Books and articles | Engaging Places

John Kotter is a prolific author of books about “change” in organizations. Getting people, organizations, and communities to move in new directions or to end old habits is difficult, but he’s developed lots of practical strategies and outlined a step-by-step process to succeed based on his studies of dozens of companies. Fundamental is a relationship of trust among the participants (e.g., managers and employees, city council and residents, historic sites and neighbors), which is a result of transparency and openness, and a willingness to listen and discuss tough issues. It sounds obvious but I’ve seen national organizations create an atmosphere of suspicion, hostility, and fear simply because they hold too many closed door meetings, only communicate bland or stale news when the environment is clearly unsettled, and won’t answer simple questions about what’s happening. The result is change has to be forced (and enforced and reinforced) and buy-in, participation, and support is low. It’s the worst way to implement change, except for war.

If you’re dealing with change at your historic site or house museum (either leading or experiencing it), John Kotter introduces this idea in, “Levering Trust to Achieve Buy-In,” a short video at Forbes posted last week. If you want to explore his ideas further, I’ve found his books Leading Change (a classic) and Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down (really a handbook, great for advocacy and fundraising) to be helpful.

In my work with historic sites, financially sustainability is one of the major challenges, and many are seeking advice from business leaders to increase their earned income. It’s often an awkward situation because business owners don’t share the same values for preservation and history, and non-profits are uncomfortable with the risks associated with entrepreneurship. Much time is spent explaining and defending various practices, and making decisions is incredibly slow. But there may be an answer. This month’s issue of the Harvard Business Review predicts that the growing desire to meld non-profit mission and for-profit entrepreneurship will create a new form of organizational structure: the for-benefit enterprise.

For-benefits are a new class of organization. Like non-profits, they can pursue a wide range of social missions. Like for-profits, they can generate a broad range of products and services that improve quality of life for consumers, create jobs, and contribute to the economy. Combining social and commercial ends is not new–think of hospitals, universities, arts organizations, Goodwill. But the for-benefit model does much more than that. It redefines fiduciary duty, governance, ownership, and stakeholder relationships in fundamental ways.

Author Heerad Sabeti calls this a fourth sector of the economy, distinct from government, non-profits, and commercial businesses, with the following characteristics: Continue reading →