytime you're thinking about a change or change management, think about the fact that people need to process the change, and what it means to them, and get to the point where they're actually on board with the change. And oftentimes that means two-thirds of their time is going to be spent in a kind of unproductive time, where they're angry about the change, where they are in denial about the change before they even get to that point of acceptance.
So, first thing before we even get into these seven tips about change, I want you to realize two-thirds of change management should be spent dealing with shock, denial, anger, and depression before we're even getting into the point of how this is going to help people in the future.
So how do we lead in a change-resistant environment? One of the ways that we do this is that we come up with techniques that will help support a culture where there's greater collaboration. Now I've fallen into this trap myself as well, where you tend to think, “Hey, I have all the answers.” And I think maybe the longer you work through things with other people, you realize, “You know what, I might have one of the answers. I don't have all the answers.” And that's why collaboration is so important.
You can end up with a much better end result by collaborating with other people. Now that doesn't mean that you collaborate to the point of taking no action, that kind of like "analysis paralysis." But the more things that we can do to encourage collaboration, to encourage greater communication, that's going to lead to a more innovative culture.
Tip #1: Describe the Journey
Lucy Morgan CPA: 9:27
So, my first tip in change management, and leading in a change-resistant environment is to describe the journey. Let people know what to expect. If you think about it when you've been in a car with someone who says "We're going from point A to point B" but they won't give you any of the directions. "I'll let you know when you need to turn." That's not helpful to me. I kind of want to know where we're going. What direction should I be heading north, south, east, west? Where are we going? What should I expect? That's the very first step that I want to know when I've started at any journey, is where am I going?
I saw a great quote from Ginger Rogers for any of you who are historians, you might remember Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as the dancing couple. She said "Sure, jets are fast and economical, but my, oh my. What fun we've lost and what leisure we've sacrificed in the race to efficiency. Somehow stepping on a plane and zooming across the United States in a matter of hours doesn't hold a candle to a dear old-fashioned train ride." Now, I love trains. I love train travel, but there's no way I'm going from Florida to Seattle that I want to take a train, especially if I need to be there in a matter of hours.
So, there's a nostalgia about the past, that may or may not be realistic. You might be forgetting that part where you're tired because you've been sleeping in the seat for two days or three days on a train. But people, just people being what we are, we tend to have that nostalgia about the past and we kind of want to cling to that past rather than moving forward.
So that's one of the first things that you do when you describe the journey is you tell people, where did we come from and where are we going? And then hopefully we also have a few ideas on how we're going to get there. Now that may evolve over time, but we're at least describing what the journey looks like.
It's also helpful to say what obstacles we might encounter on the way. Now, this isn't to scare people, but just to let them know, you know what, we're going to get halfway across the country and there's this thing called the Rocky Mountains, and so we're going to go up the mountains, then we're going to go down the mountains. And what do we do if we get stuck? You know, if we get to this point and we need to rest for a day before we do that, or maybe we need to get some different gear or outfit differently, that's what we're going to do.
So, you describe the journey and it's okay to say some of the things that you may face as you go through the journey. If you're doing change management in an organization, some of the things that you may face is turnover. You might have some people who go "You know what? I've had enough of this or I don't want to be part of this anymore." So how are we going to handle that?
Describe that to people, encourage them along the way. Let them know what to expect. That's the whole point of describing the journey.
Tip #2: Reduce Uncertainty
Lucy Morgan CPA: 12:06
Tip #2, we want to reduce uncertainty. Now, I know for myself personally, it's unsettling and it's even a bit demotivating when I don't know what to do next. I often think about, I mentioned in one of the previous podcast episodes about having almost too many choices. I'm originally from Minnesota and I know I've been to Mall of America three times and I've never actually bought anything there because as soon as I go in there, I just get overwhelmed by the choices.
The same thing is true on any change management. There's a lot of different possibilities on how things could go. Well, one of the ways that you can reduce uncertainty is actually to have a plan. Now that doesn't mean a plan that can't be updated and changed and evolve over time, but let us at least know here's how far we're going to get today, here's how far we're going to get this week. Then we're going to reassess. Maybe we'll only get this far this month and then we have to do a few things differently so that we can take that next step.
The whole point of Tip #2 is to look at what types of things are going to come up. You won't have them all, but have at least enough of them to go "Okay, this is our plan to deal this." And I like to say you want to avoid "choice paralysis." You've probably all heard of "analysis paralysis.” That's when you spend all your time just analyzing the data and don't actually take action.
The same thing happens with too many choices "Yes, we could do this or we could do that or we could do this." At some point, you have to be able to say "You know what? We're going to narrow it down and we're going to move forward with this one choice." It might not be a perfect choice and we might have to reassess later, but we need to make a decision to move forward.
I think making decisions, the ability to make decisions is one of the most underrated jobs skills that I've ever encountered. It actually is very important. Whether you're working as a consultant, whether you're working in grant management, you have to have the ability to make that decision and move forward. And that's part of the way that you reduce uncertainty.
Now when I talk about reducing uncertainty, I thought this was a great illustration. Think about a plane. How often is a plane on course for its destination? And really think about that. You'd like to say "Oh well, planes have autopilot and they do all this other stuff and the pilots are flying the plane.” But if you think about it, the only time that the plane is actually 100% on course, not making those little adjustments up and down, depending on weather conditions and everything else is when it's on the ground.
In other words, when it’s not even taking any action. So, any project, any change management project, even those little quiet, helping people change their behavior often involves making slight adjustments all the way through. And sometimes some big adjustments all the way through. The only time a plane is 100% on course is when it's on the ground.
Tip #3: Communicate the Purpose
Lucy Morgan CPA: 14:50
Tip #3, communicate the purpose. If you don't have a pretty big “WHY” of why you're making this change, you'll never get people sold on the idea of change. Everyone's just going to kind of sit back and they're going to fold their arms and say "You know what, we're just going to wait this out. This is another flavor of the month from senior leadership and we're going to see if we have actually to do anything or not."
The big why is the reason that you're doing this change. It should never be just a change for change sake. You have to have a pretty big why, especially on some of these really big implementation type things. You have to reinforce that purpose and you want to measure that throughout the change that people are on board and understanding why we're doing this.
Think about, when you go on a trip with a bunch of little kids and they're like "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" The same thing happens with change management in organizations. People get tired, they have the regular work to do and now you're asking them to do more new stuff with this change management and they're going to, maybe they don't say it out loud, but they're going to mentally be going "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
You want to make sure that you're communicating the purpose throughout the entire change management, not just at the beginning. Yes, this is why we're going to do this. And then people never hear about it again, because they lose that incentive and they lose that memory of why. “Why did we start this trip? We thought it was going to be easy. It's hard, you know, can't we go back to the old way of doing things?”
We often, when we're under pressure, revert back to those old habits and those old behaviors. And that's not just true in change management with organizations. I think that's true just of people. So, make sure that you're reinforcing why this change is happening throughout the entire change process.
And remember communication is a two-way street. If you're in leadership or you're leading this change within your organization, oftentimes we'll go to the all-hands meeting and people get up in front and talk about "This is going to be so wonderful" and I actually-this true story, I actually was at a meeting where one of the senior leaders told the all-hands meeting that the reason everybody needed to work really hard and get this change done is so that he could get a larger bonus. Now, how effective do you think that was for motivating people?
Make sure that when you're talking about change, it's communication. That means it's a two-way street, not just I'm talking and you're nodding your head up and down, but it's actually we're communicating, we're talking back and forth. "What are some of your concerns? What can I do to help alleviate them? What things have we not thought about that we need to include?"
And then recognize the "why" for your organization of why this change is important. Like, "Hey, we want to get more funding so we can help more people." That may be very different than some individual's "why." That individual might want to do it, yes, they believe in the mission of the organization, but they're also hoping maybe for some advancement, create a better future for their family, make a bigger difference, whatever. The organizational why is probably not the same as the individual why, but that doesn't mean that you both can't be headed in that direction for a better future as well.
Tip #4: Provide an Outlet
Lucy Morgan CPA: 17:58
Tip #4, provide an outlet. Now I'm not talking about electrical outlets. I'm talking about support throughout the change process. The American Psychological Association, (APA) reported that more than half of people said they could use more support, especially emotional support for things like talking over problems or helping to make difficult decisions. It takes a village to get change management implemented. You want to provide an outlet.
Now, sometimes, I think I'm as guilty of this as anyone. When someone has a problem, I immediately shift into problem-solving mode. I'm listening to them, but I'm already trying to figure out, okay, how do we get around this obstacle? Sometimes you just have to listen and then see what people think the solution is. Ask some questions. If you respond with anger right off the bat or you're defensive about it, people are going to start to go "Ooh, I'm not going to talk to Lucy about anything again because she just immediately gets all defensive about it."
Provide an outlet for people where they can feel listened to. And then your job as a manager or leader of change is to provide reassurance and support. Now maybe they have, maybe their concerns are not what you thought they were. So again, ask those questions. Work on resolving their concerns, but first, listen to what those concerns are. Don't make assumptions that you know exactly what their problem is.
Part of any good change management includes having a clear and accessible chain for future communications. And what that means is, once I roll out this big initiative and we're all, head down trying to make it happen, I want to make sure I've provided an outlet for people throughout that change process. And even after implementation. That's a piece that often gets missed. It’s, okay, we've implemented this change. Now we're going along. Two months later I realized, "You know what? This piece is not working well. I know we thought it would work well, but it really isn't working well." So, what is my chain for future communication as well?
And then think about having a path for not only communicating that feedback but also escalation. Escalation means, "Hey, I've been telling you this is a problem. No one's listening to me. How do I escalate that concern up the chain, so that we make sure that we don't lose sight of that and that issue gets addressed?"
Tip #5: Normalize the Pain
Lucy Morgan CPA: 20:18
Tip #5, normalize the pain. Ooh, that sounds, why would we want to normalize pain? Isn't life just going to be all unicorns and rainbows and "no pain, no gain?" “No pain, no gain?” I think we have to realize that sometimes growth is painful. There's nothing as painful as being stuck in a situation that we know is not good for us.
Now when we talk about the world of grants, sometimes that situation we know is not good for us, is that one where people are in denial that anything has changed, especially with federal grants. I work with organizations all the time that people go, "Well, I've been doing this for 25 years and nobody ever asked for that stuff before, so why do I need to provide it?"
We have to realize things are constantly evolving, whatever, whether it's the funder expectations, the expectations of the public, the impact of social media. If something goes wrong at your organization and that gets out on social media, there's a much faster effect than there was 20 years ago before social media. So, whatever those change issues are, just recognize it's going to be painful. So, one of the things I like to do, is I like to address some of that right up-front.
If you're starting a new workout program and you expect that you're not going to be sore, that's an unrealistic expectation. So, hopefully, one of the things your trainer or your coach or maybe even just your workout partners are letting you know is that “Hey, when we do this, you're probably going to be sore the next day.”
Many years ago, I started taking this aerobics class. This was my first time I'd ever taken aerobics and she was wonderful. This was back kind of in the big hair and leotard days, you know, and the leg warmer days. I got to dance to lots of great music and Bruce Springsteen and stuff. But oh, my goodness. I woke up the next morning and I actually had to crawl my way out of bed. I mean, I had the muscles underneath my feet were sore. How did that happen? Well, I didn't realize all that jumping up and down for aerobics could cause that. But if I had had a little clue, if someone had helped me understand what I was, what to expect, I would've been more prepared for it.
So, part of change management is also normalizing the pain. Letting people know this is not going to be smooth sailing. You know there are some common growth experiences that we all will share in this together. We're all going to get to this point where we're tired. We're all going to get to this point where we feel like “I never get to see my family because I'm working on all this stuff.”
Acceptance of those limitations is important to getting change management through and also understanding there's going to be a loss of productivity. Oftentimes we as managers or we as leaders sometimes minimize the fact that people have jobs to do and now, you're putting something on top of what they're already doing. It's going to be really hard for them to keep up a high level of productivity on their day to day stuff and also get all behind this new change we're doing with lots of new things to learn and lots of new systems to put in place and lots of processes to improve.
It's often not realistic to expect that we're never going to have any loss of productivity as we're working through some of these issues. Yes, we're doing it for the benefit in the future, but there might be some short-term pain until we can find that long-term gain.
So, think about how you can communicate, that without some pain we wouldn't have progress (the “no pain, no gain” type of attitude.) Throughout the change, the process, you always want to be reinforcing why we're doing this. People are going to start to lose sight of that. Especially if you're looking at a longer-term change management cycle, and then, emphasize that the big thing is that we want to continue to make forward progress. We might have two steps forward, one step back type of thing, and that's okay as long as overall, we're continuing to move forward.
And take some time to celebrate those small victories. Don't wait until the end of a long change management cycle to have small victories. Have those doughnuts on Friday to celebrate that we got through this. Okay, maybe don't charge those to your federal grant. But you've probably heard that expression "What doesn't kill me makes me, makes me stronger." Sometimes we have to have that in a little bit of a lighthearted way of that, okay, we've all survived this next obstacle together.
Tip #6: Make the Future Real
Lucy Morgan CPA: 24:28
Tip #6, make the future real. Peter Drucker, the management guru said: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Now, I also heard this same quote from Abraham Lincoln, so whoever said it, whoever repeated it, I’ve repeated it as well. I think it's a great quote. Too often we wait for the future to come up and smack us in the head. If we start taking steps to create that future, we have a little bit more control over what way it's going to go, either for ourselves individually or also for our organization.
So, when you make the future real, what you're focusing in on is that end destination. You think back to it, we're going to the promised land. Help people be able to describe what it means to them. In fact, we should encourage people to describe "What will this look like for you?" Now, if you take people and you say "We're going to have this great change, we're going to implement agile or lean or whatever that is and have these wonderful processes, oh, and by the way, you're probably nervous about not having a job in the future. Don't worry about that." We have to let people start to envision what that future looks like. And it could be a future that's not necessarily with the same organization or doing the same thing they've always done.
Make sure that you're connecting with people on an emotional level, not just theoretical or oh my goodness, we'll save all of these dollars or we'll have a more efficient, a lower indirect cost rate, things like that. Make sure you're connecting people with both their hearts and their minds. This is going to allow us to serve more people in the future.
Make sure it connects on that emotional level with things people care about. This is going to allow us more flexibility or you more flexibility, or this is going to provide more opportunities for you to grow and expand as well.
Many times, when it comes to change management, we are running a marathon. So, think about supporting a sprint versus a marathon. When you run a marathon, there are people along the sides. They've got the water cups for you. They're cheering you on. The larger the change management initiative, the more we need those people along the sidelines, the more we need to support each other through a marathon. The more that you can reaffirm, "Hey, we're in this together" and make people actually feel like we are in this together. Not that the boss who is patting you on the back as you're getting prepared to stay until 10 o'clock at night, while that person goes home.
It's a partnership. Whenever there's change initiated, it involves more than one person and it involves the help of others and the support of others. We want people to feel that they have ownership of this process and can support each other. Think about supporting a marathon. It requires a team. We even sometimes have to have that sag wagon, right? The wagon that picks everybody who goes "You know what I'm not going to make it to the end, but I want to make sure I'm there to support the other people that are at that point as well.”
Tip #7: Celebrate Integration
Lucy Morgan CPA: 27:20
And tip #7, celebrate the integration. In other words, celebrate the acceptance of the change and the moving forward together and the final, when you get to the destination. Recognize that one size fits does not fit all. I worked for an organization and a certain people's idea of a celebration included going out, to a lot of bars in the evening and other people, not so much. So, it's not one size fits all. Some people, they prefer to celebrate, but only within work hours. Some people, they're looking forward to that big dinner with the whole group and getting that public recognition. Not everybody wants public recognition. Sometimes people like more of that quiet pat on the back. So, recognize one size does not fit to all when it comes to celebration.
And allow a little bit of time for reflection and recovery before moving into the next thing. How many times have you've celebrated that great win with more work? "Okay, great. You got it done. Woo Hoo. All right, now I want you to start this next project." Allow time for people to breathe. Allow time for people to reflect on how far we've come and why this is an improvement over what we had in the past.
So, celebrate integration, look at it from many different perspectives. Again, different people have different ideas about what it means to celebrate. Be open to some of those other ideas. Don't just have one size fits all. And let people breathe and celebrate the accomplishment before you move on to that next thing.
Change Management Meet Grant Management Trends
Lucy Morgan CPA: 28:51
So, I've talked a lot about change management and I haven't really talked about that much about how this relates directly to the field for grantees. So, let me just give you a few things that I think will expand your "why."
The first thing is that there's more competition for grants than ever in the past. It's a lot more public, how you get grants. There are a lot more classes about how to write for grants. There are a lot more websites about how to get grants. There's more competition overall for those dollars. And that means whether we're talking federal dollars or we're talking donor dollars or we're talking funder dollars, foundation dollars, things like that.
There's also more pressure on indirect costs. In other words, how do we keep that overhead really low? I know during Hurricane Harvey; I got these Facebook posts that compared executive salaries at some of the main charitable organizations. And boy, I kind of decided where those dollars were going to go based on that. I kind of thought, well, "Why should I give this organization my money when they've got a president who's making these huge sums?"
Now I'm not saying that they don't deserve that. I'm just saying I'm going to decide where my dollars are going to go based on what the overhead is and funders are no different. They want to put the bulk of the dollars into the actual work being done, whether it's helping kids achieve higher test scores, whether it's helping the elderly with nutrition, they'd rather see more of their money to go to that. And so, there's going to continue to be more pressure on indirect costs.
Now when you have pressure, that means that sometimes change is inevitable. If you want to keep getting funding, you have to show a willingness that you're going to look at that and go "Okay, how do we become more competitive?" Well, oftentimes that involves looking at how are we doing our process.
I'm a CPA by trade. I've been in accounting for a long time and I actually remember those 10 columnar pads where we used to write all the stuff in with pencils. Not quite to the green-eyeshade time, but you know, I remember the advent of computerization. I worked as a purchaser for a food warehouse, a whole foods warehouse, many years ago. We had 10 purchasers and we didn't have computerization, so we had to actually go out if we wanted to know how many pallets of flour where there were in the warehouse, we went out and counted. And then we recorded it on a little paper card.
And once we implemented computerization with procurement, all of a sudden, we went from ten purchasers to one. Change is a constant. We have to be thinking about okay, what impact is this going to have on our organization?
And then the third area is that with grants there is more and more regulation and higher and higher expectations. More and more funders are expecting transparency. They're expecting this whole thing about how do we have open data so that we can create a searchable database so that we can really make sure we're getting the best return on our investment for our funds, whether it's federal funds or foundation funds or whatever for the project. How do we help the most people at the lowest cost point?
Federal grants in the fiscal year 2018 were appropriated at over $755 billion. That's a huge number. Now, the good news is that's a huge number to solve problems in our community. That's awesome. We can get a lot of work done, but here's the reality. It's getting harder and harder to stand out in a good way with our funders because there's more competition.
So, the expectations are we're going to deliver more results, more efficiently, with less overhead. Okay. That's the expectation. How do we do that? Often it involves some kind of a change initiative that looks at a process or looks at responsibilities and says, "How can we do this differently?" The truth is there are more and more strings attached when it comes to grants. In the past it might've been, "Hey, we got the free money, let it rain money." Now what we're seeing is more and more expectations and more expectations of change for the better but over a shorter period of time.
And so, I think as a grant recipient, one of the things you should be realizing is that the future of grant funding is going to belong to organizations that are really prepared but also are very adaptive. And when I say adaptive, that means I think they embrace some of the innovative approaches that are coming in, whether we're looking at agile or lean or any of those types of concepts.
And people are just used to living in a changing environment. You know what? We're more nimble than we were in the past. We're able to encourage collaboration. We're able to work together as a team better than maybe we had in the past. We're better at communicating with each other and we'll really build a culture of not only innovation but also accountability. I think that's the big thing that funders are looking for is adaptability but also accountability so that they feel confident that whatever monies they give us is being spent in the best possible way.
Now when you successfully manage change, one of the cool things that happen is that you are actually empowering your employees to be better communicators and to be more participatory in what that future you're building together is. And I think that's a great benefit as well.
Grant Talks Line-up: Adam Roth and Jillian Neimeister - “Real-World Change Management Strategies”
Lucy Morgan CPA: 33:59
Well, I hope this episode has been of help and value to you. Let me share what we have coming up in the next couple of episodes and if you'd like to up your game when it comes to leading change in your organization, I think you're going to enjoy our next two podcast episodes with Adam Roth and Jillian Neimeister.
Adam is the founder and CEO of StreamLink software, which is a privately held company offering Amplifund. Amplifund is one of the leading enterprise grant management software platforms. I've worked with Adam over a several-year period. We've talked a couple of times about the impact of the DATA Act, things like that and he was the winner of the NGMA's Impact Award-Private Sector for exceptional contributions to advancing the field of grant management. So, I've always love to talk to Adam and see what his latest thoughts are on how technology is changing grants management.
He's joined in these podcasts with Jillian Neimeister, who's the director of development for Amplifund software. So, in episodes #009 and #010, Adam and Jillian are going to share the importance of engaging stakeholders around change management through stories of implementing both a statewide system for the grants life cycle as well as a country-wide solution.
Now, I mentioned the two areas that they worked with were the state of Illinois and the country of Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, they had a lot of unique challenges, everything from multiple languages that had to be implemented into the software, as well as that thing called a hurricane that really devastated Puerto Rico recently.
We talked about how technology is changing grants management and some of the ripple effects of something called the DATA Act. Now as I go out and train, a lot of people have heard of the DATA Act, but aren't really that familiar with what that's going to mean to them. Well, it's all about this concept of machine-readable data. And there are other open data initiatives that I talked with Adam and Jillian about as well that I think are really going to impact grant recipients now and in the future.
Adam and Jillian also share some real-life strategies for getting big changes completed. So, I've given you some tips. They're going to tell you some real-life strategies that they used to implement these large initiatives with both a state and a country.
The Last Word with Lucy Morgan CPA
Lucy Morgan CPA: 36:11
Finally, I'd like to shift gears just a little bit and tell you about a secret that happened when I got into grants management. Here's the truth, I didn't know anything about grants management.
In college, I took one class that I think I could kind of, sort of, attribute to grants and it was called fund accounting. Not Fun, like f-u-n, but fund f-u-n-d. And the very first night of class the instructor said: "Welcome to accounting from the 1800s and if you don't go to work for a government, you'll never use any of this." Well, that was not a ringing endorsement from my side, of a class that I really wanted to pay a lot of intention to.
But if you've heard my story, you know I was an "accidental" grant manager and here I am managing over $100 million worth of federal funds. There was a lot of new concepts. There was a lot of requirements. And quite frankly, I was a little bit too embarrassed to raise my hand or ask people around me what the right way to do anything was. So, if you're working on grants maybe you can relate to some of these feelings as well. That's why my goal with the Grant Talks podcast is to give you some hope, that you are not alone in feeling that way.
First of all, the work you're doing is helping people and working with grants is an important way to build up our communities and solve problems. You are making a difference in the world through your work. And yes, even though it can be confusing, it can be hard, overwhelming. It's worth the fight.
I'm here to fight back against some of that confusion or that nervousness or even unhappiness in the world of grants. So, whether you're working on the federal side or you're working with foundations, whatever type of grants you're working with, I hope you'll feel like I have your back with resources that make grant management more manageable. In fact, I'd like to be your biggest fan and cheerleader along that marathon of grants or even change management.
I want to cheer-lead you along for the great work that you're doing, so I hope you'll do me the favor of sharing this podcast with other grant professionals. Get the word out that we're here to help. That we have interesting topics and we have some amazing people that we're interviewing.
If you have some ideas about a future podcast that you'd like to see, send me a quick email at [email protected]. And I hope that I've helped in you and your grant journey as well.
Thanks for checking out the Grant Talks podcast. You'll find all the episodes on GrantTalks.com. And remember, I've placed some additional resources for you on these topics that you can download at GrantTalks.com.
Thank you for tuning in.
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Outro: 39:02
To learn more about how MyFedTrainer.com makes grant management more manageable, visit MyFedTrainer.com. That's MyFedTrainer.com. You'll find all the grant talks episodes at GrantTalks.com. That's GrantTalks.com.
More About Lucy Morgan:
Lucy M. Morgan is a CPA, MBA, GPA approved trainer, speaker, and author of 3 books including “Decoding Grant Management-The Ultimate Success Guide to the Federal Grant Regulations in 2 CFR Part 200.” As a leading authority on federal grant management for nonprofits, institutions of higher education and state, local and tribal governments she has written over 250 articles on grant management topics featured in LinkedIn, various publications and on the MyFedTrainer.com blog.
She is a sought-after presenter at national conferences sponsored by organizations such as the Grant Professional Association (GPA), National Grant Management Association (NGMA) and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Lucy is also a highly regarded trainer whose techniques and teaching style come from real-world experience. Having faced many of the same challenges her audiences have endured, Lucy understands that what looks good on paper may not always work in the real world. Because she has been there, she provides people of all professional backgrounds with practical tools to advance their careers and make a bigger difference in the world. She can be reached at [email protected].
More Resources for Grant Professionals
Thanks for checking out the Grant Talks podcast!
In this episode of Grant Talks, we talked about a subject that you may want to know more about:
- Leading Change in Change-Resistant Environments
So...as promised I want to share some resources that may help you on YOUR grant journey.
(Especially if you are managing federal grants-with changing budgets and program plans.)
Click below to download a copy of:
This is what the change management process looks like with federal grants…
It starts with excitement and nervousness.
You get that federal grant!
And then life happens!
It can be tough when the best-laid budget plans meet the real world of grant management
That’s why I wanted to share this infographic “mini-guide” on how to handle changes in your grant budget and program plans without getting into trouble with your funding agency.
Federal funders can be very fussy about when they give their blessing to changes.
(And when I say a “blessing” I mean the PRIOR approval of changes to your federal grant.)
I hope this little “roadmap” will help you stay out of trouble and help as many people as possible with the federal funding.
This shared resource is a quick and visual way to keep you on top of the changes that are a normal part of “real-world” grant management!
Do you know:
- The 7 prior approval requirements for all non-construction federal awards.
- The 3 times your federal agency must approve changes to your construction award.
- What approvals your federal funder can waive to make your life easier and more…
These resources are FREE for you, and I hope that you will find them valuable on your grant journey.
Click here to download and share
P.S. If you want more details, check out my Decoding Grant Management-Success Tip article at https://blog.myfedtrainer.com/decoding-grant-management-success-tip-revision-of-budget-and-program-plans/
Thanks again for listening in!
Lucy
