The Supporting Potential Story
I’m Ange and I am the Managing Director of Supporting Potential and if you will indulge me, I’m going to tell you a story about how our consultancy company came to be. This is the story from my perspective and it’s central theme – building strong relationships based on mutual respect which will allow you to do some amazing things.
Back in 2010, I took on a 12 month maternity leave cover at a medical not for profit. There I met James. We didn’t work together immediately but found we formed a friendship. Well, two restructures later, James was working for me and I had been tasked with rolling out a brand new ERP system. James had always been an excellent Project Manager, but playing in the software space he sparkled. He was able to take everyone on this complex and technical change journey and they still liked him for it. Cue my exit from the org but the relationship continued with James despite handing him a doozy of a project.
My colleagues
It’s now 2012. And we are on the eve of the NDIS. I started at a large disability provider and one of my colleagues was Wayne. Wayne and I didn’t form the fast friendship like I did with James but I did quickly respect him. Wayne had built a revolutionary service offering and a team that functioned at a higher level than most. He was diligent, determined and we challenged each other to complete our best work. Wayne’s world saw steady growth and I like to think he couldn’t have done it without my assistance.
Then once again – cue my exit and off I go to another large not for profit disability provider. This time on the eve of the introduction of the Quality and Safeguards Commission. After working there for a while, a new senior manager started. She seemed meek and quiet, but Chantelle is anything but. Chantelle is passionate about supporting people and bringing the best out in our industry. It took COVID-19 to bring us together and in that chaos, I found someone I could bounce ideas off and solve complex problems. We complement each other’s skills and found a nice cadence.
Later on down the track
Cue 2021. All four of us are working for a small start-up disability company. Covid is still causing chaos and the industry (and us) are exhausted. Over a well-earned drink, we started discussing all the things in the sector that could go from good to great. The sector attracts quality people that care and there has been huge growth, cash injections and open space for innovation. Yet, capacity and space to think outside the box limit our collective abilities.
We also knew that the reasonable cost model limits back of house costs to a point where having highly skilled and capable staff, who can effect change on the regular payroll is just not financially sustainable. And even if it was, trying to recruit these highly skilled unicorns is just that – a fantasy. So what if with our collective skills, we could give organisations four unique perspectives for the price of one? We could come in and do the work needed, when it was needed and leverage off our organisational expertise to give disability orgs the extra sets of hands and minds when they need it most, without costly overheads.
I am hopeful that Supporting Potential can build partnerships with amazing, like-minded providers. Head over to our website and have a look. We would love to hear your feedback. Collectively, we can shape a disability industry that Australia is proud of. But even if that doesn’t end up being our story, I am so grateful that I got to build this dream with three highly talented, kind and all-round amazing people.
Please contact us for further information.
