Chappell Dean was founded in 1993 to provide an alternative consultancy resource to health-sector executives who wish to leverage the capabilities of their own staff to address significant issues. These executives realise that their own staff have far more expertise in highly-technical disciplines than most external consultants. What the staff often lack, however, are the specific analytical and process skills to examine complex issues objectively and to present their findings convincingly.
Chappell Dean fills this gap in staff capabilities by providing a “coaching” service to assist client staff with the analytical process, and to assist them in reaching consensus on the appropriate course of action. Chappell Dean also assists in documenting the conclusions reached to communicate the results more effectively.
This approach requires the direct involvement of senior consulting staff throughout the project, in contrast to the more traditional consulting model where most of the work is conducted by junior staff under experienced supervision. Rather than build the expertise of junior consultants, Chappell Dean works directly with client staff to build their expertise.
Since its inception, Chappell Dean has conducted a variety of assignments following this alternate model of consulting. Examples include assisting the senior management teams of the South Australian Health Commission, Nurses Board of Victoria, The Alfred Healthcare Group, St. Vincent’s Public Hospital (Sydney), the Government Employees Health Fund, and the 30+ health services that are members of The Health Roundtable Limited.