Across the national Jewish landscape, one hears conversations about “renewing” old legacy institutions, “remaking” existing organizations, and “tearing down” traditional communal structures and systems. There are roadmaps for engaging in institutional transformation. Posted below are some of the core organizing principles

Remaking a legacy organization—especially one with entrenched power centers and multiple stakeholders—usually succeeds or fails less on the merits of the reform itself than on how the change process is designed.

The first challenge for organizers is to identify the “real problem” before designing the “fix”. Many reform efforts fail because they jump to structure before diagnosing dysfunction or come to this battle with a specific agenda.

Among the questions that both establishment leaders and those who are challenging the status quo need to consider are these:

What specifically is broken, i.e., governance, accountability, finances, culture, mission drift, responsiveness, relevancy, and legitimacy?

Which problems are structural versus behavioral?

What parts of the old system still work and should be preserved?

A change movement needs a shared diagnosis, not just a preferred solution. Producing a precise case for change that analyzes current failures or weaknesses and identifies the root causes for such outcomes must be the organizing strategy. There needs to be a candid assessment of the risks associated with maintaining the status quo, and what might be the costs of inaction. Without such detailed inquiry opponents of any such reorganization, including the entrenched leadership, will accuse their critics of being ideologues rather than being practical.

The Politics of Resistance:

Further, it is important to understand that resistance to change is rational, and not merely obstructionist. Observers have noted that treating established leaders as villains is counter-productive, and merely hardens the opposition.

As we know from other such efforts at institutional change making, established interests resist because reform threatens an array of considerations, among........

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