When people think about think tanks, it is usually about research and thought leadership at best, or benign influence and revolving doors at worst. If trustworthiness is a value that think tanks place upon themselves, desiring to be seen as such by the outside world, then, like all values, trust must start with ourselves.
Good organisational management both creates trust and is a result of trust. It was with this in mind that Sonja Stojanovic Gajic, Shanaka Kumara and I came together to create a workshop we called ‘The inside job: Organisational culture as a strategic asset for think tanks.‘
Unfortunately, Shanaka was unable to make it to Rabat due to visa delays, so we were not as geographically representative as we would have liked. However, the mix of participants’ countries of origin in the workshop made up in part for his physical absence, if not his spirit, which we missed.
Taking part in the conversation were colleagues from South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. We were operations, finance, admin and organisational leads from diverse backgrounds with one key challenge in common: how to organise their think tanks or foundations to maximise trust and impact. Sonja led participants through a guided mapping to examine the organisational strengths and weaknesses of participating think tanks. We thought about what was not working well, what was working moderately well, and what needed development in human resources-related topics, from recruitment to off-boarding, including flexible working, well-being, and competencies. While a good proportion of think tanks indicated that most of these processes were well-defined, how they translate into practice remains the crucial question.
We also explored who in think tanks is responsible for human resources: Executive Directors or CEOs, COOs, Senior leadership teams, specialised HR staff, all staff or a combination of the above. Interestingly, none of the participants indicated this as the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), with most indicating it fell under the Chief Executive and some under the Senior Team.
The question was raised of how to achieve consensus over who to recruit when there are differences of opinion within the same organisation. This raised questions about who holds power in think tanks and how that power is exercised regarding HR, which would make for an interesting session for future discussions on organisational matters.
On the topic of the OTT conference overall, we explored how to navigate relations between staff and management, particularly when trust may be eroded by external factors such as spikes in the cost of living or hostile pushback from people or political forces seeking to undermine the organisation.
This is very much connected to who is ultimately responsible for creating a trusting and supportive organisational culture. While it is often human resources or a related function that drives and defines organisational culture, shaping and maintaining it is the responsibility of everyone in the organisation.
Questions also arose about how we work across countries with different legislation governing benefits for team members within the same organisation. Given the number of think tanks that are increasingly working at the regional level or hiring staff based in different countries, this could be an interesting topic for a future meeting.
Three themes for follow-up came out of these conversations:
- How can we build inclusive organisations?
- What power structures work best for effective decision-making in HR? And,
- How do we work internationally across teams?
Many participants expressed an interest in creating a Community of Practice around organisational topics for think tanks, and committed their names to a mailing list organised by the facilitators. If you would like to join this vibrant community, please contact the OTT to be put in touch with the organisers or find Emma Woodford or Sonja Stojanovic Gajic on LinkedIn.