Objective: Discuss the key elements of organisational change necessary to guide the implementation of the CDS. Discuss the positive and negative aspects of this change.
When considering the organisational change that will be necessary to execute projects.
This tool focuses on the organisational implications, in local government, of executing a CDS. Doing this may require new roles and responsibilities and new capacities.
Mayor or mayor’s office, The Department Heads, in certain circumstances, Project Managers
Municipal departments – responsible for project implementation
This tool is a simple table that provides questions to guide discussions and making issues explicit. It also guides the user in considering the effects of change for the staff and the actions that will have to be taken. It helps to plan.
Executing a CDS may require:
- Thinking through how to improve service provision.
- How to organize the departments to implement new projects effectively.
- How to work with partners and what this would mean for the organisations in government.
Step 1:
Organise a focus group discussion with a skilled and neutral moderator.
Step 2:
Circulate the list of questions to participants in advance
Step 3:
A key person explains the potential requirements arising out of a CDS.
To begin the discussion, participants are asked to consider and discuss the following questions in the context of being able to conduct and implement a CDS.
- Will the work undertaken by staff change (for example from the actual collection of waste to the monitoring of waste collection by someone else)?
- Will the organisational change require new skills and capacity? Should training be obtained?
- Would the needs of departmental cooperation require new working relationships?
- How should staff who will be affected by the partnership be involved in the process?
- Might any changes to decision-making structures be required?
- Might a department or division of the local government need to be restructured, shut down or started up?
- Might the local government be required to retrench staff or hire new staff?
Please also fill in the table below (see worksheet). The table asks you to consider the organizational change necessary, for whom this might have implications and what types of implications these might be, as well as the actions that will be necessary to implement the organisational change.
Advantages
- This tool allows for a rapid appraisal of the situation.
- It sets in motion the idea of discussing organizational change from different perspectives and makes explicit who these changes will affect.
- It helps to consider actions that are required to implement change.
Disadvantages
- It can lead to over-simplification of complex realities, if the analysis is not done well or good data is not available.
- The nature of changes may not be clear to the participants.
This tool is linked to the Linkage Analysis tool and the GAM (Goal Achievement Matrix), as they all are complementary tools for project prioritization.
Generally accessible documents:
University of Queensland (2013) The University of Queensland guide to leading organisational change, Brisbane, University of Queensland.