On this page we provide information about our collective experience. It includes projects we have undertaken as part of Connexity Associates and and as individuals as well as experiences from our previous careers as senior organisational leaders.
While it is probably true that you are only as good as your last project, we would like to think that our collective experience adds up to a great deal and can be brought to bear in a wide range of situations.
Facilitation of a workshop to review the future of the World Heritage Convention
Context: The World Heritage Convention is perhaps the best known responsibility of UNESCO, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. 190 countries are party to the Convention which aims to protect the World’s most precious cultural and natural assets. In 2009 the World Heritage Committee determined that it would be timely to reflect on the future of the World Heritage Convention, what it was trying to achieve, and how it was being put into practice. What we did: Carolyn Peterken worked with the Secretariat of the World Heritage Committee to design a large group process that would facilitate discussion and debate …
One Division One Team – AusAid Pacific Division (2012-2013)
Connexity consultants provided organisational change and workforce planning support to the Division as part of the implementation of agreed reforms designed to establish a “One Division, One Team” culture and workforce capability across Canberra and overseas based business units and teams. This included coaching senior executives and managers in fulfilling their role as change sponsors; advising the Director, Strategic Planning and Coordination, and the Pacific Operations Reform Team (PORT) on their roles in coordinating and supporting the effective implementation of the One Division – One Team reforms; facilitating consultation processes and discussions across the Division and with work units to ensure a …
Review of the Agency for National Development – Timor Leste
Context: the Agency for National Development (ADN) was established by the Prime Minister of Timor Leste in 2011 to assure the integrity and value-for-money of government funded infrastructure projects As a new agency employing relatively inexperienced staff, his office was keen to undertake a review of the Agency after its first two years of operation. What we did: Carolyn Peterken was engaged to undertake an organisational review of this newly formed agency. Using the McKinsey 7S as a Framework for the review, she spent two weeks in Timor Leste collecting quantitative data on the performance of the Agency and consulting …
Reviewing data sources, reporting, governance arrangements and strategic projects.
In 2014 Phillip Bonser supported the Australian Education Council, Data Strategy Group to analyse and understand the implications of a comprehensive stocktake of data sources, governance arrangements, reports and reporting regimes and national projects across the early childhood education, schooling and higher education sectors. He undertook a range of mapping exercises, identifying linkages and dis-connects as well as overlaps and gaps and provided a report which enabling the Group to more easily identify priorities and to adopt a more strategic approach to supporting the Early Childhood and Schools Strategy Groups as they advise the Education Council. For more information please …
Integrating the Queensland Government Airwings
Following the Keelty Review of the Police and Community Safety Portfolio in mid-2013, the Queensland Government established the Public Safety Business Agency which includes an integrated Government Airwing comprising the previous Government Airwing, Police Airwing and Emergency Management Queensland Helicopter Rescue Service.
Capacity Building – Myanmar Department of Social Welfare
Two groups of senior staff from the Myanmar Department of Social Welfare participated in five week programs hosted by QUT in Brisbane and funded as part of the AusAID Australian Awards Program. Both programs were designed to strengthen leadership capabilities, change management capabilities, and program planning and management, as well as strengthening capabilities in the content-specific areas of reform strategies for women, and disability-inclusive development. Carolyn Peterken worked with both groups as part of a team of facilitators across the five weeks. She supported participants in the development of workbooks to use when working with their colleagues and communities in Myanmar, …
Strengthening governance processes in a Cooperative Research Centre
Cooperative Research Centres are inherently complex entities, bringing together academia and the private and not-for-profit sectors to undertake research of direct applied relevance. The governance of these entities is therefore also complex, particularly when the research has a strong focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Carolyn Peterken led a process for establishing strong foundations for the board of a new Cooperative Research Centre, focusing not only on the legal and procedural aspects of the Board, but also the social processes that would underpin how the Board would operate. These foundations were reflected in the Board’s Charter. Since then she …
Reviewing member and staff engagement for the Royal Australasia College of Physicians
In 2015 Phillip Bonser and Garth Britton were lead consultants in a review of factors that influence the capacity of the members and staff of the College to work more effectively together. This work involved conducting over seventy interviews and focus groups with members and staff, analysis of data from these interviews and from a range of other sources. Dr Britton led the development of the processes of analysis and the subsequent development of recommendations while Phillip Bonser was the primary author of a report that is enabling the College to develop a strategy to more closely connect the work …
Indonesia’s Women’s Human Rights Defenders (IWHRD)
Australia’s aid program provides funding for groups to come to Australia from developing countries to participate in capacity building programs. A group of 12 women from Indonesia’s Women’s Human Rights Defenders spent 5 weeks in Australia in May/June 2014, learning about leadership, change management, advocacy and communication as well as developing specific skills and knowledge around defending women’s rights and reducing violence against women. Carolyn Peterken facilitated training sessions with this inspiring group of women around communication, advocacy and decision-making. The sessions were highly participatory and involved a mixture of theory, discussion, role play, individual and group exercises and individual …
Strengthening the UNICEF Regional Office team in the Middle East
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is organised around a network of country and regional offices. UNICEF engaged Carolyn Peterken and a colleague to work with their team of approximately 60 staff in the Middle East Regional Office in Amman to strengthen teamwork and improve team dynamics. Through a preparatory visit, the facilitators identified a number of key themes to be covered at the workshop. They drafted a background paper that summarised the themes, and through expressions of interested “recruited” a facilitators to lead the discussion on each theme at the workshop. The workshop itself was run over a period …
Evaluating out-sourced executive development programs.
In 2013 Phillip Bonser was lead consultant in a review of high level out-sourced Executive Development Programs for senior executives funded by the NSW Public Service Commission. he reviewed the extent to which the programs funded by the PSC for senior executives were a fit with newly developing professional capabilities for public servants in NSW and the extent to which they were providing the PSC and sponsoring agencies with return on their investment of both time and funds. This work involved a mix of qualitative and quantitative data-collection and analysis and produced a number of far-reaching recommendations. Phillip conducted the …
Implementing a new way of collecting data about students with disability
In 2012 Phillip Bonser and Garth Britton supported a national Joint Working Group of the Standing Committee on School Education and Early Childhood (SCSEEC) in the drafting of position papers and the development of national policy agreements for a new approach to the inclusion of the collection of data about school students with disability within existing jurisdictional and school-based structures and processes for collection of data. They also provided extensive project/planning support in the development of a national plan for full implementation of the collection of this data in 2013. For more information please contact Phillip Bonser