With a staff of four, Brooks had to be creative and find better ways to leverage her resources. For instance, she started holding the PBGH’s vendor partners to a higher level of accountability, asking them to take on more to help the organization grow.
In hindsight, her biggest lesson learned has to do with the frequency and method of communication. Brooks says she would have had more member meetings to get the vision out, and she would have better connected the dots along the way.
“I would say communication would probably be the biggest change I would’ve made through this phase because whatever pushback did happen, it was the result of not understanding, not feeling in the loop, not feeling that they were part of the journey we were on,” she says.
Brooks also brought on a lot of new relationships very quickly, and a little more insight might have decreased the bumps in the road.
“That’s one of the benefits of being a small organization — it’s not as bureaucratic,” Brooks says. “We can make quick decisions, but at times I can understand why the processes are needed.”
Her advice for managing change is to identify your sponsors and empower them to be your activists. She also recommends taking on the hard stuff first to stand as an example.
“It’s easy to go for the low-hanging fruit, and often times it’s smart, but if you’re truly transforming your organization then you have to be willing to be uncomfortable as early as possible because it won’t be the last time,” Brooks says. “You’re likely going to be uncomfortable for a while — for several years potentially — so get used to being a little uncomfortable because that’s where I think the best results come from.”
Brooks has seen herself grow as a leader during this transformation, which is still ongoing.
“It took all of that — the uncomfortable moments, the failures, the great successes,” she says. “All of that has really shaped me into a different type of leader and has shaped our organization into a different organization — a more relevant and impactful organization for the future.”
