Leading Change While Loving People : Change Management Insights from the Non-profit Sector

Filled with stories of successful social change leadership in diverse contexts, this book demonstrates that the best change agents love the people involved most of all.

Many people have experienced change trauma under leaders whose agenda was more important than anything―or anyone―else, so it is no wonder that change failure rates are often reported as 40% to 70%. There is another way: change leaders who work to solve some of the world’s toughest problems realize that working with others is necessary to accomplishing a social change mission. This book shares the insights of those who lead social change in the non-profit sector, and shows how they catalyze the urgency for, connect people toward, and continue momentum for a desired change. Their stories reveal three interconnected dimensions of leading change: people (relationships for change), process (communicating for change), and purpose (the change mission). Ultimately, readers will learn that strengthening social capital (people), centering marginal voices (process), and aligning stakeholders to the change mission (purpose) are critical to the work of change agents who value relationships.

Leveraging well-known models and elevating little-heard voices, this book flips the script of conventional leadership books by focusing on non-profit social change leaders rather than business titans. Students, managers, and leaders across sectors will value these new insights, along with a relationally focused process and strategy for leading change and practical tips and recommendations for implementation.

Yulee Lee holds a BA in Political Science from Tufts University, a MA in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and a PhD in Educational Studies with a concentration in Organizational Leadership from Trinity International University. She has served in the non-profit sector for over 20 years in the areas of revitalization, innovation, culture change, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, she’s worked in government on the local and national levels, and directed strategy for service learning in higher education while also teaching at the graduate level on the topics of organizational and change leadership. Yulee also speaks, coaches, and consults organizations on change strategy through her non-profit The Change Leadership Institute. Ultimately, Yulee is passionate about collaborating for change in systems to reflect greater human dignity and flourishing for the vulnerable.