Marisa Angell Brown |
Providence Preservation Society executive director
No matter what your organization or business does, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of acute change.
It is something that I have become deeply familiar with during my time with PPS. Like so many other cultural and heritage institutions today, the preservation society is becoming a broader, more cosmopolitan organization that serves communities across the city by helping them preserve treasured places.
Our newest initiative, Providence Preservation Corps, provides free planning assistance to underresourced community organizations with preservation-related capital projects.
But organizational change can be wrenchingly difficult.
One thing we have learned is that deep change needs to be phased so leadership can correct the ship’s course while learning from each adjustment. This brings people along and helps those at the helm build confidence with each step.
This is a process that can be rife with self-doubt. In other words, trust [yourself] but verify.
Second, articulate your new vision in writing. Like throwing a ball into the distance, it gives you something to move toward.
And third, whatever your communications strategy is, it will likely need to be scrapped and redesigned during these inflection points so your storytelling accurately reflects the new vision and values that guide your organization’s next chapter.
At PPS, this has meant the launch of a new weekly newsletter that reports on planning, development and policy across the city.
Whether your organization’s change is internally or externally driven in 2025, take heart – you have company.