Consulting

I’m Erin O’Donoghue Founder of Hive Collective. Hive Collective provides consulting and coaching services to individuals, large organisations and small business in the areas of Design Thinking, Customer/Employee Engagement, People and Culture.

I started Hive Collective with the aim to empower individuals and organisations to make change in the way they work by taking a creative and human centred approach to solving those problems that keep us awake at night. I believe that the effective use of co-design can and will contribute to a better world.

I’m an experienced senior Human Resources practitioner who has spent my career creating positive employment experiences through the development and delivery of people centred projects and programs. My more recent experience in Strategy and Innovation fostered a passion for working with organisations to create innovative cultures and positive customer experiences through the application of Human Centred Design/Design Thinking.

I’ve been fortunate enough to pursue many things in my career, but the consistent theme across all my roles is people. Supporting people to be their best, in life and work. I have a passion for bringing together my extensive background in HR and Innovation, believing that empowering organisations to work in this way has great benefit for both customers/consumers and employees.

 

I believe it’s so important to elevate the voices of those who may not have traditionally had a voice in the things that directly impact them. Time and time again I’ve seen first-hand, the power of what happens when people are heard and have the opportunity to shape better outcomes for themselves and their community. The added bonus is, that it also makes for better organisational and systemic outcomes when we open up the space to engage directly with the humans we serve.

I have a Graduate Diploma in Business (Human Resource Management), and a graduate of Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner School of Design (d.school) Designing for Social Systems Program. I am an experienced Coach and Mentor, accredited in Prosci and PCI change methodologies, an accredited MBTI and NBI practitioner and an Alumnus of The Williamson Community Leadership Program (2016).

I can help you and your business achieve amazing things by engaging with your customers and employees on the things most important to them.

 
 
 
 

Customer/Employee/Stakeholder Engagement/Co-design projects

Do you have a project that could benefit from customer or employee insights to help inform and shape your work? Or would you like to embed a co-design approach right from the beginning?

I love bringing my skills in customer and employee engagement to broader projects. My approach supports and enhances the work you’re already doing with insights from the people most impacted by your project and provides a richness of information that we know gets you better outcomes or I can come on board and work with you to embed co-design into your project from the beginning.

This work can be applied to most projects where you have a person impacted/involved. From program reviews, workforce reviews, strategy development… I can help you get insights that will change the way you look at the solutions to your problem.

I utilise a Human Centred Design/Design Thinking approach to problem solving, putting the client/stakeholder/consumer at the centre of the problem to be solved and engaging them in various ways, and at different stages throughout the process. This process is iterative, and when adopted as an ongoing method of engagement, will involve checking back in with clients at a number of points to ensure that ideas and proposed approaches are in fact meeting their needs.

All my work is co-designed with my clients to ensure I leave you with a product that meets your expectations and that you have helped shape from the beginning. We use a structured approach that can be applied flexibly, with each step shaped and adapted based on what is uncovered as we progress through the design process. We are also guided by your organisation’s culture and appetite for change; while also challenging your thinking and appetite for disruption along the way.

 

Workshop Facilitation

I love designing and delivering great workshops with great people, to achieve great outcomes. It’s worth the investment to have a skilled independent facilitator delivering workshops for you; I’m neutral, unbiased and can sometimes help you to see things you can’t see simply because I’m not as close to it. There’s not much I can’t facilitate (so if you’re wondering, get in touch) but I particularly love and am great at;

  • Strategic Planning for Leadership Teams and Boards

  • Planning and goal setting for your team

  • Workshops to help you and your team co-create new (and better!) flexible ways of working

  • Customer co-design workshops (for those who aren’t wanting a full end to end process, but would love some insights from their customers to shape a specific product/service/approach)

 

People and Culture Advice and Support

I also have limited availability for short term HR Projects in the areas of Coaching, People Strategy, Organisational Development, Leadership, Culture and Change.

Please get in contact with me to discuss your needs.




What my clients say…

“I always take away a little gem of insight.”

Erin has the ability to provide sound business advice and coaching in a way that makes perfect sense; more importantly goals are clearly defined, practical and achievable.

Erin has worked with my business to identify the strengths of our team, how we can improve our procedures and increase our efficiencies.

On an interpersonal level, Erin has an approach that makes you feel comfortable about disclosing information, and even in casual conversations, I feel like I always take away a little gem of insight.

- Christina, CK PR

 

“It always felt as though it was a shared journey.”

It has been a pleasure working with you, Erin. I really appreciated your approachable manner and ability to enhance our understanding of the human-centred design model. It always felt as though it was a shared journey as we grappled with some delicate issues / considerations.

- Peter, Barwon Health

 
 
 

In this Client Case Study, Erin has a chat with Therese Clark about the co-design project Hive Collective delivered for Barwon Health in 2019. This co-design project has been used to inform the architectural design and build of the new Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Geelong.

 

This short sketch video outlines the co-design work undertaken by Barwon Health VPRS team and Hive Collective in 2019.