Frequently asked questions.

Learning from peers and each other has also changed across Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority’s thirty-five-year career, as he reflects on this in this frequently asked question. Tim shares how peer learning has become like a web of interactions across an organisation and how leaders need to know where the nodes are within this web and where the strands grow from these nodes to create effective peer learning from that, as it isn’t necessarily the most seasoned or experienced staff. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.  

Many studies have shown the connection between engagement and learning with a workforce and how this drives wellbeing and productivity. Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, provides his perspectives on this connection in this frequently asked question, and how from his experience, leaders that can demonstrate connection, vulnerability, and an open mindset to learning and growing themselves are leading their organisation in a direction which encourages everyone to do the same and results in people being more engaged, open and curious. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, advises on how to encourage individuals to develop empathy in the workplace in this frequently asked question. Tim explains that leaders can model and demonstrate empathy by acknowledging and recognising it when it’s done and considering setting the right tone that encourages an empathetic and open approach. Tim also reflects that, ultimately, it is up to an individual to achieve these goals through accountability and ownership. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, shares how leaders and managers need to create conditions that allow individuals to consider how they want to drive their own self-awareness, as it’s really up to them to want to develop and learn. Tim also provides ways for leaders to look to help and encourage people further in this frequently asked question. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.  

Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), shares his perspectives on the critical attributes that set organisations with a learning culture apart from those without. In this frequently asked question, he shares three of these aspects: systems thinking, a genuine openness to self-awareness, and a diverse team approach to solving problems. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Listen as Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA), explains some of the external shocks organisations have to deal with in an increasingly ambiguous, uncertain, and complex world in 2025 than in 1990 when he started his career. These include but are not limited to the proliferation of AI, which brings extraordinary opportunities and challenges, and how the climate changes and the need to adapt to it. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Across Tim Beresford’s thirty-five-year career, he has seen many shifts in how organisations learn and develop their culture. He reflects on three of the more significant shifts in this frequently asked question, including how the focus has shifted from skillsets to mindsets, how, given the world’s increasing uncertainty and ambiguity, people must be more adept at dealing with external changes and shocks, and how communication has organically evolved from a top-down approach into a far more two-way exchange. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Tim Beresford, Chief Executive at the Australian Financial Security Authority, shares his definition of what an organisational learning culture is and how, at its core, it is a culture that creates a continuous learning mindset and that consists of mindset, toolset, and skillset but the most important of these is mindset. Tim also reflects on how this type of culture is where people learn to adapt to internal and external shocks, having a level of resiliency and agility in the way they go about managing these shocks, and how there is also more two-way communication in knowledge sharing, teamwork, and curiosity. Listen to Tim’s full episode here.

Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, provides an overview of the extensive educational programs and products that his organisation delivers across schools, councils, and academia in this frequently asked question, ensuring that knowledge on the reef is sharing with the next generation of environmental leaders. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

Josh Thomas, the Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, discusses how the organisation is embracing technologies in this frequently asked question and provides examples of how it has been using machine learning and experimenting with AI in a ‘bubble’ from an administrative point of view. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is a small organisation, and that is an advantage when it comes to shaping its annual work program. This approach is fairly organic, very inclusive, and bottom-up. Josh Thomas, the Chief Executive Officer, explains this approach further in this frequently asked question and how it fosters an honest and transparent culture. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, discusses how risk appropriately done at a senior level in an organisation is key to driving both organisational strategy and the approach to learning and development, as understanding your risk environment, especially in a medium to long term sense will help you to determine what you need to lean into and help make the organisation more proactive to future risks and challenges. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, provides his perspectives on how to foster learning in this organisation, reflecting on the effectiveness of the 70:20:10 rule of 70% on the job experience, 20% being mentorship and working with others, and 10% being around formal and technical training in this frequently asked question. Josh also emphasises the importance of making time for introspection in helping build honest relationships with peers and how a coaching mindset cannot be underestimated in allowing people to learn from their journey rather than just telling them what to do. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.  

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority’s organisational DNA centres on understanding the world around them, given that workforce can be made up of between 10-15% of staff at any one time being doctorate-level educated and formally trained marine scientists, as well as expert scientific communicators, and former teachers. Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, joins us to explain how they use this to their advantage in this frequently asked question. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

Josh Thomas, Chief Executive Officer at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority, talks about how their organisation faces many risks and challenges in this frequently asked question. While they can’t control many of those risks, their job is to understand their impact on the reef and help the reef be as resilient as possible. Josh talks about how being a science-led organisation means that they are curious by nature, and they empower their workforce to be interested, with the courage to experiment and test out new ideas. Listen to Josh’s full episode here.

Mentors have made a huge difference in Sam Palmer's career personally, and she has also worked with teams to set up mentoring programs and to find mentors for others as well. Sam is the Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade. Sam shares that, unlike supervisors, mentors don't have a responsibility to you, but they are a person you can talk with and play back what they have heard, ask questions, and make suggestions. Sam also provides a great metaphor for how champions in organisations are like elephants in this FAQ.  Listen to her full episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, talks about a time in her career when she was on secondment to the Director General of a department in WA, and on her fourth day, joined an executive meeting when it was announced that one of the most senior staff was being arrested for corruption and fraud, and how they wanted Sam to take on that person's job and fix many of the problems across various areas of the organisation that had created the conditions for that person to steal millions of dollars. Sam reflects on how stressful that situation was and how important communication with staff was at that time, as staff need to know what is going on, why things are happening, and what they need to do. Listen to Sam's full episode her

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares how there can be different contexts to change in this FAQ. Sometimes, change can be unexpected, but at other times, you may seek it because you want to improve and achieve a better outcome. Regardless of the context or what’s driving change, learning is an inherent part of it, and you do have to stop, think about your options, and steer a path into the change that will be effective. Listen to Sam's full episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares her perspectives from both sides of running HR teams and working with HR teams as an individual leader in this FAQ. Sam talks about how essential it is for leaders to work with HR in collaboration, understanding how they can support organisational strategy and support the HR team as an effective contributor, and how leaders need to do more than communicate the programs that HR is running to their teams, but also engaging with those programs directly, reflecting on that with their team, and feeding back into HR to enable change, growth and adjustments as well.  Listen to her episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares more on why diversity and inclusion are so rewarding in this FAQ, not just from the human part, but the potential in making a real difference to an organisation. Sam shares an example from when she worked at the Department of Health and Ageing and how the Commissioner provided a new direction of using young people with an intellectual disability by removing some barriers to obtaining permanent employment through a different merit-based process. Sam reflects on how this group of people made such an amazing difference and had a positive influence everywhere they went in the department.  Listen to her episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, reflects on how diversity and inclusion have been one of the most rewarding parts of her career, and shares some of the reasons why in this FAQ.  Sam talks about how so many amazing people in the community come from different areas and have different characteristics that are an untapped resource for employers. Sam also provides compelling statistics on how inclusive workplaces and employing people with a disability are better for wellbeing, performance, innovation, and business results overall. Listen to her episode here

No one-size-fits-all answer to this question exists, as all organisations are different. However, leaders ensure that at all levels of the organisation, it’s important to understand people’s motivations when you’re in the hiring frame, your needs, and the likely timeframe for that individual, and if that fits within your requirements. The second part is maintaining regular conversations about what your staff are seeking in their role, providing timely feedback, and having a broader discussion about what they are looking for. Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares how important it is to give people the chance to grow and how as public sector leaders have an obligation to grow the skills across the public service, being realistic as their role as stewards in supporting people across their career. Listen to her episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares how at Austrade, they have benefited from bringing other people into their division from different parts of the organisation, rather than always just having someone act up from underneath. It’s about finding the right balance for your organisation’s needs, but encouraging and providing movement across the branches, at level, can strengthen the organisation, build individual understanding, and fuel collaboration. Sam also explains that opening yourself up to other views and perspectives helps to achieve the best outcomes as it provides different ways of thinking about solving problems and addressing issues. Listen to her episode here

Listen in as Sam Palmer, Secretary and Fellow of IPAA and current APS reviewer on the independent review of the Commonwealth Department of Education, on secondment from Austrade, shares the value of taking up mobility opportunities and how in moving sidewards throughout her career into different roles and experiences, has assisted her to understand things from a different framing or mindset. Sam also provides specific examples of how she has used what she learned from these opportunities to test, trial, and adapt the learnings as she progressed in new roles. Listen to her episode here

Ivan Williams, Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, joins us to outline the vast range of methods they use to galvanise learning across their organisation and how they expect their staff to invest in their learning at a business-as-usual level.  Ivan also explains why it is essential for staff to be aware of contemporary developments, how they are being applied, their effect, and how this learning is used in the many advisory roles that ARPANSA staff serve.

Listen to his full episode here

It can be difficult sometimes in organisations like ARPANSA, where people change their area of expertise regularly for others to be aware of it, but usually, the title of the section or the person's job title is a good indication. Dr Ivan Williams, Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, joins us in this question and provides an example of an agency-wide celebration they do every couple of years where the entire agency comes together. Each area presents what they are doing and what they have been working on. These presentations can be enlightening for other agency areas and encourage engagement and consideration of how techniques could be applied to similar areas.   

Listen to his full episode here

It's a common challenge that many organisations face to ensure that staff continues learning, maintaining their skills, and developing new ones, while still delivering on their remit. Dr Ivan Williams, Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, also recognises the tension and stress of his workforce in facing this exact challenge. Listen to hear Ivan explain how critical it is to create a culture where staff are comfortable in communicating, and having those open conversations both formally and informally through regular meetings is important, as well as acknowledging that these conversations are not static and set in stone either.

Listen to his full episode here

It's important to recognise that people are individuals, their work packages are different, and what they need to do at a particular time is different too. While all components of learning are relevant, their relevance can differ depending on where people are at and what they need to do. Ivan Williams, Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at ARPANSA, explains how, because of the technical and hands-on nature of his team's work, they find on-the-job training particularly beneficial, and he explains why in this FAQ.

Listen to his full episode here