The presentation was from a fringe event at Evolve 2014: the annual event for the voluntary sector in London on Monday 16 June 2014. Steve Coole (Stategic Support Unit Manager) discusses supporting organisations to address change. Find out more about the Evolve Conference from NCVO: http://www.ncvo.org.uk/training-and-events/evolve-conference

1. Supporting Organisations to Address
Change
Steve Coole, Strategic Support Unit Manager

2. This session
• Discussion and reflection on your approaches to
stakeholder engagement
• Overview of NUS’ membership, challenges facing
students’ unions and an outline of the diagnostic process
• Other frameworks that utilise stakeholder engagement
methods
• Case studies of how the process has enabled students’
unions to create organisational change
• Q&A and further discussion

3. Who are your stakeholders?
In pairs take a moment to reflect:
• Your organisation and its purpose
• Who your key stakeholders are
• Why are they your key stakeholders?
• What influence do they have over your organisation?
• What do you think their current perception is of your
organisation at the moment and why?

4. Who are your stakeholders?
• Feedback from pairs
• When was the last time you tested stakeholder
perception of the organisation and it’s strategic direction?
• What processes, frameworks or practice do you currently
use to test if you are creating positive change in line
with your organisations purpose?
• What does impact look like and how do you measure it?
Can you think of any recent examples?

5. s
NUS, students’ unions and
diagnostics

6. NUS
• 600+ Students’ Unions in membership across the UK in
higher and further education
• Three parts to the NUS Group - NUS UK, NUS Services
Ltd and NUS Charitable Services
• Students’ Unions are funded by colleges and universities
to the tune of £0 - £1,000,000+. Students’ Unions also
generate their own income as democratic charities.
• 7,000,000 members across students’ unions in the UK

7. A diversity of development need
• One size certainly doesn’t fit all (600+ students’ unions)
• The Strategic Support Unit established in 2011 to offer
products and services to support students’ unions
• The Unit developed the diagnostic model with a view to
supporting students’ unions to change one by one,
alongside a self-assessment Quality students’ union
model
• 7,000,000 members, means different values, politics,
priorities and behaviors that produce newly elected
leaders across the UK on an annual basis

8. Challenges for Students’ Unions
Key issues for 2014/15
• Trustee Board performance
• Impact measurement and articulation
• The purpose of commercial services
• International expansion of education and student recruitment, plus
many other challenges
Known challenges
• Institutional relationships, reliance on personality rather than
strategy
• Elected officer teams changing on an annual basis
• Doing things the way we always have, coasting becomes crisis
• Funding and/or demonstrating VFM
• Lack of a research culture

9. Symptoms of poor organisational health
in students’ unions
• Recurring financial deficits and no reserves
• Poor management account reporting
• No strategic plan or one of poor quality
• No key performance indicators, or regular reports
• The absence of a people strategy or performance reviews
• Strained relationships between staff and elected officers
• Governance and lines of authority / staff structures not
being followed
• Low student participation in democratic activity, services,
clubs, campaigning and decision making
• No synergy between institution and union strategy
• No culture of research and membership involvement
• Struggle to demonstrate outcomes and impact

10. The Diagnostic process
• Goal setting
• Desk based research & Organisational health self-
assessments
• Onsite visit and structured stakeholder interviews
(Trustees, staff, officers, minimum of 2 senior
university/college staff)
• Report – SWOR, Key Data and demographics, Analysis,
Examples and Recommendations
• Post diagnostic support
• Any questions about our process?

11. Other projects using stakeholder
engagement
• Impact measurement using Social return on investment
(SROI) and the why, how and what theory
• Values and behaviors assessments for developing
charters and strategic plans
• Chair of the Trustee Board review, using a 360 approach
against a good governance framework and structured
questioning
• Organisational health self-assessment master classes

12. Why stakeholder engagement is important
to the process
• “Holding a mirror up” and using that as a key evidence
base for the analysis and diagnosis of issues
• Line of questioning that encourages the people involved
to find solutions for improvement or change by
themselves
• The self-assessment element is like a health check with a
GP, the diagnostic is the follow up MRI scan, using
specialists (in line with the specifics of the goal)
• Draws out the opportunities and areas where there is
consensus and agreement on areas for improvement
• The funder better understands how it will achieve value
for money, and how the organisation will deliver for its
membership

13. Example Wins
• An additional £170k to annual block grant at one
students’ union, with a formal agreement to review the
need to extend this further next year
• Payment for the interim management contract @ c. £48k
and payment of the severance costs.
• An additional £45k to the annual block grant, specifically
for the employment of a Membership Services Director

14. Example Wins
• A one-off payment of over £70k to cover an operating
deficit
• A £40k increase to the annual block grant to allow
investment in development staff
• A total of £370,000 investment by institutions into
students’ unions

15. Every assignment is different because people are
different, presenting different challenges
• Poor senior leadership compounded by no scrutiny or
performance management from the trustee board
• A hostile stakeholder group to the diagnostic process, or
indeed towards another stakeholder group
• Strategies built on individual personality and relationships
• Split trustee boards over the recommendations
• Generally, it all comes back to leadership qualities and
assessing the position, influence and perceptions of those
able to create change

16. Quality of Leadership is vital to
change

17. Thank you
Comments or questions?
Steve Coole
Strategic Support Unit Manager