A Structured Approach to Build a Cohesive Team and Culture in DDI's LFT Hub

At the end of 2019, our team, the Transformation Change Management Support Team (TCMST) was brought on to support USAID’s efforts to design and implement change management (CM) interventions that would help leaders of Operating Units (OUs) support their staff to adapt to changes resulting from the Agency’s restructure. Focus group discussions held in early 2020 with various USAID Bureaus indicated that OUs resulting from mergers of separate units were concerned that it might be challenging for staff from different units to work together as a cohesive entity. More specifically, they worried that teams would continue to operate with the culture of their former units, resulting in a new OU that would consist of several distinct and possibly opposing subcultures.

The TCMST provided change management support to the leadership of the Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub, which was the most complex merger of the Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation (DDI). More specifically, the TCMST developed and implemented a Nine-Step Team Building Process (Process) that incorporated a CLA approach. The process allowed leadership to engage staff in designing and carrying out an action plan that aimed to build a cohesive culture and team. This enabled the LFT Hub to start operating as a cohesive unit before it was officially operationalized, and establish an organizational culture that would allow it to more effectively achieve its development goals.