Printable Version
Like many other nonprofits, La
Clínica del Pueblo had not invested in
their management infrastructure because they
were focused on delivering their
programs. Managers were mostly long time
staff who were good at their programmatic jobs,
but not necessarily good at being
managers. Consequently, there were
variations in the application and expectation
of supervision amongst departments. This in
turn was creating morale issues amongst staff,
according to Alicia Wilson, Executive Director
of La Clínica.
After attending MAG's two-hour introductory management training workshop called Advancing Your Cause Through the People You Manage, Wilson brought MAG in to provide a custom tailored version of the workshop for La Clínica's entire management team. "When I was going through the first workshop, I realized we needed to standardize what being a manager at La Clínica meant and to give sustenance to our burnt-out managers, " says Wilson. "Our organization always placed management as a secondary skill and viewed supervisory meetings as something that pulled them away from getting their job done. After the workshop, I realized that meeting with my staff was my job and it was worth more than the paper work was."
MAG presented management from a mission perspective and showed how building a strong organizational infrastructure was as important as implementing a program effectively. "MAG realigned us -- we're here to serve our clients and if our staff aren't doing that, than we need to manage our staff better”, recalls Wilson. "We recognized that management is not just a personnel issue but also affects our mission."
Wilson says that MAG broke down management into some basic concepts that were easy to adapt to La Clínica’s situation and immediately apply to their staff. With the assessment tools MAG provided, "we objectively compared what we were spending our time doing against what we would like to be doing and drew our own conclusions on how to manage. This was important because it's not the same for all people."
Through role-plays, participants learned how to appropriately approach staff performance issues, which they tended to be very shy or hesitant to do previously. "We were more tolerant than we should have been with underperformance, because we're in the business of understanding people's full experience," admits Wilson. In the workshop, they looked at the impact of that on their clients, and saw the need to balance helping everyone and having a functioning team.
Personally for Wilson, it had a huge impact on how she and the staff looked at her role as a manager. “It ok'ed the concept of focusing on being a manager, such as taking an afternoon to do a teambuilding exercise, telling a staff that I won't tolerate certain things, or taking time for strategic planning," says Wilson. "For the first time, we gave our managers the space to be managers.”
"We were very impressed with MAG's ability to speak our language," Wilson remembers. "As a nonprofit, I admit we tend to go into workshops convinced that the facilitators don't understand our situation and that we won't get anything out of it. But MAG had practical, real-life experiences, understood what it took to work in a grassroots organization, and made the training real in a way that not many other consultants could."
Wilson found that MAG wasn't afraid to give us their opinions. "A lot of consultants will say, 'if that's what you want, go ahead,' but MAG wasn't afraid to give us guidance if we weren't looking at things from a constructive perspective."
"I really appreciated how MAG is not a cookie-cutter, not one-size fits all." What set MAG apart for Wilson was that they spent a lot of time learning about the organization, listened and didn't make assumptions, and applied best practices that were modified to the organization’s unique needs.
After attending MAG's two-hour introductory management training workshop called Advancing Your Cause Through the People You Manage, Wilson brought MAG in to provide a custom tailored version of the workshop for La Clínica's entire management team. "When I was going through the first workshop, I realized we needed to standardize what being a manager at La Clínica meant and to give sustenance to our burnt-out managers, " says Wilson. "Our organization always placed management as a secondary skill and viewed supervisory meetings as something that pulled them away from getting their job done. After the workshop, I realized that meeting with my staff was my job and it was worth more than the paper work was."
MAG presented management from a mission perspective and showed how building a strong organizational infrastructure was as important as implementing a program effectively. "MAG realigned us -- we're here to serve our clients and if our staff aren't doing that, than we need to manage our staff better”, recalls Wilson. "We recognized that management is not just a personnel issue but also affects our mission."
Wilson says that MAG broke down management into some basic concepts that were easy to adapt to La Clínica’s situation and immediately apply to their staff. With the assessment tools MAG provided, "we objectively compared what we were spending our time doing against what we would like to be doing and drew our own conclusions on how to manage. This was important because it's not the same for all people."
Through role-plays, participants learned how to appropriately approach staff performance issues, which they tended to be very shy or hesitant to do previously. "We were more tolerant than we should have been with underperformance, because we're in the business of understanding people's full experience," admits Wilson. In the workshop, they looked at the impact of that on their clients, and saw the need to balance helping everyone and having a functioning team.
Personally for Wilson, it had a huge impact on how she and the staff looked at her role as a manager. “It ok'ed the concept of focusing on being a manager, such as taking an afternoon to do a teambuilding exercise, telling a staff that I won't tolerate certain things, or taking time for strategic planning," says Wilson. "For the first time, we gave our managers the space to be managers.”
"We were very impressed with MAG's ability to speak our language," Wilson remembers. "As a nonprofit, I admit we tend to go into workshops convinced that the facilitators don't understand our situation and that we won't get anything out of it. But MAG had practical, real-life experiences, understood what it took to work in a grassroots organization, and made the training real in a way that not many other consultants could."
Wilson found that MAG wasn't afraid to give us their opinions. "A lot of consultants will say, 'if that's what you want, go ahead,' but MAG wasn't afraid to give us guidance if we weren't looking at things from a constructive perspective."
"I really appreciated how MAG is not a cookie-cutter, not one-size fits all." What set MAG apart for Wilson was that they spent a lot of time learning about the organization, listened and didn't make assumptions, and applied best practices that were modified to the organization’s unique needs.