Council's BCA Accreditation Assistance

Council was given a deadline to turn things around. Here’s how they responded to a ‘perfect storm’, coming out stronger for it…

The Challenge:

Council received an IANZ notice to significantly improve their BCA accreditation just when a significant uptick in consent applications had flooded in and covid staff pressure was at its peak. They had a short time period to respond and make the necessary changes while simultaneously continuing to process building consent applications. In other words, the perfect storm had hit.

The stress was enormous. As the CEO put it, “the implications of the notice were massive, expensive, and unwanted. If we became unable to process building consents the industry, community and employees would suffer.”

In such demanding times, management was short on the experience to control the changes required. Putting their commitment into action they sought recommendations for experienced external consultants that could communicate positively, honestly, and confidentially with all parties.

Farsight were quickly engaged, and the change process began in earnest.

How Farsight Helped:

Farsight immersed themselves in the Council to figure out the root cause of the problem. They interviewed staff, examined the council processes, and used their extensive knowledge and experience to understand what wasn’t working, design a solution, and provide a clear path to implement it.

Having Farsight onboard gave the Council confidence they could rise to the challenge. With less stress and more certainty, the Council could cut to the chase and make the changes they needed to make.

The Outcome:

The Council delivered a plan to maintain accreditation status within a 30-day period. Farsight stayed on board to manage the planned actions until the threat to accreditation was formally revoked and the Council stayed in business. As the CEO said, “you could feel the relief and gratitude from the team when that letter came”.