PM LC January 2010

From WikiEducator
Jump to: navigation, search



Contents

Project Management / Learning Coordinator

Background: Our Understanding of Your Requirements

(Comment.gif: To be provided by Joanna, Mark and Maddie); includes: Background: Current Situation and our understanding of Organization Mandate}}

Our Approach

The Intersol Group is a team of experienced consulting, facilitation and learning professionals whose expertise lies in the ability to harness and build lasting organizational capacity for our clients.

We facilitate stakeholder engagement using an integrated, inclusive and participatory approach that strengthens your organization’s relationships, builds a robust community, and seeks way to increase and enhance communication throughout your ecosystem. We partner with our clients to co-create solutions that build their skill and confidence over the long term. We support the change/transition process by continually engaging, communicating and reflecting learning and best practices with your stakeholders as an Onsite, Online, and Ongoing Learning Community (See Appendix) to:

  • identify and recommend strategies for reducing resistance to change/transition;
  • identify opportunities and recommend strategies for increased stakeholder collaboration, performance and learning;
  • build support and momentum for buy-in, ownership and a sense of belonging in this project;
  • leverage opportunities for structured dialogue, new relationships, communication and learning.

Underpinning our approach is a focus on action research and learning to support meaningful project involvement, blended and networked learning for increased communication, understanding and and sustainable project implementation. These activities will be developed in alignment with your strategic objectives, operational metrics, organizational culture and available resources.

Intersol proposes to use a highly-qualified project management team, who have successfully completed numerous projects pertaining to stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, facilitation, action research and planning. marketing, market research, communications, business analysis, synthesis and writing, effective learning / training design, change management and human / organization performance.


Learning Coordination in the Context of a Learning Organization

With 600 employees and 550 service providers, there is considerable opportunity for engagement and learning, innovation and performance. As HireCo engages its stakeholders and embraces a Learning Organization focus, it is essential that the process and output of their conversations, preparation and follow-up are strategically-aligned to CCAC’s vision, mission and strategy, and this project’s activities.

In our view, several critical success factors underpin the Learning Coordinator’s role:

  • ensuring the application of learning to business/organizational objectives, in a way that is timely, relevant and motivating for employees / stakeholders.
  • applying a community-of-practice approach to traditional project management for greater community engagement, a sense of pride and ownership in the initiative, increased performance and faster return-on-investment
  • incorporating participatory action research / learning - including a learning system ecology approach to support meaningful and continuous project involvement, healthy conversations, feedback and mutual learning and sharing among all stakeholders.

HireCo: A Learning Community

  • uses an inclusive and participatory action-oriented model for continuous engagement across time and distance,
  • sustainably and scalably evolves existing face-to-face and elearning training into ongoing networked conversations
  • facilitates competency development and leadership behaviour;
  • disseminates and implements the latest evidence for improving your professional capacity

Over time, the experience of HireCo as a Learning Community can generate greater participation and involvement, trust and commitment: so that new knowledge from formal and informal learning is constantly being built and translated into practice, improving organizational effectiveness and accelerating return-on-investment. Metaphorically, the Learning Coordinator can play the hybrid strategic and empathetic role of maestro of a harmonious symphony in what will make a critical difference to the synergy, success and sustainability of this project and its interventions.

Intersol’s Learning Coordinator will ensure that key organizational artifacts, resources and best practices – existing and created within this project – will be collaboratively and synergisticially developed in multi-modal formats (i.e., audio, video, text). Moreover, he will also ensure that ALL project management activities account for, are aligned to, and incorporate a learning / learning community focus, to achieve optimal and meaningful results.

Action Research Cycle

Action Research Cycle V1.0.jpg

Project Management Methodology

(See also: Project Management Methodology (Table 1) -- needs work)

Intersol is confident that our approach and methodology to project management will enable your initiative to achieve its outcomes by supporting you in managing the oversight of the project’s resources, budget, schedule, and scope. Specifically this approach will:

  • Be a collaborative effort – our approach to work with the HIRECO is to leverage and integrate the knowledge, learning and expertise of your stakeholders with our specialized experience and expertise in developing consultation workshops and in implementing cultural change within organizations;
  • Adopt a project management process to optimize control of the schedule, budget and resources;
  • Enabling concurrent conduct of work while building in mechanisms to integrate the various individual streams and relying on the project manager and learning coordinator to coordinate the work through formal and informal team meetings to share, findings and recommendations; and;
  • Ensure quality communications and learning products and creative communications vehicles for the outputs and outcomes of the individual sessions and the overall project.

Intersol believes that there are six (6) factors to success for HIRECO in order to achieve successful change. They are:

  1. Stakeholders are committed: Influencers or individuals impacted by the project are identified and informed of the project and their need are understood.
  2. Business benefits are realized: Project benefits are defined and endorsed and then measured and monitored throughout the project to ensure realization.
  3. Work schedule is predictable: Project services and deliverables are determined and met during the course of the project.
  4. Team is high-performing: Human resources involved in the project are identified, mobilized, and developed.
  5. Scope is realistic and managed: Project boundaries and processes for managing project changes are defined. This includes prioritization, approving and assessing the impact changes will have on realizing goals.
  6. Risks are mitigated: Processes are included to identify, evaluate, mitigate, monitor and report project risks in a timely manner.

We have embedded these core factors in our approach and methodology. Intersol’s project manager will provide project management services in three phases that include:

Example.jpg

Each of these is described below:

Phase 1: Project Planning

Upon completion of a planning kick-off with HIRECO, the Intersol project manager will develop detailed project management documentation that can be used to track overall progress throughout the life of your initiative. This documentation will include; the detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); the project schedule; detailed work plan; and resource plan. The following steps provides a brief description about the approach we will use to develop these documents:

  • Design and develop detailed WBS. The WBS design will follow the “100% Rule” to capture all activities and tasks as defined by the project scope. The WBS should include not only project delivery activities, but also the project management activities (e.g., initiating the project, creating and tracking the project plan, managing the project team, maintaining expectations), training activities and Project dependencies to ensure these activities are properly tracked.
  • Prepare preliminary estimates and schedules: Based on the WBS, we will assign resources to individual tasks, prepare estimates of the time and level of effort to complete each task, document estimating assumptions, determine workload by individual or function, and establish task dependencies and durations in order to identify the critical path.
  • Develop resource plan and schedule sessions: The project manager and learning coordinator will work together to review with HIRECO the project schedule which will include both the design and delivery of the consultations to HIRECO staff. The sessions will be scheduled by the learning coordinator and this role will be the single point of contact for scheduling issues throughout the project.
  • Communication / Briefing: The project manager and project coordinator will ensure that the learning facilitators have internal touch points scheduled on a regular basis to integrate information and share themes captured from sessions. In addition, the project manager will schedule on a regular basis briefings with the Project Sponsor and Project Integrators to ensure that they are kept up to date on themes as they arise.

Phase 2: On-Going Project Management and Learning Coordination

Throughout the life of the project, the Intersol project manager and learning coordinator will work together to track and manage the schedule, scope, resources, budget, and communications and learning activities in order to support HIRECO in achieving its outcomes. The activities in the ongoing project management are described below.

  • Tracking the project schedule: The project manager will be responsible for tracking Based on the WBS developed in Phase 1 (which will include all activities from designing the sessions, to delivering the sessions, to developing the report). This plan will be updated daily to track progress and provide early indications of scheduling issues. The work plan will be included as part of the weekly status reports.
  • Tracking the Project Budget: The project manager will track the budget of the overall project and on a weekly basis report on the “burn-rate” of the project. The burn rate is defined as the expected rate of spending on a project. The project manager will also provide early indications of any budget issues and will include this as part of the weekly status report.
  • Overseeing Resource Requirements: The project manager will also track the overall resource requirements of the project (as developed by the resource plan in Phase 1). This will be included as part of the weekly status report. In addition to tracking overall resource requirements, Intersol has bid a team with a complementary skill set that will best meet HIRECO’s needs in achieving the outcomes of this engagement. Once this engagement starts and all the team members are secured and assigned to the project, the Intersol project manager will review the resource requirements on a weekly basis. In the unlikely event that one of our proposed team members is unable to remain with the project until completion, we will ensure that a suitable replacement resource is identified in a timely manner and approved by the HIRECO Project Sponsor in advance of the replacement taking place.
  • Conducting Weekly Briefings: As part of a philosophy of “no surprises”, the Intersol project manager will conduct weekly status meetings with the HIRECO project team. This will include a documented status report detailing activities that are planned, completed, and any project issues or risks that need to be raised.

A sample Status Report follows:

Example.jpg

  • Developing and delivering communications Activities: We are proposing a project manager with extensive experience in developing and delivering communications material to stakeholders and to senior management and in leading and implementing change management. In addition, we are proposing a learning coordinator with leading-edge skills and expertise in communication and feedback through social media, and building effective and networked learning communities.
  • Overseeing Continuous Improvement Activities: Intersol believes that quality products result from ongoing improvement and feedback. For this reason, Intersol has embedded into its project management activities a feedback mechanism for the sessions, communications products, and other documentation (toolkits, case studies, lessons learned, best practices, presentation(s), etc.).

Phase 3: Project Close-Out

As part of the project close, the project manager will ensure that a post project “lessons learned” session is conducted in order to ensure continuous improvement on the project oversight.

Phase Deliverables and Level of Effort

Using the phased approach above, Intersol has developed the following table which outlines the deliverables in each phase, the associated level of effort and the resources by phase.

Phase Deliverables Estimated Level of Effort in Days Resource
Phase 1 : Project Planning
  • Initial face-to-face meeting with the Manager, Organization Development to discuss work plan, changes and/or modifications, and to establish a schedule of regular meetings, and progress reports.
  • Detailed work plan outlining budget, scope of activities, objectives and timelines to ensure achievement of project objectives and outcomes.
  • Resource Plan
Project Manager
5
Phase 2: Ongoing Project Management and Learning Coordination
  • Weekly status reports for the design team and the project sponsor – comparing actual progress with work plan, readjusting timelines if required, and highlighting potential issues, problems and opportunities.
  • Development of key messages and communications to all staff and stakeholders.
  • Development of appropriate interventions, which incorporate change management models, concepts and methodologies and support others through the change cycle.
  • Development of a process to guide and direct the production of educational and informational videos
  • Scheduling, coordination and logistics of the various workshops, internal status meetings, and briefings.
  • Regular meetings with learning facilitators, coaches, core integrator(s), project administrator, graphic designers, HIRECO and the Service Providers Agencies to consult on project status, agenda items and any matters requiring resolution.
  • Ongoing conference calls as required (Project Manager may be expected to facilitate parts of meetings/teleconferences).
  • Learning Documentation (i.e., toolkits, case studies, lessons learned, best practices, presentation(s) -- incorporating key messages) etc.) to share with partners across the health system and guide dissemination of project learnings to partners
Project Manager and Learning Coordinator
20
Phase 3: Project Close-Out
  • Facilitated lessons learned session with project team
  • Final presentation to Project Sponsor on project
Project Manager and Learning Coordinator
2.5


(Comment.gif: Table Goes Here)

Intersol Capabilities

People Engagement, Innovation, Results

Who We Are

The Intersol Group is a team of experienced consulting, facilitation and learning professionals whose expertise lies in the ability to harness and build lasting organizational capacity for our clients.

Whether the focus is on shaping vision and strategy, on managing change, on stakeholder consultation, high performance teamwork or marketing and communications (including analyzing and synthesizing information and effective writing) Intersol helps organizations leverage the knowledge, experience and expertise inherent in their people. We do this by drawing on Intersol’s experience of over 18 years and 6,000 projects in the public, nonprofit and private sectors.

Our Expertise

Using processes, methods and tools that allow people to collaborate effectively and efficiently, our seasoned professionals work with our clients to:

Using processes, methods and tools that allow people to collaborate effectively and efficiently, our seasoned professionals work with our clients to:

  • Build collaborative solutions to complex problems. We partner with an organization’s leaders to address today’s complex challenges and opportunities. We help all members of the organization develop the knowledge and skills they need to be effective, healthy contributors towards desired outcomes.
  • Create a unique combination of perspective and approach. We leverage our clients’ content knowledge with our process expertise to create tailored programs that build organizational capacity.
  • Facilitate leadership, collaboration, innovation and results. Facilitation is the core competency of Intersol. We harness your leadership through our facilitative approach to create the right climate for stronger relationships and positive, lasting results.
  • Support learning and build capacity among your stakeholders. We work with your stakeholders to develop appropriate knowledge so they can contribute in meaningful ways, develop critical skills and achieve desired outcomes.



Use of Technology & Social Media / Web Collaboration Tools

Web Collaboration Tools

Your Organization has a large number of staff and service provider agencies they wish to engage in the project in a limited amount of time; 600 employees and 550 service providers. Depending on the requirements and feedback from the discovery phase, the design team may decide to engage key stakeholders using web collaboration tools to achieve the desired objectives.

Web collaboration tools allow stakeholders to contribute to meetings from where ever they are and contribution need not take place at the same time.As e-mail is to the traditional paper letter, web collaboration tools are to the meeting space. There are a number of different collaboration tools that the Intersol team can propose, depending on the objective:

Potential Web Collaboration Objectives:

  • Present data to employees during a teleconference - Web conferencing services
  • Engage participants in idea generation and decision making during a meeting - Meeting facilitation software
  • Build trust and cooperation in your work teams - Social networks and instant messaging
  • Gather all the documents and materials needed to support a work team in one easily accessible place - Team workspaces.

Project Team

Intersol has put together the following Project Team of our qualified consultants for this project. Detailed résumés are provided in the Appendix.

Susanne DiCocco, M.P.A.

Susanne DiCocco is a Senior Consultant with the Intersol Group specializing in Change Strategy, Project Management, Coaching, and Leadership Development. Susanne is a certified professional facilitator (CPF), a certified technical trainer (CTT) and is currently pursuing her executive coaching certification through Integral Coaching Canada. With over ten years of experience, Susanne has supported organizations in both short term and long term complex change initiatives. Susanne has spent the last five years working on and managing large scale shared services transformation projects as a consultant to the federal public service. Susanne’s most recent projects have included: designing the operational model and service delivery model for shared services for compensation to service 40, 000 employees; designing and developing options for service delivery model for pay to service 250, 000 employees; and developing the culture, training, and performance management framework for a shared services implementation specific to pension services. In all cases, Susanne has focused on supporting the alignment of the change to the broader organizational vision and business outcomes. Susanne has managed several successful projects involving extensive and complex change work, operational review and transition, leadership coaching, facilitating group interaction, process improvement and client outreach.

Susanne has assisted organizations by focusing on the “people” element of change and ensuring the alignment of the change to the broader organizational vision. Susanne has a successful track record of delivering business outcomes while mitigating implementation issues and challenges. She is recognized for her skills in facilitation, communication, project management, stakeholder management and coaching organizations towards a client focused approach to business. Examples of recent large scale engagements Susanne has “PM”ed include:

  • Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) – Pay Modernization Project (Project 20) – Development of SDM
  • PWGSC – Pension Modernization Project (Projects 21 – 23): Developing Culture, Training, and Performance Management strategies
  • Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) – Compensation Services Delivery Renewal Project (Project 7): Design Stream Lead


Randy Fisher, M.A.

Randy is a Senior Consultant and Facilitator with the Intersol Group, Ottawa, Canada. He has 15 years of experience related to stakeholder engagement, project management, implementation and coordination. He has expertise in change/transition management; organizational design and development; e-learning and learning communities; and building high-performing and sustainable projects, communities of practice and networks.

He has advised, trained, mentored and coached front-line staff, functional specialists, middle managers and executives. His strong journalism, communications and social service background enables him to sensitively communicate with, and bridge complex and diverse cultures (i.e., marketing and IT; front line staff and executives; Canadian and Kenyan stakeholders) to support project buy-in, ownership and a sense of pride and belonging.

Prior to joining Intersol, Randy provided project management, cluster development and learning coordination services to the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), supporting five education specialists in Open and Distance Learning (ODL): elearning, governance, community media, higher education and international organizations.

Randy is a member of the governing council of WikiEducator (a COL project), a community of 12,000+ educators in 115 countries (a top 100,000 website), dedicated to developing free and open education resources (OERs). He is a top contributor (20,000+ edits); and provides facilitation and community-building services. He is an organization design and partnership strategist for the International Centre of Open Education / OER Foundation, in New Zealand, the nonprofit entity supporting WikiEducator, WikiResearcher and other open education projects.

Randy has considerable expertise in using social media technologies for business applications. He uses wikis, blogs and social networking tools for collaboration, participatory (action) learning and strategic engagement, movement and momentum. Randy facilitates and builds scalable and sustainable learning communities and living networks, and coaches people for high levels of interest, motivation and readiness for cultural change / transition.

He has an MA in Organization Management and Development from Fielding Graduate University (with a specialty in complex adaptive systems and community engagement using social media). He holds a post-graduate degree in Journalism (King's) and a BA in Political Science (McGill). He is a Certified Advanced Technology Manager (Newbridge Networks/CATA Alliance), and also holds certifications in the Birkman Method, Myers-Briggs, Strong, Instructional Design and Train-the-Trainer methodologies. Please see his full CV/Resume.

Gurmit Singh, M.Ed.

Gurmit is Founder of the 3-Os Research and Consulting, Geneva, Switzerland. He has 10 years of experience related to education - curriculum development and programme design, project management, implementation and coordination. He has expertise in health professionals development, language teacher education, business executive development, research on pedagogy and practice, online mentoring and online community building, synergizing old with new programmes to evolve and adapt during times of change, e-learning action research, and community-based research.

He has facilitated, trained, mentored and developed health workers, language teachers, front-line staff, functional specialists, middle managers and executives. Strategically and analytically, his strong education and marketing communications background enables him to discover unique synergies and harmonise programming across departments and disciplines to add value by nurturing workplaces as dynamic learning communities for ongoing performance improvement.

Prior to founding his new venture, Gurmit was Coordinator for Professional Development and Education Programmes at the International AIDS Society, the custodian of the International AIDS Conference, the world's largest health gathering with 25,000 delegates. Here, he developed his prize-winning innovation, providing online mentoring for early career health researchers from developing countries to improve their writing. He also developed a model to synergize capacity-building workshops with mentoring conversations within health conferences. Both of these innovations improve the cost-effectiveness of knowledge transfer and leveraged the proven benefit of social and informal learning, online and onsite to sustain the global health response for the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Raised in Singapore, he has an M. Ed (Distinction) in Trainer Development from Exeter University, UK. He did his BA (Honors) degree in International Relations and Economics at Brown University, USA, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. He is a Singapore Airlines Overseas Undergraduate Scholar, and was a Honorary President's Scholar at Brown University, as he did not require financial assistance from the university. He is a certified Adult Educator, and also holds certifications in Project Management, Building Online Communities, and Coaching Teams to Improve.

For 2010, he is the Programme co-chair of the inaugural IADIS International Conference on e-democracy, equity and social justice.

His research focuses on the theory and practice of education. His vision is to develop more effective continuous professional development globally through smarter implementation of learning technologies to reduce costs, synergise personalised and social learning, and improve professionalism for a better world.

He has been published in the Cambridge Handbook on 2nd Language Teacher Education, the journals Digital Culture and Education, and Interactive Technology and Smart Education, as well as presented at the IADIS e-learning conference, and the US NIH Implementation Science conference.

Professional Fees

Proposed Price

Based on the proposed solution outlined above, the proposed price for these services is $XXXX in Canadian dollars, including GST and any applicable expenses and taxes.

Table: Price Breakdown

(Comment.gif: Table Goes Here)

Payment and Contract Terms

Contracts and payments should be made to the name of:

Groupe Intersol Group Limited
205 Catherine St.,
Suite 300
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
K2P 1C3

Invoices are due upon receipt; and work will be invoiced upon completion of agreed-upon milestones. This proposal is valid for 45 days.

Project References

Large Scale Transformation Projects:


Centralized Pension Services Delivery Model (Public Works and Government Services Canada)

Within Public Works and Government Services Canada, the Centralization of Pension Service Delivery Project (CoPSDP) was mandated to implement a new centralized pension services delivery model with the objective to improve services to plan members. The current decentralized pension model of delivery relies heavily on the knowledge and experience of approximately 2,530 members of the compensation community across 145 client departments, separate employers, agencies and crown corporations. The service is delivered using 40-year-old systems with heavy reliance on manual processing.

The new multi channel centralized service delivery model is intended to ensure that active and retired members or their survivors (approximately 273,000 active members and 223,500 retired members or their survivors) of the Public Service Superannuation Plan, employers and sponsors receive accurate information; that policies, acts and regulations are applied in a consistent manner; and that service levels are established, published and utilized to make improvements.

Susanne was the project manager responsible for developing a Culture, Training, and Performance Management Strategy with this initiative. She managed the three streams of work that included five other consultants. The approach to develop each of these streams of work included conducting multiple stakeholder consultation sessions to gather input and to validate recommendations. Due to the complex nature of the change, the sessions were designed to foster open, frank, dialogue and to create a space where participants could have crucial conversations. Susanne managed the overall budget, schedule and scope of the three work streams. In addition, she was responsible for the ongoing briefings to senior management on the results of the work.

Developing A Change Management Strategy (Service Canada)

Service Canada is in the midst of a major change to the EI service delivery. These changes are driven by the short-term increased demand for EI due to the current economic climate and the Government of Canada’s response through the Economic Action Plan and longer-term increased demand due to demographic change. Service delivery model changes are also driven by Service Canada’s commitment to improve service to Canadians and to use resources more effectively and efficiently. The vision for the EI service delivery model is based on a “one workload, one process, one workforce” management principle.

There are several organization, technology and process initiatives currently underway in parallel streams and planned for the future to support Service Canada in this new multi channel network service delivery model. Susanne was the project manager and the subject matter expert in the area of change management for this service delivery model engagement. Through the facilitation of working sessions with multiple stakeholders, she gathered information to analyse the change management business requirements to support SC’s multi channel strategy. Susanne documented a change management strategy for on-going and short term change initiatives; a change management framework to plan future change; a planning tool to manage multiple initiatives; and stock communications material. The change management framework included recommendations for organizational and process changes. It also included a stakeholder analysis and recommended communications plan and stock communications materials. Susanne provided expert advice for implementation of the recommended changes.


Change Management Project for Consolidating 31 Compensation Offices into 2 Locations (Canada Revenue Agency)

This was national CRA compensation project with the objectives to reduce cycle time and costs associated with compensation processing by consolidating 31 local compensation offices across Canada into two locations; designing and implementing a new service delivery model; and designing and implementing new business processes.

This was a complex and high profile assignment due to the impact of consolidating offices across Canada. It involved the consultations with senior level executives across Canada.

Susanne was the lead of several work streams over the course of 19 months on this project. Primarily, she led the Design Stream. This work package ultimately led to the development of the new operational channel model for the two Compensation Centres and included: analysis of the current business architecture, designing the new operational model, designing the service delivery model for paper and electronic workflow, process mapping each new workflow, developing new standard operating procedures, and identifying the changes in the roles and responsibilities of employees.

Using a workshop-based approach, Susanne led a functional team of compensation subject matter experts and representatives from the “to be” organizations through a series of working sessions to vet and approve the new organizational model and redesign integrated multi channel business processes. This approach was used in order to gain consensus and buy-in for implementation Susanne also gathered and analysed large quantities of data the level of effort for different types of compensation actions which was used to validate the model’s efficiency and effectiveness. Her knowledge of human resources and change management principles was essential in ensuring learning and career development was built into the recommended model.

This work package also required the facilitation of executive level meetings including the two Directors of the Compensation Centre, the Project Director, and the DG of Human Resources. Susanne was responsible for the development of briefing material and facilitation of several key meetings.

For all of her work packages under this project, Susanne was responsible for the project management of her work package, which included managing multidisciplinary teams, developing the work plan, reporting on timelines, logging issues, and ensuring there was sufficient integration with the other project work packages for consistency and a successful implementation. Susanne was responsible for providing communications support to senior management within the project team and in the new centres. This included:

  • Developing communications material such as presentations and speaking points;
  • Delivering presentations outlining the model and its impact to stakeholders; and
  • Facilitating stakeholder meetings in order to communicate issues and develop solutions.


Stakeholder Consultation (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation

As consultants to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Intersol supported the development of a new Canadian Housing Framework HRSDC Housing & Homelessness, and advised, designed, facilitated, project managed, provided logistics planning, data analysis and reporting services on a series of community sessions (400 participants) in 11 cities across Canada, within a 5-week period. The purpose of the sessions was to provide an opportunity for representatives from community stakeholder groups to present in person, to a federal government panel, their input on the development of a new Canadian Housing framework. The Minister or delegate spoke at each of the sessions and responded to questions. Intersol provided analysis and reporting for each consultation session as well as a synthesis analysis and report of all sessions.

Healthy Living Symposium (Federal and Provincial Health Ministers)

Intersol advised, planned, developed, project-managed and led the consultation strategy and model for a large-scale multi-stakeholder symposium to enable the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers of Health to shape a policy framework for Healthy Living that improves the health of Canadians. Intersol led the event and coordinated 10 consultant/facilitators who in turn led the dialogue sessions involving various expert groups.

This national event involved multiple high profile stakeholders (federal and provincial ministers, senator, federal and provincial deputy ministers and other senior officials). The results of the Symposium were submitted in the form of policy recommendations to the federal-provincial-territorial ministers of health.

Intersol designed a series of reporting templates which were used by the professional facilitators leading stakeholders in the key steps of the dialogue process and-to support plenary sessions throughout the Symposium. These reporting templates were also used to develop the analysis and reporting concept for sharing the results of the Symposium which were prepared for consideration by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Committee of Ministers. The final report was also posted on Health Canada’s Website.

Regional and National Innovation Summits (Industry Canada)

Working closely with Consulting and Audit Canada as well as several other consulting firms, Intersol assisted Industry Canada in the advice, design, planning, project management and execution of the Regional Innovation Summits in the fall of 2002. Over 1,100 participants through four regional and one national sessions: these regional summits were an integral part of the Government of Canada’s Innovation Strategy aimed at rallying communities to identify opportunities for innovation that contribute to community prosperity. As a result of the Regional Summits, Intersol was then hired to be part of the design, planning and facilitation team assembled for the National Innovation Summit held in the winter of 2003.

The National Summit brought together captains of industry, leaders in the world of academia, interested citizens and policy makers to develop specific actions for the practical application of the Innovation Strategy. The project also included the facilitation of a workshop with the Executive of the National Aboriginal Economic Development Board. The outcomes including, gathering feedback from the Executive Board members on the Innovation Strategy; developing high level strategies for communication of the meeting results and preparing a final report on the results of the meeting.

Commonwealth Executive MBA / MPA Programmes & Consortium (Commonwealth of Learning)

Provided project coordination services to members of a higher education distance learning consortium, for the Commonwealth Executive MBA / MPA Program in 10 counties, including Bangladesh, India, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. Evaluated external consultants for course reviews and revisions; and developed Action Plans for converting Print-Content to E-Learning Delivery System. Coordinated Executive Governing Board and Academic Board meetings and correspondence.

Global Community of Learners (WikiEducator/Open Education Resources Foundation)

Conducted community needs analysis and implemented learning, using Appreciative Inquiry and Participatory Action Research. Facilitated the development a global community of educators - 12,000 educators in 100+ countries and a top 100,000 website - by engaging new and established wiki-champions; developing skills-based training and support including an apprenticeship framework (which trained 3,500 educators globally in 18 months in online and face-to-face formats); facilitating cluster development, and bridging diverse cultures in a complex and rapidly-changing organizational environment.

Community Media / Radio Community of Practice (Commonwealth of Learning)

Facilitated the development of an international community of practice for community media trainers in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Developed groundbreaking learning workshop in conjunction with health (HIV AIDS) practitioners focused on HIV AIDS Treatment Literacy, to provide expertise in developing community radio learning programs. Also developed and planned a 'pilot' capacity building workshop )for 99 women, representing 33 NGOs in Africa) at Radio Mang'elete (Kenya). Partners include ECONEWS Africa, Commonwealth of Learning, Radio Mang’elete, UNESCO and the Kenya Community Media Network.

Appendix 1: Learning Communities

(Comment.gif: See Learning Communities for Employees & Stakeholders)

Appendix 2: Resumes

(Comment.gif: Resumes to be provided: Susanne DiCocco, M.P.A. Randy Fisher, M.A. and Gurmit Singh, M.Ed.)