STAR Group has been in business since 1995. Our principal partners each have 30 years of experience in management, leadership, organizational behavior and business development. STAR Group specializes in developing processes and designing innovative solutions that address our clients’ needs.

Search Conference
Utility Search Conference™

Modified Utility Search Conference™

Public Regulation/Energy Policy Search Conference
System and Process Mapping
Project Management
Team Building
Conflict Management
Strategic Planning
Partnering

Search Conference
The search conference is a participative planning method that enables people to create a strategic plan for their community to achieve their most desirable future—a plan all stakeholders will support. In a search conference, participants who are residents, community leaders, and business leaders actually become the community planners. A search conference makes it possible for a community to thrive in uncertain times.

Purposes of a Search Conference
The search conference is useful for coming together around a common purpose and searching to create a most desirable future. The search conference works for the following systems:

• Communities looking for a desirable future regarding complex social issues, such as the environment, education, or social services
• Organizations—corporate or public sector—searching for new solutions, strategies and directions
• Organizations wanting to develop a plan for merging their business strategies or integrating their service delivery

Search Conference Outcomes
A search conference is a powerful, dynamic planning mechanism because, as facilitated by STAR Group, the search conference will produce the following:

1. A series of Goals, Strategies and Implementation Plan: These are comprehensive and contain the participants’ commitments to their community.
2. People who:
   • Are eager to implement their plan and share their learning with other community members
   • Have shared their information and positions and learned about those of others
   • Can fine-tune their plans and support the community

Utility Search Conference™
STAR Group is the exclusive provider of the Utility Search Conference™.  The Utility Search Conference is a specialized type of search conference in which participants who are residents, community leaders, and utility employees all work together to create a favorable outcome concerning a major utility project.

Purpose of a Utility Search Conference
The Utility Search Conference (USC) is useful for bringing together public utilities and affected stakeholders to produce a result (typically a large-scale infrastructure project) on which all stakeholders can agree.  The USC has tremendous power when several solutions to the problem are still possible, such as conservation, alternative energy, new generation, new transmission facilities, strategies for improved efficiencies, or some combination of the foregoing.

Utility Search Conference Outcomes
A Utility Search Conference produces the following:

1. A series of alternative recommendations: These recommendations are comprehensive and contain the participants’ commitments to their community.
2. A group of dedicated community leaders who:
   • Are willing to assist in implementing their recommendations
   • Have shared their information and positions while learning about those of others
   • Can fine-tune their recommendations and support the utility in public hearings
   • Are eager, able and ready to share their learning with other community members
   • Are often relied upon to testify on the utility’s behalf before public regulatory and permitting entities and frequently work with environmental groups and neighborhood leaders

The following chart identifies the various components of a USC:

 

Service	Benefits
Leadership Team Development	Creation of 8 to 12 respected community leaders who are or become knowledgeable about the current energy issues in their defined geographic areas. A database of approximately 200 local stakeholders respected by their peers. A prioritized list of residents by their representative stakeholders group. Each of these is used to build knowledgeable, local support.
Utility Search Conference Event	Specific recommendations are developed by participants that address the immediate energy issue. A technical document written in layman’s language addressing the energy issue is provided to the client and the participants. All of the input from the event is documented for use by the client, participants and CWG members.  This is an easy reference for understanding the thinking that generated the recommendations.
Community Working Group	Volunteers from the USC nomination pool are selected to assist the client in refining the USC recommendations into implementable results.  Additionally, the CWG members are invited to make presentations at meetings of the general public and before regulatory bodies.
Technical Working Group	Local people with technical knowledge are selected to outline important information and to provide research sources to be used to educate the general public.  They also give guidance to the client concerning neighborhood, political and regulatory issues that may deter the project.
Open House Meetings	Early involvement and input from the general public most often minimizes the impact of special interest groups. These meetings often result in adjustments to a project that gains majority support by the public.

Modified Utility Search Conference™

STAR Group recommends that the less comprehensive MUSC be utilized where the solution to the particular problem clearly may only be resolved using one particular methodology, rather than several possible outcomes (e.g., that there needs to be a new transmission line from point A to point B is not doubted by any stakeholder group).

The elements of a MUSC are:

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Public Regulation/Energy Policy Search Conference

In many cases, utilities must work with regulatory agencies, other stakeholders, and the public at large to create or modify a broad energy policy.  The Search Conference is an ideal process for bringing people together to find common ground on important issues.  STAR Group recommends that the following process be used in these situations:

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System and Process Mapping
People in all organizations are conducting their work within systems and following processes they have learned or developed. In some organizations, processes have been defined, are consistently analyzed and best practices are applied, enabling them to create efficient, well understood work environments. These organizations enjoy the benefit of effective work groups, good communication, and high collaboration. Organizations that do not have formalized processes or are not following processes they have established generally experience problems in work distribution, miscommunications regarding deadlines and lack of clarity on how one process depends upon or impacts another among other issues. These issues can be key to an organization’s success.

Determining what processes need to be defined, mapping those processes, and identifying and prioritizing improvements can be a tremendous challenge for most organizations. STAR Group creates an environment that values each person's contribution. We build a personal commitment to understanding the interdependence of each person, within each process, system, and organization. From detailed, step-by-step identification to implementation plans for improvements in customer value and measurements of success, STAR Group facilitates the entire mapping process.

The ability to clearly describe and evaluate the processes used to complete needed work can profoundly impact how effective your people are. Their understanding of the fit between their process and the systems and overall aspects of the organization is the lynchpin for increasing effectiveness and efficiency.

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Project Management
We have all heard the mantra, "Plan, do, study, and act." Yet we continue to leap into the "do" every chance we get! Without an advanced understanding of the goal, the resources available, the time commitment and the risks, individuals, groups and organizations can encounter incredible obstacles, resulting in fractured focus and devastating failure. Pausing at the beginning to define the project with the people needed to reach the needed outcome is the only way to avert frustration and failure. Detailing who will do what in how much time and with what resources is the best way to build better working relationships and accountability. By agreeing how progress will be tracked and reported, you can preserve the working relationships and ensure the project succeeds.

STAR Group works with you to plan your projects and get them on track. We will help you to build the capacity in your organization to plan and manage your projects, increasing your productivity, efficiency and satisfaction in your work.

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Team Building
Successful organizations foster creativity and synergy. This is the key to achieving success in any collaborative venture. However, many organizations don't know how to build highly productive teams. Conflict, interpersonal difficulties, financial difficulties and dramatic changes often follow. Recovering individual responsibility and accountability, refocusing on your direction and getting the needed results often require intervention.

STAR Group believes that Team Building cannot be separated from your work. Our Team Building model is directly tied to the development of the organizational strategy, improvement or project the team has been assigned to address. Tools and techniques for productive teamwork are part of the foundation for all our work with you and your organization. Our plan will depend upon your needs - from creating awareness and recognition of the phases of development teams experience to maturing accountability and developing rich communications resulting in consistent high productivity and high quality delivery.

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Conflict Management
Conflict occurs when there is a situation where the concerns of two or more people appear to be incompatible. Despite the fact that these situations are occurring through out our lives, we have few models for collaborative conflict management. We have a proven model that shows you some extremely effective tools to use during a conflict situation.

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Strategic Planning
STAR Group has helped dozens of organizations develop and implement strategic plans. Why do companies find more value in STAR Group’s approach than in the dozens of other strategic planning methods in the marketplace? Because STAR Group’s process ensures a broad base of participation from throughout the organization and provides your company with the tools necessary to take immediate action on the plan.

In addition to generating a larger portfolio of ideas, STAR Group’s process generates greater commitment and dedication to the plan and to the implementation steps that must be taken to realize the organization’s vision.

Our strategic planning process brings out the best that your organization has to offer. Most important, your organization’s strategic plan won’t sit on a shelf. With STAR Group, your plan will come to life through decisive, concrete action steps that your team will be committed to taking immediately after the planning process is concluded.

To learn more about our approach to Stakeholder-Involved Strategic Planning, please click here.

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Partnering
The principles of Partnership:

   1. Exchange Of Purpose
   2. Absolute Honesty
   3. Ability To Say No
   4. Joint Accountability

           12--Peter Block “Stewardship”

Partnering meetings generally take one full day to achieve agreement that will save days over the length of the project. A project team can expect to develop all the indicators of success of the partnership, a list of all immediate and emerging issues, alignment of communications and administrative processes and a feedback mechanism to keep all informed. The final stage is a signed written agreement describing all the accomplishments of the day.

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