Advisory & Accompaniment
Support for decisions, implementation and change
We provide practical advice and sustained support to help organisations navigate complex or uncertain situations, make informed decisions, put plans into practice and manage change.
- Access to CTDC advisers
- Support with complex situations and decisions
- Regular review conversations
- Practical implementation support
Commission this when.
CTDC advisers work alongside your leaders and teams over an agreed period, helping you understand what is happening, weigh your options and decide how to respond. This can include mentoring staff, reviewing progress, working through implementation challenges and adapting policies, systems or approaches as needs change.
You can commission this as a standalone service or as continued support following research, design, training or facilitation. We agree the focus, availability and review points at inception, with the aim of strengthening your organisation's own capability over time.
Any one of the following is reason enough to start a conversation.
You are facing a complex or uncertain situation and need support to make sense of it, weigh your options and decide what to do next.
You have a policy, strategy or system in place and need support to put it into practice.
Leaders or board members need an external thinking partner to work through decisions, priorities or competing options.
Your team needs specialist guidance or mentoring to carry out new or complex responsibilities.
You are managing organisational change and need consistent support and regular review through its different stages.
Previous initiatives have stalled during implementation, and you need help addressing the barriers.
Your policies, systems or ways of working need to be reviewed and adapted as your organisation or context changes.
What you receive.
Depending on the agreed scope, your deliverables may include:
Access to CTDC advisers
With relevant expertise and agreed availability.
Support with complex situations and decisions
To understand what is happening, weigh options and identify practical next steps.
Regular review conversations
To assess progress, discuss emerging issues and agree what needs to change.
Practical implementation support
To put decisions into practice and address difficulties as they arise.
Coaching and mentoring
For leaders and staff carrying new responsibilities or leading change.
Revisions to policies, systems or approaches
Where experience, feedback or changing circumstances show that adjustments are needed.
What this includes.
Most assignments draw on more than one of these.
Navigating complex situations
Helping you understand what is happening, weigh your options and decide how to respond when the way forward is unclear.
- Understanding what is happening
- Weighing options
- Deciding how to respond
Strategy, leadership and governance advice
Working with leaders and boards on organisational direction, priorities, responsibilities and difficult decisions.
- Leaders and boards
- Organisational direction
- Priorities
- Responsibilities
- Difficult decisions
Implementation support
Helping teams put policies, strategies and systems into practice, address obstacles and adapt plans as they learn.
- Policies into practice
- Strategies and systems
- Addressing obstacles
- Adapting plans
Coaching and mentoring
Supporting leaders and staff as they develop their judgement, take on new responsibilities and work through practical challenges.
- Leaders and staff
- Developing judgement
- New responsibilities
- Practical challenges
Organisational culture and change
Supporting organisations through different stages of change and transformation, including communication, working relationships and conflict prevention.
- Stages of change
- Communication
- Working relationships
- Conflict prevention
Staff well-being and working conditions
Working with leaders and teams to review workloads, expectations, management practices and support arrangements, and make practical improvements that support staff well-being.
- Workloads
- Expectations
- Management practices
- Support arrangements
- Practical improvements
Ongoing advisory partnerships
CTDC advisers working alongside your team over an agreed period, providing continuity as new questions arise and circumstances change.
- Advisers alongside your team
- An agreed period
- Continuity
- Changing circumstances
Regular review and updating
Reviewing policies, systems and ways of working to understand what is working, what needs adjusting and what should happen next.
- Policies
- Systems
- Ways of working
- What needs adjusting
- What happens next
How we work with you.
Understand the situation.
We begin with the questions, decisions or challenges you are facing. We draw on relevant evidence, your team's experience and the wider context to understand what is happening and what remains uncertain.
Agree the focus and working arrangements.
We agree priorities, responsibilities, availability and review points. This gives everyone a clear understanding of how CTDC advisers will work alongside your leaders and teams.
Work through choices and practical next steps.
We help you question assumptions, weigh options and consider who will be affected by different decisions. We support you to turn those decisions into action and address difficulties as they arise.
Review honestly and adapt.
We examine what is working and what needs to change, including where our own advice or earlier designs need revising. Experience, feedback and changing circumstances inform the next steps.
Strengthen capability over time.
We share our reasoning, knowledge and tools, helping your team develop confidence and judgement. We review the support together as your needs change, whether that means continuing the relationship, adjusting its focus or preparing for handover.
Working in your language
We work natively in English and Arabic across every service and at any scale: research design and fieldwork, policy drafting, training delivery, facilitation, and written deliverables.
We also work in French and Spanish on smaller assignments: workshops and training sessions, interviews and consultations, focused reviews, and translation and localisation review. This work is delivered by associates who work natively in those languages.
For large-scale work in French or Spanish, we will tell you where our capacity ends and help you structure the assignment accordingly. We have designed and facilitated consultations in English, Arabic and French across fourteen countries, so we know what this requires, and we do not take on work we cannot deliver to the same standard.
Where an assignment needs other languages, we can arrange capacity through our international network and will be explicit about what that adds in time and cost.
Selected work in practice.
Putting a safeguarding framework into practice
After developing a safeguarding framework for an organisation working across several countries, CTDC supported its implementation. We trained and mentored the staff responsible for safeguarding and created a recorded training package for continued use. We also developed a monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning framework, with indicators and feedback processes to help the organisation assess how the system was working. This equipped the organisation to monitor progress, learn from experience and update the system through its own staff and processes.
Research & Assessment · Frameworks, Policy & Governance · Learning Design & Delivery · Advisory & Accompaniment
Frequently asked questions.
Tell us what you’re dealing with.
You do not need to know which service you need. Tell us about the issue, decision or change facing your organisation. We will listen, ask questions and tell you honestly whether, and how, CTDC can help.
An initial conversation is free and carries no obligation.
