Failure is often regarded as a bad word in the workplace. No one wants to fail or intentionally sets out to, and it can make you feel pretty terrible when something you are working on goes wrong. Reframing failures positively by rallying around those colleagues and helping them work through them can turn failures into successes, and importantly, it can build resilience in a team, which is essential for embracing challenges, turning them around, and thriving in uncertainty.

Having leaders who acknowledge their mistakes early and take accountability for their team's mistakes by owning them as their own without directing blame to the individual builds a culture of respect. It helps to shift the perception of failure in a team.

Joining us to discuss this further is Maree Bridger, Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts.

Maree details the three key things that underpin planning work and help her department with anticipation, proactivity, and responsiveness to priorities that serve multiple ministers. She also explains how her department overcame scepticism to view 'red as your friend'—and how encouraging others to share projects or initiatives that aren't going well helps colleagues rally together to work through challenges.

In this compelling chat, Maree shares experiences from her career from times when things haven't gone to plan and how she has kept moving forward and turned things around through active listening and engagement. She also offers a different perspective on how organisations view innovation and how often, when you are in the trenches, you don't necessarily look around you to realise how far you've come.

Don't miss this uplifting chat with an inspiring leader about changing how we view failures at work.

Listen to episode seven:

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Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Maree Bridger

Chief Operating Officer
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts

Maree has worked in the APS for 16 years across a range of policy, program, regulatory, corporate and service delivery functions and she has held senior roles at Services Australia, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs Service.

Prior to the APS Maree had seventeen years in the private sector and held roles at the Shell Company, Osborne Computers and Austar United Communications. Prior to her move to the public sector, Maree worked as a consultant for eight years, with a specific focus on organisational change, strategic planning, maximising competitive advantage and building organisational capability.

Maree has a Bachelor of Economics from ANU, Executive MBA from the AGSM at UNSW and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.

Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.

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