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Slide #1

Hi, I'm Pat Rogan from Indiana University School of Education and the Institute 
on Disability and Community. It is a pleasure to be here to talk with you about 
Organizational Change.  Today during this session I would like to focus on a 
couple aspects of organizational change that I believe are the most difficult 
and controversial and yet very exciting as the basis for transformation of 
organizations.  Those components are organizational structure and human resource 
practices.  One of the ways to depict an organizational change process is 
through this schematic.  I like to think about it this way. I've had the fortune 
of working with organizations for the past fifteen years around our country who 
have taught me so much about their struggles and their successes in assisting 
people with disabilities to get out in the community and get jobs and regular 
lives.  This is one way that we've been able to capture with folks what some of 
those essential ingredients are.  I think it's important that we focus on the 
strategies that we're using for service delivery.  

How exactly are we assisting people to obtain employment, and obtain the 
supports they need and become active members of the community?  I see our focal 
point in service delivery with the pieces around organizational structure and 
human resources practices, as key supporting components of this change process.  
We're going to bite off components.  Give an overview of that structure and 
practices, understanding of course that this is all operating in a bigger 
environment in our communities, in our state, with our funding structures, with 
the business community, with families and with our board and so on.  All of 
those influences that help to shape our agencies, our organizations, and these 
are all interrelated.  Those of you who have moved down the path of community 
based services, I think will find lots of points, nods, and common points of 
understanding today. I know you've struggled with many of these components.  I'm 
hoping that as we talk about the structure and staffing and human resource 
practices, that you reflect on the way your organizations are currently set up 
and the way that you deal with the staff and maybe gain some new insights.

Let’s get underway.  Let's start with organizational restructuring.  This is a 
broad term that might encompass these components.  First, the staff.  What are 
the roles?  How are they organized, the patterns, the job descriptions?  How 
they're classified? What's their status with an organization?  Also, what are 
the authority lines?  What's that organizational flow chart look like?  It's 
also important to think about management. Where they fit in that structure as we 
look toward shifting to full community based services and supports.  As you can 
imagine, these pieces are sacred cows.  What do you mean?  You're talking about 
my job here?  You know it gets personal really fast.  Highly sensitive, highly 
controversial, as I said earlier.  

When we look at organizational structure, many organizations around the country 
that have been at this for a long time have helped us learn about some common 
themes.  These seem to emerge time and again, as essential ingredients that need 
to have some attention.  First of all, it is shifting from traditional mode of 
service delivery, we'll talk about that more, to sculpting services and supports 
around each individual, from programs to people.  Next, it's around this 
hierarchy, that we've built up in traditional organizations and really analyzing 
if we've got too much in the middle that is impeding the delivery of practice on 
the front-end.  That's reflective in looking at the possibility of flattening 
your structure.

We also know that the way we define job descriptions, the way people understand 
and carry out the roles, is really essential. While there really isn't one way 
that people have done it, we see a lot move more towards a generalist approach. 
We'll talk more about that. Finally, a team structure, whether it be formal or 
informal, can really make or break the quality of your services.  We found this 
to be a very powerful component of organizational change.