Local Government Strategy and Innovation Programs
We co-create value for your council by streamlining the development of a shared vision and strategy.
We facilitate collaborative excellence in the elected council, to develop and deliver strategic direction, community vision, and innovative solutions to challenges facing our communities and local government.
We engage the community in developing long-term visions that deliver multiple opportunities in a rapidly changing and diverse world.
Give your council a head start!
The strategy lab is a collaborative strategy workshop for councillors that develops mutual understanding, supportive working relationships and a shared vision. The strategy lab is ideally suited to balance personalities and working styles. Over the course of this 2-day workshop, councillors will learn positive interaction and communication patterns, tools that allow the rapid development of cutting-edge, innovative solutions, and methodologies that facilitate collaborative visioning. At the end of the two-day workshop, your council will be left with a shared vision for their tenure, a clear idea of the steps that need to be undertaken and a timeline for implementing their strategy and objectives.
The strategy lab can also be run as a collaborative exercise for the elected councillors and senior executives and management in order to create a culture of collaboration, trust, respect and mutual support. It will quickly bridge the gap between strategic and operational concerns and enable positive relationships, developing collaborative solutions that accommodate the needs of the organisation and the vision of the newly elected councillors.
Develop a positive working culture within Local Government
The Culture Lab ensures that the elected council works effectively and efficiently from the beginning in close collaboration with council staff and council management. The lab is designed to build trust and reflective self-awareness, to develop a shared value and belief system, understand differences in perspectives and viewpoints. The Culture Lab leverages differences to create optimal outcomes for council operations, the elected council and the community.
Support the alignment of Vision, Strategy and Operations
The senior management team faces the complex challenge of implementing Council’s vision and strategy and balancing budgets and workloads with the needs and expectations of the elected council and community. SMT Lab helps develop Innovative strategies and solutions that bridge potential gaps and integrate strategy with operations. The SMT lab is designed specifically for senior management teams and enables a collaborative, creative space that allows multiple content experts to cross boundaries, share expertise, and integrate innovative solutions.
Develop the community vision for your local government area
Community Vision Labs are community-based collaborative spaces designed to develop the community’s longterm vision for your local government area. The community vision lab helps balance competing demands from multiple stakeholder groups, developing strategies that create a win-win across the community. The lab provides clear guidance to the council in order to inform the medium to longterm community strategic plan. The lab can be linked with other engagement tools and technologies to ensure that a multi-level, multi-method approach maximises community involvement and engagement. The scale of the community vision labs can range from small-scale focus groups to large scale town hall meetings.
“When we got elected in 2008, we had all this training on finances, governance, council operation, budgets etc. But what we needed was to learn to work together despite our different views and ideas and to develop a shared strategy, one that allows for a bit of give-and-take and some horse-trading, so that we had a way forward. We wasted 2 years fighting over minor issues – I wish we had had a strategy lab, and it would have set us up for a much more efficient, enjoyable, more successful journey. This is money well spent and will save your GM and EMT, and the councillors a lot of headache and pain.”
Cr Christina Kirsch
Future Journeys InnoLabTM Innovation Labs are a cutting-edge approach to strategy development and innovation that maximises the diverse creativity, skills and experience of workshop participants. InnoLabTM fast-tracks the development of an innovative, shared, cutting-edge vision and strategy that will position your council as thoughtleaders in local government.
The time has come again for local government elections and by September this year councils in NSW will be faced of the challenges of a new, or not so new, team if councillors being inducted again in the council chambers. The process can be fraught with many potential issues and obstacles, as egos clash and ideas become politicized. The Council strategy Lab minimises the risk of political warfare and entrenched positions and develops shared vision and positive working relationships. The lab is based on leadership tools and strategies, psychological principles and innovation and visioning methodologies employed in cutting- edge institutions around the world.
Under the new regulations for local government, councils are expected to provide community strategic plans. But all too often the community vision is lacking, outdated, or incomplete. The community vision lab supports the development of the community strategic plan and provides councils with a robust methodology for developing shared, comprehensive and innovative community visions. The process uses Strategic Foresight techniques to address complex underlying trends – for example demographic shifts or changes in the political, economic or ecological environment.
