At CRE we know that having the right people in the right roles is essential to an organization’s growth and success. Our talent management and innovation practice not only focuses on developing practices, processes, and systems that attract, develop, and retain talent, but goes deeper to address team effectiveness, culture change, and executive search. We also challenge ourselves and our clients to use approaches that foster innovation so that together we develop bold ideas that better serve our communities.
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Talent + Innovation - CRE
Innovation
CRE offers nonprofits the tools, resources, and mindsets to learn how to develop, test, and implement ideas rapidly.
We guide clients to find cost-effective approaches to solving problems and enhancing performance in a rapidly changing environment. We have four innovation service offerings:
Innovation labs: An accessible introduction to CRE’s Innovation Practice, nonprofits receive a dedicated space and tools to incubate, build, and test their creative ideas.
Innovation culture: Organizations develop and implement targeted internal culture changes, making themselves more innovation-ready.
Program design and delivery: Nonprofits learn how to rapidly create smart, adaptable programs within compressed timeframes in order to meet their clients’ changing needs.
Community experience: Organizations uncover and use key insights around clients’ experiences to inform and improve their outreach, programs, services, and brand.
Talent Management
CRE helps leaders and managers develop and implement strategies to effectively source, cultivate, and retain talent, while creating a leadership pipeline for the organization.
Our key offerings include:
Assessment of talent management: Organizations complete a CRE diagnostic tool called the TMAT (Talent Management Assessment Tool) that identifies talent management assets and gaps in nonprofit organizations. This assessment is followed by customized consultation and recommendations.
Talent management professional development sessions: Two workshops – one on Talent Sourcing and Talent Enhancement and another on Talent Retention and Leadership Pipeline – together with their organization’s TMAT profile, equip leaders and managers with a solid understanding of their organization’s talent management issues.
Talent management action learning series: Informed by their TMAT profile, participants engage in four action learning sessions to address talent management issues in their organizations.
Comprehensive talent management initiative: We combine the three services detailed above with one-to-one consulting to help organizations develop a comprehensive talent management plan.
Culture Change
CRE helps nonprofits assess their organizational culture and values, and translate desired norms into practices and behaviors.
We help organizations capture their current culture as well as identify their preferred culture using our Organizational Culture Assessment Tool. Then we help them develop action steps to bridge the two. Culture change work serves as a powerful follow-up to strategic planning or team effectiveness engagements as well as a distinct initiative on its own.
Team Effectiveness
CRE offers customized team building for leadership, management, program, functional, and project teams to ultimately improve performance.
Each session is customized to meet a team’s goals, needs, and circumstances, as well as help them understand their strengths, development edges, and preferred work styles. Team building sessions cover issues like communication, collaboration, trust-building, decision-making, role clarity, interpersonal dynamics, and conflict resolution.
Executive Search
CRE works with boards and staff to manage leadership transitions.
We start with a strategic assessment process to clarify critical success criteria for the position. We help clients develop recruitment strategies, screen and select candidates, develop compensation packages, and conduct reference checks for executive positions. We partner every step of the way to ensure the right candidate is hired.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
CRE helps nonprofits hone their leadership skills for managing diversity and advancing equity within and beyond their organizations, and across multiple stakeholders from board and staff to clients and partners.
We work with our clients through various approaches to help their organizations embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion as organizational values. We then guide organizations to translate these values into practice by focusing on staff recruitment and retention, fundraising and advocacy, and outreach and service provision, among other strategies.
