ConsultingThe Situation
A government agency, moving toward a more commercially accountable, arm's-length operating footing — while its core purpose stayed public: processing transactions and optimising the data behind them to create both public good and stakeholder value. Its stated ambition was to become the most trusted data and registry service in its jurisdiction, built on two sources of value that don't often sit in the same public-sector organisation: automated, high-volume, error-free transaction processing, and the critical insight available from privileged access to the data those transactions generated.
Turning that ambition into an organisation that could deliver it meant translating five strategic enablers — market-leading customer service, innovative new data services, deep government partnership, value-optimised technology, and aligned and effective people — into something every leader in a large, multi-level public sector workforce could actually act on, not just a slide the executive team had agreed to.
The Approach
We built one leadership framework spanning every level of the organisation — from the executive team through two further leadership tiers down to team and operational leadership — mapping each level's specific responsibility against all five strategic enablers, so a single common structure carried the strategy from the boardroom to daily operational decisions. At the top level, that meant setting the vision and building the executive team; at the operational level, it meant coaching, root-cause problem solving, and ensuring people had the training and systems in place to hit the standard.
Alongside the responsibility framework, we translated the organisation's stated values into specific, observable leadership behaviours at each level — the kind of evidence an assessor or a manager could actually look for, rather than a values poster. "We don't just come up with new ideas — we make them happen." "We question actions which do not embody our values." "We put customers at the forefront of our thinking." Each behaviour statement was paired with a concrete example of what it looks like in a real decision, negotiation or piece of feedback.
The Delivery
The result was a single reference framework used for role clarity, development and career planning, and talent identification and succession planning — three critical people processes, previously handled separately, now run through one common structure tied directly to the organisation's strategic enablers rather than a generic competency list. For an organisation whose core capability was automated transaction processing and the data insight it generated, this gave every leadership level a concrete, values-anchored answer to what "innovative new data services" or "value-optimised technology" actually required of them personally — not just of the organisation.
The Outcome
Strategic enablers mapped through every leadership level, executive to operational.
Leadership tiers, each with distinct, level-specific responsibility against the same five enablers.
Common framework replacing separate processes for development, succession and talent planning.
Values translated into observable behaviours, level by level — evidence, not a poster.
From the organisation's statement of public value