Thriving in Uncertainty with Tim Beresford
When you've had a thirty-five-year-long career that spans industries and sectors as our next Trailblazer has, you have the benefit of seeing how organisational learning has changed and if it's changed for the better or worse. Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, or AFSA, joins us to talk about this and much more in our latest episode on becoming a learning organisation.
When you've had a thirty-five-year-long career that spans industries and sectors as our next Trailblazer has, you have the benefit of seeing how organisational learning has changed and if it's changed for the better or worse. Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, or AFSA, joins us to talk about this and much more in our latest episode on becoming a learning organisation.
Listen to episode twenty-three:
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
About this episode:
This compelling episode offers great advice to other leaders on shifting from knowledge organisations to learning organisations and on how important it is to be open, adaptable, and resilient to foster a continuous learning mindset in your workforce.
Tim dives into the key differences in how organisational learning has changed throughout his career, from focusing more on skillsets at the beginning in terms of what knowledge you could bring to an organisation to now being more focussed on mindsets and what you're willing to learn.
He explains how this fundamental shift from knowledge organisations to learning organisations is for the better, as this has created much more of a two-way dialogue in how organisations communicate, which promotes sharing, teamwork, and curiosity in the workforce.
Tim elaborates on why mindset is so critical in today's workforces, which are facing more external shocks in an increasingly uncertain and ambiguous world. This uncertainty requires all of us to develop resiliency and agility to be more adept at dealing with these external changes and shocks.
From an industry-agnostic perspective, Tim shares three aspects for creating a learning organisation: systems thinking, a genuine openness to self-awareness and reflection, and a diverse team approach to solving problems. He provides advice to leaders on how to drive self-awareness, empathy, and engagement in the workplace, enabling individuals to want to foster and enable themselves to grow, lean into, and become more self-aware.
References from this episode:
Don't Fence Me In by Wendy McCarthy
ISBN: 9780855616953, Published 4 February 2000.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Tim Beresford
Chief Executive and Inspector-General in Bankruptcy
Australian Financial Security Authority
(AFSA)
Tim Beresford is the Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), having joined the agency in mid-2022.
AFSA’s role is to support a strong credit system for Australia and is a visible, modern and contemporary regulator. The agency administers and regulates the personal insolvency and personal property securities systems and manages criminal assets.
Tim is a Board member of the St George Community Housing (SGCH) and the immediate past Chair of the Benevolent Society (TBS), Australia’s oldest non-Indigenous not for profit. Previously, Tim has held the roles of Acting Chief Executive of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University and First Assistant Secretary of the Social Policy Division in Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
He has significant leadership experience in the higher education, government, not-for-profit, financial services and professional services sectors. His areas of expertise include strategy, governance, public policy, change management and organisational design. He holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours), Bachelor of Laws, a Masters of Philosophy (International Relations) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Thriving in Uncertainty with Josh Thomas
What does learning look like in an organisation when a high proportion of your workforce is already doctorate-level educated, formally trained marine scientists and former teachers? Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, talks about this and much more as he joins us to discuss becoming a learning organisation in our latest podcast episode.
What does learning look like in an organisation when a high proportion of your workforce is already doctorate-level educated, formally trained marine scientists and former teachers? Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, talks about this and much more as he joins us to discuss becoming a learning organisation in our latest podcast episode.
Listen to episode twenty-two:
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
About this episode:
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has a critical job of being guardians and protectors of the Great Barrier Reef, a world heritage-listed coral reef, for future generations. With a high percentage of their workforce made up of marine scientists, their unique organisational DNA is centred on understanding the world around them and has a natural and instinctive curiosity-driven culture that helps fuel their courage to experiment and test ideas about tackling existing and emerging threats to the ecosystem.
As CEO, Josh explains how risk is a key element that drives their organisational strategy and how they approach learning and development, as understanding risks in your environment is critical in understanding what you need to learn and lean into, and if an organisation is calibrated to understanding medium to long term risks, it will be more proactive in addressing challenges and returning value to stakeholders. Josh discusses this further in how their organisation views themselves as a learning and evolving organisation that's generous with knowledge sharing, have honest relationships with peers, and is led through a coaching mindset – leading others to come to their own conclusions on how they want to take a given piece of work and where they want to focus their learning and development on, within boundaries.
He also talks about how information is more publicly available than ever before; their organisation doesn't have a mortgage as being a 'knowledge holder,' instead, they see their role in knowledge sharing, and they are generous with it with the programs of work that the Reef Authority delivers, including educating over 300 schools in Queensland and internationally, working with 19 Reef Guardian Councils, producing outlook and Reef health reporting, broadcasting podcasts, attending multilateral forums, and more.
This episode is an excellent example of a learning organisation that is curious and generous with its knowledge sharing and a leader who is passionate, authentic, and respectful in helping his workforce work in uncertainty.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Josh Thomas
Chief Executive Officer
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Josh has over 20 years’ experience in the public and private sector in Australia and overseas. He has helped shape and lead environmental policy and programs for the Great Barrier Reef and in terrestrial natural resource management.
Josh has worked in a number of senior public sector roles and across the environment, agriculture and finance portfolios, as well as in federal Ministerial offices. He has a strong track record of public engagement on matters affecting Australia’s World Heritage sites, and through major environmental programs such as the Biodiversity Fund and Caring for our Country.
Josh’s policy experience in the marine environment extends across the Great Barrier Reef and its catchments, migratory and endangered species, whaling matters, marine parks and Antarctica. He is committed to enhancing Australia’s natural environment and has been a strong advocate for incorporating both contemporary science and Indigenous traditional knowledge into environmental management throughout his career.
Josh lives in Townsville and holds a Master of Business Administration, Master of International Affairs, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Arts (Honours).
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Thriving in Uncertainty with Samantha Palmer
We know that there are many modes of learning. One that has been spoken about in recent episodes as critically important is on-the-job learning and how, knowledge sharing between peers, even from different areas of an organisation, can help fuel new ideas and ways of working. Another important learning and development opportunity in the APS is mobility. In our latest episode, Sam Palmer joins us to discuss this and so much more on the topic of learning organisations. Sam is Secretary and a Fellow of IPAA and currently serves as APS reviewer on the independent capability review of the Commonwealth Department of Education on secondment from Austrade.
We know that there are many modes of learning. One that has been spoken about in recent episodes as critically important is on-the-job learning and how, knowledge sharing between peers, even from different areas of an organisation, can help fuel new ideas and ways of working.
Another important learning and development opportunity in the APS is mobility. In our latest episode, Sam Palmer joins us to discuss this and so much more on the topic of learning organisations. Sam is Secretary and a Fellow of IPAA and currently serves as APS reviewer on the independent capability review of the Commonwealth Department of Education on secondment from Austrade.
Listen to episode sixteen:
Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
Sam has over 35 years of diverse experience, with 25 years of those in senior executive service roles in the APS. She is a passionate advocate for having variety in your working career and how, from her personal experience, moving sideways into different roles and taking on new experiences through mobility opportunities has assisted her in seeing things from a different framing or mindset.
Sam provides excellent examples from throughout her career of how experiencing different contexts in departments has helped her transfer her learnings into other roles and how, in Austrade today, they also benefit from bringing in various people from other parts of the organisation into their division to give new insights and skills when Sam and her colleagues are acting in other positions.
In our discussion, Sam reflects on how championing diversity and inclusion has been one of the most rewarding parts of her career, and we also talk about the relationship between change and learning as Sam shares her time at the Australian Bureau of Statistics and involvement in the marriage equality survey and how the short turnaround time of just 99 days required the department to work with a different momentum and process to make it happen while also maintaining procurement requirements.
Another powerful part of our conversation is the role mentors and champions play in professional development. Sam shares a great metaphor of champions being like elephants: They have big ears to listen, big trunks to communicate and talk, big feet and bodies to make a path through barriers, and a caring nature that they work with heart. If you're thinking about taking on a new or different opportunity or how, as a leader, you can help your staff grow and develop, this is definitely an episode that you won't want to miss.
References from this episode:
APS Charter of Engagement and Partnerships including link to good practice guide
Report on the conduct of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
Paper on measuring culture and leadership at the ABS during transformation
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Samantha Palmer
General Manager
Visitor Economy and Client Programs Division
Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)
Samantha Palmer is temporarily seconded from her position as General Manager of Austrade’s Visitor Economy and Client Programs Division to work with the Australian Public Service Commission as a Senior APS Reviewer on the Capability Review of the Australian Government Department of Education. She is also a Diversity and Inclusion Champion.
Samantha brings 35-plus years of diverse experience with more than 25 in senior executive service roles. She has led policy, programs and corporate transformations in the Queensland, WA and Commonwealth governments in many areas relevant to the visitor economy. These areas include fair trading and consumer protection, environmental protection and national parks, land transport and road safety, housing, disability, and Indigenous communities. She has also run businesses and worked in the arts, university and community sectors.
Career highlights include achieving a 79.5% response rate for the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey; leading the development of the 10-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan policy framework; and being appointed the ‘cleanskin’ inaugural Deputy Director General Governance, Integrity and Reform following Australia’s largest public service corruption incident at the WA Communities Department.
Samantha is a National Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). She was one of the 2013 Australian Financial Review/Westpac 100 Women of Influence, and the 2013 Australian Human Resource Institute Diversity Champion of the Year (HR).
Samantha was elected Secretary of the National Institute of Public Administration Australia (the professional body for public servants) in 2024 having served on both National and ACT IPAA Councils for some time. She has a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Business (Communication).
Tune in next time as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Thriving in Uncertainty with Dr Ivan Williams
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) 's work is incredibly important. ARPANSA is Australia's primary authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety, regulating all aspects of Commonwealth activity in the radiation space. Its mandate is to assist in maintaining the safety of Australia's people and biota in the face of potential radiation risks. Dr Ivan Williams, the Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, joins us in our latest episode to discuss the topic of becoming a learning organisation.
The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) 's work is incredibly important. ARPANSA is Australia's primary authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety, regulating all aspects of Commonwealth activity in the radiation space. Its mandate is to assist in maintaining the safety of Australia's people and biota in the face of potential radiation risks. Dr Ivan Williams, the Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, joins us in our latest episode to discuss the topic of becoming a learning organisation.
Critical to performing ARPANSA's work is being across enormous amounts of data, research, regulations, and audits. Staff must also be across contemporary developments in technology, medical practice, and clinical practice. Due to the nature of their work, it is these reasons why there is an expectation that staff invest in their own learning and development.
In this compelling chat, Ivan outlines the vast range of methods that they use to galvanise learning across the organisation, which include sitting on international and national organisations in producing authoritative papers, in-house training with people returning from conferences to distribute relevant information across the agency, monthly knowledge hubs for management, sitting on international committees, staff performing pHD’s at hospitals, and much more.
Ivan also discusses the modes of learning and how, with the nature of their work being technical and hands-on, ARPANSA needs to demonstrate competence to internal and external independent observers, regulators, or reviewers. On-the-job training is particularly beneficial as it provides a lot of practical technical expertise that cannot be achieved by just reading books.
It's a great conversation that provides an understanding of the critical work that ARPANSA provides to Australia and how, as an organisation, they prioritise learning while delivering their huge and essential remit.
Listen to episode thirteen:
Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Dr Ivan Williams
Chief Medical Radiation Scientist and
Medical Radiation Branch Head
Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)
Dr Ivan Williams is an internationally recognised and nationally certified expert in radiation oncology medical physics and medical radiation protection. Ivan trained as a radiation oncology medical physicist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne, Australia and has worked internationally.
Ivan started with the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency as the inaugural Director of the Australian Clinical Dosimetry Service which he planned and built to be a nationally impacting service with international recognition.
In 2021, he was appointed to the International Commission on Radiation Protection’s committee on medical radiation protection. In 2024, he represented Australia at the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
Ivan is particularly passionate about the appropriate use of science, data and information to improve patient and public health with national impact.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.