

None of us really know what 2040 will hold for us but we do know it’s going to be radically different to what it is in 2025. Listen in as David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, provides his perspectives on how we can prepare our workforces for the future. David explains that when you look to the future, you’ve got to keep focussing on what the workforce you have and the flexibility and agility of the workforce to keep adapting, responding and changing to new situations to help us face other black swan events as they arise. David also shares his views on future trends and the role that technology will play in that. Listen to his episode here
The pandemic was a common problem that affected everyone. And in those situations when you have a common problem that’s sitting in front of you, it can make it easier to collaborate. As David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, explains in this FAQ, it sounds simple, but it can be hard to do. When you don’t have a global pandemic, it has to be based around what we are trying to achieve as a nation, and if you have a common vision about where you are going and what you want to jointly achieve that transcends personal and parochial interests, then you get collaboration. If you have good leadership, then people will work together. Listen to his episode here
Listen in as David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, explains how failure is part of the innovative journey in this FAQ. He discusses that to innovate you have to push the boundaries on what you’re working on and with that comes the risk of failure. Failure is a natural human process, but it doesn’t mean that it’s pleasant to experience or that we want to fail. David also provides examples of how in science and astromony they perform experiments or have hyptotheses that they test until they fail or prove them wrong so failing really is a learning opportunity and provides a way to improve. Listen to his episode here
Using GenAI to analyse a situation with all the history and develop a set of recommendations can be great, but especially in the public sector, we need to make sure that the human element is always in any decision-making. David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, explains the essential considerations of using AI in this FAQ and how, in his role as Chancellor of The University of Sydney, he is encouraging students to use AI, exercising their judgment and discernment, and being transparent about when they have used it. Listen to his episode here
Technology is the major enabler of so much change in society, industry, and public policy. It pervades everything. Digital enablement and the digital underlying of everything we do are the magic ingredients that allow us to do things differently. Listen in as David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, shares his perspectives on the role of technology in innovation. However, he stresses that we need guardrails in place for how we use these technologies, as data and algorithms are not pure. Listen to his episode here
When you have a trusting environment, accountability always goes with it, and it's about getting the right balance. David Thodey, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, joins us to discuss this further in this FAQ as he reflects on his time at Telstra. He also goes on to provide a great example from NetFlix in how they managed expenses and took a more trusted view and stresses how leaders need to set up an authorising environment that mitigates people's accountability so there is a worthiness of trust. Listen to his episode here
Listen in as David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, talks about trust and how it's a really important element in empowerment in this FAQ. David also discusses how trust isn't blind faith or anarchy; it's deliberate, and accountability goes with trust.
Listen in as David Thodey, Business Leader, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of the University of Sydney, reflects on the importance of driving innovation in a world that's changing rapidly and how great leaders are able to adapt to the ambiguity around them. David also reflects on his time working on the APS Review in 2018-2019 and how, when they looked at the characteristics of leadership between industry and the public sector, it was public sector leaders who had the attribute of leading in ambiguity. Listen to his episode here