Brendan Coffey is passionate about his community and about the practice of change management. An Enterprise Change Manager with Avid Xchange here in Charlotte, he first got to know Crisis Assistance Ministry as part of an assignment for his MBA program at Queens University of Charlotte. He participated in a Poverty Simulation with his cohort. He led a study of Advancement Best Practices for the agency. As he finished up his studies, he says he felt a “tug” toward staying engaged as a volunteer.
Through his leadership, an internal team of Office 365 experts spent time at Avid Xchange learning the products, exploring best practices for teams, and creating a roll out plan for implementation across Crisis Assistance Ministry’s staff. His change management expertise has proven invaluable as the agency takes a look at the complete journey of a customer seeking assistance and seeks innovative ways to increase efficiency and effectiveness for recipients, staff, and volunteers.
“It was exciting to work with staff who are in the trenches every day,” he says. “As we charted the lifecycle of a customer’s path through the agency, synergies began to light up and connections became apparent between people and functions who can’t stop during the normal workday to identify those themes.”
It’s exactly the kind of work he leads for Avid Xchange and for his own consultancy, The Coffey Shop. He says he likes to “geek out” thinking about the human-centered design of systems and to help organizations connect abstract processes to real people in practical settings.
When it’s time to let go of all that “systems thinking,” Brendan enjoys Yoga and spending time outdoors with friends and Bart, his longtime Shepherd companion.
