A local government council in metro Adelaide was preparing to transition its Professional Development Plan (PDP) process from paper-based to digital. The project emerged from organisational feedback highlighting a desire for more consistent approaches to reward and recognition, and clearer, more equitable development opportunities for staff. 

The ambition was to create consistency across the organisation, strengthen alignment to strategic goals, and enable more informed L&D budgeting decisions.

However, like many organisations, their default approach to projects focused heavily on tasks and timelines. What was needed was space for alignment, open discussion, and a broader systems view of the change – particularly given the cross-organisational impact.

The project team recognised this early and sought a more structured, strategic way to think about the change, with the P&C team playing a key role in communicating and championing the initiative across the organisation.

We began our engagement with the Kickstarter workshops – a series of facilitated workshops designed to create alignment and shift the conversation.

The workshops introduce systems thinking and a structured way to approach change. Together, the team explored interdependencies, stakeholder impacts, assumptions, and risks – creating space for open discussion and shared sensemaking around what the change would actually require.

Working through this process allowed the team to test ideas and challenge their initial assumptions. One key outcome was the decision to pivot from a whole-of-organisation rollout to a staged pilot with managers, allowing for testing, feedback, and refinement over 12 months before scaling across council.

The value of this approach was quickly evident. What began as support for a single project evolved into a broader partnership. The team engaged us for ongoing support to embed the strategy, execute the ideas raised in the workshops, and apply systems thinking and change frameworks to other initiatives across the council – including their new intranet project.

Stronger alignment and shared ownership
The workshops shifted the conversation from task execution to systemic change, creating clarity and cohesion within the project team.

Smarter, lower-risk implementation
The move to a pilot model reflected thoughtful, strategic decision-making.

Frameworks embedded beyond one project
The project team members began applying systems thinking and structured change approaches to other initiatives, strengthening overall project discipline and consistency.

The result was not just a digital PDP transition, but a more aligned, strategically minded team equipped to lead change across the council.