May 2022 - change is in the air at Beacon Strategies.

We somehow find ourselves in May (…which is pretty damn hard to believe) and change seems to be in the air at Beacon Strategies. It is probably an understatement that there has been a lot happening for the Beacon Strategies team over the first 4-5 months of the year.

• We have staff on the way out and there will be some new faces around our Brisbane and Cairns offices shortly

• We have been picking up some incredibly interesting bits of work with a mix of both old and new clients

• Our Brisbane team has moved in to our new digs at 33 Queen Street, finally having a physical place to call home

• We’ve started to make small steps and check some early boxes regarding activities embedded in our strategic plan

• We are heading into the busiest business development period of the year which brings a high volume of new work that sets the tone for the next financial year.

We have staff on the way out and there will be some new faces around our Brisbane and Cairns offices shortly.

Earlier this year we sadly said goodbye to Sarah Crisci who retuned to the USA to be closer to family. Sarah was a pleasure to have around, delivered high quality work and held some important client relationships. We will miss Sarah’s work ethic, thoroughness and sense of humour.

As of last month (April) we farewelled Molly who is taking the opportunity to do some travel which we are very jealous of. Molly has been with us from the start of our post-COVID rebuild and has tackled all of her work (even the painful stuff) with a smile. Molly has been instrumental in growing our brand and presence over the last 18 months. Molly you will be missed but enjoy your travels!

We have recently welcomed Alicia Bruce to our team. Alicia comes to us with deep experience in the Primary Health Network space (also dating back to the Medicare Local era). Having an extra set of very capable hands is going to be very welcomed by the team!

We will also have some exciting news to share with you all very shortly about a couple of new appointments - but that will have to wait until another time.

Changes in staff will change our organisational culture. When new people enter our team it isn't about how they 'fit' with our culture but how their personality and energy is added to what we already have.

We have been picking up some incredibly interesting bits of work with a mix of both old and new clients

It's been great to see that we continue to be trusted in delivering high quality work for existing client partners but also winning over a number of Beacon first timers. New projects that we have recently kicked off include:

• Development of a First 1000 Days of Life Framework for Northern Queensland PHN.

• First Nations Alcohol and Other Drugs Program Co-Design: Drug ARM

• Organisational Impact Framework: Roses in the Ocean

• Evaluation and review of Commonwealth National Psychosocial Support Programs: Central and Eastern Sydney PHN

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Equity Strategy: West Moreton Health.

• Service Need and Opportunity Analysis: Karakan

• Scoping a City Hub: Wesley Mission Queensland

We are very much looking forward to rolling the sleeves up and getting stuck into some new and exciting projects.

Our Brisbane team has moved in to our new digs at 33 Queen Street, finally having a physical place to call home

It's been a long time coming (and you’d think that having previous experience in negotiating and securing a commercial lease would’ve helped) but our Brisbane folks are now set up in our new home. As we continue to shift back to what will be our ‘new normal’ of hybrid working I think that we’ll all appreciate having access to better meeting rooms, better aesthetic vibes, more functionality in the kitchen and a more professional feel for anyone who visits.

A change in the physical environment will benefit us all and it feels like a new chapter is starting.

We’ve started to make small steps and check some early boxes regarding activities embedded in our strategic plan

It will be a very slow process as we juggle our client-facing capacity and finding time to work on our organisation however we are already starting to make some small steps towards getting out of the blocks and delivering on some of our strategic plan priorities. Honourable mentions include:

• Now being live with BeaconHQ - our intranet / company wiki

• Having an agreed starting point in building out our default processes

• Prioritising initial actions to be addressed this quarter (leading up to June 30) - including the development of an organisational capability framework.

With each small step taken in delivering against our strategic plan, change (both big and small) is on the agenda.

We are heading into the busiest business development period of the year which brings a high volume of new work that sets the tone for next financial year

We are now heading into quarter 4 of the financial year where we usually pick up a high volume of work and lock in a few major ‘planks’ for the coming financial year. It’s the time of year that we get to be involved in medium to long term planning with our client partners and it is always exciting to chat about what's on the agenda for them next financial year.

Locking in some significant pieces of work drastically changes what the year ahead will look like for the team so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for some productive and inspirational conversations.

Head to https://beaconstrategies.net/about-us to keep up-to-date with blogs about our current team and our organisation.