Workshops and Consultation Forums

Ethos Australia designs, facilitates and documents the outcomes of a wide range of workshops, focus groups and consultation forums.

Workshops and events with up to 150 participants are facilitated to:

• Build commitment to a vision or organisation planning process
• Gather opinions and views on particular subjects from key stakeholder groups
• Bring different groups together to have them develop joint solutions to difficult problems
• Create innovation and collaboration across organisation boundaries

Workshops with 6 to 50 participants are facilitated to:

• Develop a joint strategic or business plan within an organisation
• Develop new ideas for a products, services or to increase competition
• Develop complex project plans that require multiple inputs across and between organisations eg moving factory overseas,  designing a new museum gallery
• Bring an industry together to develop collaborative strategies to access new markets

Ethos Australia has developed innovative workshop processes to promote:

• Participation in workshops across people with a range of communication preferences
• Creative thinking that encourages participants to consider their organisation or community in ways they have not thought about before
• Activity in a workshop that encourages interactivity and collaboration

Workshop processes regularly used by Ethos Australia include:

• Hypothetical scenario building
• Group debates
• Storyboarding
• Affinity process
• Relationship diagram
• Decision matrix
• Organisation and community analysis through metaphors
• Customer needs analysis
  

We Understand Universities, Research Organisations and Schools

Ethos Australia has extensive experience in organisation reviews, community engagement planning, restructuring and strategic planning in universities, research organisations and schools.

We have a sound understanding of the tensions between individual research performance and organisation strategic focus; we understand the teaching/research nexus and how academics often have difficulty balancing teaching and research demands; we understand the importance of and the demands of research funding processes and the limitations of running an organisation on ‘soft funding’;  We understand the difficulties of managing work load models in universities and the many activities of academics that are vital but often not measured; We understand the importance of industry collaborative research but that fundamental research is often the basis of real innovation and advancement of a discipline.

We understand the importance of research collaboration across academic institutions but we are also well aware of the personal and organisational tensions and financial structures that inhibit such collaboration.

Our experience with this sector over the past 16 years includes:

• University strategic planning
• Community consultation processes regarding community engagement strategies
• Community engagement planning
• Research Strategy workshops for universities, faculties and schools
• Facilitation of national and international research collaborations across disciplines
• Facilitation of complex curriculum review processes
• Organisational restructure of faculties
• Strategic planning for national research centers
• Team building processes in academic and administrative units within Universities
• Strategic planning in secondary schools
• Facilitation of industry skills development processes involving both private and public technical training organisations.

Innovative Workshop Processes

Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a group process promoting creative idea generation and efficient analysis of ideas. All participants contribute by writing ideas on a particular subject on cards. Ideas are called out when written thus promoting a creative, high energy environment where ideas are bounced across the group and so developed, expanded and refined. The cards are grouped with the help of a facilitator . The grouped themes are labeled.

This is process is particularly useful for a small group less than 15 who are exploring a range of options to address a number of problems. People from different perspectives come together to storyboard the issue.

Affinity Process

The Affinity process is chosen when you need to find the major themes out of a lage number of ideas or issues. Individuals write the key issues on individual cards. When all the cards are produced they are laid out randomly on a table or wall and the group sorts the cards into groups they believe are relevant. The group does the sorting without a facilitator. Initial sorting is done in silence and cards are moved if there is disagreement.

Labels or put on the categories and links and dependencies between the categories discussed. Like storyboarding this is a creative rather than a logical process that produces consensus by sorting cards. This does not replace discussion but it does make it more efficient.

Relationship Diagram
This is an excellent way of prioritizing a set of goals. Often people don’t know there to start when presented with a list of organisational changes. This process examines the relationship or dependencies between goals. When we effectively address a particular goal we often see a positive effect not only in the particular area of focus but also in other areas.

This process identifies those goals that if addressed would have a positive effect on other goals. It also identifies those goals that must be addressed specifically because no other goal will have a positive impact on the key results it is attempting to achieve.

Informal/formal Workshop Debates

This is the ideal process to tackle sensitive issues were there is a reluctance to take personal ownership for views. In a range of other table activities two tables are told they will be part of a debate on a particular issue and told which side of the debate they will represent. They are told to represent the full range of views on the topic. They are given 20-30 minutes to prepare there arguments, Each table has six people. They are told to select a first, second and third speaker. Each speaker gets no more than 2 minutes.

The benefit of this process is that it provides the opportunity for the discussion to be had in an academic sense rather relying on those who feel most strongly about the issue and getting too emotionally involved. The structure of the debate also places a limited time on the issue and it is presented with other table activities that are also presenting important information. In review of all the issues the sensitive issue is placed in context and has not dominated the workshop.

Use Metaphors

Mark Douglas has developed a pack of 52 metaphor cards for organisational analysis that encourage an innovate examination of organisation issues. These cards are used in vision setting exercises asking small groups to identify six cards that ‘paint a desirable picture’ of your organisation in 5-10 years. Alternatively identify cards that depict the current realty of the organisation now. The discussion that flows is rich and varied, humorous and insightful and always constructive for content generation and group dynamics.

Hypothetical Scenario Analysis and Facilitation

Mark Douglas has designed and facilitated hypothetical analysis of workshop groups for the benefit of those participating and also large events with a hypothetical panel and an audience of over 200 people. These events can be short and focused on a few issues over half an hour or complex and explore a wide range of issues over 1.5 – 2 hours. The benefit of this type of activity is on many levels.

Having individuals put themselves in the shoes of others and living a scenario with a group and exploring the decisions likely to be necessary is a powerful learning process. Also important is the follow-up analysis asking the questions, What should we be doing now to ensure this scenario does not eventuate? Or What should we be expecting of Government, small business, large business and universities to ensure we get closer to this scenario?

Also Mark Douglas is skilled at facilitating

• Mind maps
• Tree diagrams
• Fish bone analysis
• Decision matrices