Management Challenge

Marketing Toolkit

Getting a team together for the LGMA Management Challenge is fun and rewarding! Yet, many councils struggle to find enough participants to enter a team. So, in order to help your council take advantage of Australia's most sophisticated development program for current and emerging leaders, and encourage your colleagues to participate, we've put together a marketing tool-kit full of ideas and suggestions to assist you along the way.

Free promotional video clip

It's time your employees took the challenge! Download our free LGMA Management Challenge promotional video (available through youtube or Screencast).

LGMA Management Challenge (YouTube)

LGMA Management Challenge (Screen Cast)

Idea! Use this video to build awareness of the challenge and encourage staff participation by:

• Playing it for colleagues during staff information sessions
• Emailing the link to colleagues with an invitation to attend a staff information session;
• Posting a link for the video clip on your intranet*

Testimonials

Everyone who participates in the challenge - from experienced managers to emerging leaders, comes away with new and practical insights into excellence in leadership and management. But don't take our word for it; check out our written and verbal testimonials of past challenge participants and decided for yourself.

Idea!

Written testimonials can be

• displayed in your staff newsletters
• posted on your staff intranet

Verbal testimonials can be

• sent as a link via email to your colleagues
• posted as a link on youtube*
• downloaded on your staff intranet

Brochures and Posters

Copies of LGMA Management Challenge brochures and posters are mailed to all councils in Australia and New Zealand in the lead-up to the challenge each year. Additional copies can be downloaded from the challenge website. Hard copies can be requested from the national office by emailing national@lgma.org.au (while stocks last).

Idea! Why not use your marketing skills to strategically place them where everyone will notice them.

Word-of-mouth

"The experience was more rewarding than I imagined. Not only did I get to interact with professionals from a totally different working environment, it also helped me to understand the way local government worked in a city based organisation."

No-one tells a story quite like the author themself, so why not enlist previous year's challenge team members to help you market the challenge to your colleagues.

Idea! Have members of your previous teams

• speak at your information sessions
• write testimonials to be included in your staff newsletter and on your staff intranet
• make a little video about their experience for show-and-tell, or
• encourage them to become a team mentor themself.

Management Buy-in

The support of management is vital to the success of any management team at all levels of governance. Team members are required to take time away from their daily responsibilities to prepare their teams, complete pre-challenge tasks and participate in the challenge itself. The more your management teams know about the challenge and the benefits of participation, the more likely they are to support staff involvement.

Idea! Build awareness of the benefits of the challenge and encourage managers to support staff participation by:

• emailing your managers a copy of the challenge brochure and detailing the level of commitment required by each team member
• providing a copy of the challenge poster for department pin-up boards
• communicating details of staff information sessions to each manager
• asking if any managers have participated in previous challenges and enlisting them as 'challenge champions', or
• encouraging them to participate too!

Extending the life of the challenge

Increasing the value of the challenge to participants by extending the life of the challenge experience is a proven way of increasing interest in the challenge itself. Many councils in Australia do this by providing on-going development and networking opportunities for their team members after the challenge is over.

Idea! Here are some ways your council can extend the life of the challenge experience and get the most out of your current and emerging leaders:

• Engage your challenge team in a post-challenge organisational task or project*
• Have your team present their challenge experience at your next executive or council management team meeting or staff information session
• Encourage your team to write about their experiences in your staff newsletter
• Provide opportunities for your challenge team to participate in LGMA executive development or emerging leaders programs. For more information visit your local state division's website:

  LGMA Queensland
  LGMA NSW
  LGPro (Vic)
  LGMA Tasmania
  LGMA South Australia/NT
  LGMA Western Australia

• Support your staff attendance at LGMA conferences and forums (discount rates sometimes apply)

Composite Team

Having a little trouble encouraging enough of your staff to participate in the LGMA Challenge? Then why not join up with another council and enter a composite team.

Composite teams are a great way of;

• meeting people from other councils
• sharing information and resources
• building capacity, and
• experiencing the many ways different councils deliver community services

In 2008, the challenge's only composite team - Temora-Randwick teamed a major metropolitan council in Sydney with a rural shire in southern NSW. The team won their state finals and went on to place second overall in the 2008 Australasian Final on the Gold Coast. To read about Temora-Randwick's experiences, click here.

Follow the links below for more information on entering a composite team, and to find out whether your council is eligible for the rural subsidy.

Entering a composite team
Rural grants guidelines and application

Idea! If you are interested in entering a composite team but not sure which council to approach, then why not contact LGMA on (03) 9682 9222 / national@lgma.org.au or SOLGM (04) 978 1280 / info@solgm.org.nz and let us help you.

Think outside the square

The LGMA Management Challenge is ideally suited to new and emerging managers. But past participants have represented an extraordinary variety of disciplines and levels, all of whom have found the program professionally beneficial and personally rewarding.

Idea! When you are looking for your next challenge team, think outside the square and consider;

• an experienced manager or team leader
• members from your IT department
• librarians and other community service staff, and even
• elected members!

Ask around

If in doubt, talk to someone who has been there and done that! LGMA can put you in contact with the names of challenge mentors and champions who have had great success in entering a team (or teams) in the LGMA Management Challenge. Just give us a call on (03) 9682 9222 or email us at national@lgma.org.au.

If you have participated in the LGMA Management Challenge as a mentor or have been responsible for promoting the challenge to your council staff and have other ideas on how councils best can encourage staff participation, then we would like to hear from you. Please contact us on the above phone number or email Helen Diggerson at marketing@lgma.org.au.