Max Hardy Consulting

Results through collaboration

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My experience

I have been consulting for over 23 years. It hasn’t felt like 23 years though! Here are a few of the things I have delivered or been involved with during that period. I have been very fortunate with the opportunities I have had so far. I can’t wait to see what happens over the next 23 years!

Maribyrnong City Council – Climate Emergency Plan 2020

This project involved working with a citizen advisory group to develop a Climate Emergency Plan to be considered by Council. Deliberation occurred over a period of months, during the period of COVID lockdown restrictions. Collaborative spaces were created for the Advisory Group, and meetings were held with the whole group and sub-groups throughout.

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries
– Building regional extension services capacity to collaborate, 2019-20

Building regional extension services capacity to collaborate

This project involved facilitating a two-day workshop with regional extension coordinators, assessing capability for extension services to collaborate/work better together, facilitating seven regional workshops, and preparing a report recommending ways to build on progress. The aim was to help extension services to work more effectively to gain the participation of farmers/producers in their programs to ultimately improve environmental impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. In 2020 ongoing support was provided as well as developing an evaluation framework for progress with collaboratieve efforts in the seven regions.

Melbourne Water, 2017-20

Vision and Values deliberative panel, Enhancing Dandenong Creek, Stony Creek Rehabilitation, Elster Creek, Waterways and Drainage Investment Plan, Deliberative Panel, Yarra Strategic Plan

Designed and facilitated these deliberative panels to inform Melbourne Water’s plans for many complex projects.

North East Water, 2017

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Jacinta Cubis and the team at North East Water (NEW) led by Ann Telford, to design and facilitate the deliberative Customer Forum to inform their Pricing Submission to the Essential Services Commission. It was really pleasing to see NEW receive a Highly Commended for our collective efforts at the IAP2 Awards night. Click here to see the video.

 VicRoads, 2017

Citizens Advisory Group, again working with Jacinta Cubis on this deliberative codesign process. Very satisfying and a great result. Click here to see the video.

City of Vincent, 2017

Working with Anna Kelderman, Shape Urban. A deliberative process as part of the long term visioning/planning process known as Imagine Vincent.  Click here to watch video.

City of Port Phillip, 2017

Along with Amanda Newbery, Articulous and Michelle Weston

Melbourne Water, 2017

20 year wastewater strategy

Indigo Shire Council, 2017

Ageing Well strategy

South East Water, 2017

Facilitating Reviewing Customer Engagement Council

Melbourne City Council – Collaborative Governance process for Climate Leaders Forum, 2017

Ovens Murray Partnership/Regional Victoria – Regional Assembly, 2017

Redlands Canals Deliberative Process, 2017

Working with Articulous

Queensland Utilities, 2017

Advice concerning deliberative process

ACTCOSS, 2017

Session on deliberative community engagement, principles and evaluation

Ballarat City Council, 2017

Visioning for Miners Rest community

Moonee Valley City Council, 2017

2030 Planning symposium

Boroondara City Council, 2017

Designing Kew Library, with Jacinta Cubis

Training delivered in 2017

  • Municipal Association Victoria – Deliberative Community Engagement Course
  • Access Health – Community Engagement and co-designing solutions
  • Wide Bay Primary Health Care Partnership – Collaboration and Partnering course

Delivered Course in Florence, Italy, on Appreciative Inquiry and Democracy, 2014

I have the privilege of delivering this course for a fabulous range of participants from across Italy, through AIP2 (the Italian chapter of IAP2). Apart from really enjoying the experience of working with the participants, the venue was amazing. Just check out the fresco!

FlorenceAIP2

Co-designed process for Aboriginal Summit in Northern Sydney, Mana Allawah, 2014

Working behind the scenes with a fabulous team, I co-designed this Summit in Northern Sydney. The day involved a combination of yarning circles, presentations, information booths/market place stalls, and time for breaking bread together and enjoying conversations. The you-tube clip is definitely worth a viewing!

Designed and Co-facilitated the Brisbane and Mackay Summits for the 30 year Queensland Plan

These summits, with about 700 and 400 participants respectively, involved state MPs, Mayors of Local Government, representatives from peak organisations, and citizens across every electorate in Queensland. The Mackay Summit, held in May 2013, was a rather unique event which saw 400 participants frame the questions for the process and explore how all Queenslanders could be given the opportunity to be involved. The Brisbane Summit saw 700 participants draw upon the analysis of input from 78,000 submissions to identify priorities and strategies to guide the future of Queensland.

Lots of useful information about this process is here if you’re interested!

Listen to the interview Max did for ABC Brisbane just prior to day one of the Summit!

Qpld Plan

Facilitated world cafe session at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney Opera House, 2011.

A thrilling event where several hundred attendees heard from 4 brilliant speakers before deliberating over the question, ‘Is Politics Killing our Democracy?’ and then put forward a range of ideas about restoring trust in our democratic system.

Compressed Max PKD

Co-facilitated Australia’s First Citizens Parliament at Old Parliament House in 2009.

This was a fabulous experience for me, working alongside people I respect enormously like co-facilitator Prof Janette Hartz-Karp, Prof Lyn Carson, Prof John Dryzek and co-chairs Lowitja O’Donoghue and Fred Chaney. The event was sponsored by newDemocracy Foundation and a randomly selected citizens from each electorate across Australia worked together to make recommendations about how our democratic system can better service all Australian citizens.

You may find this video about the process inspiring!

Old Parliament House

Co-delivered Training Academies for the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada 2005, and Edinburgh, UK, 2008.

kananaskis

Some of the best experiences I have ever had; working with two other Master Trainers for IAP2; very brilliant people, Pat Van Gorp from Madison Wisconsin, and Barbara Lewis, Denver Colorado. The intensive 3-4 day events involved working with terrific candidates who became licensed trainers for IAP2. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and I believe that all candidates benefited from this intensive learning experience.

Edinburgh

Community and consumer engagement to improve health outcomes, 2009-2015

I have been fortunate to work with many health organisations, mostly to build their capacity to engage their consumers and communities to change the way services are delivered, and to improve decisions in relation to complex and controversial matters. These projects have also involved using Appreciative Inquiry to generate and sustain change; enquiring into what we want to see more in communities. Apart from delivering courses and facilitating workshops I am increasingly being given the privilege of coaching key health professionals in their work with other organisations, consumers and communities. It’s all about tapping into the collective wisdom that is right before us, giving it room to breathe and undertaking innovative experiments to address the most complex issues.

Designed and facilitated various citizens’ juries, 1999-2015

Since 1999 I have been designing and facilitated deliberative processes such as citizens’ juries. The topics have varied from local government social plans, to masterplans for airports, contentious land use plans, to complex health policy issues.

Kiama Jury 1

‘Results through collaboration’

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Max Hardy TEDx St Kilda

Recent Posts

  • Engaging to make a difference. A conversation with Ben Neil. 01/02/2021
  • It’s time to do stakeholder mapping differently! 28/10/2020
  • Common objections to committing to collaborative (co-design or deliberative) engagement processes 30/09/2020
  • Facilitating Public Deliberations 28/08/2020
  • How safe is it to participate? 27/07/2020
  • Debunking myths about ‘deliberation’ 14/07/2020
  • What is your approach to consulting? And… which one best works for co-designing solutions with the community? 06/07/2020

Contact Details

Max Hardy Consulting
Email: max@maxhardy.com.au
Phone: 0418 217 261
Twitter: @maxchardy
Skype: maxhardy
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/max-hardy/11/339/a4b

Testimonials

Moira Deslandes

'Max is a democracy enthusiast. He finds ways to enable, empower and encourage every voice to be heard and designs processes that foster the principle: every voice is worth hearing.' Moira Deslandes Director, Moira Deslandes  Consulting  

Kellie King

'I have had the pleasure of both being a participant in a fantastic training session run by Max, and also as a client. Max was of tremendous assistance navigating through a challenging engagement process with great support, advice and good humour. Thank you Max.' Kellie King General Manager – Community & Corporate Services, Wannon Water

Courtney Brown, Director, BDR Projects

'I have known and worked with Max for about two years, however I have been very aware of his career and engagement experience applied to major projects across industry sectors for a much longer period. Max has been at the forefront of pioneering new mechanisms and methodologies for genuine engagement and this resonates for his

Lara Damiani

'I had the wonderful opportunity to watch Max in action facilitating the Citizen's Jury for People With Disability Australia in Sydney last month which I was filming. Max's tagline "results through collaboration" is spot on. It was pure magic watching Max create collaboration and results from a randomly selected jury - 12 very unique personalities

Amber James

'I have known Max for more than ten years. I was a student of his doing the IAP2 Certificate, engaged him as a consultant for in-house work in local government, and then worked alongside him on a consumer engagement capacity building project at the Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital. He is great to be around and

Jessie Keating

Working with Max is a delight. Max’s facilitation, collaboration and problem solving style is respectful and calm, along with being both accessible and professional. The most significant project we have worked on with Max was the planning and undertaking of a community symposium, focused on the drafting of our city’s 20 year strategy, MV2040. We

Amanda Newbery, Articulous

'Max Hardy has a unique ability to build the confidence and capacity of teams working in engagement. He brings a wealth of experience and insight. We have worked together on a number of deliberative projects and he is a delight to work with!' Amanda Newbery Articulous

Crispin Butteriss, Bang the Table

'Max is a long time colleague, mentor and friend. He has a deft touch as a facilitator and collaboration strategist due his deeply developed empathetic listening skills, along with the experience and wisdom of many years of working on thorny problems with people from all walks of life'. Crispin Butteriss, PhD Co-founder and Chief Practice

Lindy Fentiman

'I have had the pleasure of working with Max when he ventures up to sunny Queensland!  He is a generous, insightful and highly skilled professional who absolutely practices what he believes in.  Nobody understands the importance of collaboration, engagement and the challenges this brings for organisations better than Max!  He is an excellent coach, facilitator

Lisa Rae

I first encountered Max in Auckland when he delivered IAP2 training I was attending. Many years later, I’ve had the opportunity to work with him on two significant local government projects in Melbourne using co-design and deliberative engagement approaches. Max’s great strength was helping council decision makers understand their role in the engagement process and

Eugene McGarrell, FACS

'Max Hardy has worked with my senior executive team and local stakeholders to facilitate the co-creation of social wellbeing strategies. Max’s style is both collaborative and supportive and he gets the best from people involved. I highly recommend Max to anyone who is embarking on a process of co-creation.' Eugene McGarrell District Director, Northern Sydney

Becky Hirst

'Max is one of the leading superstars of community engagement and collaborative governance in Australia. Since I first met him as my trainer in Adelaide back in 2007, I've admired his approach. He's passionate, dedicated, admired in the field and I look forward to seeing the next steps of his career unfold. Watch out world!'

Vivien Twyford

'I worked with Max for 17 years and appreciate his honesty, integrity and ability to connect with people at all levels. I learned much from him, particularly around Appreciative Inquiry, the appreciative approach and the value of deliberation. While I miss him, I have confidence that he will continue to be a wise advisor and

Ian Dixon, Dixon Partnering Solutions

'I have worked with Max on many occasions and have great respect for his skills and knowledge around community engagement and collaboration. He is an expert trainer and a strong advocate for Appreciative Inquiry approaches.' Ian Dixon, Principal, Dixon Partnering Solutions

Barbara Dart

Max recently facilitated a two day course for us at Council about tackling the internal and external challenges of community engagement. Max is an exceptional facilitator and his ability to draw on experiences across such a broad and diverse background in CE is invaluable to those before him. I would highly recommend Max to anyone

The Honourable Andrew Powell MP

'I have always been impressed with Max’s ability to navigate and resolve the thorny issues through collaboration.  He involves all participants right from the beginning: asking “what’s the question that needs answering here”? His efforts alongside John Dengate in the journey that was The Queensland Plan were stellar and he was a significant contributor to

Carol M Anderson

'If one were to ask me who was the best facilitator and facilitation trainer in the world, I would unequivocally answer “Max Hardy.” As the public involvement manager at one of the largest U.S.-based environmental engineering firms, I often took along my notes from Max’s facilitation class to meet with clients and, on their behalf, with the public.

Liz Mackevicius

'Max worked with us to design and execute a series of workshops based on the citizen jury principles, to enable a conversation between community members about the growth and change expected to occur in a challenging inner city municipality. Max understood the key issues at hand, gave expert advice and worked with us to tailor

Beatrice Briggs

'Max Hardy brings to his work a delightful combination of common sense, integrity, experience, laced with a sly sense of humour.'   Beatrice Briggs Director International Institute for Facilitation and Change (IIFAC) Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico

Anna Kelderman

'Max's extensive experience with deliberative engagement, as well as his uniquely calming facilitation style, has helped bring about a step-change in the type of public engagement expected in Western Australia. It has been an absolute pleasure to partner with and learn from the best in the business, and I continue to look for opportunities to

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