CSIRO: Case Study & Testimonial

“Cooperative Change’s leadership and design capacity were invaluable in the development of CSIRO’s Indigenous engagement strategy. Janina Gawler presented us with a powerful vision for change and helped us to ‘See with Both Eyes’ by establishing an exchange between Indigenous and western knowledge systems."

The Organisation

CSIRO delivers technical advice and innovative solutions to industry, society and the environment. It has offices and facilities across Australia and employs over 6,000 people.

The Issue

For a number of years, there had been a growing interest within CSIRO in improving the organisation’s ability to engage with Indigenous communities both to meet mutual research objectives and to fulfill the organisation’s commitment to addressing issues of Indigenous disadvantage.

The Response

Working closely with the organisation over several months, Cooperative Change gained a strong understanding of its work and culture and analysed past attempts to address Indigenous engagement. We recognised the need to focus efforts on 3 key areas of engagement: direct employment, education programs, and shared research projects.

Cooperative Change sought input from all interested staff, identified good practice within the organisation to build upon and identified new areas of opportunity. We developed a strategic plan to effect change, which included advice on approach, policy, recommendations, planning and implementation. We guided a change in corporate vision to appropriately respond to current government policy.

We developed a proposal for CSIRO for an Indigenous Engagement Strategy based on mutual respect and recognition of both Indigenous and western knowledge systems. We recommended that this include an ethical Indigenous research policy, a program of cultural awareness and competency for staff, and targets for Indigenous employment to reflect their position as part of the whole of the relevant population associated with CSIRO activities.

The Outcome

The Indigenous Engagement Strategy put forward by a CSIRO Steering Committee on the basis of our work was endorsed by CSIRO’s Executive Team and is now moving into implementation.  As a part of this process, CSIRO has recently appointed two Indigenous Australians with extensive experience in policy and organisational change management in the public sector to drive implementation.

Testimonial

“Janina Gawler's insightful understanding of the interface between Indigenous people and CSIRO’s unique corporate culture has allowed us to find linkages and shared pathways forward for working together.  Cooperative Change approached the work enthusiastically and with sensitivity, was freely available to staff and very generous with expertise and ideas.”