Frequently asked questions.

Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), shares the one stand-out factor that she has experienced working across both the private and public sectors that fosters adaptability in an organisation in this frequently asked question and how this helps keep the workforce grounded in the values, mindset, and behaviours. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), discusses how the concept of leaders being able to ‘read the floor’ is fundamental to successful change management in this frequently asked question. While people want to hear from senior leaders on change, all leaders and people managers have a role to play in ensuring that the direction and project outcomes are translated into meaningful information so that everyone in an organisation knows what it means for them in their day-to-day role, and how they need to engage and get involved. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), discusses the several components of resilience in this frequently asked question, explaining that from an emotional perspective, networks and relationships are really important as building those with peers helps everyone to consider different viewpoints

and encourages others to ask questions, and how in turn, this can help to foster adaptability. She also explains how, at ASQA, they’ve identified one pivotal moment where culture is most felt by employees, specifically in peer recognition, and shares ways they are encouraging peer recognition in their workforce. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), shares how ASQA is investing in an organisational resilience and cultural uplift project, recognising that workplace culture is something they need to continue focusing on, and how they want to actively contribute to positively evolving their culture. Saxon also explains what this means practically and stresses the importance of ensuring that communication is effective with bigger-picture messages cascading through all levels of leadership so that individuals can connect with what it means to them and their role in the organisation. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Listen in as Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), discusses the cultural attributes that foster adaptability in this frequently asked question, acknowledging that adaptability and resilience are inextricably linked. Saxon also shares her experience of how receiving feedback internally allows you to identify issues early, encourages collaboration, and ensures that everyone is aligned with the goals of what’s changing. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

As a leader who is highly comfortable with change, Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), discusses the importance of being mindful that colleagues may not be on the same page and that their journey through change may be different. Saxon explains this further in this frequently asked question and stresses the importance of understanding and monitoring how colleagues are tracking on the spectrum of change resilience so that you can set a pace that will be the most effective in undergoing change. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Listen in as Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer for the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), talks about the pivotal role that senior leadership plays in helping guide teams through change through communication, support, recognition, and purpose and how that contributes to fostering a culture of adaptability, giving clarity to unite people in achieving objectives or specific outcomes. She explains this further in this frequently asked question. Listen to Saxon’s full episode here

Damian Green, Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services at Queensland Health, reflects on how, in his early training, he was taught that you needed to communicate the same message seven times. Damian shares that leaders mustn’t fall into the trap of just communicating the same message without hearing the feedback and the questions that are being asked, and they must respond appropriately by layering the communication accordingly to incorporate this. He also stresses that you need to adjust your message to the group you’re talking to tailor the message so that it resonates with them. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Damian Green, Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services at Queensland Health, reflects on his type at eHealth Queensland during the pandemic and how his team had to stand up and design IT systems virtually overnight and deliver them in a critical timeframe, which meant that they needed to work very differently from a traditional ICT sense. They had to also act outside of their role. Damian shares how they formed an Emergency Management Committee, which empowered those team members and permitted them to act outside of their role from the outset, as well as how the approach needed to change from a business-as-usual perspective to an emergency one. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Damian Green, Deputy Director-General of Corporate Services for Queensland Health, reflects on how he saw the full complement of the health service kick in during the pandemic in this frequently asked question and shares how Queensland Health has built and exercised a core competency in agility for responding to not only the pandemic but other emergencies which they see regularly. Damian further explains agility and how crucial it is to build agility into systems as reliance on digital health systems increases to ensure you minimise the impact when systems go down. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Resistance is a normal and good thing when undertaking change in an organisation. Listen in as Damian Green, Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services at Queensland Health, explains the importance of building relationships and creating trust when undergoing change and how he has found that creating an environment where you are getting feedback and having some of the difficult conversations early helps to set a course that builds on the feedback which helps people see that you responding to the issues or concerns that they are raising. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Damian Green, Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services at Queensland Health, talks about how it’s not easy to design solutions where the human interaction element is maintained in this frequently asked question and how, generally, in health, it isn’t done well. Damian reflects on the importance of developing human-computer interface design skills and looking at how other industries are doing it well. He also shares that something he is starting to see at Queensland Health is how they approach things differently rather than just putting an IT solution on top of a bad process. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Damian Green, Deputy Director-General for Corporate Services at Queensland Health, talks about the critical success factors in leading transformation in this frequently asked question, drawing from experiences during the pandemic where Damian was involved in pivoting the way they delivered health services in a new way, keeping Queenslanders safe. Damian also provides his perspectives on how leaders can’t do and micro-manage everything either, so you must bring people along, align your ecosystem around the vision you want to achieve, engage with stakeholders early, and ensure that everyone is working to a guiding set of principles. Listen to Damian’s full episode here.

Fear of failure is a genuine concern for people, stemming from past experiences and the way individuals and leaders have handled failure. Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, talks about this further in this frequently asked question and how important it is for her, as a leader, to really be considered in how she responds and reacts to failures as that can make a huge difference in people wanting and being willing to try and experiment again in the future. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, discusses how her team champions innovation and engages in important conversations about risk tolerance and risk appetite to understand what they are willing to do in this frequently asked question. Deb also discusses having safeguards in place for experimentation and viewing failure as a learning opportunity when things don't go as planned.

Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, reflects on a time earlier in her career when she used emerging technologies like the internet and when emails began to replace the use of sending faxes. Her advice on this frequently asked question is not to be scared of new technologies, as they will eventually become the norm; instead, approach them with curiosity and experimentation in a safe environment. Deb also provides further examples of the things her team has been doing. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, talks about how her department has tackled workforce planning in this frequently asked question. Deb shares how this process has involved thinking about where they are getting their talent from in identifying the feeders and where people are learning their craft, especially around data and digital skills, and also where they advertise jobs and the language they use in those ads to attract talent.  Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, provides some key advice from the time when she joined the public sector, where she learned that it was best to sit back, listen, and learn, giving things time to understand the perspective better rather than jumping in on the first day and asking all the questions. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, shares her top three tips on helping newcomers integrate into teams, as well as when combining teams, in this frequently asked question. These include getting your recruitment right, ensuring that team members understand the operating style of their leader and the team members around them, and spending time with team members to build relationships and understand what is important to them. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, reflects on how workplaces have changed throughout her career from having people being physically around her to geographically dispersed teams and how that's made her carefully think about how she can build personal connections with her team in this frequently asked question. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, shares the foundational skills that are important in teams now and will remain as important in the future. Those skills focus on building team relationships, having a clear purpose, and embracing the diversity of a team. Deb reinforces that these foundations will also be pivotal in any team, even though technology and the way we work will continue to evolve in this frequently asked question. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

“Collaboration works when you know why you’re actually collaborating.” Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, talks about how important it is, especially in government organisations which are often large and you are working in silos, on having the conversation at the beginning about why you are there and what the purpose is on you coming together in a team in this frequently asked question. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.

It may sound like a simple question, but there's a lot behind what makes teams great. Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, explains three crucial elements that she feels create high-performing teams in this frequently asked question, which are having a diverse make-up, putting the investment into building great relationships, and having a clear and common purpose that the team coalesces around. Listen to Deb’s full episode here.