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Managing Change in the Central Pre-Award Office: Optimizing Subcontracting Tyra Darville-Layne, Senior Grant & Contract Officer Elizabeth Adams, Executive Director Office for Sponsored Research-Evanston Campus NCURA Region IV Spring Meeting April 29, 2014

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Agenda 1.Change in the pre-award office (importance of, obstacles to) 2.Priority-setting in the pre- award office 3.Tools for managing change in the pre-award office 4.Case study: re-engineering subcontracting in the pre- award office

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Common Central Pre-Award Business Functions Proposal review Proposal submission Agreement negotiation Award establishment Subcontract issuance Non-financial post-award Some financial post-award! Training/outreach ERA/information

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Change in the Central Pre-Award Office The Importance of Change Pre-award offices confront change on a daily basis; we have the skills at the individual and transactional level Organizational change is just as important; the ability to act collectively is essential to this An important responsibility of management is to get organizations to act collectively, in terms of functions and values As time passes, business environments and demands change Organizations dont change (in a positive way) on their own Not changing creates risk The many business functions in a pre-award office must continually be evaluated and appropriately balanced Change in the central pre-award office drives change in other key units

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Change in the Central Pre-Award Office The Obstacles to Change Lack of metrics/feedback Quantitative Qualitative You need mechanisms to perceive yourself as an organization, as a customer might see you Dont wait for the feedback to find you Take more control of the conversation on campus regarding your office, and on change Systems Lack of SOPs Organizational structure Human resources Organizational culture

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Typical Reactions to Organizational Change Why change? Weve always done it this way. We dont need to do things differently, theyre working fine the way they are. We dont have time to make these changes and still do our day-to-day work. Things will be worse than they are now if we make these changes. Its too much of a hassle to do this. Jake Julia, Associate VP, Office for Change Management, Northwestern University

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Characteristics of effective change agents Patience Strong work ethic Strategic thinking Multi-frame thinking (viewing issues from multiple perspectives) Strong analytical skills Consensus building Collaborative Assertive Focused Considers the institutional context (culture and climate) when contemplating organizational change Jake Julia, Associate VP, Office for Change Management, Northwestern University

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A Few More Words on Patience Not to be confused with indifference or ineptitude Transformation is a process, not an event Real change advances in organizations through stages that build on each other It takes months and years It is never really done

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Priority setting in the pre-award office Priority setting within and among business functions should be a conscious activity of management High priority functions should be transparent and consistent What drives priority setting? Risk Internal business environment External business environment You need a few champions/change agents in the office to help drive the priorities through the organization

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Tools for change management in the pre-award office Organizational structure Human resources and professional development Policies/procedures Systems Metrics Relationships and Culture

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Case study: re-engineering subcontracting in the pre-award office Organizational structure Old Seven Grants Officers assigned departmental constituencies Each Grants Officer performed all preaward (and selected postaward) functions, including the issuance of outgoing subcontracts Competing priorities among variety of business functions at the individual level caused serious institutional delay issuing subcontracts

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Case study: re-engineering subcontracting in the pre-award office Human resources and professional development Identify/select staff with strong interest in contracting and characteristics of effective change agent Centralize the subcontracting function Cultivate competencies through professional development/formal engagement at regional and national levels Increase overall organizational knowledge, capacity and commitment

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Case study: re-engineering subcontracting in the pre-award office Policies and procedures Institutional policy Establish the foundation upon which processes stand Subcontracting on Sponsored Programs new NU policy Institutional procedures Establish written review elements for each transaction that connect the preaward and postaward stages Focus on assigning resources to risks Align work between campuses

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Case study: re-engineering subcontracting in the pre-award office Systems There are a variety of systems that are used to manage subcontracts, across their lifecycle. At Northwestern: Home-grown Electronic Sponsored Projects Request (ESPR) facilitates award- stage subcontract requests from the PI/unit to OSR-Evanston Agreements module in InfoEd (enterprise pre-award platform) tracks subcontract negotiation/issuance process NUFinancials (PeopleSoft) captures subcontract expenditures and receivables Home-grown BI Publisher generates subcontract agreement templates These systems need to connect, or make sense in relation to each other A system is only as good as the procedures and business processes surrounding it These systems contain data elements that you should be able to report on

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How to evaluate the subcontracting function of a pre-award office Metrics Goals for change and continuous improvement should be informed by data Quantitative and qualitative

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How to evaluate the subcontracting function of a pre-award office Quantitative: Subcontract caseload report, GM055 (see handout) Report data retrieved from InfoEd Report distributed to staff daily within the office Subaward transactions tracked from formal OSR receipt of sub request to full execution of agreement Im interested in what Im doing so Im measuring myself

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How to evaluate the subcontracting function of a pre-award office Qualitative: Regular distribution of subcontract caseload reports to Deans Offices Feedback loops on operational snags Identification of training needs Managing perception Data influences opinion - TRUST

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Relationships and Culture Be the change you wish to see in the world (or at least at the University) Leveraging relationships among stakeholders is essential to the success of managing change - if you dont have the relationships, change is much more difficult Continuous improvement depends to a great degree on relationships established through collaboration Change in culture takes time and patience People are everything Celebrate team wins Effective change agents recruit into the new culture

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Re-engineering Subcontracting Timeline Outgoing subcontract issuance function centralized and partially dedicated FTE Cross-unit workgroup recommendations presented New business processes established, allowing enterprise system-level reporting on subcontract negotiation/issuance FFATA reporting assigned to subcontracting function Subrecipient commitment form finalized (NIH and NSF, etc.) March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 August 2012 September 2012

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Re-engineering Subcontracting Timeline Partial signature authority granted FDP subcontract updates in BI Publisher Grants Assistant support added to subcontract function Outgoing subcontract issuance function centralized and fully dedicated FTE ESPR (electronic requests for subcontracts) go live Maximal signature authority granted Subcontract policy draft submitted to University Policy Review Committee October 2012 March 2013 June 2013 July 2013 November 2013 April 2014

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QUESTIONS