Posted: July 25th, 2024

5340: U8 D2 Overcoming Resistance

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5340: U8 D2 Overcoming Resistance

In the article by Weber (2015), there is a statement about the importance of engaging
those who will be impacted by change in the process of implementing change. The
article further relates that initial efforts to foster change in the organization’s strategic
planning process were unsuccessful in part because of lack of engagement. Resistance
to change and lack of trust are common experiences when an organization or
community engages in change efforts.

In your initial post, discuss the principles for dealing with opposition or resistance in
change efforts for the Riverbend City Strategic Planning Committee, as described in the
media piece in the Studies for this unit. Is resistance a normal part of the process? Can
it be used in the effort to promote change? How? Discuss the resistance presented by
one of the members of the Riverbend City Strategic Planning Committee and critique
the response or method of addressing the resistance that was used by the group leader.

Note: Must me a minimum of 250 words and 1 Scholarly Journal

Riverbend City ® Activity

External Resistance
Introduction

Meeting

Credits

Introduction
In this scenario, you will resume your role as a case worker
at the Riverbend City Boys’ and Girls’ Club.

The club is partnering with a number of other local organizations for
the Northside Youth Rising Initiative, aimed at preventing youth
violence and keeping kids in school in Riverbend City’s
underprivileged communities. To kick off the initiative and raise funds
for it, the associated organizations are planning the Northside Blues
Blowout, a large concert. You have been tasked to be the Boys’ and
Girls’ Club’s point person on the Northside Blowout planning.

The director of the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, Jayme Young, has convened
a meeting with leaders from some of the partner organizations to talk
about logistics for the Northside Blues Blowout.

Meeting

Emile Solane
Riverbend Services Consortium Rep

OK, before I start being negative, I do want to make clear: I’m very
excited about the Initiative in general and the Northside Blues Blowout
in particular. Really! And so is everyone I’ve talked to at the Riverbend
Services Consortium!

That said, I’m really nervous about some of our nuts and bolts as we
approach the Blowout. As a Human Services nonprofit, we were really
excited by the idea of the initiative, and I pushed hard for RSC to get
involved. My staff was enthusiastic, my board much less so. But they
came along. This was before we’d all made the decision to kick things
off with the Blowout. Now I find myself in choppy water. I’m
empowered by the RSC board to spend the organization’s money for
Northside Youth Rising Initiative program activities. But that’s it. My
board really, really doesn’t like the idea of our funds being spent on a
concert, even when I explain to them again and again that the concert
is itself a fundraiser, and this is a case of investing money to make
money.

Since all of this is outside of the budget we’d already approved for the
year, every expenditure that RSC makes for this is going to have to be
approved by our board, and they’re all convinced that I’m asking them
to give me a pile of RSC’s money so that I can light it on fire. One of
our board members left me a really angry voicemail last night, asking
me how she’s supposed to be asking donors for contributions when
those contributions are just going to be turned around to pay for
music. I know, I know. She’s old-fashioned, but she’s been a great
friend to RSC and she’s donated and solicited a lot of money for us.
I’m not sure where this leaves me to be honest. I’m trying to figure it
out. At the very least, as we work out the budget for the Blowout and
figure out how much everyone’s organization needs to kick in, I’m
going to need a hell of an airtight case for every line item I take back
to them.

Father Junot Rivera
St. Francis Borgia Catholic Church
I also have some qualms about the Blues Blowout. I don’t have a
nonprofit board of directors to answer to, but I do have a parish with a
healthy mix of very progressive, forward-thinking people and some

people who, though wonderful, are not as accepting of new and
different things. And I have to respect the views of everyone in my
parish.

Everyone at St. Francis Borgia loves the idea of our community getting
involved with the Northside Youth Rising Initiative. Everyone. People
ask me about it after mass every single week, and I always enjoy
talking to them about it. But the Blowout has some of my parishioners
very concerned. There’s a very strong Legion of Decency in the
parish, and its members don’t want parish funds going to a concert—
even one in the service of good works— with performers they consider
immoral. This isn’t a concern that I personally have; but like I said, I
have to respect the views of my parishioners.

They’ve asked me to ask if a member of the parish can sit on the
subcommittee that chooses the acts for the Blowout; they’ve also
asked if I can arrange for them to have veto power. I know we haven’t
even started talking about how we’re going to choose our acts, and I
know that individual veto power probably isn’t a reasonable request.
But I wanted to put it out there that these are conditions I need to work
within as we move forward.

Quincy Reeves
Franzen InterTech
Franzen is excited to be partnering with all of these great, great
organizations for this important initiative. We’re thrilled!

Now, I’m afraid there’ll be a little bit of a delicate dance when it comes
to our participation in the Blues Blowout. I know that you all think it’s
important that we kick this thing off in style, and you’re all convinced
that this’ll be a big fundraiser. I hate to be a broken record, but I have
to say that I’m just not convinced. This isn’t my first time at the rodeo,
I’ve just been involved in way too many fundraising galas and what
have you where everyone thought they were going to raise a fortune
but instead just wound up breaking even. It’s just such an easy trap to
fall into! Everyone says no, it’s not going to happen this time, we’ve
learned all the lessons, and then BAM! You’re giving tickets away
because they didn’t sell and you just hope people buy enough drinks
to cover the costs of putting the thing on.

Now, I know I’ve already lost the argument on having the Blowout. And
that’s OK. But I’d like to explore the possibility of having Franzen’s
contribution to the Blowout being just of the in-kind nature. We can
have staff work the event, we can put our marketing department at the
disposal of the committee to help publicize it, stuff like that. But we’re
having a very lean year, and what funds we do have available, well, I’d
like to keep them earmarked for the Initiative’s actual program
activities. Look at it this way: if I’m right and the Blowout doesn’t make
any money, this leaves some operating cash from Franzen InterTech
on the table for the Initiative to use.

Annie Piper
Crandall Manufacturing
I understand the logistical difficulties everyone is worried about, and I
hope we can figure out ways through all of them. I think we will! We’d
better, because I have to tell you, the Northside Youth Rising Initiative
is a big, big deal, and it can’t happen without the Blues Blowout, and
so we’d darned well better figure all of this out.

Crandall’s had a plant on the north side of Riverbend City for a long,
long time, and we’ve got deep roots in that part of town, a lot of those
people work in our factory. And it just breaks my heart, seeing the
troubles that people have. I know that Hispanics really value family,
and they just don’t do well without a good family structure. But you get
these deadbeat dads, these absentee fathers, and it just cripples a
whole generation. We see that in our plants, let me tell you. Thirty
years ago, Hispanics living on the north side were some of our best
employees. Now we have all these problems. We’ve got to get the
Youth Rising Initiative going to help them out, and if you ask me we
need to change the program a little bit so that we’re doing more about
these absent fathers.

Sorry, I get carried away. Anyway, if other partner orgs are having
trouble with finances for the Blues Blowout, Crandall can probably
adjust our contribution.

Hector Rodriguez
Director of Outreach, Riverbend City Schools

Hate to say it, but if we’re talking about the nuts and bolts of putting on
the Blues Blowout, I’m another person bringing some complications to
the table. The school district is ecstatic about the initiative overall— I
mean, how could we not be? And I think the Blues Blowout sounds
like a great event both to raise the profile of the initiative and to let the
community have some fun. I’m looking forward to being there and
rocking out.

But here’s the bad news: the district operates under some pretty broad
ethical guidelines that got put into place after some stuff that
happened in the 90s. And those guidelines weren’t really worded as
well as they could be, but they’re still binding. Long story short, district
funds can’t be used to procure food or drink for outside events. I know,
I know. We can negotiate for food donations or gifts in kind by vendors
that the district already has a relationship with, so that might be a way
to deal with this.

Leighann Eliason
Hennsey County Juvenile Justice System
I know one way we can save a little bit of money on the Blues
Blowout! My little brother has a band, and I swear, they’re really good.
You’d be amazed! I know I am. They play a couple of times a month at
the Bunker downtown, also Whiskey Lane out in Hoskins. They do a
bunch of great classic rock songs, some of their own material, too.
They always drive the crowds nuts, get people dancing like crazy. I
think they’d be great for the Blowout! They’re called Spoilsport.

We haven’t really talked about what our budget is for talent, but I know
that my brother would talk the rest of Spoilsport into playing for a really
low fee. I bet we could get them for $2000. That’s less than they make
at a weekend at Whiskey Lane, I can tell you that! I think this’d be a
really exciting way to stretch our event dollars-planning and get the
show some really exciting top-level entertainment.

It’s funny, my brother always gives me guff for my boring job in juvenile
justice; I’m pretty excited to have him help us bring some rock and roll
to it. What do you guys think?

Reflection Questions

After hearing from
the various
stakeholders
involved in planning
the Northside Blues
Blowout, what
concerns do you
have about the
collaboration
between the
organizations
involved?
Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

What
recommendations
would you make to

help ease those
concerns?
Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

Conclusion
Congratulations!

You have finished this activity.

Credits
Subject Matter Expert:
Interactive Design:
Marty Elmer
Interactive Developer:
Dre Allen
Instructional Design:
Media Instructional Design:
Keith Pille
Project Management:
Marc Ashmore, Andrea Thompson

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/