Preparing for Cross-Organisational Transformation: CRISIS

Kelly Southcott on September 2, 2021

Crisis

The challenge: 

Crisis has grown exponentially and ongoing success has meant a lack of time and focus on internal capabilities, technology and data. Like many charities, it’s fallen behind and become limited in the personalised and relevant experiences it can offer to its audiences, with the largely off-line product offering means they are missing opportunities to engage more effectively for a greater impact. With outdated technology and processes, and increasing expectations from stakeholders, staff were becoming overwhelmed, stuck in a loop of expectation management and underdelivering.

Enter COVID, and many beneficiaries and a wealth of volunteers expect to engage digitally, meaning the need to strategically align on how the Charity needs to change and invest in the digital, data and technology increased in urgency. 

What we did:

Embedded ourselves within the organisation, driving a team of change-leaders to shift the mind-set to audience-led, setting out audience visions, change roadmaps and a strategy for change rooted in organisational priorities and needs. We did this by facilitating face to face and virtual workshop events, bringing together board members, managers and subject matter experts, to identify how thinking differently about digital, data, technology could accelerate impact and growth. 

Working with the Director of Corporate Services, we are leading business planning workshops to build new capabilities and initiatives into organisational plans to ensure deliverable and sustainable improvements. 

We designed a refreshed target operating model that put future-facing capabilities at the heart of delivery and ensured the right space and capacity for strategy, new thinking and innovation. 

We designed a change programme leadership and model which builds dedicated capacity into the organisation and reduces the reliance on short term, external, consultancy support (including ourselves!)

The outcome / results:

We helped to shift the organisation to a strategic focus, and Crisis is now working towards a shared vision and goals, with full commitment and support from the leadership team. A shared cross-organisational prioritisation approach, means we are able to ensure the right focus on fixing the foundations, day to day support, delivering projects, innovation and change, and cultural transformation.

By investing in digital products and services, strategic and digital marketing, our data strategy and management and technology evolution, Crisis are on track to revolutionising the experience they offer audiences.

With people actively and energetically working towards a shared vision and collaborating across teams to drive change, leaders and change-makers are better able to articulate how digital, data and technology – when done properly – will add value to the organisation and ultimately end homelessness sooner. 

They are currently recruiting a Programme Director, who will lead the charge in embedding the new Target Operating Model, enabling more effective, scalable expert teams to respond, whilst driving empowered cross-functional teams with an increased ability to self-serve and co-design solutions with users.

Digital Transformation at Save the Children UK

Kelly Southcott on September 2, 2019

Save the Children

The challenge:

Expectations of an excellent digital experience were growing by the day. With more and more people engaging with charities via social and the shift to online giving gathering pace. However, Save the Children UK was still operating in a largely traditional, off-line way and disconnected way. With extremely limited digital capabilities, and teams working in silos, the quality of technologies and the external audience experience was suffering, whilst existing resources were being under-utilised. 

What we did: 

  • Strategy and Leadership: Working with the leadership team, we supported the strategy and business case development
  • Organisational design: Design design and implementation of new, digital and tech teams, a cross-functional delivery model and agile ways of working.
  • Change Consultancy: Supported the processes design and implementation of new ways of working, coaching and supporting individuals and teams through change

The outcome / results:

Increased organisational capabilities in content strategy and SEO, UX design and analytics, digital marketing and digital development, an improved support model and effective team dynamics meant that SCUK were able to better meet supporter needs and improve their visibility, campaign performance and online conversion. Digital got air-time at Exec and Trustee level, with the introduction of a new amazing Director of Digital,  and the team we embedded were the first step in the longer term transformation which SCUK is progressing. By building capabilities and proving the benefits of a more agile way of working, we set the organisation up for wholesale agile transformation.

Save the Children: New enterprise digital solution

The challenge:

The SCUK online platforms were suffering from historic under investment, leading to multiple disjointed technologies, confusing user journeys, poor quality infrastructure and lost income. In addition to this, through neglect of platforms and reliance on multiple third parties, they were vulnerable to cyber attacks. A lack of expertise alongside the instability and complexities within the current technologies had led to significant challenges in resolving urgent issues as they arise. 

What we did: 

  • Strategy & Leadership: We supported the Director of Digital and Director of Technology in developing the strategy and roadmap for change. Engaging with the SLT and Board of Trustees to ensure leadership support, dedicated resources and budget.
  • Transformation consultancy: we led on delivery of the significant transformation programme to equip Save the Children with the people, processes and technologies to maintain performance and grow within the increasingly digital landscape, and deliver the Cause of Millions 2016-2018 strategy. 
  • Agile Delivery: Working with agency partners and technology partner Adobe we transformed digital platforms and developed the infrastructure to build great user experiences, increase agility and better respond in emergency situations, to maximise impact for children.

The outcome / results:

  • Enabled the successful delivery of the Cause of Millions 2016-18 strategy.
  • Increased online income by driving up SCUK website traffic and improved user experience with better forms leading to improved conversion across cash, regular and emergency giving.
  • Enabled cost savings with better focused spend on paid search.
  • Reduced reliance on third parties doing web development by bringing more capability in-house, increasing agility efficiency and ability to respond to opportunities and innovations, and increasing speed to market.
  • Improved relevance and quality of digital content.
  • Empowered SCUK to use live data to understand the performance of design and content and build the capability to respond urgently, ahead of the competition.
  • Aligned website strategy across Save the Children UK and US, building in cost savings and a successful global partnership

Kelly and the Kivo Team have played a crucial role in the defining phases of our digital transformation. Providing programme management, project management and business analysis support, they have helped build the case for change, achieve board approval for investment and have successfully delivered the first phase.

They continue to play a leading role in our programme delivery. Kelly and the team not only share our ethos, they appreciate and understand our unique challenges, and have built a collaborative team across Save the Children, Kivo and our systems integrator, working hard to overcome constraints and maintain focus on delivery.

They have been considered part of the team at Save the Children, leading across organisational, technology and process change, whilst ensuring the internal team has the capability and capacity to take further phases of the transformation forward.

Karl Hoods

Chief Information Officer, Save the Children

Kelly is a change and technology expert with huge amounts of energy and determination. She is always solution-orientated and pro-active.

As programme lead for our Digital Transformation, Kelly supported in shaping the business case, getting buy in at Board and ELT level and she went on to effectively deliver the programme of work including recruitment of new roles, delivery of new technology, training and implementation of new processes.

Kelly was a step ahead across the programmes, intuitively identifying risk and quickly outlining solutions, ensuring that even if we did hit bumps in the road there were always clear options available to keep the programme moving.

Kelly is a great communicator, comfortable in discussions on business benefits through to technical requirements. This gives her the ability to communicate with a variety of stakeholders, gaining trust and buy in.

Linda McBain

Director of Digital, Save The Children UK

Marketing Transformation at Cancer Research UK

Kelly Southcott on September 2, 2018

Cancer research

The Challenge:

On this multi-million pound marketing transformation, Kivo was responsible for business change, engagement and training. When we joined the programme was already underway. We knew that the programme was going to impact at lot of people, but we didn’t know who or how. With £80m of identified benefits at stake, there was a lot counting on the programme’s success.

The first step was to develop a strategy for engaging disparate groups across multiple locations, with complex and different needs, in order to understand how we could manage impact, improve productivity, and minimising unplanned attrition.

What we did:

Working with the programme director, we mapped out the leads of each operational area and, through interviews and existing insight, assessed how they were responding to change so far. We developed relationships with each of the key stakeholders and worked them to understand how their respective teams were likely to be impacted by the change and how we could expect them to react.

Analysis showed that circa 200 people would need to change how they worked across 20 different teams. Furthermore, no two teams would be impacted in the same way!

Next step was to design and recruit a programme change team. Kivo brought in an amazing team full of energy, who took on responsibility for the management of a network of change champions, each taking ‘ownership’ of up to five key relationships and working with teams to identify opportunities to increase efficiency and effectiveness as well as adding new capabilities.

We fostered positive, open and energetic relationships and we worked hard to break down the barriers between the programme and stakeholders, and we soon considered ourselves on cross-functional team. It was by no means an easy ride, with resistance, complexities and challenges along the way. However, the strategy proved successful and teams took full ownership of the changes and did a fantastic job.

The Outcome / Results

The programme delivered its benefits smashing its targets in the following years. Adoption was a success and the people changes stuck, with fundraisers utilising the new tools to maximise and optimise relationships. The programme itself was applauded as the one of the smoothest CRM change programmes that the sponsors had seen thanks to the accurate and tailored communications that helped address resistance and deliver the programme successfully.

Re-framing prioritisation and delivery at Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK: Prioritisation framework and change management function

The challenge:

As the increased demand for digital and data rich solutions across the organisation, specialist teams across technology, digital and data were struggling to meet growing needs. Support costs were increasing, whilst a culture of fire-fighting was leading to mismanaged expectations and fractured relationships. There was also duplication and waste, where multiple disconnected solutions were being developed for similar products and campaigns.

What we did:

Working with the executive leadership team, we supported CRUK in taking a fresh approach to planning, building a cross-functional leadership team that ensured a shared understanding of strategic priorities and the types of in-year support required. By designing and building a virtual support hub, we were able to identify opportunities to combine and consolidate activities, to maximise effectiveness and build in extra capability for innovation.


The outcome / results:

We saw tangible results within weeks, and these continued for years after our departure. By improving focus on shared goals, leading to improved collaboration and reduced waste, CRUK saw increased space for innovation and increased speed to market for the delivery of new digital technology. By identifying where there were similar requirements across projects, we were able to develop one solution to meet multiple needs, saving money and time, and increasing our ability to test efficiently.

As Sponsor for the three significant change programmes supported by the Kivo team here at CRUK, I can highly recommend the team.

The first time I worked with Kelly was when she played a key role in the delivery of our Supporter Relationship Management Programme, including the move to a brand new structure and the successful transition of legacy databases to a centralised system. The programme was a bumpy ride that Kelly kept on track and saw through to a successful delivery, keeping many reluctant stakeholders engaged and inspired.

Kelly and Roma went on to bravely challenge leadership and cut through legacy ways of working to deliver the near-impossible and transform the way we prioritise, plan and deliver our Fundraising and Marketing products, ensuring minimal operational costs for delivery of products like Dryathalon and Stand Up to Cancer.

Last but not least, Kelly and Vicky led the delivery of our Digital Transformation, which resulted in a significant uplift in visitors and online donations, whilst stretching the way we think about digital, user experience and targeted content.

Kivo come with the rare ability to see the bigger picture without falling into the typical role of ‘consultancy’. They stand by their ethos of putting people before their own profit and will do all they can to ensure you maximise your investments into organisational change.

Anthony Newman

Director of Brand, Marketing & Communications, Cancer Research UK