Our Services
What we do
We undertake projects that focus on reviewing and improving:
- Services delivered
- Organisational operations
- Management approaches
- Quality processes and tools
- Professional practices
- Group/team processes
Our approach is to work collaboratively with organisations, their constituents and clients, fostering open lines of communication and encouraging learning
We use social and business research methodologies, process consulting approaches and the breadth of our experience and content knowledge to support organisations to:
- Understand the changing needs and aspirations of their communities, service users, staff, volunteers, stakeholders and constituents
- Review their ambitions and make effective changes when required
- Build their capacity and capability
- Establish synergies with other organisations
- Develop evidence-based approaches to decision-making
Within our consulting role:
- We manage complex projects of varying sizes to meet timelines and budgets
- We adhere to the ethical standards pertaining to each project
- We use a variety of tools and techniques to develop organisational and sector knowledge so that services and programs can appropriately respond to identified community needs and aspirations within available resources
LDC Group consultants assist organisations in the following ways.
Review and Evaluation
- Review of organisational or program direction and performance and identification of future improvements
- Examination of the potential scope of an organisation’s services and activities
- Exploration of organisational culture, values and learning environment
- Examination of governance structures and processes
- Examination of how the organisational structures, staff roles and responsibilities align with the organisation’s charter
Learning and Development
- Identification of workforce diversity issues and training needs
- Committees (or Boards) of management development
- Executive management development
- Establishment of learning environments and team building
Planning and Implementation
- Development of strategic plans
- Development and implementation of change management strategies
- Policy development
- Development of operational tools and processes
- Collection, collation and analysis of quantitative, qualitative and financial data
- Preparation of discussion papers, reports, multimedia products and other relevant resources of a publishable standard
Our Approach
We believe that organisations need effective people-focused tools and processes to meaningfully evaluate, understand and articulate the value of their organisational systems, activities and programs in order to continually improve and further develop. To achieve this, organisations may need to embrace change, review their progress and achievements, and plan for the future. We work in partnership with our clients to:
- Establish the scope of the work to be undertaken, the project methodology and the specific methods that will be used
- Agree on how we will work together
- Identify key issues that may impact on project processes and outcomes
- Identify key stakeholders to be involved
- Determine reporting and accountability mechanisms
- Consider potential project risks
Community Consultation
We obtain information about services and community needs by:
- Engaging members of the community using creative and diverse methods that encourage their participation and enable them to voice their views, e.g. focus groups, surveys, multimedia, internet, social activities, public forums
- Using specific communication processes and techniques as required by some people, e.g. communicating with people who use communication aids or working with interpreters
- Using dialogue and facilitation techniques to ensure effective consultation processes.
- Conducting individual interviews and focus groups with managers, staff, volunteers, service users and other stakeholders
Desk Research
We stay up to date and inform our clients about national and international trends and research; and we undertake desk research for specific assignments that involves:
- Undertaking national and international literature searches and reviews
- Analysing quantitative, qualitative and financial data using computer software, internet and traditional methods.
Ensuring Ethical, Valid and Reliable Outcomes
To ensure the accuracy, reliability and usefulness of the information collected we follow protocols to make sure:
- Research activities are ethical, respectful and culturally appropriate;
- Information obtained from community consultations is validated and therefore accurately reflects participants’ responses;
- Relevant health and community services policy frameworks are used to analyse all quantitative, qualitative and financial data collected; and
- Analysis of quantitative, qualitative and financial data is evidence-based and consistent with research ethics and protocol