Background and Opportunity
Coongan is a Traditional Owner Project Management Agency committed to community impact by having more Nyiyaparli people working collectively in the country.
Their vision has always been to build a strong, multi-disciplinary project team of talented people who are working on-country in roles that strengthen the community through collective caretaking of the country and the environment.
Coongan continues to invest in training and up-skilling Nyiyaparli (and Pilbara Aboriginal people) and seeks out opportunities to contribute to meaningful projects in a way that cares for the land and the Nyiyaparli people.
In the last 10 years, they have provided cultural education to over 30,000 members of Pilbara workplaces and have delivered a range of projects in community development, heritage and conservation.
This Nyiyvaparli family owned business was founded by Bradley Hall. Together with Chantal Hall as CEO, the business has grown strongly, overheads have been kept low, and a very strong reputation has been built.
Services include:
- Community impact and cultural awareness training
- Conservation and environmental projects
- Heritage and Cultural Management advisory
- Thala boxes (indigenous health related products for the community)
Key Challenges and Opportunities
The business has grown since inception, employing around 15 staff, plus engaging contract staff where appropriate.
With recent growth, Covid impacts affecting the community, and some staff changes, it was considered timely to undertake a strategic planning process.
Some of the key areas for discussion included:
- To ensure that a clear vision and mission are communicated to and owned by the staff
- How to ensure the business is efficient and effective
- How to best transition from being a family driven and managed business to providing the opportunity to grow the responsibility of the management team, and each role within the business
- Taking roles and responsibilities, and turning that information into actionable documents to speed the onboarding of staff
- How to determine the right size for the business rather than seeking significant growth for the sake of growth
- What other skillsets would be valuable to bring to the team
- How to ensure the best service to customers, stakeholders and most importantly, the Nyiyaparli people
Approach
The strategic planning process involved a series of interviews with the owners to set the scene and provide context for a Strategic Planning Workshop involving the wider team.
Following those interviews, some pre-work ahead of the workshop – including some pre-reading, plus a change success diagnostic.
In addition, team members were asked to consider the strengths of the business, and the challenges facing the business, prior to the workshop to ensure that the workshop got off to a great start. As a result, the team were able to get into the key issues quickly and energy was built from the start. The approach recognises that the team are busy – so want to ensure value is realised quickly.
An important outcome was to ensure that people from different parts of the business were able to work on problems together, creating alignment. Participants find the session much more valuable using this type of approach, and the best ideas are generated and captured.
Once the workshop was completed, the information was collated into one page strategic plan, together with supporting information.
Outcome
“The strategic planning process has provided an opportunity to clarify the direction for the business in the coming years, reaffirm the vision and focus the team. We are taking action on the initiative identified and this is being very positively received by our stakeholders and our team, putting us on a strong footing for the journey ahead”, Chantal Hall, CEO.