Reflective Space offers a range of consulting services to businesses and organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.
The services are aimed at assisting the senior management team in enhancing their capability and performance across each area of responsibility. This is achieved through a facilitative approach that focuses attention on the organisation's objectives, systems, activities, risks, management controls and improvement opportunities.
Upon request, a proposal document will be provided to your organisation clearly setting out your requirements, the recommended approach and the related time and fee costs associated with the assignment. Our primary areas of expertise are set out below:
Strategic Planning
Developing strategic planning documents to guide the current and future direction of the organisation, including, as appropriate:
- Facilitating management workshops for the development of organisation-wide, divisional and/or departmental strategies and plans;
- Aligning the Mission, Vision and Values Statements with the organisation’s strategic direction;
- Conducting market, customer and stakeholder analyses in conjunction with nominated personnel;
- Reviewing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and constraints both within and around the organisation;
- Developing strategic planning documentation to meet the specific needs of the organisation; and
- Aligning Divisional and/or Departmental strategies with the overall organizational strategy.
Structural and Performance Reviews
Conducting reviews of nominated departments to assess the adequacy of existing management structures and systems and assess the quality of performance of the unit, including, as appropriate:
- Facilitating workshops and meetings with the senior manager and individual members of staff to define the key activities, related performance objectives, risks & issues and opportunities for performance improvement;
- Conducting interviews with internal customers, stakeholders and interfaces to determine key points of interaction and assess the quality of service being provided by the unit;
- Developing and circulating an Internal Customer Feedback Questionnaire (for organizational service units only) to assess the level of satisfaction with the unit and its management;
- Preparing a structural overview document that provides a high level perspective of the operations of the unit and that can be used as an ongoing management tool;
- Facilitating a Leadership and Management Self-Assessment process with the manager of the unit to discuss issues requiring attention from a managerial perspective;
- Delivering a report to senior management on the findings of the review including recommendations for action.
Risk Management
Assisting the organisation with an initial implementation of risk management or enhancing its existing approach to risk management including, as appropriate:
- Developing an overall risk management development strategy for the organisation;
- Defining a phased improvement process to take the organisation from its current level of risk governance to its preferred level of governance;
- Establishing or enhancing compliance with AS/NZ 4360:2004 or ISO 31000, as appropriate, and developing a Risk Management Policy and Procedure document that defines the organisation’s approach to risk management;
- Conducting management workshops to identify, analyse and assess risk and the relevant management controls to mitigate each risk;
- Developing risk treatment plans that define the management action in improving the level of control over specific risks; and
- Designing and developing risk management reports for the CEO, Audit Committee and senior managers in order to assist recipients in understanding the risk profile of the organisation and its key functions.
Business Continuity Planning
Developing Business Continuity Plans to address a range of business interruption risks including, as appropriate:
- Conducting a sweep of the organisation to identify the potential business interruption events and prioritising these for further planning and analyses;
- Defining the critical business processes relating to each major business interruption risk;
- Conducting a Business Impact Analysis to define the maximum allowable outage across various arms of the organisation and at specific periods in the business calendar;
- Developing Service Recovery Plans for a nominated group of business interruption risks;
- Developing a Business Continuity Plan to define key roles and responsibilities across the organisation;
- Establishing a Business Continuity Management strategy together with appropriate Policies and Procedures.
Project & Program Management
This consulting service is designed for organisations seeking to establish new, or enhance existing, project and program management protocols.
Clients use this service to enhance their corporate governance capabilities, reign in blow-outs on project scope, development timeframes and/or project costs, or simply implement a more effective means of managing projects.
The following range of project management services are available:
- Designing and implementing Program Management protocols;
The aim of this service is to develop or enhance existing management processes for proposing, reviewing, approving, planning, scheduling and implementing multiple projects at an Executive level within the organisation.
- Designing (or redesigning) and implementing a project management methodology that suits the needs of the organisation;
The objective of this service is to ensure the methodology adopted is neither too cumbersome nor too informal for your organisation.
- Developing Project Management Policies & Procedures;
This service focuses on documenting existing or enhanced policies and procedures for the management of projects and disseminating these across the organisation.
- Project Management Training;
This service designs and delivers training in the major processes of project management, as defined by the Project Management Institute in its Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), including issues such as:
- Project Planning
- Project Scope Management
- Time Management
- Cost management
- Managing Project Quality
- Project Team Management
- Project Communications
- Risk Management
- Procurement Management
- Project Management Implementation Support;
This service is designed for organisations implementing a new regime of project management protocols and seeking to consolidate these within one or more existing projects. It draws appropriate modules from each of the above services to create a customised suite of activities that support your management team.
Outsourcing Reviews
Assessing the feasibility, viability and appropriateness of outsourcing one or more functions within the organisation including, as appropriate:
- Reviewing the strategic and structural context of the function in relation to the core business of the organisation;
- Assessing the quality of service to internal and/or external customers to determine whether an improved quality can be delivered by a third party provider;
- Evaluating the performance of the unit in terms of efficiency and effectiveness to determine whether a third party provider could deliver an improved level of performance;
- Evaluating the financial management of the unit to determine whether a third party provider could provide an equivalent service at a lesser cost to the organisation; and
- Providing a report that sets out the findings of the review and recommends a course of action in relation to the outsourcing decision.
We also have a range of in-house programs to assist organisations in the professional development and training of both management and staff. Unlike most training programs, these are not only delivered at your organisation (or a suitable venue nearby), but are also tailored to suits the specific needs of your organisation. In addition, while many other programs simply offer a one or two day course, our programs are delivered over a period of 4 to 8 weeks with between one and two hours training time each week.
Why provide weekly training sessions? Because this assists participants in assimilating the course materials and applying what they've learned in the class on a day-to-day basis within the work environment. It also engages participants in ways that simply aren't possible in a highly structured one or two day course.
The following courses are available:
Management Skills I
This course is designed for new managers and individuals aspiring to assume a managerial role.
The course covers 8 key facets of management:
- Performance Management
- Financial Management
- Customer & Client Management
- Staff Management
- Time Management
- Relationship Management
- Systems & Process Management
- Strategic Management (Introduction).
The aim of the course is to introduce participants to the rudiments of management, including the tools, techniques and technologies used by modern managers in achieving the primary goals of management; that is, the efficiency, effectiveness and economy of operations.
As with all our courses, the modular structure allows course content to be designed in consultation with your organisation. This ensures courses are relevant to your real needs and that participants obtain maximum benefit from the time invested.
Management Skills II
This is an advanced course for existing managers seeking to refresh and enhance their managerial skills.
The course commences with participants self-assessing the basic management skills addressed as part of the Management Skills I course, that is:
- Performance Management
- Financial Management
- Customer & Client Management
- Staff Management
- Time Management
- Relationship Management
- Systems & Process Management
In customising the Management Skills II course for your organisation, you select up to 4 modules from the following list of advanced topics:
- Strategic Management
- Risk Management
- Quality Management
- Knowledge Management
- Information Management
- Document Management
- Asset Management
- Project Management
- Program Management
- Business Continuity Management
- Change Management
- Contract Management
- Management Presentations
The modular structure of Management Skills II allows course content to be designed in consultation with senior management in your organisation to ensure courses are relevant to your needs and participants obtain maximum benefit from the time invested.
Time Management
This course is designed for management and staff working in complex, multi-task roles where day-to-day decisions have to be made about which issues to address – the urgent or the important?
The key components of this course are:
- Principles of time management
- Understanding time
- Productivity cycles
- Pricing your time
- Conducting a time audit
- The Pareto principle
- Creating a time management plan
- Identifying goals
- Setting priorities
- Creating a ‘living’ To-do list
- Handling obstacles
- Meetings & Interruptions
- Reducing interruptions
- Setting boundaries
- Saying no
- Using technology to save time
- Organising your computer
- Information overload
- Screening information
- Managing your e-mail In-box
- Using Internet time wisely
- Being productive with telephone time
- Productivity
- Attending and running productive meetings
- Handling information overload
- Creating realistic workloads
The aim of the Time Management course is to:
- assist participants in identifying specific problems they have in managing their time;
- identify appropriate techniques to address these problems;
- encourage participants to implement these techniques over the duration of the course;
- obtain feedback from participants on their progress over the 4 to 8 sessions of the course and adjust techniques to meet the specific needs and abilities of each individual.
Communication Skills I & II
These courses are designed both for new managers and as a refresher for existing senior managers. They highlight the importance of understanding and practising a variety of communication techniques and recognising when each is appropriate.
The courses assist participants in considering:
1. WHAT has to be communicated as part of their business role - for example:
- Strategies and plans;
- Knowledge and information;
- Problems and issues;
- Performance expectations and actual results;
- Systems and processes;
- Financial and statistical information.
2. WHO they need to communicate with, including:
- Communicating at a Director, Senior Manager and CEO level;
- Communicating with internal / external customers;
- Communicating with staff; and
- Communicating with suppliers and contractors.
and
3. HOW best to communicate the required information using a combination of :
- Verbal communication – formal & informal
- Email;
- Web-page structure;
- Brief report;
- Detailed report - with a summary, table of contents, appropriate structure and use of diagrams;
- Excel Spreadsheet; and/or
- PowerPoint presentation.
Each of the above issues are considered in the context of the tone and style of communication, as well as the use of visual aids. The courses also touch upon differences in personality types and the implications this can have for effective communication – including the need to tailor communication to suit the recipient.
The Communication Skills I course provides an overview of each of the main aspects of good communication, covering the four macro skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking; Communication Skills II offers a more advanced course for those who have received the initial training.
Both courses encourage participants to self-assess their communication skills and identify areas for improvement – these areas are then given specific attention over the duration of the course.
