Kevin Marriott, project sponsor, first met Alicia in a strategic long term planning programme in 2017, where she provided insights and facilitation across various service areas.
He was impressed with her methodology; and when the Community Places team needed a robust process to help them implement ways to earn additional revenue, he sought her out.
“Alicia’s benefits-led methodology is really sound. She adds a lot of value to the process as an expert facilitator but also as a very insightful and knowledgeable consultant. With Alicia’s help, we have a service improvement plan that we can action without deviating from our core purpose.”
Kevin Marriott, Manager Community Places
The workshop team of eight comprised the Community Places team as well as key council stakeholders. According to Kevin, it was a testament to the quality of Alicia’s approach and positive energy that all eight attendees were there and fully engaged for all six workshops.
“At no stage did the process feel tedious or drawn out. While her methodology has a lot of rigour and really challenges your thinking, she keeps things moving along. There is a really good energy and pace to her work that is really appreciated by institutions like local government,”
As with all successful workshop processes, it is the ability to translate workshop plans into action that really counts, and Graham Bodman, General Manager, says he is very pleased with the outcome so far.
“People are invested in this process and committed to action. It was hard work, but I was pleased it required a high level of engagement and effort to reach the conclusions. The funding decision-makers in the room were confident it was a good strategy; and the operational team is gaining good momentum with implementation.”
Kat Teirney is the Service Improvement Manager for the Community Places team, responsible for making sure agreed actions are implemented. For Kat, it was vital to bring everyone connected to the business on the same journey.
“For me, the strongest part of the process was Alicia’s ability to bring the benefits of diverse decision making (rather than consensus decision making) home to everyone right at the start, resulting in much better outcomes. She has a light touch with everyone and equalises people in the room, with a great sense of humour and a good process of making sure everyone has a voice. Her clear, very robust weighting methodology enabled us to have a great deal of trust in those areas that came out on top.”
The work the Community Place team has done has resulted in seven other Council service areas bringing Alicia on board.
