Communications Training Consultant - Kaizen/USAID-PEP Activity
Remote
Temporary
Experienced
About The Kaizen Company
The Kaizen Company, Tetra Tech Company, is an international development consulting firm and an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. Our proven solutions catalyze locally driven organizational and institutional performance improvements and establish communities of practice that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and the achievement of shared goals. We aspire to transform the nature and impact of development assistance and work to strengthen organizations and institutions through innovative approaches to organizational development, reform, and change.
Background on PNG PEP Activity
USAID-Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership (PEP) Activity is a five-year (2020–2025) project partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) to advance the country’s journey to self-reliance by contributing significantly to achieving the goal of connecting 70 percent of PNG’s population to electricity by 2030. USAID-PEP is part of the United States Government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, particularly the Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Initiative, which supports market-based energy policy and reforms, the modernization of energy infrastructure, and expanded access to affordable, secure, and reliable energy supplies. USAID-PEP is also a part of the broader PEP initiative signed by the five partner countries – PNG, United States, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand – in 2018 that aims to encourage cooperation and accelerate achievement of PNG’s electrification goals.
Following discussions with RTI, Kaizen (RTI subcontractor) agreed to support PNG Power Ltd (PPL) in undertaking a pilot of Organizational Self-assessment and Transformation Program (OSTP) within one priority function (e.g., Asset Management) as the basis of Kaizen’s capacity building support. Kaizen has created, oriented, and supported a Change Team within PPL, facilitating the process of identification, prioritization, and selection of improvement opportunities in asset management by the PPL Change Team during the pilot test period. Guided by the Kaizen Senior Technical Manager, Kaizen will support the Change Team to design improvement interventions in a way that ensures they are fully owned by PPL. This process will build PPL’s capacity to repeat this continuous improvement process with increasing independence going forward.
Objectives
To strengthen the communication skills of the PPL Change Team so that they can influence other PPL business units to successfully execute the OSTP pilot and improve organizational performance, the PEP Activity will provide communications support to the PPL Change Team through training and coaching. Communication is one of the important attributes that the OSTP highlights for strengthening organizational performance. The overall objective of this assignment is to support the PPL Change Team with strengthening their communication skills, which in turn will facilitate better synergy across business units of PPL, with a net effect of improvement in the performance of PPL in asset management, eventually leading to a more reliable supply of power to the people of PNG.
More specifically, Kaizen is seeking a Consultant to support the PPL Change Team with:
PPL AMBU has an exciting and challenging task of developing and coordinating the newly established AMBU which requires collaboration and communication across the whole organization. Providing reliable electricity to the citizens of Papua New Guinea (PNG) requires various departments across PPL to share their respective data and cohere their efforts for evidence-based decision-making. The Change Team created to support this agenda of improving the performance of AMBU needs to collaborate with and influence its internal stakeholders to carry out the responsibilities of AMBU effectively. In particular, the AMBU should hold information on assets across PPL and needs to analyze and distribute this information to other departments that take action on that data. This task demands adept communications skills, including being able to interface with AMBU and other business unit members clearly and persuasively, building trust and relationships with internal stakeholders, listening and responding to its stakeholders, and facilitating collaborative conversations to guide the relevant PPL departments toward a common vision.
The Consultant will identify the best practices suitable for the needs of PPL OSTP Change Team and share these practices with them through resource guides, delivering a two-hour training to OSTP Change Team members, and offering a one-hour coaching session to each of the four Action Plan teams. The Consultant will utilize globally accepted communications materials and processes.
Timeline and Key Deliverables
Qualifications
Required
- A Master’s degree in relevant subject areas plus a minimum of eight (8) years of relevant work experience in communications training in developing countries; or a Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of ten (10) years relevant experience working in communications training in developing countries.
- Experience organizing and leading trainings and workshops with USAID, implementation partners, and other participants.
- Strong understanding/experience in organizational and institutional development, change management, and leadership development.
- Excellent communications, facilitation, and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop strong working relationships with diverse stakeholders, working with multi-ethnic staff in multicultural environments.
- Ability to communicate English effectively both orally and in writing, including the production, oversight, and quality control of high-quality reports.
Preferred
- A consultant (preferably local) who is based in Papua New Guinea
- A firm understanding of the Papua New Guinea context and the ability to collaborate with a local interdisciplinary team.
- Experience developing and applying resources to create, capture, organize, and share knowledge across technical sectors, multiple donors, and within project activities and staff.
- Experience in establishing and managing dynamic feedback systems to capture experiential learning and unintended consequences.
- Ability to facilitate candid but constructive and appreciative dialogue among stakeholders, with an emphasis on problem-solving, individual responsibility, team spirit, mutual respect, and empowerment.
The Kaizen Company, Tetra Tech Company, is an international development consulting firm and an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. Our proven solutions catalyze locally driven organizational and institutional performance improvements and establish communities of practice that facilitate peer-to-peer learning and the achievement of shared goals. We aspire to transform the nature and impact of development assistance and work to strengthen organizations and institutions through innovative approaches to organizational development, reform, and change.
Background on PNG PEP Activity
USAID-Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership (PEP) Activity is a five-year (2020–2025) project partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) to advance the country’s journey to self-reliance by contributing significantly to achieving the goal of connecting 70 percent of PNG’s population to electricity by 2030. USAID-PEP is part of the United States Government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, particularly the Asia Enhancing Development and Growth through Energy (EDGE) Initiative, which supports market-based energy policy and reforms, the modernization of energy infrastructure, and expanded access to affordable, secure, and reliable energy supplies. USAID-PEP is also a part of the broader PEP initiative signed by the five partner countries – PNG, United States, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand – in 2018 that aims to encourage cooperation and accelerate achievement of PNG’s electrification goals.
Following discussions with RTI, Kaizen (RTI subcontractor) agreed to support PNG Power Ltd (PPL) in undertaking a pilot of Organizational Self-assessment and Transformation Program (OSTP) within one priority function (e.g., Asset Management) as the basis of Kaizen’s capacity building support. Kaizen has created, oriented, and supported a Change Team within PPL, facilitating the process of identification, prioritization, and selection of improvement opportunities in asset management by the PPL Change Team during the pilot test period. Guided by the Kaizen Senior Technical Manager, Kaizen will support the Change Team to design improvement interventions in a way that ensures they are fully owned by PPL. This process will build PPL’s capacity to repeat this continuous improvement process with increasing independence going forward.
To strengthen the communication skills of the PPL Change Team so that they can influence other PPL business units to successfully execute the OSTP pilot and improve organizational performance, the PEP Activity will provide communications support to the PPL Change Team through training and coaching. Communication is one of the important attributes that the OSTP highlights for strengthening organizational performance. The overall objective of this assignment is to support the PPL Change Team with strengthening their communication skills, which in turn will facilitate better synergy across business units of PPL, with a net effect of improvement in the performance of PPL in asset management, eventually leading to a more reliable supply of power to the people of PNG.
More specifically, Kaizen is seeking a Consultant to support the PPL Change Team with:
- Learning about communication best practices;
- Discovering team communication styles based on feedback and reflections;
- Identifying areas of strength and growth;
- Facilitating discussions on what the Change Team needs to do to improve its communications to help achieve the goal of the OSTP.
PPL AMBU has an exciting and challenging task of developing and coordinating the newly established AMBU which requires collaboration and communication across the whole organization. Providing reliable electricity to the citizens of Papua New Guinea (PNG) requires various departments across PPL to share their respective data and cohere their efforts for evidence-based decision-making. The Change Team created to support this agenda of improving the performance of AMBU needs to collaborate with and influence its internal stakeholders to carry out the responsibilities of AMBU effectively. In particular, the AMBU should hold information on assets across PPL and needs to analyze and distribute this information to other departments that take action on that data. This task demands adept communications skills, including being able to interface with AMBU and other business unit members clearly and persuasively, building trust and relationships with internal stakeholders, listening and responding to its stakeholders, and facilitating collaborative conversations to guide the relevant PPL departments toward a common vision.
The Consultant will identify the best practices suitable for the needs of PPL OSTP Change Team and share these practices with them through resource guides, delivering a two-hour training to OSTP Change Team members, and offering a one-hour coaching session to each of the four Action Plan teams. The Consultant will utilize globally accepted communications materials and processes.
Timeline and Key Deliverables
| No. | Deliverables/Milestones | Estimated LoE | Deadline |
| Review PNG PEP Activity and PPL background materials | 1 | May 13-17 | |
| Prepare to deliver 2-hour communications training at the OSTP retreat in Port Moresby (includes Consultant’s travel to Papua New Guinea) | 2 | May 13-17 | |
Communications training should include:
| 1 | May 17 | |
| 1-hour coaching sessions provided respectively to 4 Action Teams | 2 | May 20-24 | |
| Estimated Total | 6 |
Qualifications
Required
- A Master’s degree in relevant subject areas plus a minimum of eight (8) years of relevant work experience in communications training in developing countries; or a Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of ten (10) years relevant experience working in communications training in developing countries.
- Experience organizing and leading trainings and workshops with USAID, implementation partners, and other participants.
- Strong understanding/experience in organizational and institutional development, change management, and leadership development.
- Excellent communications, facilitation, and interpersonal skills with the ability to develop strong working relationships with diverse stakeholders, working with multi-ethnic staff in multicultural environments.
- Ability to communicate English effectively both orally and in writing, including the production, oversight, and quality control of high-quality reports.
Preferred
- A consultant (preferably local) who is based in Papua New Guinea
- A firm understanding of the Papua New Guinea context and the ability to collaborate with a local interdisciplinary team.
- Experience developing and applying resources to create, capture, organize, and share knowledge across technical sectors, multiple donors, and within project activities and staff.
- Experience in establishing and managing dynamic feedback systems to capture experiential learning and unintended consequences.
- Ability to facilitate candid but constructive and appreciative dialogue among stakeholders, with an emphasis on problem-solving, individual responsibility, team spirit, mutual respect, and empowerment.
For candidates applying for positions based in Kaizen's office in Washington, DC, we utilize career.place to mitigate bias in the recruitment process. Upon submitting an application, candidates will receive an email from career.place, prompting them to go through the anonymous screening. In order to be considered for a role, candidates must respond to career.place and proceed with the application. We do not currently use career.place for project positions outside of the United States.
At Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer.
Apply for this position
Required*