Advisory Services

One of the most significant challenges facing all local government is ensuring that they are visible and relevant within the various sectors of government and recognised for the economic development and social capital contribution made within their boundaries. Advocacy needs to be a high priority at all times not just a focus when there is an imminent election or major commercial initiative proposed.

Data and information are extremely significant to cutting through the cluttered air for media coverage.

Garry Hunt through his exposure to multiple elections has a refined and sophisticated knowledge of how and when to engage in the advocacy space. Networks across all sectors of society are an essential part of an advocacy program. The role of the elected members and how they operate and engage in this arena is fundamentally important. We can assist to develop an Advocacy Strategy to suit your organisation, relevant to its situation and the prevailing circumstances in your community.

Our coaching program has been specifically tailored for the somewhat unique challenges for senior local government executives. Local government is the most visible and accessible level of government in Australia. Unlike other government service entities it interacts with most people within a community on a daily basis. Representation at the local political sphere is multifaceted and this has been heightened by the increasing use of social media by most age cohorts.

In recognition of the varying skills attributes and experience of each individual, our coaching programs are designed for you, your current priorities and time availability.

Of course, you will need to commit an investment of time to obtain the optimum benefit from the program.

Our program delivery time-line can be aligned to your time situation either during or outside normal work hours.

The broad program outline is modified to suit each client.

Our objective is to identify your strengths, address the challenges you face and refine your skills to assist you to know how to be the best you can.

An investment in yourself is imperative if you are to achieve your full potential and reduce the frustration that we all encounter in our professional lives.

Knowing and understanding yourself, your skills and items you need to address is the start of a journey to professional and personal fulfilment.

Many aspects of professional life such as sport and the arts feature the use of coaches to help participants achieve their best performance.

Our program can assist you to maximise your professional fulfilment.

Contact Garry Hunt for a free session to determine whether our program will provide what you need.

Economic development is a prominent focus for all local governments in their operations.

Community well-being and societal health is inextricably linked to the economic development position of a local government.

Economic development from a local government perspective is about local employment opportunities, access to skilled labour and attracting capital investment.

For many local governments these aspects are highly competitive and issues which require external support and advice.

GHCG can provide guidance to your organisation on how you might address the economic development challenges that you have within your community relative to engagement with the business sector, regional local governments as well as state and federal governments.

Governance is an often referred to term within local government.

Essentially the real meaning of governance relates to the structures and processes that are designed to ensure:
Accountability
Transparency
Responsiveness
Rule of law
Equity and inclusiveness

In the local government context governance is how government decision-making affects people in the district.
The intent of good governance is to ensure everyone within an organisation follows appropriate and transparent decision-making processes and that the interests of stakeholders are protected.

GHCG can assist you to review your governance and in particular conduct training and information sessions for elected members, executives and others within your organisation on the essence of good governance and roles and responsibilities. 

Garry Hunt our principal consultant has been conducting acclaimed training and development sessions for elected member and executive teams on aspects of the governance for over 20 years.

GHCG can provide well credentialed advisory services on Governance.

There are many wonderful leadership and development programs within the market. However all too often one or a small number of members of your organisation participate in the program and when they return to the workplace, they can become disenchanted as their learnings are not always ready translatable to the rest of the team, who didn’t attend the session(s).

GHCG develops leadership and development programs that are aligned to your exact organisational requirements. They can be delivered to your timeline and resources as well as taking to account the skills and expertise of your team members. Participation in work groups leverages workplace knowledge and engagement during and after the program has been delivered. We would also encourage follow up analysis sessions to capture learnings to ensure long term alignment and retention of the benefits of such investment.

Local Government is involved in a myriad of different services, activities and interactions with many cohorts of society. Due to the complexity of aspects of life covered by Local Government, engagement with stakeholders can become convoluted and issues become a challenging for all parties.

Sometimes the interaction and the relationship between parties are strained to a point that a third party intervention can often assist to be a circuit breaker and enable the participants to resolve the issue and move forward in an agreed manner.

GHCG have sector knowledge and an ability to provide an objective viewpoint on topics, which enables assistance in a particular dispute or issue of concern that enables the groups to progress to resolve the impasse and find a pathway to enable both participants to move forward. 

With 30 years plus as a CEO of high-profile local government, Garry Hunt has successfully negotiated many resolutions to service contracts, industrial agreements, employment contracts and tender disputes. 

While the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework is required by legislation the approach to this documentation needs to be far more part of the organisational focus than merely ticking a few boxes to meet a compliance requirement.

Strategic Planning is at the core of ensuring the needs of all sectors of your community are considered, engaged, understood and provided for in service delivery and facilities. Agility in the modern era is paramount to community sustainability and vibrancy.

There is much more to Strategic Planning than a few engagement sessions with community members and elected members and staff

Each community needs to go on a journey to develop this planning regime rather than see the Strategic Community Plan as a document that is occasionally referred to in reports to the council and community.

At a time when advocacy in all facets of engagement is of increasing importance, a well-developed and understood strategic community plan is a platform to leverage benefit and advantage for your district.

Garry Hunt has been involved in Strategic Planning within local government long before it was a legislative requirement and has seen benefits that flow from clarity in the community aspirations and capacity to bring positive change which value adds to a local jurisdiction.

Using the plans within the framework for measuring organisational performance and community satisfaction are an integral component of any best practice approach. We can assist to align your Strategic Community Plan, Corporate Business Plan and Service Plans into meaningful and value adding tools that work to your organisations advantage.

Together Everyone Achieves More = TEAM

We all know that a well operating team is far more productive than a team where individuals move to the beat of their own drum. Tweaks within a team where skills and abilities are leveraged for the good of all, results in a high functioning team. In modern society where everything moves at a faster pace than ever before in our history, responsible utilisation of team members is of high importance. Sometimes external review of your team will enable an enhancement of relationships that is beneficial for all of the team and results in significant improvements in organisational performance.

Garry Hunt has developed a number of teams in the last 30 years. His knowledge and understanding of the Local Government sector enables him to quickly assess opportunities to improve team performance, bring a new positive energy to your team and a reduction of frustration which inhibits team members contributions. Providing your team members, the opportunity to highlight their issues in a safe environment will provide an atmosphere of openness and encourage frank disclosure of the Real Issues rather than a glossing over matters of concern.

Garry Hunt has somewhat unique experience of having developed elected member and executive officer group teams after a period of major political upheaval.

Team building programs need to be tailored to suit your team, your organisation and your prevailing and expected future situation.