On the basis of trust…

Trust lies at the cornerstone of our profession. The trust our clients place in us, our own trust in them, and in our own abilities and experience. With disruption now a constant, the pace of change rapid, the need to collaborate with others a norm, trust is even more vital.

The importance of trust was a clear theme running through the recent Giving Good Advice Forum held to mark the 50^th anniversary of IMC in New Zealand. Truth and trust are intertwined – we need to speak the truth even though it may not be welcome, our clients must trust we will tell them what they need to know, not just what they want to hear. We need to be aware of barriers to accepting advice, address those barriers and build relationships built on trust and respect. Seeing things through the clients’ eyes can help us find ways to communicate that will resonate and lead to change.

Sharing experiences and collaborating with others helps us broaden our own skills, networks and experiences. As an Institute we will continue to bring you opportunities to do so at a local and global level as we look at alternate ways to address the future.

No doubt we can all acknowledge this has been a testing year, certainly 2020 has unfolded quite differently to how most of us would have envisaged. By nature consultants tend to be a resilient bunch – we dig deep into our toolkits and look for innovative ways to move ourselves and our clients through challenging and uncertain times. So we will continue to do that as 2021 presents its own new challenges and new opportunities.

Vaccines have been approved and are being rolled out in record time, bringing light to the end of the tunnel. And also a shortage of sand needed to make the glass vials for vaccine storage. Zoom was the most downloaded free app of the year; the Zoom effect continued with Apple unveiling their first over-air headphones and globally plastic surgeons experiencing unprecedented increases in demands for procedures.

Now is the time to celebrate the positives, pause for reflection and take a well-deserved break. I wish you all the best for the Christmas season, summer holidays and the New Year.  We look forward to helping you build your networks, develop your knowledge and grow your practices in 2021.

Jacquie Hamer CMC

Immediate Past President

Agreement with TINZ

We have recently signed an affiliation memorandum with Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ).  Both organisations are members of global networks that support fair and ethical behaviour, which includes standing up for good governance, robust integrity systems and transparency.
Membership of IMCNZ requires a commitment to a Code of Professional Conduct and the CMC certification takes that further. Our formal affiliation with TINZ reinforces that commitment and extends it from our personal behaviour to taking responsibility for the behaviour we see around us.

Collaboration with TINZ provides IMC NZ with more professional development opportunities for our members. In 2021 look out for events and initiatives from IMC to strengthen our collective commitment to stand up to corrupt practices. IMCNZ will help advocate for effective integrity systems to maintain trust and confidence in New Zealand’s institutions.

Events

Covid restrictions have had an obvious impact on the events we were able to organise this year. Face to face events were replaced with webinars and we worked closely with CMC-Global and other member Institutes to bring you access to relevant online sessions.

In late November we held the Giving Good Advice – Global and New Zealand Perspectives Forum. This marked the 50^th anniversary of IMC in New Zealand and had a great lineup of highly experienced, engaging and energetic global and local speakers. They each provided insightful perspectives and actionable tips for giving good advice – and having it accepted. The forum was recorded and it is still possible to register for access https://imcnz.org.nz/events/#!event-list.

We have also continued to hold our informal Friday drink-and-chat Zooms each week. These have proved a great way for members from around the country to get to know each other and share views, insights and experiences. With frequent hilarity and the odd rant thrown in! We will resume these in the New Year.  

ISO 20700:2017 Self-Declaration Checklist Training

The ISO 20700:2017 Guidelines for Management Consultancy Services provide a global minimum standard for the delivery of management consultancy services and ensures transparency between consultant and client. CMC-Global have also developed a Self-Declaration Checklist to the Standard to provide practical and hands on support for management consultants in demonstrating their work according to the ISO 20700.

Consultants who undergo the training are authorised and recognised as able to self-declare their projects with their clients to be ISO 20700 compliant by an independently recognized authority. IMC Australia is currently the only body accredited to deliver this training in Australia and New Zealand. The first two sessions were held in November and December and we will let you know as soon as more are scheduled.

AOG Consultancy RFP

MBIE have announced a refresh of the AOG Consultancy Services Panel – this means new suppliers will be able to join and existing suppliers extend the services they provide. The application process has now started and will continue until June 2021. We will host a forum early next year to discuss this in  more detail. 

End of Year Roundup…

Membership Renewal and Professional Development Returns

You should have recently received an email with a link to renew your membership online. When you renew do take the opportunity to ensure your personal contact and public profile details are up to date – these can be accessed through logging in to the Members Area on the website. If you have not received your invoice email do let us know or log on and renew your membership directly.

This is also the time to submit your annual PD return https://imcnz.org.nz/professional-development/. To retain active membership Professional members must complete a minimum of 30 hours PD annually, and Associates 20 hours. Attendance at our regular events counts towards this – for example 4 hours for the Giving Good Advice Forum, 1 hour for the Privacy Webinar.

Become a Certified Management Consultant (CMC)

The CMC designation is an internationally recognised professional qualification – being a CMC identifies you as a consultant who meets standards of competence, experience and ethical conduct. We are continuing to highlight the value to government in engaging consultants who meet professional standards and who adhere to a code of conduct, which in turn increases the value of the CMC designation. The recently released MBIE All-of-Government consultancy services panel refresh now has a section for providing details of professional memberships and accreditations.  It is more important than ever to show that you are part of a professional community of practice.

IMCNZ Professional members with the appropriate skills and experience can apply to become a CMC.  If you are interested, completing the Assess My Consulting tool on the website is a great place to start. Alternately contact us for more information or apply directly https://imcnz.org.nz/certification-cmc/.

ICMCI Updates

The latest issue of the ICMCI newsletter, CMC Today, is available here: https://www.cmc-global.org/newsletter/cmc-today-julyaugust-2020-issue.

Privacy Act Changes

The Privacy Act 2020 came into effect on 1 December. This has modernised New Zealand’s privacy framework and incorporates a number of key changes around data collection and disclosure. All serious breaches must also be reported. If you need a refresher on how this may affect you Graeme Crombie’s slides from the October Webinar are available in the Members Area on our website.

Customer Service Podcast

Dr Jason Price’s service first podcast has now reached over 500 listeners since its launch during lockdown and has two new episodes focusing on lessons learned. If you have clients with customer facing services or contact centres, this content is perfect for customer service leaders, so please do share the links widely.

In episode 9, we learn why taking action matters to implement lessons with the dramatic story of Battle of Britain pilot, Wing Commander Jack Rose in 1940. Episode 10 analyses ten lessons every contact centre can learn from call handling findings of the Inquiry into the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.

There are also short videos for each podcast and new online learning courses that helps contact centre leaders use each episode as a training resource with their teams. You can subscribe to the podcast and YouTube channel through the following links:

Listen – http://priceperrott.com/podcast

Watch – priceperrott.com/videos

Learn –  http://priceperrott.com/learning

Your Council

This has been a busy year for Council as we have worked to best represent and support members through what has been a very unusual operating environment. As always we value your input – this is your professional Institute – so if you are interested in getting involved in any of our day to day operations at any stage do get in touch. This is an opportune way to share your experience or grow your skills while contributing to the development of our profession.

Council contact details:

Phil Guerin CMC, President	Wellington	president@imcnz.org.nz
Karen Clarke CMC, Vice President	Wellington	vice-president@imcnz.org.nz
Jacquie Hamer CMC, Immediate Past President	Wellington	ipp@imcnz.org.nz
Gurdeep Talwar CMC, Secretary	Auckland	secretary@imcnz.org.nz
Michael Iddon CMC, Treasurer	Auckland	treasurer@imcnz.org.nz
Scott Rodgers CMC	Wellington	scott@linkconsulting.nz
Karl Gallimore CMC	Wellington	karlgallimore@hotmail.com