Welcome!

Welcome to the new version of Review.

This course presumes that you are either the CEO of the organization, the head of a branch, or head of a department. Depending on the structure of the organization, it is possible to hold a similar role elsewhere in senior management. In any case, students would be responsible for oversight of staff, providing a community service, liaison with a board (or perhaps group of senior managers), consultation with the community and a wider group of stakeholders, overseeing organizational systems, and ensuring that the service meets legislative and quality standards. It presumes that you have advanced reading and writing skills, strong negotiation skills, and an aptitude for leadership.

This course was first written for the specific context of community services organizations, such as welfare agencies, childcare centres, and youth agencies. It was widened to apply also to schools, some government departments, and church-related organizations. The current re-write applies more generally to for-profit organizations.

These materials have been designed to suit the wide range of circumstances faced by our students. You might need to discuss with your tutor how you interpret these requirements in your individual situation. For example:

• Your organization might use different terms.
• Your organization might use the same terms but with different meanings.
• Your organization might not have asked these questions so far.

Review is, as much as possible, a master list for reviewing a fairly complex organization. Some instructions before you start:

• Work through all steps, and make sure you don't shortcut any of them. However, some might be very easy and others might not be relevant to you.
• If you have several core staff to begin with, start a series of planning meetings. You will make more progress by sharing and discussing observations and ideas.
• As you are revamping an existing program, you'll have a fairly firm basis on which to plan. For example, you'll probably already have a good idea of your purpose so far, stakeholders, personnel, finances, etc.
• Your tutor may assign you a textbook or a list of books and articles to read. You will need to read more widely in areas where your organization is more complex than addressed in Review.
• The process isn't completely linear, so it makes sense to undertand the whole before you start:
• You must consider some things at the beginning even though you won't actually plan them until later. For example, appraising feasibility requires foresight on what will actually happen later on during implementation.
• You actually have two starting points: what your organization does (core business and parameters) and what your customers expect.
• In particular, planning and consultation must go together, even though they are quite different.