Change is Hard: Use Your Team-Building Basics

Guest Post from Michelle Soverino:

Converting to and implementing Altru is a complex project that depends on more than technical and administrative details: buy-in from staff is crucial. Cultivating this human buy-in is of great importance, and fosters a change in organizational ethos. Moving your data and point of sales processes to Altru is not just an administrative change that affects the back office—it is a change that influences every source of earned and contributed revenue, and all methods and people who input, track, and report on said revenue.

From the front desk staff to the administrative staff, Altru signals a need to unify all users under the software’s extensive umbrella and create autonomy.

My last blog post articulated the need for corralling key stakeholders to help shape and shift the inherent change that Altru beckons. This blog post is dedicated to all other users, and how uniting them under the common cause of great data practices is a vital component to Altru success.

We've said it before: change is hard. The Nantucket Historical Association’s A-team has this idea at the forefront of all its discussions. What we decide around the table in the conference room trickles down to every Altru user. Avoiding user alienation is crucial: we aspire for all our users to feel like a band of software brethren who can rely and counsel one another. How do we do this? We go back to the basics of team building:

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• Articulate the common goal (successful use of Altru and all its bells, whistles, and functionality)
  

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• Invest in team development (training and communication)
  

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• Review, reevaluate, and revise plans as needed to highlight user skills and talents (in the form of Altru updates, audits of user error rates, restructuring of training/refresher sessions to highlight common mistakes)
  

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• Recognize achievements (we’ve an amazing group of NHA Altru All-Stars who wear their flair with pride)
  

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• Celebrate your milestones (cupcakes and milk on Altru’s first birthday?—heck yes!)
  
  

Michelle is the Senior Advancement Associate at Nantucket Historical Association. Get to know her in her Member Monday interview or connect with her in the community.