As the world becomes increasingly uncertain, the ability to adapt in organisations is becoming increasingly important. While many leaders are comfortable with the accelerating rate of change, others around them may not be. Therefore, it’s crucial to ensure that everyone on the team is on the journey with you and that the pace you set is the right one, where the most effective changes can occur. Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), joins us in our latest episode to discuss this and more on the topic of fostering adaptability in teams.

Listen to episode thirty-one:

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:

About this episode:

This episode is an excellent reminder that while, for many leaders that are comfortable with change and may already be working in the future state that they’ve been part of designing, it can be easy to forget that others in the organisation may not be on the same page, and may see and experience change differently. Leaders who can ‘read the floor,’ translate that direction, and make the change journey meaningful to everyone can effectively foster adaptability in their team and achieve long-lasting change.

Saxon reflects on her leadership journey and shares some of the important lessons she’s learned with us in this episode. These lessons include understanding and monitoring where colleagues are on the spectrum of change resilience and being aware that people don’t necessarily resist change but rather view it as a loss. She also notes that resilience is more than just physical; it’s also emotional.

Saxon also shares the cultural attributes she has found that help foster adaptability, including transparency, communication, flexibility, and responsiveness. She explains how getting consistent feedback internally can help identify issues early, encourage collaboration, and ensure everyone is aligned with the goals of what’s changing. She also provides examples of how ASQA is investing in organisational resilience and cultural uplift, positively evolving their culture through understanding their culture today, defining the cultural attributes, such as peer recognition, that they need for their journey, and aligning those to their vision, purpose, and people.

We also discuss how vital it is for the ‘bigger’ picture to cascade down all levels of leadership so that it’s translated to teams so that everyone knows what is in it for them and what it means to them and their role in the organisation, and how a workplace being grounded in values, mindsets, and behaviours also helps to foster adaptability in an organisation.

References mentioned in this episode:

The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Saxon Rice

Chief Executive Officer

Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)

CEO Saxon Rice has extensive experience across the VET and employment services sectors as well as the public policy process. Ms Rice previously held a range of senior government, VET and management positions. She was Assistant Minister for Technical and Further Education in the former Queensland Government from 2012 to 2015, and Chair of the then Ministerial Industry Commission responsible for industry engagement.

Ms Rice is a former Director of Global Business Development for an Australian employment services company and was responsible for significant growth into new countries in the European and Asian markets. Ms Rice has also served in a range of Senate Committee Secretariats, including as Acting Secretary and Principal Research Officer to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee. More recently, she was a Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from 2016 to 2018 and is a Member and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ms Rice commenced as a Commissioner of ASQA on 16 April 2018, before being appointed as Chief Commissioner and CEO (initially Acting) on 7 October 2019. With effect from 1 January 2021, Ms Rice was appointed CEO for a period of five years.

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

Series home