Strategy guidance
Our signature approach empowers research organisations to achieve their ambitions.
Learn more

Our approach

Unlock your real potential and achieve unprecedented success with Grounded Ethno-Design (GED)

GED is our pioneering strategy design approach. At the intersection of grounded theory, ethnography, and design thinking, GED is not merely a methodology: it’s a revolution in strategic thinking for research organisations. Tailored for leaders who dare to transcend the conventional, our approach is a testament to innovation, human-centric design, and empirical precision.

What we offer

Empirical Insights, Human-Centered Understanding, and Creative Problem Solving at Your Fingertips

With GED, immerse yourself in a world where strategies are not just planned but also lived and breathed. Our design thinking core infuses creativity, ideation, and iterative prototyping into your strategy, ensuring solutions are as innovative as they are impactful. Engage in collaborative workshops and brainstorming sessions, leveraging the collective intelligence of your stakeholders to turn every ‘how might we’ question into a stepping stone towards success.

Strategies That Resonate with Real-World Insights

GED redefines strategy formulation. We don’t just rely on pre-existing theories; we let the strategy emerge organically from the process. This grounded theory approach ensures that your strategies are not just evidence-based but are also resilient, adaptable, and ready to meet the challenges of a dynamic operating landscape.

From Data to Action – A Grounded Approach

Dive deep into the nuances of human behavior, organisational dynamics, and socio-cultural contexts. Our ethnographic approach ensures that your strategies are not just well-thought-out but are also deeply rooted in qualitative insights, mirroring the real voices and perspectives of your people and partners.

A Systematic Journey from Aspiration to Achievement

We anchor our approach on our suite of key workshops, each designed to unlock a specific dimension of your strategic potential:

  1. Workshop 1 – Identifying the Ambition: Set the stage for transformation by defining your aspirations, understanding where value is created, and determining how it can be best captured. This half-day workshop is the genesis of your strategic narrative, aligning your vision with actionable insights.
  2. Workshop 2 – Diagnostic Workshop: Dive into a comprehensive assessment of your current outcomes versus your goals, pinpointing the gaps and framing challenges. This session is crucial in defining the problem set and understanding the interplay between your strategies, operations, and the external forces.
  3. Workshop 3 – Solution Design: Infuse innovation into your strategy with a creative problem-solving workshop. Using ‘how might we’ questions, this session fosters a fertile ground for innovative solutions, uniquely tailored to your organisation’s context and challenges.
  4. Workshop 4 – Prioritisation: Focus on what matters the most. This workshop is dedicated to prioritising solutions, considering their feasibility, impact, and alignment with your strategic ambitions. It’s about making informed choices that will drive your organisation forward.
  5. Workshop 5 – Implementation Process Design: Transition from planning to action. This workshop is about equipping your team with the tools, know-how, and processes to maintain and update your strategy, ensuring a dynamic, responsive, and impactful execution.

Adaptable, Scalable, and Impact-Driven

Whether you’re looking to design end-to-end strategies, refresh existing ones, or jumpstart your implementation, we can help. Our flexible engagement model ensures that we are there for you, at every step, adapting to your needs, scaling with your growth, and driving the impact that you envision. Step into a world where strategy is not just formulated but also felt and lived.

Workshops

Ready to get started?

Prices depending on the size of your organisation. We offer discounts to organisations with annual research expenditure <$10m.

Stand alone workshops

Get Started

Business case development

Grant bid support

Program evaluation

Discovery diagnosis

Recruitment programs

End-to-end strategy development

Get Started

5 key workshops

Additional workshops and consultations as required

Analysis

Stakeholder engagement

Reporting

Support

Discover how we can help your research team.

Book a call with one of our experts