Want to experience a digital transformation at your nonprofit organization? You might be surprised to find out it's less about the tech and more about your people. Join Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to learn more about how your approach to engagement can either make or break your project.

1. Technology Doesn’t
Transform Organizations.
People Do.
November 21, 2019
Jarrod Bell, CTO – BBBSA
Jordan Schwartz, Business Architect – Traction on Demand

2. Federated Model
• Network of ~270 affiliates across all 50 states
• Over 4,500 total employees, 3,700 program staff
National Office IT team
• 4 people
• Supporting 6 major platforms
• No in-house developers and no dedicated database administrator
• No experience with Salesforce
Our organization
Where We Started

3. Where We Started
Our technology
AIM, the 15-year-old legacy bespoke system for program management
• Spaghetti code... “Change a light bulb on the front porch and suddenly the refrigerator stops working”
• Too rigid to support innovation locally and too difficult to change to support innovation nationally
• What was once empowering technology was now a hindrance
• Over 60 million records and nearly 1 terabyte of documents
AIM360, a vaporware case study
• The first attempt to replace AIM
• Substantial investment of time and resources
• Highly visible failure

4. Where We Were Going
Move from AIM to Salesforce Sales Cloud for program management
• A mission-first approach to implementing Salesforce
Support survey process with Community Cloud
• Lightweight approach to rapidly realize the value of our new technology
Use Marketing Cloud to support constituent engagement
• A transactional approach to staying closer to our constituents throughout the program lifecycle
Convince over 3,700 users that this was the right path for our network
• We had a lot of work to do to gain their trust
Our Technology

5. We were standing at the base of Mount Everest and our destination was the summit
• Plan for the path that what was immediately before us
• Plan to change that plan… a lot
Where We Were Going

6. Getting the right people on the bus
The Team
Culture
Intelligence
Experience
70+Combined years of
BBBSA Experience
6Dedicated Team Members
from BBBSA

7. Dedicate to the Mission
• Know what your team will rally around
Vision is based on Impact to People
• Not what technology / clouds will be delivered
Focus on what needs to be accomplished
• Don’t railroad how it needs to be accomplished
Everyone has a say in decisions that impact people
• Spend time translating technical decisions
Reflect early + often and adjust course
• Retrospectives that focus on the team, not just delivery
People-based, not Technology-based
Team Principles
Build Trust with Every Action

8. Organizational Change Management
Trust, communication, and culture

9. Transparency and Honesty
Get comfortable with being
uncomfortable
Say what you are going to do…
and do what you say you will
There can be no successful change without trust
Building Customer Trust

10. Managing Organizational Change
Change management was not a side project, it was the project
• Used the Prosci ADKAR framework to inform our approach to change management – Awareness, Desire, Knowledge,
Ability, Reinforcement
• Integrated our project management, organizational change management, and training into one holistic program
• The project plan included all change management activities, including our communication plan
You can’t make dinner with 270 cooks in the kitchen
• Engagement is critical, but it needs to be measured
• Increasing trust can help increase the buffer
• “Push-pull” approach to requirement gathering, UAT, and training
• 60 staff from 35 agencies completed over 1,100 hours of user acceptance testing
A plan to change

11. Managing Organizational Change
Communication with users was the focus
• Weekly communications focused on activities within a 30-60 day window
• Dedicated website for project communications to the network
• Two-way communication was critical
• Give them time to be ready and the tools to succeed
• The go-live is the start of the journey, not the end
Using communication as the key change agent

12. Team Approach to Change Management
No one person can drive change for an organization
• Leaders can set a vision, but the team is the embodiment
Set a culture for Change Management within the team
• Make it accessible and easily relatable
Open the door for uncomfortable conversations with
your Users
• Get out of the boardroom!
Be realistic and honest within your team about where
your change effort is at
• Checking the boxes does not equal progress
Setting the Mindset within the Team

13. Your Users are on a Journey, support them beyond Go-Live
Driving Ownership and Accelerating Innovation
Step 1
Step 5
Step 4
Step 3
Step 2
Seeing the
Vision
Optimism /
Apprehension
Seeing the
Platform
Uncertainty /
Avoidance
Training on the
Platform
Confusion /
Frustration
Living on the
Platform
Problem Identifying
Owning the Platform
Experimenting / Problem
Solving
Accelerating the
Platform
Solution Building
Step 6