Research &
Consultation

Do you want research and consultation that is comprehensive and custom designed for your organization?

Our clients come from for-profit companies, post-secondary institutions, local governments, and not-for-profit organizations. We facilitate complex community and organizational consultations. These consultation and research results provide the evidence to support organizational change, strategic planning, systems and structure adaptation.

case: education

RESEARCH & CONSULTATION IN STRATEGIC PLANNING
OKANAGAN REGION, BC CANADA

Sage Transitions had the pleasure of working with Okanagan College on many projects, including two large institutional strategic plans. The research and consultations for the strategic plans were complex as they involved students, student unions, several employee and faculty unions, employees, administrators, faculty and instructors, and a range of community and program advisory committees. The plans required a large body of research spanning the southern interior region.

We conducted in-person focus groups with students and provided whiteboards for the student, employee, faculty, and instructor feedback at various college locations. Community consultations were completed in all the college regions, and in-person invitations combined with social and other media releases increased the range and variety of community participation. Online surveys and phone interviews provided other ways to obtain feedback. The internal OC committees used and participated in consultation sessions. The final results were integrated into the strategic plan and accepted by the OC senior leadership team and the Board of Governors.

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case: not-for-profit

DEVELOPING AND RESEARCHING A BUSINESS CASE
KELOWNA, BC CANADA

Journey Home, a not-for-profit in Kelowna, supporting a vulnerable and homeless population, wanted to develop a new service. Sage Transitions was asked to develop a business case for a service hub for homeless people. We worked with them to document the comprehensive needs assessment and community consultations in which they were engaged. We also completed an additional literature review of similar services and solicited feedback from people with lived experience, consulted with other community service providers, and developed a business case for a potential Journey to Work Hub.

case: transportation

PROVINCE-WIDE RESEARCH
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

The Transportation Trades Labour Market Committee wanted to research the issues and opportunities for front line leaders working in BC’s transportation trades. These leaders included service managers, supervisors, charge hands, and lead hands. Sage Transitions conducted an extensive research project with an international literature review. Primary research included phone interviews and online surveys. The detailed phone interviews were conducted with: senior leaders, middle managers, front-line supervisors, shop stewards, union representatives, and stakeholders. Online survey invitations were emailed to over 2,500 people working in the transportation trades. An additional 400 phone calls were made to encourage online survey participation. We ensured representative sectoral participation from unions and their members.

The report of the results is available in the 'sample reports' section below.

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sample work

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Frontline Leadership: Research & Strategy for the Transportation Career Development Association

An example of a British Columbia-wide research and consultation project involving occupations and leadership in the transportation trades.

Testimonials: Solutions/Research & Dev

Heather Stewart provided valuable business development and communications advice to kickstart my growth. I appreciate her expertise and practical, seasoned suggestions. She told me what I needed to hear--not what I wanted to hear--with integrity, honesty and kindness.

Margery Knorr, CEC

Mentoring Ombuds, Knorr & Associates Ltd.

We were pleased to be able to work closely with Heather and Sage Transitions as we took a deeper dive into a leadership program we were exploring with other community partners. We wanted to engage a variety of audiences to better understand their perspectives on the initiative. Heather was able to customize her research methodology to meet our needs and was able to put together a concise, though thorough, report that provided insights that would have taken us months to capture on our own. It was a pleasure to work with Heather as she listened closely to our needs prior to undertaking the work; her professional approach and respectful demeanour ensured clear communications throughout the project. It was also a bonus that she was able to work within our limited budget, delivering positive results.

DAN ROGERS, KELOWNA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

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