How We Work

At ACIG, we understand that it’s all about people.

It’s about customers receiving the best possible outcomes. It’s about staff being able to deliver the highest quality services. It’s about people making the best use of scarce resources. And it’s about providing your organisation with practical and innovative options.

ACIG has an operating framework which guides our consultants’ approach.

Expertise – we employ only seasoned professionals with many years of experience. Their intellectual rigour is combined with pragmatism and candour.

Sound project management – our controlled, iterative, consultative and ‘no surprises’ approach ensures any issues are discovered and resolved early.

Proof – our advice is based on evidence. Our methods for collecting qualitative and quantitative data are rigorous and consistently effective.

Stakeholders – the wholehearted engagement of stakeholders is always important. Our ability to tap into their understanding of needs, goals and resource priorities is one of our key strengths.

Clarity – good writing is important to us at ACIG. We understand that our role in producing reports is not to simplify an issue but instead – with skill and finesse – to clarify it.

Knowledge transfer – a common thread throughout all our work is a commitment to teaching and sharing with others. Formally, yes, but also on-the-job in a practical way, ensuring that benefits continue to accrue long after we’ve gone.

Personnel – unless agreed otherwise and apart from factors outside our control, we ensure that the consultants put forward at the outset are the consultants that complete the assignment.

Other aspects of our service delivery are discussed in detail, below.

Project Governance

Appropriate and high quality project governance is important to us. Our rigorous reporting processes ensure that problems are discovered and discussed early.

We don’t step back from delivering difficult news and use comprehensive – and proven – contingency strategies to keep projects on track.  Our depth of experience ensures that we’ve likely encountered and resolved similar problems before, saving time and money.

Reporting

Good writing is important to us too. We have considerable experience in turning complex issues and ideas into readable, accessible prose. We understand that our role in producing reports is not to simplify an issue but instead – with skill and finesses – to clarify it.

Depending on client requirements, we routinely produce:

  • A project plan, which forms part of the ACIG quality system. The plan provides a useful method for ensuring that all project participants have a common understanding of important aspects of the project. The project plan usually outlines the scope of work, methodology, deliverables, resources, and proposed milestones.
  • Progress reports at agreed intervals (often weekly or fortnightly). The team also speaks to the client’s Project Manager on a regular and agreed basis via meetings, email and telephone.
  • Final reports, drafted in a clear, easy to read style. Our reports are appropriate to (and easily understood by) the target audience and contain recommendations that are evidence-based and practical.

Change Management

In our experience, successful change takes time. Skipping any one of the steps in the process invariably leads to further delays and unsatisfactory results. Yet even successful change efforts are often messy and full of surprises.

Our consultants’ many years of experience in the change management field ensures that we are well placed to assess, identify and monitor risks when implementing change. We are adept at working with our clients to overcome or mitigate these risks, using established methods that we’ve tested under a wide variety of organisational circumstances.

Stakeholder Engagement

In most projects, the wholehearted engagement of stakeholders is a critical success factor.

At ACIG, we firmly believe in developing old fashioned relationships based on mutual respect. We will create an environment of open communication, building relationships with tact and diplomacy. We will listen, discus, share and consult. We will engage with all stakeholders, welcoming their suggestions and making sure their concerns are addressed. Our friendly collaborative working style means we can deliver our professional services and advice without creating in-house friction.

Consultation is a key step towards enhanced decision making. It may result in slower development of difficult or complex decisions but in the long run leads to quicker implementation. This is because good consultation results in stakeholder ownership of a decision, guideline or plan of action. Essentially, good consultation means that we get things right in the first place, avoiding protracted (and often costly) disputes and discontent.

Consultation is therefore an important part of building consensus. People need to be involved in decisions that directly affect them. When we seek to change, grow or establish a new mandate then connecting with stakeholders is integral to the eventual success of implementing our desired goal.

Consultation also works to extend the boundaries of our knowledge. At ACIG we understand that while we may be experts in performance improvement, it is the expertise of the staff and stakeholders – their comprehensive understanding of needs, service goals and priorities – that is crucial to ensuring any new initiatives provide genuine and practical value.

The ACIG team members are skilled interviewers, trainers and facilitators. Each has substantial experience in running focus groups and workshops designed to encourage comment, feedback and controlled debate. For some projects, though, face to face interviews are likely to be the optimal form of stakeholder consultation. Our team members have conducted many such interviews and are adept at eliciting the necessary information while maintaining a collegiate and supportive atmosphere. Many of our interviewees have afterwards reported that they found the process enjoyable (and occasionally cathartic), gaining satisfaction from their ability to make a meaningful contribution.

Communicating With Sensitivity

ACIG’s consultants  have worked nationally and internationally with many cultural and sub-cultural groups.   We recognise and respect the diversity of cultural expression including the sensitivities required when interacting with each unique community’s social mores, laws and epistemologies.  ACIG consultants operate within an agreed set of values – articulated formally and incorporated into daily practice.

We have, for example, worked successfully with clients and stakeholders throughout Asia and the Pacific.  Our work in Tajikistan, China, Southeast Asia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Nepal could not have succeeded without our consultants’ openness, enthusiasm and diplomacy.  Our work overseas has helped us to recognise that the diverse cultural backgrounds, languages and abilities of Australians are some of this country’s greatest strengths.

Within Australia ACIG consultants have also worked with a diverse range of clients and stakeholders.  From senior government executives to factory workers in regional Victoria; from elderly hospital patients to youthful apprentices; from community house volunteers to local government officials – we have learned that one approach certainly does not fit all.

We work in many locations and in many organisations.  In our experience, it is simply naive to assume the existence of a single and unique culture.  Take the example of a single government agency: different operational teams work with quite separate organisational cultures and values.  Each section may interact, to a greater or lesser degree, with others – usually with those in its own branch, sometimes with those in other branches.  But the cultural and operational separation between Divisions, or between special purpose areas like the legal team or the records managers, is likely to be quite significant.

Each assignment, each of our formal methodologies, is tailored to the unique needs of the key stakeholders.