At the recent Symposium on the Effectiveness of Health Promotion in Toronto
there was considerable discussion of how prepared health promotion
practitioners, researchers and funders were for changing times and
situations.

For example, one area of change and adaptability has to do with the use of
the electronic venue for health promotion work..  Many organizations and
institutions supporting health promotion initiatives are early users of
computer-mediated communications (CMC), often limiting access to the
Internet to a few senior staff.  Some of the participants at the symposium
discussed whether their organizations could integrate CMC into their work as
a tool for information seeking, to provide information on health promotion
effectiveness and to work together.   Two organizations were singled out as
having a current capacity to collect and post publications, and engage
people in on-line discussions (OPC & HPRIN) but others felt 'electronically
deprived", with limited access, capability or support in their organization.

I suggest that a health promoting organization needs to be flexible and
adaptable, have abundant information, be rich in relationships and enable
all its staff, board members, users and partners to engage in on-going
dialogue and action.  Electronic communications can be useful tools in
change processes but only if they are readily accessible, integrated into
the work activity of an organization and linked to communities and
organizations locally and globally.

I am posting the following abstract of a discussion paper on organizational
change as a contribution to the discussion of the effectiveness of health
promotion organizations in 'change-ability'.

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CREATING A CAPACITY FOR CHANGE  IN HEALTH PROMOTION
 AND THE NON-PROFIT SECTOR
 a Discussion Paper on Healthy Organizational Change
by Katie Michels, for the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse

Abstract
     Healthy organizational change is about transformation, creating
capacity and an infrastructure for continuous learning, and understanding
that every member of the organization is the organization.
     This discussion paper focuses on healthy organizational change in the
context of unpredictable futures in health promotion and the non-profit
sector.  It explores the realities of, influences on, and approaches to
healthy change within organizations.
     In our current reality, all human service organizations are struggling
to survive and sustain their vision, their work and their people.  Health
promotion principles have many parallels to organizational change.
 Exploring these parallels and the emerging concepts of "learning
organizations", "adaptive systems" and organizational "change-ability" may
offer some practical strategies for creating a capacity for healthy
organizational change, and perhaps encourage a deeper critique of the
changing nature of our work.

This discussion paper will be available in July 1996, in print and on-line
through the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse worldwide web homepage
(http://www.opc.on.ca).  A limited quantity of print copies will be
available to individuals and organizations free of charge.  Reprints will be
available on a cost-recovery basis.

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 - posted by Alison Stirling
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