QUT Guild strategy and leadership development

Industry: Education
Expertise: Strategic Planning

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Guild is a not-for-profit member organisation providing support and representation for the students of QUT.

The Guild exists purely to enhance the university experience and ensure it is as enjoyable as it can be for its students. Every year the QUT student body elect a team of student representatives to sit on an executive committee. It is the elected students’ job to be the voice of the students and represent them in the best way they can.

“Keogh has made us come together and really focus on working as a team”

Oscar Davison | QUT Guild President

At A Glance

decrease in staff turnover.

0 %

increase in attendance from student members for on-campus events.

0 %

growth in mailing list subscribers

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The Challenges

What was important to achieve?

Consistency of purpose, vision and a long-term strategic direction had proved to be challenging for the QUT Guild, given the short tenure of the elected Executive Committee (12-months). The Guild had experienced a significant amount of change during the previous Executive Committee’s time in office. As a consequence, the strategic direction was not well defined, and the Guild and the staff had become disengaged. The Guild were keen to set a clear, long-term strategy and design and build a flourishing workplace culture.

The Keogh Approach

Keogh was approached by the Guild in 2021 to help them develop a 5-year strategy plan, and bring about the culture transformation that was required to achieve this plan. A key objective was to ensure that the Executive Committee and the staff at the Guild were aligned and committed to achieving one goal – to make students lives better.

Our work with the Guild included

Engaging with the Executive Committee and Guild staff to build alignment and focus on the path ahead
Facilitating strategic visioning workshops with the Executive Committee and staff. Outputs included an agreed purpose and vision, and a set of clear strategic imperatives to underpin a 5-year strategy for the Guild
These imperatives then formed for the basis for a detailed strategic plan
Facilitating culture by design focus groups with the Guild to understand the current culture and start to craft the future desired culture
Establish a new committee structure to enable the strategic plan and the associated initiatives
Onboarding the new Executive Committee appointed in 2022, to align them with the strategy plan

Our current scope of work is to deliver a leadership and team development programme for the new Executive Committee. This is a first of its kind for the Guild as it will not only develop the executives to fulfil their roles, but also help to foster them as young leaders of tomorrow.

Our work with the Guild included

The refreshed committee structure has enabled the board to guide and steer the organisation, while the Executive team can focus on the implementing the strategy. With a 5-year strategic plan in place and a plan to build and embed the desired culture, a rejuvenation of the Guild is underway. Early indications of improvements in staff morale and culture have been reported.

Keogh continues to work with the QUT Guild to build on the foundations of the work implemented to date, so that the Guild can be sustainable into the future.

For this work the QUT Guild and Keogh were awarded Finalist for Best Capability Building Program 2022 by the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD).