Purple Vision provide interim management for Christian Aid during Tsunami appeal

Situation

Steve Tassie, Head of Supporter Relations at Christian Aid, needed some additional management capacity to help manage his team.

“We were embarking upon an ambitious programme of change” said Steve.

“I was leading a programme of activities reviewing our processes, the way we were structured, and the technology we used – and making sure that we were better equipped to meet the increasing demands of our supporters.”

Steve needed to concentrate on the change programme, and wanted to bring in some skills and experience to manage the day-to-day work of serving Christian Aid’s supporters.

“We needed somebody with experience, somebody who could cope with the scale and complexity of our operation, somebody who could hit the ground running” said Steve.

Challenges

The main challenges were to ensure the work of the Supporter Relations team continued effectively during a period of great change, and to ensure that Christian Aid could respond to  its supporters at times of emergency.

Purple Vision’s role was to secure everyone’s buy-in to the changes that were needed. During this period of change, Christian Aid experienced an unprecedented scale of response to the South-East Asian Tsunami appeal.

Solution

The interim management arrangements were communicated to all members of the Supporter Relations team, as well as other key stakeholders.

It was then important for Purple Vision’s Keith Collins – as interim manager - to quickly become acquainted with the key people – staff and stakeholders - and gain an insight into the work and direction of the team.

A key part of the solution was ensuring effective continuity at the beginning and end of the interim management engagement.  Keith worked with Steve to make sure that the process of taking on interim management of his team was as smooth as possible, in particular, performance monitoring, the frequency and structure of management meetings, and communication style.

Regular meetings were also held between Steve Tassie and Keith Collins, so that Steve could be kept abreast of key issues, and be involved in any decisions that required his input.

“Keith and I agreed a benchmark at the beginning of the arrangement, wherein any contracts above a certain budgetary scale, or any decisions that would have long-term implications for the team would be flagged up.” said Steve.

Benefits

According to Steve Tassie, working with Purple Vision brought a number of benefits to Christian Aid.

“Keith brought considerable expertise to this project. He has experience of managing large teams, and a calm, authoritative managerial style. In addition, he has experience of managing supplier relationships, and a thorough understanding of all aspects of our team’s work.  He added significant value to the work of the team, in terms of sharing knowledge and developing staff.” said Steve.

“I was able to concentrate on the programme of change that I was managing – which was my main objective.”