Category: Uncategorized

how to learn, Reflective practice, Thinking differently, Uncategorized

How to learn when: Confronted with people who have passionately different views to your own

@ReneeRoberz

Learning isn’t something that necesarily happens magically as an adult. You have to work at it.

Approaching a potentially uncomfortable, or emotive topic from a place of learning is your best chance of both finding common ground, having constructive conversations and evoling and learning something new.

As I see my friends and people I admire and respect shout loudly that black lives matter (because they do) I similtaniously see others retreat. Speaking with them, their reasons are varied. Concerned about saying the wrong thing. Concerned about entering into a conversation that they don’t feel equipped to undertake. Afraid of conflict, afraid of being labelled, afraid of accidently offending.

If this sounds like you, I challenge you take some time to learn more about others’ perspectives that challenge your view of the world. Come at it from a place of learning, and try to understand where others are coming from. Not to argue, not to ‘win’ a debate or force someone to hear your opinion. Just to learn.

The goal isn’t to change someone else’s mind. The goal is to grow your own.

Places you can start:

  • Have you ever tested yourself for your unconsious biases? You can do that online in a tool developed by Harvard University.
  • Understand that different country’s histories mean that the context for #blacklivesmatter may be different where you live. I grew up in New Zealand, live in Australia and many of my friends and family live in the United States. These countries are not the same, nor are their histories of colonisation. Learn your history. Not the highlights, not the easy-to-digest stuff. The stuff that makes you uncomfortable. The fact that genocide occured in Australia up until the 1950s/60s. That while Maori in New Zealand make up 14% of the population, they make up 53% of the prison population.
  • The conversation about racism is not inherently political – it’s not about who you vote for. Yes – some politicians are more/less racist/antiracist than others. That doesn’t mean that your politics define your attitude on human rights.
  • Read read read! Here are some starting points:
    • SWAAY resources
    • Learn about the movement from people involved – not just the news channel or newspaper you normally get your news from. #blacklivesmatter
    • And a personal favourite? Trevor Noah, he’s is absolute gold. His instragram account is well worth looking at.

Finally – and this is probably the most important: remember that not everyone has the bandwidth to help you learn.

It’s not fair to assume that anyone wants to discuss this with you, or has the emotional reserves to do so. Think of it like asking a random woman invasive questions about rape – chances are she, or someone close to her has been raped. She may not want to discuss rape in depth with you at all. She may just not want to discuss it with you today.

So at the point someone raises this with you? It’s ok to ask questions and learn – as long as its ok with them. Again – like any other situation where you want to learn – ask questions, dont’ disagree or argue – just learn.

This post isn’t meant to lecture – I acknowledge that everyone comes from a different background, has different experiences and I think it’s important not to presume you know why someone has the opinion that they do.

There’s nothing wrong with learning and growing and changing your opinion about big subjects.

Uncategorized

What better time to… leave my job?

@ReneeRoberz

Well, 2020 has been just a little insane so far.

I have been incredibly fortunate to be with an employer, and working for a leadership team, that has displayed person-centered decision making in a time of crisis. The role of People & Culture has never been harder, or more critical than it has been in recent times, and I think we’ve all seen companies and their leaders show their true colours.

Next time you are approached about a role, or are looking for one, getting a good understanding of how an organisation has dealt with COVID-19 would be one of the best tests of what they really stand for and who their leaders really are.

So in saying all that – I’m doing something many people have responded with “but, are you sure…?” when I’ve told them the news. I’m leaving my incredibly safe, close-knit P&C team, with a fantastic Executive and Leadership Team, to return to the nonprofit world as a result of a dream gig appearing in front of me, in the middle of a pandemic.

Sure… starting a new role completely remotely will be challenging, and I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that I’m a tiny bit nervous for a career-shift right now. But something that I’ve been reflecting on a lot over the past year, ever since our family had a life-changing diagnosis, is what I truly value in life. For me, this means returning to a learning and organisational development-focused position, rejoining the nonprofit sector and enrolling in further post-grad studies in digital adult education.

So it’s goodbye to bloom hearing specialists, and hello to Life Without Barriers, I’m excited for the next adventure!

Career, Human Resources, Leadership, Reflective practice, SHRM, SHRM18, Uncategorized

The Disruption of HR

@ReneeRoberz

Disruption doesn’t happen from the inside.

The founders of Invisalign weren’t dentists. Uber wasn’t created by Taxi drivers. Airbnb wasn’t created by hoteliers. And yet now they dominate their industries after completely upending them.

The digital disruption means that everyone’s specialty is at risk of being toppled by someone else. Someone that doesn’t know your business and industry as well as they did. But it turns out that’s an advantage. Because they’re not constrained by the same limitations you place on yourself.

I’m fascinated by speakers in the disruption of HR, of how we treat people within business.

Over the past month I’ve been soaking up some gems from a few people who are the very thought leaders (without making you sick with an over-used term) who I believe will take HR where it needs to go to deliver on what the world of work needs in the future.

The futurist

I am lucky enough to know the fantastic Alex Hagan – Alex is the founder & CEO of Kienco, a workforce strategy consultancy based in Melbourne who works all over the world and as well as being generally excellent at what he does, is a lovely human. We got talking about the future of HR the other day.

The discussion centred around the ‘old guard’ (AKA those who live for policies, procedures, control and to say ‘no’), and the opportunity and responsibility of nurturing those who see the real value-add: to provide strategic people counsel and guidance to help organisations flourish along with the people within them. The ones who will guide the HR profession into the future, when the ‘no’ crowd’s value is superseded by apps and automation.

The Dr of Change

I went to a fascinating breakfast learning session the other week (often an oxymoron) where Dr Josephine Palermo spoke on the cultural disruption an exceptionally large telecommunications company in Australia – Telstra – is facing as it expands over borders and moves into becoming a technology company – rooting it’s change in the customer experience. I know. Customer experience. It’s so overdone. But what got me excited about hearing Josephine speak was this was real.

The key takeaway for me? That we need to move away from ‘best practice’ – there’s no such thing when you’re looking at such new concepts and changes. What you should be aiming for is ‘emerging practice’ and knowing your business well enough to create a fail fast safe environment.

This really resonated with me – it speaks to the core of what HR needs to understand, live and breathe and then teach others to do. If we’re all about people – then we should be modelling great change, understanding the people in our organisation (and by extension, our customers), and helping the business deliver on what’s required to meet our goals.

The Social Movement

I’m so fortunate to be a part of the #SHRM18 blogging crew – but what’s cooler about this than me being stoked to be a part of it is the company I get to keep. HR is a social beast and to continually improve we need to surround ourselves with people that do it differently, people that do it better, and learn and adapt and share what we know to help make work better – because isn’t that what we all want?

To be a part of the social movement making HR better I’ve got some brilliant recommendations of where to go:

  • (self promotion alert) check out the phenomenal crew of #SHRM18 bloggers – they’re all on Twitter and there’s also some great individual blogs that you can follow. It’s easy to set up a feed rather than subscribe to them all if that’s your thing? Feedly is a great resource to get all your blog/article/website articles in an easy-to-read magazine style one stop shop.
  • Definitely get onto HR Open Source. They are freaking awesome. What could be better than a community of people just like you (if you are also fantastic) who want to make HR and work better for everyone? There’s a tonne of crowd-sourcing of HR challenges, sharing of resources and just a great sense of community.
  • Soak up some podcasts. On your way to work? You can totally learn while you’re doing that. Check out:
    • Drive Thru HR (so good – and heaps of content!) hosted by @MikeVanDervort it is seriously good stuff.
    • HR Happy Hour – hosted by some of the best in the business @SteveBoese & @TrishMcFarlane.
    • Impact Makers from @JenniferMcClure – this is a new one but Jennifer is AWESOME and you should definitely check it out.
    • We’re Only Human – HR is about people, and Ben (@BenEubanks) is a phenomenal interviewer who has one of the longest histories in HR/work podcasting out there. Highly recommend.
    • Business, Life & Coffee @joeyvpriceHR, the CEO of Jumpstart:HR is an excellent interviewer and really expands your horizons with some really interesting business leaders and a wide variety of experts.
    • Talking People & Tech from @DaveGass & Jared Cameron looking at the intersection of HR & Technology.

(There are so many more I could go on about – but often I find out about a really good one from listening to another – it does become a bit of an addiction).

  • Get into the HR Book Club – it’s not too late! From the HR-famous (yeah, that’s a thing) @LRuettimann herself. Laurie also has an excellent Vlog series that you can access on her website.

So what do we need to do? Keep asking questions, soak up all the knowledge you can, and as you’re figuring it out make sure you share so we can all learn from you too!

Uncategorized

#HRMixTape2018 – The Beyoncé Edition

@ReneeRoberz

I was spending some time waiting on my flight to Sydney getting right into my twitter feed and what do I find?

The perfect opportunity to work Beyoncé quotes into my blog. #lifeachievementunlocked.

#HRMixTape2018 is a challenge issued by @MarkSWHRF to write an HR blog using and linking 5 pieces of music to illustrate your point. So, in honour of one of the smartest HR pros I know, and an epic Beyoncé fan, Bella Yool, this one’s dedicated to you!

1

Single Ladies

(AKA: Engagement)

All the single ladies

Now put your hands up

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

‘Cause if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it

What’s one of the most critical elements of getting HR right in your organisation? Employee engagement. Because you can have the best of everything but if your people aren’t committed and they don’t care then you’re fighting a loosing battle.

In the wise words of the Queen herself, if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it.

2

Run the World

(AKA: Creating an Environment Where Women Can Succeed)

Who are we?

What we brought?

We run the world

Who run the world? Girls

The #metoo movement has been a timely reminder for many who (mistakenly) thought that sexual harassment in the workplace was a thing of the past. It still happens all the time, and just because this type of harassment (and others) aren’t always visible doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.

While this cannot ever be just HR’s responsibility, we have an important role to play in making sure that organisational leadership makes a conscious effort to create environments where women can thrive (and maybe run the world?) without fear of harassment.

3

Telephone (with Lady Gaga)

(AKA: Work/life Balance)

‘Cause I’ll be dancin’

‘Cause I’ll be dancin’

Tonight I’m not takin’ no calls, ’cause I’ll be dancin’!

Work is important. You can work your whole life towards a career objective and I respect that. But you can’t just be work. Family, friends, quality puppy time, these things are important. And sometimes HR people, when our lives are about careers, it’s easy to forget that we should also be the guardians of promoting a healthy balance.

So kick off your work shoes, grab some dancing ones, and head out for a boogie!

4

Daddy Lessons

(AKA: Know Your Business)

My daddy warned me about men like you

He said baby girl he’s playing you

He’s playing you

Cause when trouble comes in town

And men like me come around

Oh, my daddy said shoot

Oh, my daddy said shoot

Don’t let yourself get played! A key element of being an excellent business partner and delivering valuable people guidance to your stakeholders?

Know your business. Don’t just listen to the spiel. Get in there, understand the crucial elements of your business. What keeps your CEO up at night? What about the executive team? Your manager? The frontline staff? They all matter. Don’t take anything on face value alone, you need to dig deep.

5

If I Were a Boy

(AKA: The Gender Pay Gap)

If I were a boy

Even just for a day

I’d roll out of bed in the morning

And throw on what I wanted and go

Drink beer with the guys

And chase after girls

I’d kick it with who I wanted

And I’d never get confronted for it

‘Cause they’d stick up for me

You know what sucks? People getting paid differently for the same job because of their anatomy. You know what else sucks? Not understanding the systems behind the undervaluing of work traditionally seen as feminine.

I’m not suggesting a radical overhaul of your remuneration policies to put the cleaners on the same salary as the C-Suite – but when reviewing and setting remuneration continually challenge yourself and your colleagues:

  • Is this decision fair?
  • Does this decision consider equity? (Not always the same thing as ‘fair’), and
  • What assumptions are we making about the real value of someone’s work and them as a valued member of our company?

Oh my gosh – and now I’m realising. I could run my whole career on Beyoncé’s advice? Who knew?!

Thanks Mark – I have really enjoyed this!

Career, Formal learning, Human Resources, SHRM, Uncategorized, Working in People & Culture

Investing in Yourself

@ReneeRoberz

L’Oréal says ‘you’re worth it’

Nike says ‘just do it’

And I say ‘what they said’.

 

It’s easy to go through life, be content in your job, hope for something better to work out one day but think ‘it’ll happen in time’. But it’s not that easy. Good things don’t always come to those who wait. Sometimes you need to back yourself – because if you don’t, other won’t either.

This week I spoke as a part of a panel to a fantastic group of university students about transitioning from university to their career of choice. These students had made the admirable decision to invest in themselves, and put in the hard work (and expense) and attain a graduate or post graduate degree.

Formal university education is often what we think of in relation to getting the career we want, but in a competitive employment market, it is never enough. In my years in HR it has never been the letters at the end of an applicants name that have stood out. It’s when I can clearly see how much they’ve prioritised their own learning and development, beyond what is offered in tertiary study or as a part of their employment.

When giving advice to new graduates and people looking to take the next step in their career, my advice is always similar:

  1. Study can be your friend. But consider all options.

    Many hiring managers highly value the right letters from the right school – and without knocking that, I think it’s important to consider your industry, where it’s headed and what your goals are. Want to be seen as an employment law expert? Then a Masters in HR with law as a major might be for you. If you’re not sure and just think it will be easier to land a job with an MBA? Proceed with caution.

  2. Don’t undervalue your professional association.

    I’m a big advocate of professional associations, upon relocating to Australia from New Zealand five years ago AHRI was a magic bag of opportunity and learning. Likewise, over the past 3 years I’ve been a member of SHRM I’ve been exposed to a HUGE amount of learning and professional development. Don’t forget, it’s not just the professional development you may have access to, or the certification you may achieve (both worthy elements though) – but it’s the people who will share with you and help you grow that I think are the most valuable element of a good professional association.

  3. Use social!

    You’re reading a blog right? There are so many better ones out there than this! I’m an (enthusiastic) amateur, I’ve learned so much from people in my field who share freely and offer advice, support – and sometimes even resources. The beauty of the internet? You don’t even have to attend a conference to be able to learn from it and connect with the attendees thanks to Twitter.

  4. Get outside your comfort zone.

    Scared of public speaking? Think you can’t hack a secondment within the operations of your organisation? Afraid to put yourself out there by writing an article on LinkedIn? Just do it. Getting outside of your comfort zone is the perfect way to learn new things, whether you succeed or ‘fail’ (read: learn an important lesson about how to be more effective next time).

  5. Chase brilliant people.

    The times that I’ve learned the most? When I’ve been partnered with great minds on pieces of work – an experienced nonprofit executive, a dynamic CEO, a GM who ran rings around everyone they worked with. Grab hold of roles and opportunities where you are surrounded by people who know their stuff. Because their smarts do rub off!

  6. Most importantly – provide opportunities for others.

    Good things come to those who put their money where their mouths are. Want to take the next step? Provide assistance to someone who needs theirs. My most successful moments can all be traced back to someone else believing in me, offering my advice or an opportunity (and I’ll forever be grateful).

 

 

Reflective practice, Slow Thinking, Uncategorized

Learning from your mistakes as a manager

@ReneeRoberz

“Managers learn from the meaning they give to experience, not from the experience itself, and they give meaning to experience by reflecting”
Sievert & Daudelin 1999

This is a pretty powerful idea – you don’t just learn from your experiences but you learn from reflecting on those experiences. During my career I have seen some leaders make huge mistakes, reflect on them honestly with themselves, learn and grow in to even better leaders because of them.
Likewise, I’ve seen other leaders make similar mistakes, have similar outcomes but due to a lack of real reflection never learn from the experience and thus repeating it many times over.

Alan was a great up and coming manager, he was learning from an excellent people manager who was well respected in the business and eager to take on advice and apply it to his own journey as a leader. A tricky employee issue came up – Steve was a handful in the workplace and with a couple of (minor issues) some mental health issues began to surface.
Alan was eager to do the text book right thing (although maybe was a little overzealous in some discussions) – Steve didn’t take it well and it a long process was entered in to that took a lot of time and effort on the part of Alan’s manager, the business and the HR team.
Heaps of people have been in Alan’s position. Your first few years of management aren’t easy and you will always make mistakes.
Alan’s manager, being a great people manager coached Alan through the process and the aftermath – in a way that set could Alan up for real success with learning opportunities from this difficult situation.

The next point is where the great people leaders and the perpetual managers differ (and I’m sure you’ll be able to recognise people from both camps). What does Alan do next?

A.        Does he think about his role in the outcome, sort through decisions he made and see how they inter played with a mental health and performance issue in the workplace learning how he might deal with a similar issue differently in the future?

B.        Or, does he reflect and critically evaluate, no matter the mitigating factors (the performance issues and mental health concerns) that he had preferences, biases and a limited frame of reference. Does he then take time to reflect on how his responses could have differed at different stages of the process? How may these tendencies play out in other, less similar circumstances? May he learn something from his process, his behaviour that might make a difference with an entirely different situation in the future?

Alan A think’s he’s being reflective and learning from the situation – but his focus is external. What would he change being given a very similar issue in the future?

Alan B is being reflective and will really learn from the situation. His learning and subsequent behaviour change will transcend a very similar issue and will be able to be applied in many future situations.

When you learn a lesson, face a challenge or hit a wall, do you critically reflect? Or do you pay lip service to the process but never really change your behaviour?

Alan A can be called a ‘single loop learner’ – he’s looking at feedback (did something succeed or fail) to help establish what he could try next.

Alan B can be called a ‘double loop learner’ – he’s looking at feedback but he’s asking additional questions which help him get to the root cause, underlying beliefs, values  and assumptions.

If you want to encourage double loop learning in your practise try asking yourself:
Why did I try that in the first place?
What made me think that would work?
When have I experienced similar results?
What has this shown me about myself?

#SoMe, Brand, Uncategorized

Accepting (Or Rejecting) LinkedIn Invites

@ReneeRoberz

I love connecting with new people online. I often make connections through Twitter (especially Tweet Chats), conversations in groups on LinkedIn, via comments sections on websites/blogs, I’ve met people via Periscope and Blab and recently discovered HipChat (how cool is that!? Thanks Melissa!).

However one thing I don’t generally do is accept LinkedIn invites from people I don’t know or haven’t had a conversation with previously. There have been a couple of exceptions – when the request has come with a short message about why the person wants to connect I’ve accepted and then had some great conversations, both online and in real life (or IRL for those of you that remember MS Messenger).

My main reason for this is that I like my LinkedIn feed being relevant to me. I get a huge amount of my own professional development from seeing what my connections and groups share and I believe the platform would lose relevance to me if it became a feed of 1001 different irrelevant posts.

When I receive an invite from someone I know I always accept, and if I don’t know them I will go through a couple of steps before declining:

  1. Have they written a message about why they want to connect? If they have and it makes sense to me I’ll accept and send them a message to start a conversation.
  2. If there is no message I check out their LinkedIn profile – have I met them somewhere/worked with them in a past life? It can be easy to dismiss people too quickly, especially if they’ve change their surname or it’s been a few years.
  3. I also do a quick Twitter search – have I interacted with them on that platform?
  4. If something about their profile intrigues me I will send them a message (thanks Helen Blunden for this great LinkedIn email responses article, I’ve adapted the suggested messages and used these myself) asking what they’re looking to achieve out of the connection.
  5. If none of these things are true I will decline the invite.

LinkedIn is a professional network, not a popularity contest. LinkedIn groups (which have gone through a great facelift recently) provide an opportunity for open networking – my personal connections do not need to be that open network.

How do you judge who you accept connection requests from? I don’t believe there is a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to use this platform – just the way that works best for you.

 

First published on LinkedIn

Leadership, Personal brand, PKM, Uncategorized

2016: Year of the Rocket

@ReneeRoberz

Well, I’ve been slack – at least when it comes to posting regularly here. But now it’s officially 2016 I guess it’s time to make a whole lot of resolutions I’ve got no intention of keeping and kick off on an unsustainable eating/excercise regime?
In all seriousness though, I am going to take the bull by the horns (or should that be red monkey?) when it comes to 2016. Oh yeah, 2015 was pretty great – in fact the reason I was so slack on the blogging front was because I started a new job (with the same awesome people). But 2016 is going to be even better!
Last year I was inundated with opportunity – so much so that I really had to take stock of what I value and want my life to be full with. I decided that a new job with the same organisation was where it was at, the #PeoplePeopleCU was a great way to connect with likeminded people in Melbourne, I was more active and sought out more professional development both in person and online and I also was lucky enough to meet some really great people along the way.
So how do I improve on 2015?
I’m going to take Dr Jason Fox’s advice and pick a word for the year, last year I picked ‘Build’ and didn’t really tell anyone about it. This year I’m going to go with ‘Rocket’.
Rocket (for me at least) = the year of launching some amazing things and seeing them fly. (Side note: if you don’t know of Dr Jason Fox and his writing/speaking you need to google him. Now.)
I’m really exciting about 2016 and what it holds. This year I’m off to the SHRM Conference in Washington D.C., there are some massive projects at work that are going to require a lot of time and energy and I’m looking forward to more People People Catch Ups and learning from some cool people.
Just before I sign out on my first (hopefully of many) blogs for the year I’d like to say a big thanks to all the amazing people that made my world better last year – there are just too many to mention but I’m so grateful for all of your sharing, caring and general excellence.

Uncategorized

What’s Good (or Great) HR? From the Outside In #AHRINC

@ReneeRoberz

Nicholas Barnett CEO of InSync talks real evaluation of what’s proven to work in HR.

The research has only been completed in June (the report is due in the next two months). Nicholas is part of the AHRI Research Advisory Group and is also really active on various boards and with AHRI.

The rapid pace of change as has been an ongoing theme throughout the AHRI National Conference… Nicholas continues the (shocking) discussion around how quickly this is happening. He references Uber (surpassing taxis), airbnb (taking over InterContinental)… these companies weren’t around a few years ago.

So we need to be future focused

  

Let’s be more outward looking, let’s be more customer centric. We can’t have this session without talking about leadership – this is also absolutely critical to the success of HR.

REAL leadership (relationships, exemplar, ambitious, live an inspiring vision) – this is the model of leadership Nicholas follows (awesome stuff!).

  
We’ve got to be ambitious to really nurture a high performance culture (this echoes Gary Pert’s great session on high performance teams). Nicholas comes across as incredibly passionate about living with an inspiring vision.

The research surveyed over 800 HR professionals (I’m really glad to be able to say that I took part in this study). The AHRI Model of Excellence is really great (and will become more and more important as accreditation becomes the standard).

  
‘My Contribution’ (are all 17 attributes) – Dave Ulrich talked about this being one of the most advanced models for HR in the world (awesome work AHRI!).

Findings

  • HR/CEO’s and Execs all rated these similarly in importance (and performance). So we’re not greatly out of step with what business is seeing as critical HR skills (phew!).
  • HR are self-aware regarding their performance (similar to where execs rated them) – HR rated themselves as slightly more adept
  • Overall the study found that performance was lower than importance (common in a bi-variant survey)
  • Behaviours were seen as being more important than capabilities in HR (is this true for everyone? Great question from the audience: Nicholas says in his view of leadership it is yes – but all 17 facets are important)

This session is fascinating. I highly recommend anyone reading to get a hold of the AHRI research when it’s released to see the information in more detail.

  • The gaps (something is important and we’re not performing well) according to HR are: credible, future oriented and influencer. Interesting. The gaps are smallest in understanding and care, critical and enquiry thinker and professional.
  • The exec view says that the biggest gap is in culture and change leader, stakeholder, mentor and coach and strategic architect.

Are we changing fast enough? The room doesn’t think their organisations are!

The largest opportunities for improvement:

  • Be future focused, be a culture and a change leader
  • Remember your context is rapidly changing, and is really different organisation to organisation and industry to industry 
  • Gender differences: female execs say that the importance is higher and the performance is lower (it’s not a huge difference, but it is there). This is also true of female HR professionals. Male execs say the opposite.

  
Above image: Differences in industry perspectives. Does the life/death and competitive nature of these environments justify the increased view of importance over performance for healthcare/social assistance and finance/insurance executives?

Cultural change is tough in big companies – a lot of nods around the room of the data that indicates this (higher view of importance in companies 5000-1000)

So how do we be more future focused and more forward looking? How do we carve out time to make sure we do that in HR.

  • Carnegie’s story of writing down 6 things each day to do each day (just the 6 most important) – he then sent a cheque to the idea’s guy for 25000 pounds as that’s how much he thought the idea was worth. How do we ensure that we do this?
Uncategorized

Work: Today & Tomorrow #AHRINC 

@ReneeRoberz

Presenters:

Natalie Slessor (Head of Workplace, Lend Lease)

Susan Ferrier (National Managing Partner, People, Performance & Culture, KPMG)

Helen Lea (Exec Director, Enterprise Services, Telstra)
Natalie Slessor

  

Work is now happening outside the box… what do we need in the workplace – let’s stop and think about that and then design what we need.

Now we can work anywhere it’s more important than ever that our workplace captures an idea – and communicates it effectively.


Susan Ferrier

  

Many organisations are unable to embrace new ideas at speed and scale. We aren’t just designing office space – we’re designing every aspect of our business with every aspect of this 21st Century employee in mind. Agile leadership is front and centre. At KPMG they are upping the ante on collaboration. Solution focused customer interactions are critical. Feedback needs to be listened to instantaneously: this is centred on people.

Connection, Edge, Freedom, Conscience (focus point for KPMG).

Pilots to achieve this are working: productivity remained the same but engagement increased.

We need to think, act and deliver differently. Everything is personal, it can’t just be business.
Helen Lea

OMG she started with if you have an issue with Telstra come and speak to Helen after her session (shock and horror – what a way to begin!)

Organisational purpose: create a connected future for everyone.

They are really using technology at Telstra to encourage real technological mobility (e.g. their CYOD policy which is offered to 20,000 employees and partner staff).

  
Real leadership on flexible work has been critical to it’s success at Telstra – this has now helped provide some great customer insights.

Telstra uses devices to access intranet and systems access (e.g. e-learning as needed) – testing the bounds of security and identity registration in new ways (and leading the way for their own customers).

Telstra has a 4 month preparation for when moving people into new ways of working: 1400 people are in the new environment using all of these new technologies.

Lessons learned include: combine business cases, consider people. place and tech together, be bold (plan for success), leadership counts, ground the work in your purpose and values.