Key results areas
- Strategic and business planning
- Community consultations
Service offerings
Facilitating highly participative and creative workshops for strategic planning and authentic community engagement; Using a collective process where all voices are heard and a diversity of experience brought to bear on problem produces a much richer form of democracy than the top-down version.
ODCS is a well respected professional facilitation service provider in Perth delivering over 100 workshops across Australia. ODCS facilitators are fully trained in highly participative methodologies and base their approach on the following assumptions:
- Everyone has wisdom;
- Everyone’s wisdom is need for the wisest results;
- There are no wrong answers;
- The whole is greater than the sum of the parts; and
- Everyone will have the opportunity to hear and be heard.
ODCS uses and range of methodology to conduct strategic planning and community consultations. They include the strategic planning workshop (ToP) method; world café; open space technology; and online collaborative platforms.
What ODCS can do
Strategic planning
ODCS is highly experienced in facilitating strategic planning sessions and training people in strategic planning frameworks. In a strategic thinking process ODCS moves a group through four steps:
- defining a vision or future picture of the organisation
- identifying the supporting and hindering factors/issues impacting on achievement of the vision
- strategic actions to overcome and address the issues and
- an implementation plan detailing how those strategies will be actioned.
Community consultations
Often decisions on community consultations need to be made quickly and with limited resources. As a starting point, ODCS will help gain clarity on whether your goals are realistic and your technique fits your objectives using the Ladder of Public Participation Levels (IAP2, 2000). Once the level of participation is clarified a clear objective is communicated to all from the outset can help encourage participation minimise disappointment and reduce the dropout rate. Once the consultation methods have been chosen and implemented to fit each target segment, ODSC will help your organisation evaluate the impact of the consultation process. ODSC has experience conducting tailored community consultations with diverse segments of the community. To view a community strategic plan we have recently developed, click here.
Strategic planning facilitation resources
ODCS used a range of resources to tailor strategic planning solutions for clients. These include:
- Strategic planning for creativity and innovation Hyperlink to – https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=3Dyoutu.be&v=3D9nkZmo4IElM
- Winning Through Participation Meeting the Challenge of Corporate Change with the Technology of Participation, L Spencer, 1989. This jewel describes the Group Facilitation Methods of the Institute of Cultural Affairs including the ToP Focussed Conversation Method, The ToP Workshop Method and the ToP Strategic Planning Process. These methods have stood the test of time and continue to be used around the world since its inception in the 1960’s.
- The Workshop Book from Individual Creativity to Group Action, R. Brian Stanfield, 2006. This book is a shining star in the art of facilitation. The workshop method, for group planning or consensus making, moves people from an adversarial to a dialogue stance enabling co-intelligence.
- Historical Scan – Reviewing the Past to Prepare for the Future, The Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs, 1998. This highly practical booklet describes a useful process that can be used prior to a strategic planning session. When you have a decision to make, you naturally review the past, envision the future that might be, and then make your choices in the present. More importantly this process acknowledges the past and allows people to then focus on the future. Hence the Historical Scan method was born.
- Working together – Involving Community and Stakeholders in Decision Making, Office of Citizens and Civics, Government of Western Australia, 2006.
- Beyond Public Meetings: Connecting Community with Decision-Making, V. Twyford, S Waters, M Hardy, J Dengate, 2006. This thoughtful and practical book shows how democracy, in the form of community engagement can be done. This book works on the assumption that community engagement is values based, decision orientated and goal-driven.
- Design Your Own Games and Activities, S Thiagarajan, 2003. A great resource for interactive strategies and game building relating to proven laws of learning. Thiagi is a highly acclaimed authority on games for performance improvement.
- The Business Excellence framework, SAI Global Ltd, 2007. This is Australia’s framework for innovation, improvement and long-term business success. Expressed in eight robust principles, it is applicable to all organisations, large and small, private and public, whatever their purpose.
Contact here to book a scoping session and strategic planning workshop with ODCS.