The Challenge
To engage municipal staff and external stakeholders in supporting and contributing to
upcoming changes. Prior to the amalgamation of a number of municipal governments
into the new City of Ottawa, our client was the Regional Municipality of
Ottawa-Carleton.
Our Approach
One project was for the Region's Social Services. Based on the results of focus
groups and in-depth telephone interviews, an internal communication plan and subsequently
an external communication plan were developed for its Improving Client Services initiative.
A range of innovative and cost-effective strategies were recommended and
implemented. We also suggested the name for the initiative, to help re-position it
from its earlier focus on information technologies, and coached the department's Communications Branch in conducting a two year
follow-up evaluation.
Another project (Genesis) involved introducing a new enterprise management system for
the entire Regional government.
The new system required significant changes from a wide range of staff and other
stakeholders. We led a series of focus group sessions, then coached the
Region's communications staff in developing and subsequently conducting a
two-year impact evaluation of an internal and external communication plan.
Most recently, we conducted focus group research to monitor
progress against the new City of Ottawa's Change Management Plan, early on in
the transition process. That plan covered the human side of the amalgamation of
the region's municipalities.
Collaborators
Bronson Consulting Group
Impact
"The two year follow-up evaluation of the Improving Client Services
initiative showed that communications efforts had been quite successful. Most staff
thought the changes had been necessary, and that their reservations about using new
computer technologies had been largely overcome. Additionally, supervisors thought
they had been well prepared to respond to questions from their staff. The
evaluation also helped us to identify barriers to broader staff engagement,
and ensure our implementation activities remained 'on-track'."
Angela Kennedy, Region of Ottawa-Carleton Social Services
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