Frequently asked questions.

Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, talks us through her past experiences working at cultural institutions where it was often difficult to articulate the exact outcome of investing in inspiring students on their school excursions, but when they looked at the potential impact to students in their lifetime, it created an environment where curiosity was valued, art and expression were valued and imagining things differently was equally valued as some of the curriculum that they were studying. Even though it may seem like 'nailing a bit of jelly to the wall,' there is still enormous value in inspiration.

Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, provides an analogy to differentiate between the impact of something versus the outcome. The impact is something that goes beyond what you can't often predict and control, and it can make a significant difference to the way you think about the outcome you're trying to deliver versus the impact you're trying to create.

Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, talks about the importance of thinking about the impact you are trying to achieve in this frequently asked question. Kate talks about how valuing diversity and the impact of what you are doing, not necessarily how you get there, can help to start opening up a different culture that speaks to different interests and focuses, and by grounding these conversations in respect and curiosity, you can begin to shape it differently.

In this frequently asked question, Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, talks through interesting past research from the Foundation for Young Australian’s research into what employers were looking for in terms of skills of the workforce today, as well as some interesting new insights coming out of the Crawford School of Public Policy around what it means to show up to work with empathy and humility. Many different skills are needed in the public sector now and in the future. Organisations that embrace the diversity of skills and do not privilege one over the other stand to benefit the most.

List of resources referenced in this FAQ:

Foundation for Young Australians research - Our Reports: The New Work Order Series - FYA

Crawford School of Public Policy |

Pathways to Positive Public Administration – An International Perspective | Elgar Online: The online content platform for Edward Elgar Publishing

Dr Laurie Santos, Yale University - The Science of Well-Being | Yale Online

Dr Angela Duckworth - https://angeladuckworth.com/

Public service craft is a specific set of skills built around principles embedded in a system. How people take that in and practice it can look very different. Developing a training model that embraces curiosity and openness but that also has a streak of pragmatism around the things that public servants need to get their job done is definitely something to work towards, and extending an invitation for people to curate that experience for their own career rather than just a checklist to cross off could be very powerful in the future. Listen in as Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation, explains this further.  

Listen in as Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, shares her perspectives on dealing with and approaching change from an adaptable and learning mindset. Rachel talks about working through change with a curious and open mindset, which helps you shift your thinking to the opportunity that the change presents. She also discusses the importance of resilience and perseverance with the stuff that's less fun.  

Building networks within your cohort is incredibly valuable as it can help you act with a cross-agency and one-APS mindset. Listen in as Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, provides an example of this from the Indo-Pacific Academy course being run as part of the APS Reform Agenda and the powerful connections and outcomes she's seen.

It's not ok for leaders to cover up, deny a mistake, pretend, or hide there was a mistake. Listen in as Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, explains how in her experience at an institutional level, in reviews when something has gone terribly wrong or there has been a failure, covering it up is often just as bad if not worse than admitting there was a mistake in the first place. It undermines trust and confidence at an organisational level and a cultural level. Rachel provides insights on the importance of leaders showing vulnerability and how this opens the path to a pro-integrity culture that's innovative and where everyone feels psychologically safe.

After much examination and discussion, Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, explains how a growth mindset comes down to elements of learning agility. Perhaps an even simpler answer is being open and willing to learn and try new things. Listen in as she explains this further in this frequently asked question.

A few decades ago, there was a long-held assumption in literature that you would go a long way in your leadership capability if you were smart and had a high IQ. Looking back at that literature today, things have changed. While a high IQ may be necessary, it's not sufficient, and the strongest predictor of leadership capability is, in fact, having a growth mindset. Listen in as Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission, explains this further in this frequently asked question.

Having a clear purpose and belief that something can work and potentially change people’s lives can help you and others to hang in there and keep trying when you hit snags and roadblocks. Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, talks through how maintaining momentum takes time, grit, and resilience, but if you believe in the outcomes of the work you are doing, you will start to see green shoots and find people that believe in the purpose and become supporters too.

“You can’t be strong for others and create the environment you want if you aren’t feeling safe yourself.” Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, shares some wise advice for leaders in starting to become more inclusive to begin by being kind to themselves, giving yourself space and time to retreat and rebuild if that’s the right place for you and that it’s all about getting the right balance and getting to know yourself too.  

“Kindness is always the answer, and being inclusive is just about being kind and respectful of other people.” Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, explains this further in this frequently asked question as she talks about how important diversity is and the diversity of thought, which enables people to have real conversations that can achieve better outcomes.

Listen in as Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, discusses how vital leadership and the authorising environment are in enabling others to try and give things a calculated go while understanding the risks.

Listen in to Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, as she discusses the importance of testing, piloting, and pivoting, sharing her direct experiences working for Service NSW during COVID-19, where she was responsible for determining and delivering many initiatives with rapid turnarounds including the Dine and Discover vouchers. Mandy explains how, on the day of the launch of the vouchers, the system crashed and how they used the experience of this fast failure’ as a learning opportunity to ‘fix it fast’ and succeed for subsequent voucher rollouts.

Have you ever heard the sayings “Culture will eat strategy for breakfast,” or “form should follow function”? Listen in as Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, explains these in context with organisational transformation and how people, systems and processes create the roadmap to follow and that you can’t think and approach these things unless you do it with people.

Listen in as Mandy Young, Chief Executive of the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, discusses the critical success factors in approaching organisational transformation being people, systems, and processes, and shares her direct experience working on the transformation of the Victim’s Compensation and Support Scheme at the Department of Communities and Justice. Mandy provides her perspectives on how critical it is to involve the voices of the people that the change will impact the most from the outset and the importance of communicating. She also talks about setting short, medium, and long-term goals and how to keep building trust more and more throughout the process.

What do you stand for? It may appear to be a simple question, but understanding what you're about and what kind of leader you want to be when you're at your best, and your worst is important to think about because it can help you to take the right opportunities that are aligned to your own values. Listen in as Janet Schorer, Chief Delivery Officer at TAFE NSW, explains this further in this frequently asked question.

As an experienced people leader, Janet Schorer, Chief Delivery Officer at TAFE NSW, knows that the sharpest motivator for any workplace is a connection to purpose and how anchoring a purpose can be in times of change and uncertainty. Listen in as Janet explains this further and gives advice on aligning purpose to your own values and how this can guide your career choices.

Janet Schorer, Chief Delivery Officer for TAFE NSW, details how the workplace has changed over the past ten years in this frequently asked question: how this change has affected the sense of connection and belonging, and the task that people leaders have to create a sense of belonging within their younger workforces that mirrors that of the workplace environments of twenty years ago.

Janet Schorer, Chief Delivery Officer for TAFE NSW, shares her perspectives on how leaders need to approach the younger workforce with a sense of empathy, understanding what it means to be a young person starting their career in today's world and having an appreciation that it is different to where you were, and how they can lean on their experiences to help ease the pressure of burnout.

To help organisations take the first few steps forward in their AI adoption journey, James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, takes us through the checklist they have developed. This checklist ensures that organisations have the right foundations in place to build sustainable momentum behind their AI adoption plans. Please refer to the podcast episode's webpage for a copy of the checklist.

If the keywords you use to interact with AI aren't giving you the expected responses, you're not alone. Listen in as James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, explains the origins of how we think and interact with systems today isn't effective and why a prompting strategy may be required to help with language and word selection.

In this frequently asked question, James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, outlines that, ultimately, the successful adoption of AI in an organisation comes down to its ability to deliver change. Listen in as James provides his five critical success factors for organisations adopting AI.

Listen in as James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, explains that pretty much all of an organisation's workforce's existing skills can support the adoption of AI, just with a different twist to them. In this frequently asked question, James takes us through specific examples of these existing skills and how they can be used in an organisation's adoption of AI.

You may be surprised that at a broad organisation adoption level, it isn't a prerequisite of the workforce to have strong or advanced technical skills to learn AI. Listen in as James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, unpacks this further as he explains this point-of-view based on his experience helping a broad range of organisations adopt AI.

James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, walks us through some simple and easy use cases that he has found beneficial for organisations and users to build confidence as they get started using AI. Find out what they are in this frequently asked question.

It's a fundamental question, considering AI's impact as a future capability both personally and professionally. Listen in as James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, shares two key things everyone can do to get started with AI now: increasing their AI awareness and adopting a culture of testing and learning in AI at an organisational level.

Listen in as Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Queensland Public Sector Commission, provides her Queensland Public Sector perspective on the barriers they experience, on how important it is to have clarity of purpose and a commitment to a sector-wide approach, as well as ensuring that there’s space for agency-specific innovation too.

Having an intentional and holistic approach with a systems view of how the different elements of your approach interact is essential for creating more agility in your organisation. Listen to Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Queensland Public Sector Commission, as she explains this further.

Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Queensland Public Sector Commission, discusses two essential skills that she believes are critical for public sector employees: the ability to learn new things and resilience. Listen to why they are crucial to this frequently asked question.

Listen in as Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Queensland Public Sector Commission, explains the critical role that leadership capabilities play in driving outcomes for the Queensland community and how collaboration, stewardship, and systems thinking are essential to approach complex problems in a coordinated and holistic way.

One thing is for sure. Workforce agility doesn’t happen by osmosis. Listen in as Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Queensland Public Sector Commission, explains the three critical ingredients needed to bake into the workforce to achieve agility.

Continuous learning must be a mainstream objective for high-performing organisations, and it must be at the board level. Listen in as Subho Banerjee, Head of APS Academy and Capability, explains this further and shares his advice to other leaders on embedding a continuous learning culture within their workforce.

Listen to Subho Banerjee, Head of APS Academy and Capability, as he discusses the key challenges he has experienced in implementing a continuous learning culture, how it is still seen as an on-the-side mainstream preoccupation for an organisation, and, importantly, what leaders can do about it.

The adaptive leadership approach is extremely important in the public sector, as it’s suited to the circumstances of public policy and administration. Adaptive leadership underpins all the leadership courses in the APS Academy and should apply to all leaders. Listen to Subho Banerjee, Head of APS Academy and Capability, as he explains this further in this frequently asked question.

Are formal training courses more important than learning on the job? Hear from Subho Banerjee, Head of APS Academy and Capability, as he broadly takes us through the most significant focus area for continuous learning, breaking down the 70/20/10 learning split.

The APS continuous learning model comprises different components that support people in many ways in improving at their jobs. Part of this model includes formal learning, but also learning through your work, with others, and through different networks. Listen in as Subho Banerjee, Head of APS Academy and Capability, takes us through the APS continuous learning model in more detail in this frequently asked question.

Listen in as Subho Banerjee, Deputy Commissioner and Head of APS Academy and Capability, explains that while continuous learning may sound like a bit of jargon, it’s essentially about how you can keep improving and building your skills in your current position as well as other things you may aspire to.

Listen in to hear some successful ways that TAFE NSW has measured skills initiatives. Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer, talks through 360 reviews, self-assessments, and piloting initiatives with iterations over time that have worked well at TAFE NSW.

Involving employees in activities within an organisation that is outside their role or function can be a great way to identify and develop skills. Listen to Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, as she explains how TAFE NSW establishes a working group for its staff recognition awards each year.

Listen in as Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, explains how vital line managers, informal and formal mentors, and coaches are in identifying and bringing out people's latent skills.

In achieving its vision to be the lifelong learning provider to the community and learners it serves across NSW, TAFE NSW has developed a comprehensive learning and development plan that fosters continual learning for its staff. Listen to Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, as she explains TAFE NSW's approach.

Whether you have strong technical or human skills, an underlying factor in success in these areas is others. You need other people to work with you to achieve outcomes for your organisation. Listen in to Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, as she explains striking the balance between both of these skillsets.

It's no surprise that digital skills have become increasingly in demand in recent years as we apply how we work in a digital environment. Still, several soft or human skills have also become critically important. Listen in as Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, outlines these human skills and why they are essential.

Listen to Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer for TAFE NSW, share how TAFE NSW uses skills-based role-play and assessment in interviews, as well as the NSW Public Sector Framework, to outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform roles effectively in a large organisation of 15,000 employees.

One of the most relevant questions for organisations tackling the current skills landscape is: Are skills more important than qualifications? Listen to Julie Tickle, Chief People Officer at TAFE NSW, as she gives her unique and perhaps unexpected perspective on this question.

Everyone is talking about creating a culture of learning in their organisation and promoting lifelong learning within their workforce, but how do you achieve it? Maeve Neilson, General Manager of Health, Safety and Security for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, takes us through her top tips on doing just this including talking to your team and stakeholders, listening with EQ, connecting to the bigger picture, being curious, leading by example and never stop learning.

Feeling a sense of belonging and connection to an organisation can contribute greatly to an organisation’s culture, but it can also play a pivotal role in helping employees to reengage and reduce burnout. In this frequently asked question, Maeve Neilson, General Manager of Health, Safety, and Security for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, takes us through her perspectives on how employees need to get to know themselves first and then understand the organisation they work for and how what they deliver adds value.

With multiple generations within each workforce, have you ever stopped to think about how learning may differ for a Millennial, a Gen Z, a Gen X, or a Baby Boomer? Does it matter? Maeve Neilson, General Manager of Health, Safety and Security for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, provides her perspective on how to avoid the generational judgement by having deeper conversations around what each individual needs and what that looks like for them in this frequently asked question.

It’s a known fact that many employees will leave their organisation if they don’t feel they are getting the proper support and learning development. Listen to Maeve Neilson, General Manager of Health, Safety and Security for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, as she explains how learning and development contribute to culture by helping staff feel that their contribution to the organisation makes a difference.

"Urgency kills strategy. Urgency kills productivity, and urgency kills innovation.” Listen in as Pia Andrews, public servant and global expert in open government and digital government transformation, gives three invaluable tips on adopting new technologies, including:

1. Remembering the outcome you're trying to achieve.

2. Looking for and understanding what things are and not believing the hype.

3. Carving out time.

Pia's podcast episode on adopting new technologies responsibly is available to listen to here.

In this short clip, Steve Brady, Managing Director of TAFE NSW, provides his perspectives on how leaders can keep a positive outlook and stay adaptable in the face of change. Steve also shares how one of the ways he does this is through celebrating the wins. Listen to the full podcast episode on shifting mindsets and leading to empower employees here.

"Implementing human-centred design approaches requires you to come from a position of modelling – being your best human in the first place”. Pia Andrews, public servant and global expert in open government and digital government transformation shared this invaluable advice on purpose and leadership in our podcast series on organisational health. In this short video, Pia talks about how important it is for leaders' to have empathy, care for their staff, and vulnerability as they lead their teams. Pia's full podcast episode on purpose and leadership is also available here.

In this video, Pia Andrews, public servant and global expert in open government and digital government transformation, talks through five key strategies that she uses in leading teams, covering prioritising through slowing things down, establishing a culture of change and engagement through being united with purpose, working openly to establish trust, building playtime into the whole lifecycle and fast value versus long value. Pia's full podcast episode on purpose and leadership is also available here.

Pia Andrews, public servant and global expert in open government and digital government transformation, spoke on purpose and leadership in series one of our podcast series on organisational health. In this clip, Pia shares her perspective on the need for leaders to shift to adaptive leadership, where leaders delegate down to their teams, trust them, buy into, understand, and value the internal expertise that their team brings to the room. She also speaks on how critical it is for leaders to have a clear purpose and a culture committed to trust and kindness. The full episode of this podcast is also available to listen to here.

Intersectionality is where factors of advantage and disadvantage create modes of discrimination or privilege. In this video, Julie Etchells, Chief Human Resource Officer with the Department of Children, Youth Justice, and Multicultural Affairs for the Queensland Government, explains intersectionality, talks through an example scenario of the intersectionality of privilege, and provides her tips for leaders in creating a space at the table where everyone can participate. You can also listen to the full podcast episode featuring Julie on Realising diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations here.

"Model the way, lead the way". Julie Etchells, Chief Human Resource Officer with the Department of Children, Youth Justice, and Multicultural Affairs for the Queensland Government, provides her invaluable perspectives in this video on how important it is for leaders to lead authentically and how in doing this it creates an authorising environment for others to feel safe that they can be who they are and have equal access to opportunities, and raise their concerns. You can also listen to the full podcast episode featuring Julie on Realising diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations here.

In this video, Julie Etchells, Chief Human Resource Officer with the Department of Children, Youth Justice, and Multicultural Affairs for the Queensland Government, explains how creating an inclusive workplace starts with the physical safety of employees, knowing they are physically safe to undertake their role, and then psychological safety, and how these two types of safety go hand-in-hand. You can also listen to the full podcast episode featuring Julie on Realising diversity, equity, and inclusion aspirations here.

Listen to David Powell, Author, founder, and life skills mentor at The Golden Thread, as he takes us through what a customer-focused contribution agreement is, how it goes far beyond a job description, and how to approach it. Within this three-minute clip, David describes how a contribution agreement needs to include how the employee will contribute to the organisation's success vision, and how the organisation will contribute to the employee's capabilities. This answer is part of a broader conversation with David in the seventh episode of our organisational health podcast series, available to listen to here.

David Powell, Author, founder, and life skills mentor at The Golden Thread, takes us through his perspectives on how learning and development programs can provide employees with the skills needed to develop a stronger sense of self, become more self-motivated, and calm the mind down, enabling a better flow of creativity and helping to make problem-solving easier. This answer is part of a broader conversation with David in the seventh episode of our organisational health podcast series, available to listen to here.

Listen as David Powell, Author, founder, and life skills mentor at The Golden Thread, takes us through how organisations can help their employees elicit their own vision for their life and how in doing that, along with having a graphical vision and plan for their organisation, essentially means motivating the employee twice. The podcast episode on the seventh dimension of organisational health is also available here.

Listen in as Cherie Canning, Founder and Director of Luminate Leadership, explains that leaders should be asking, 'How are we creating connections with our employees.' During this question, Cherie provides examples from her client-based experiences on how they make workplace connection a ritual and suggests how to get started. As part of our podcast series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness, the entire episode on workplace culture is available to listen to here.

As a passionate advocate for mental health, Cherie Canning provides the essential steps all organisational leaders can take to support their employees' mental health. Tune in as Cherie also provides examples of wellness areas and initiatives that her clients have developed to help support the health of their teams. As part of our podcast series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness, the entire episode on workplace culture is available to listen to here.

Leadership can be one of the critical determinants of a toxic workplace culture, and often, new leaders inherit a toxic culture. Listen to Cherie Canning, Founder and Director of Luminate Leadership, as she describes how leaders can turn a toxic culture around and provides examples of how leaders have done just that. As part of our podcast series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness, the entire episode on workplace culture is available to listen to here.

As Cherie Canning from Luminate Leadership explained previously in our podcast series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness, for leaders to create a people-centric culture, it starts with psychological safety. Listen in as Cherie explains the four stages of psychological safety and how these play out in practice: inclusion safety, learner safety, contribution safety, and challenge safety. You can also listen to the full podcast episode here.

Cherie Canning, Founder and Director of Luminate Leadership, joined Andy in series one of our podcasts on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness to talk about workforce culture. The conversation started with a clear definition of a people-centric culture and the starting point for how leaders can create it. You can also listen to the full podcast episode here.

Listen in as Rodger Watson, Senior Lecturer and Founding Course Director at the University of Technology Sydney, shares his perspectives from his experience working in the public sector and through an academic lens using a practices model his team has created. Rodger discusses how internal mobility is an essential part of resilience and, if done right, can help to build a T-shaped workforce, one that has broad experience with some disciplinarian expertise, and how this can not only help with individual career growth but also contribute to a trust culture between colleagues. You can also listen to the full podcast episode here.

Listen in as Rodger Watson, Senior Lecturer and Founding Course Director at the University of Technology Sydney, explains the difference between a command-and-control and a team-of-teams approach to the employee experience and how using a team-of-teams approach will result in much more adaptive ways of working. You can also listen to the full podcast episode here.

In a previous FAQ on how an operating model can help organisations to adapt to change, Andy Corbett explained how crafting a vision that addresses how the organisation will operate once changes are implemented is vital in helping organisations succeed in change. In this new FAQ, Scott Johnston, Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, shares a great example of how Revenue successfully engaged its workforce in developing its ten-year vision and contributed significantly to creating a sense of belonging in its workforce culture. You can also listen to the full podcast episode here.

Tune in as Daniel Bowes, Executive Director, NSW Department of Customer Service, provides his top three tips on how leaders can improve their delivery to customers as part of our second podcast series of Trailblazing with CorbettPrice on embracing organisational change.

Many people have an idea of what design thinking is, but listening to Rodger Watson, Senior Lecturer and Founding Course Director at the University of Technology in Sydney, explain how a designerly approach to improving the employee experience can be applied, definitely helps to put the theory into practice. This excerpt is from our complete podcast episode on the employee experience as part of our first series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness.

Organisation design is an essential area for leaders to address, as getting it right can significantly improve customer satisfaction, employee retention, and innovation. As part of our first Trailblazing with CorbettPrice podcast series on organisational health, Scott Johnston, Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, joined us to discuss what’s important in addressing organisational design and how his team at Revenue approaches it.

Listen in as Scott Johnston, Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, provides his perspectives and experiences on organisational agility and resiliency as part of our first podcast series of Trailblazing with CorbettPrice on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness. In this FAQ, Scott shares how his team has used customer-centred design principles to provide flexibility and improve how they deliver their service to customers.