Overcoming Resistance

In the article by Weber (2015), there is a statement about the importance of engaging those who will be impacted by change in the process of implementing change. The article further relates that initial efforts to foster change in the organization’s strategic planning process were unsuccessful in part because of lack of engagement. Resistance to change and lack of trust are common experiences when an organization or community engages in change efforts. 

In your initial post, discuss the principles for dealing with opposition or resistance in change efforts for the Riverbend City Strategic Planning Committee, as described in the media piece in the Studies for this unit. Is resistance a normal part of the process? Can it be used in the effort to promote change? How? Discuss the resistance presented by one of the members of the Riverbend City Strategic Planning Committee and critique the response or method of addressing the resistance that was used by the group leader.

Riverbend City ® Activity

External Resistance

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Introduction

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Meeting

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Credits

Introduction

In this scenario, you will resume your role as a case worker at the Riverbend City Boys’ and Girls’ Club.

The club is partnering with a number of other local organizations for the Northside Youth Rising Initiative, aimed at preventing youth violence and keeping kids in school in Riverbend City’s underprivileged communities. To kick off the initiative and raise funds for it, the associated organizations are planning the Northside Blues Blowout, a large concert. You have been tasked to be the Boys’ and Girls’ Club’s point person on the Northside Blowout planning.

The director of the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, Jayme Young, has convened a meeting with leaders from some of the partner organizations to talk about logistics for the Northside Blues Blowout.

Meeting

Emile Solane

Riverbend Services Consortium Rep

OK, before I start being negative, I do want to make clear: I’m very excited about the Initiative in general and the Northside Blues Blowout in particular. Really! And so is everyone I’ve talked to at the Riverbend Services Consortium!

That said, I’m really nervous about some of our nuts and bolts as we approach the Blowout. As a Human Services nonprofit, we were really excited by the idea of the initiative, and I pushed hard for RSC to get involved. My staff was enthusiastic, my board much less so. But they came along. This was before we’d all made the decision to kick things off with the Blowout. Now I find myself in choppy water. I’m empowered by the RSC board to spend the organization’s money for Northside Youth Rising Initiative program activities. But that’s it. My board really, really doesn’t like the idea of our funds being spent on a concert, even when I explain to them again and again that the concert is itself a fundraiser, and this is a case of investing money to make money.

Since all of this is outside of the budget we’d already approved for the year, every expenditure that RSC makes for this is going to have to be approved by our board, and they’re all convinced that I’m asking them to give me a pile of RSC’s money so that I can light it on fire. One of our board members left me a really angry voicemail last night, asking me how she’s supposed to be asking donors for contributions when those contributions are just going to be turned around to pay for music. I know, I know. She’s old-fashioned, but she’s been a great friend to RSC and she’s donated and solicited a lot of money for us. I’m not sure where this leaves me to be honest. I’m trying to figure it out. At the very least, as we work out the budget for the Blowout and figure out how much everyone’s organization needs to kick in, I’m going to need a hell of an airtight case for every line item I take back to them.

Father Junot Rivera

St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church

I also have some qualms about the Blues Blowout. I don’t have a nonprofit board of directors to answer to, but I do have a parish with a healthy mix of very progressive, forward-thinking people and some people who, though wonderful, are not as accepting of new and different things. And I have to respect the views of everyone in my parish.

Everyone at St. Francis Borgia loves the idea of our community getting involved with the Northside Youth Rising Initiative. Everyone. People ask me about it after mass every single week, and I always enjoy talking to them about it. But the Blowout has some of my parishioners very concerned. There’s a very strong Legion of Decency in the parish, and its members don’t want parish funds going to a concert—even one in the service of good works— with performers they consider immoral. This isn’t a concern that I personally have; but like I said, I have to respect the views of my parishioners.

They’ve asked me to ask if a member of the parish can sit on the subcommittee that chooses the acts for the Blowout; they’ve also asked if I can arrange for them to have veto power. I know we haven’t even started talking about how we’re going to choose our acts, and I know that individual veto power probably isn’t a reasonable request. But I wanted to put it out there that these are conditions I need to work within as we move forward.

Quincy Reeves

Franzen InterTech

Franzen is excited to be partnering with all of these great, great organizations for this important initiative. We’re thrilled!

Now, I’m afraid there’ll be a little bit of a delicate dance when it comes to our participation in the Blues Blowout. I know that you all think it’s important that we kick this thing off in style, and you’re all convinced that this’ll be a big fundraiser. I hate to be a broken record, but I have to say that I’m just not convinced. This isn’t my first time at the rodeo, I’ve just been involved in way too many fundraising galas and what have you where everyone thought they were going to raise a fortune but instead just wound up breaking even. It’s just such an easy trap to fall into! Everyone says no, it’s not going to happen this time, we’ve learned all the lessons, and then BAM! You’re giving tickets away because they didn’t sell and you just hope people buy enough drinks to cover the costs of putting the thing on.

Now, I know I’ve already lost the argument on having the Blowout. And that’s OK. But I’d like to explore the possibility of having Franzen’s contribution to the Blowout being just of the in-kind nature. We can have staff work the event, we can put our marketing department at the disposal of the committee to help publicize it, stuff like that. But we’re having a very lean year, and what funds we do have available, well, I’d like to keep them earmarked for the Initiative’s actual program activities. Look at it this way: if I’m right and the Blowout doesn’t make any money, this leaves some operating cash from Franzen InterTech on the table for the Initiative to use.

Annie Piper

Crandall Manufacturing

I understand the logistical difficulties everyone is worried about, and I hope we can figure out ways through all of them. I think we will! We’d better, because I have to tell you, the Northside Youth Rising Initiative is a big, big deal, and it can’t happen without the Blues Blowout, and so we’d darned well better figure all of this out.

Crandall’s had a plant on the north side of Riverbend City for a long, long time, and we’ve got deep roots in that part of town, a lot of those people work in our factory. And it just breaks my heart, seeing the troubles that people have. I know that Hispanics really value family, and they just don’t do well without a good family structure. But you get these deadbeat dads, these absentee fathers, and it just cripples a whole generation. We see that in our plants, let me tell you. Thirty years ago, Hispanics living on the north side were some of our best employees. Now we have all these problems. We’ve got to get the Youth Rising Initiative going to help them out, and if you ask me we need to change the program a little bit so that we’re doing more about these absent fathers.

Sorry, I get carried away. Anyway, if other partner orgs are having trouble with finances for the Blues Blowout, Crandall can probably adjust our contribution.

Hector Rodriguez

Director of Outreach, Riverbend City Schools

Hate to say it, but if we’re talking about the nuts and bolts of putting on the Blues Blowout, I’m another person bringing some complications to the table. The school district is ecstatic about the initiative overall— I mean, how could we not be? And I think the Blues Blowout sounds like a great event both to raise the profile of the initiative and to let the community have some fun. I’m looking forward to being there and rocking out.

But here’s the bad news: the district operates under some pretty broad ethical guidelines that got put into place after some stuff that happened in the 90s. And those guidelines weren’t really worded as well as they could be, but they’re still binding. Long story short, district funds can’t be used to procure food or drink for outside events. I know, I know. We can negotiate for food donations or gifts in kind by vendors that the district already has a relationship with, so that might be a way to deal with this.

Leighann Eliason

Hennsey County Juvenile Justice System

I know one way we can save a little bit of money on the Blues Blowout! My little brother has a band, and I swear, they’re really good. You’d be amazed! I know I am. They play a couple of times a month at the Bunker downtown, also Whiskey Lane out in Hoskins. They do a bunch of great classic rock songs, some of their own material, too. They always drive the crowds nuts, get people dancing like crazy. I think they’d be great for the Blowout! They’re called Spoilsport.

We haven’t really talked about what our budget is for talent, but I know that my brother would talk the rest of Spoilsport into playing for a really low fee. I bet we could get them for $2000. That’s less than they make at a weekend at Whiskey Lane, I can tell you that! I think this’d be a really exciting way to stretch our event dollars-planning and get the show some really exciting top-level entertainment.

It’s funny, my brother always gives me guff for my boring job in juvenile justice; I’m pretty excited to have him help us bring some rock and roll to it. What do you guys think?

Reflection Questions

After hearing from the various stakeholders involved in planning the Northside Blues Blowout, what concerns do you have about the collaboration between the organizations involved?

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

What recommendations would you make to help ease those concerns?

Your response:
This question has not been answered yet.

Conclusion

Congratulations!

You have finished this activity.

Credits

Subject Matter Expert:

Interactive Design:

Marty Elmer

Interactive Developer:

Dre Allen

Instructional Design:

Media Instructional Design:

Keith Pille

Project Management:

Marc Ashmore, Andrea Thompson