Episode 26: Fostering adaptability in teams with Deb Jenkins
What makes a team great? It may seem like a simple question, but the reality is that great teams don’t form and work well together by chance; there is a lot of investment required in making them high-performing. Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, joins us in our latest episode to talk about fostering adaptability in teams.
What makes a team great? It may seem like a simple question, but the reality is that great teams don’t form and work well together by chance; there is a lot of investment required in making them high-performing. Deb Jenkins, Deputy Secretary of Corporate Enabling Services and Chief Operating Officer for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, joins us in our latest episode to talk about fostering adaptability in teams.
Listen to episode twenty-six:
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
This episode affirms that to create great teams, you have to work hard at it. Deb shares that the cornerstones of great teams are built on relationships, a clear and shared purpose, and a diverse makeup, and these factors will always be fundamental in leading high-performing teams now and in the future.
Deb also discusses the pivotal role that recruitment plays in ensuring you have the right fit for your team and how evolving your hiring approach to recruit talent can help you succeed in filling key skills gaps.
The traditional picture of a ‘team’ looks different today than it did a few years ago. While you may not be able to look around and see your direct team sitting next to you, the importance of having a clear direction of where you’re headed together and building connections and relationships with each other is still paramount. Deb reflects on this in our discussion, noting that building personal connections cannot be achieved through a ‘Teams’ call with 20 people. That’s why she makes opportunities to have in-person moments and carefully thinks about how those moments can be fit for purpose.
Deb also shares that understanding how you and the people around you operate can make a significant difference in knowing the tips to succeed in communicating with each other, as well as the importance of giving things time and seeing things from another person’s perspective.
We also speak about innovation and embracing technology, and how it’s important to encourage teams to try new things, have safeguards around experimenting, make failing a learning opportunity, and, as a leader, check yourself to ensure you respond appropriately when things don’t go the way you had hoped they would.
Deb leaves us with an appreciation for how the All Blacks inspire her in their stewardship, putting service before others, and how they embody the principle that no one is bigger than the team. Wise words to build and lead teams by.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Deborah Jenkins
Deputy Secretary, Corporate and Enabling Services
Chief Operating Officer
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Deborah is Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) in a broad ranging role supporting the enterprise covering everything from HR, legal, communications, parliamentary, data and finance through to IT and digital solutions.
Her career has spanned the public and private sector in Australia and overseas, including most recently senior APS leadership roles at the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission. Prior to joining the APS, Deborah was a partner at KPMG where she held various domestic and international leadership positions with multinational experience in Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific and Europe. In Aotearoa/New Zealand she worked in both the public and private sectors, starting her career as a graduate with Inland Revenue before joining a law firm.
Deborah loves executing well designed client and staff experiences to achieve organisational outcomes. Passionate about communicating and connecting with people, she enjoys developing strong relationships and collaborating with stakeholders. She works hard to build inclusive teams that value diversity and takes being an active ally seriously. She inspires, leads and motivates those around her through her authentic and engaging leadership.
Her true passions outside of work (apart from her family) are rugby union, travelling and music. She particularly enjoys giving back to the community supporting grass roots rugby.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Thriving in Uncertainty with David MacLennan
Our next trailblazer, David MacLennan, has had an interesting career. He started out working in the Commonwealth Government, mainly in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and then overseas, before joining the Western Australian State Government in the Department of Planning and now as the CEO of the City of Vincent. David joins us in our latest episode to talk about his journey as a CEO in improving organisational performance.
Our next trailblazer, David MacLennan, has had an interesting career. He started out working in the Commonwealth Government, mainly in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra and then overseas, before joining the Western Australian State Government in the Department of Planning and now as the CEO of the City of Vincent. David joins us in our latest episode to talk about his journey as a CEO in improving organisational performance.
Listen to episode seventeen now:
Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
About this episode:
Serving as a diplomat in Mexico City, Lima in Peru, and London, David MacLennan describes himself as a student of cities, and that interest was deepened in joining the Western Australian Department of Planning and being involved in the planning of metropolitan projects. Serving as CEO of the City of Vincent for the past five years, David has come full circle, being directly responsible for delivering projects on the ground that directly impact the community.
We often talk about leaders inheriting existing work cultures, but for many CEOs coming into an existing organisation, they also inherit existing ‘to-do lists’ as well as projects and processes on service delivery too. David shares his journey of learning how he got comfortable in his new role, how important it was in determining priorities and what to tackle first, and how he developed a structured way to allocate his time and energy to deliver on what his stakeholders wanted, and what he needed to improve internally with his workforce to do it.
Listen as David shares how he deeply engaged with his team to look at how they could improve processes, policies, and systems in how they worked together and how they delivered services, and how he then drew conclusions on what the most significant pain points were and what he could influence as the CEO to take out the inefficiencies quickly to start improving their processes and capability across the organisation’s 14 different areas.
David also talks about how he gave his teams extreme accountability by empowering staff to make changes internally without needing to ask permission so that they could reorientate the way they delivered services through a Service Delivery Review Program. David’s unique perspective on innovation and how budget and staff restraints can drive it instead of impede it are refreshing, as is his view on keeping good ideas alive and being ready to seize the moment when that window or door opens.
We hope that you enjoy listening to David’s advice on improving organisational performance and that you can apply his many insights to your organisation today.
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Giving accountability to your team to self-improve their maturity year-on-year across service delivery, project management, and running programs.
The challenge:
Many organisations face a challenge when a valued and experienced team member leaves, leaving a huge skills and capability gap that can’t be filled quickly or easily. This often results in the inconsistent delivery of key services.
The City of Vincent was no exception, having undertaken a self-assessment of the level of maturity in how their different services were being delivered, rating this on a capability matrix of 1 to 5. The initial results revealed that while they had diligent and good staff in their roles of delivering services, there was no backup or redundancy if that staff member left or was sick or away. The organisation needed to build up a level of maturity within their teams so that there was consistent service delivery, regardless of who was delivering it.
The solution:
The City of Vincent, in collaboration with CorbettPrice, developed a Strategic Planning Program for each of its 14 different areas, which run distinctive services and businesses. The program enables each team to improve its maturity in service delivery, project management, and program management year on year.
The process:
The process started with a self-assessment of the maturity level in how different services were delivered as a council and rating those on a capability matrix of 1 to 5. Maturity levels: 1—ad hoc, 2—getting there, 3—managed, 4—much higher levels of performance.
The CEO set the goal for all teams to be at least at level 3. All teams then engaged in service delivery planning to put short-, medium-, and long-term business plans in place to improve maturity in a scaled way that avoided the often painful change management endured through external and large consultancies.
Outcomes:
Improved service delivery year-on-year.
An ability to demonstrate to the council how resources are allocated.
Team resilience is strengthened by the ability to survive big disruptions, which was tested with COVID-19, staffing, or other shocks.
Improved engagement through extreme accountability for each team to self-manage and lead their own performance journey.
Completed internally at the team level, where managers engage with staff and staff then understand their role in delivering team outcomes.
Improved collaboration.
Improved innovation.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
David MacLennan
Chief Executive Officer
City of Vincent
David MacLennan is the CEO of the City of Vincent and Chair of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre at the University of Western Australia.
He has extensive public policy and strategy experience at local, state, federal and international levels.
David was previously Assistant Director General at the Department of Planning.
He is a former diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with overseas posting experience in the UK, Peru, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.
David is a graduate of UWA and has a Masters of Management from ANU.
His passions are family and fitness.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Innovating in Uncertainty with David Thodey
In our latest episode, we catch up with David Thodey, Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and Chancellor of The University of Sydney, to discuss the concept of "Innovating in Uncertainty." Together, we discuss the continued importance of driving innovation in a rapidly changing world that brings uncertainty with it and how great leaders are those who can adapt to the ambiguity that surrounds them.
We are thrilled to present our exclusive broadcast with David Thodey, who joins our podcast to discuss Innovating in Uncertainty. David is a Business Leader with a career active in business, healthcare, public policy, innovation, tertiary education, the environment, and corporate governance. He has over 30 years of experience, including previously being the CEO of Telstra and IBM Australia and New Zealand.
Listen to episode fifteen:
Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
David is currently Chair of Xero, Chair of Ramsay Health Care, and was appointed the 19th Chancellor of the University of Sydney in July 2024. He is also co-chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and was recently announced as a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Governance Board. For the public sector specifically, David's review of the APS in 2019, dubbed "The Thodey Review," is synonymous with the APS Reform, which builds on the recommendations from this review.
In our latest episode, we catch up with David to discuss the concept of "Innovating in Uncertainty." Together, we discuss the continued importance of driving innovation in a rapidly changing world that brings uncertainty with it and how great leaders are those who can adapt to the ambiguity that surrounds them.
David has the unique ability to provide pragmatic advice intertwined with examples throughout his career, spanning industries. Through his experience and knowledge of the APS, he also offers specific perspectives for the public sector, acknowledging the unique and strong position that APS leaders have in their ability to lead in ambiguity.
There's much to unpack from our conversation with David as he reflects on the APS Review. He also discusses how innovation takes discipline, rigour, and accountability comes with trust. Together, we talk about the role of technology in enabling an authorising environment for innovation and the importance of leaning into that going forward. David also shares his unique views on reframing failure into a learning opportunity and how critical it is for leaders to keep focussing on the agility and flexibility of their workforce to adapt and change now and in the future.
Listening to David inspires you to approach things new and differently, not just because you should, but because you feel compelled to do so to make a difference.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
David Thodey AO
Business Leader
Chair, Xero and Ramsay Healthcare
Chancellor, The University of Sydney
Co-chair, Great Barrier Reef Foundation
Member, The Reserve Bank of Australia Governance Board
David Thodey is a business leader with a career active in business, healthcare, public policy, innovation, tertiary education, the environment and corporate governance.
He is currently Chair of Xero, a global cloud-based accounting solution and Ramsay Health Care, a global hospital group.
He was appointed as the 19th Chancellor of the University of Sydney in July 2024.
Mr Thodey also co-chairs the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, an Australian non-profit established to help preserve the Great Barrier Reef and was recently announced as a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Governance Board.
Previously, Mr Thodey was Chair of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and Tyro, Australia’s largest independent payments company.
Active in public policy, he led an Independent Review of the Australian Public Service (APS). He also chaired an NSW Government appointed Panel to lead an independent review of Federal Financial Relations and led a user audit of the myGov government services digital portal.
In 2020, Mr Thodey was Deputy Chair of the Federal Government’s National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCC) Advisory Board, supporting the Government to navigate the challenges faced during the early stages of the pandemic.
Prior to his non-executive career, he had a successful career as CEO of Telstra, and before that, CEO of IBM Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Thodey was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Science and Technology from Deakin University and Honorary Doctor of Business from both University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney.
He was made an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for ethical business leadership.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Thriving in Uncertainty – Episode Seven with Maree Bridger
Failure is often regarded as a bad word in the workplace. No one wants to fail or intentionally sets out to, and it can make you feel pretty terrible when something you are working on goes wrong. Reframing failures positively by rallying around those colleagues and helping them work through them can turn failures into successes, and importantly, it can build resilience in a team, which is essential for embracing challenges, turning them around, and thriving in uncertainty.
Having leaders who acknowledge their mistakes early and take accountability for their team's mistakes by owning them as their own without directing blame to the individual builds a culture of respect. It helps to shift the perception of failure in a team.
Joining us to discuss this further is Maree Bridger, Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts.
Maree details the three key things that underpin planning work and help her department with anticipation, proactivity, and responsiveness to priorities that serve multiple ministers. She also explains how her department overcame scepticism to view 'red as your friend'—and how encouraging others to share projects or initiatives that aren't going well helps colleagues rally together to work through challenges.
In this compelling chat, Maree shares experiences from her career from times when things haven't gone to plan and how she has kept moving forward and turned things around through active listening and engagement. She also offers a different perspective on how organisations view innovation and how often, when you are in the trenches, you don't necessarily look around you to realise how far you've come.
Don't miss this uplifting chat with an inspiring leader about changing how we view failures at work.
Listen to episode seven:
Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Maree Bridger
Chief Operating Officer
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts
Maree has worked in the APS for 16 years across a range of policy, program, regulatory, corporate and service delivery functions and she has held senior roles at Services Australia, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and the Australian Customs Service.
Prior to the APS Maree had seventeen years in the private sector and held roles at the Shell Company, Osborne Computers and Austar United Communications. Prior to her move to the public sector, Maree worked as a consultant for eight years, with a specific focus on organisational change, strategic planning, maximising competitive advantage and building organisational capability.
Maree has a Bachelor of Economics from ANU, Executive MBA from the AGSM at UNSW and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.
Tune in next week as we speak to a new trailblazer in another episode in our series on Thriving in Uncertainty.
Trailblazing with CorbettPrice Podcast - Episode 2
Welcome back to our second episode in the Trailblazing with CorbettPrice series on organisational health. This episode will explore the 2nd dimension of organisational health: Mental – organisational agility and resilience.
Listen to episode two:
Also available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts:
The past few years have been tough on organisations with constant uncertainty. As these shocks grow in numbers and complexity, organisations must focus beyond crisis responses to build resilience to survive now and into the future.
Scott Johnston, Deputy Secretary of Revenue, New South Wales, Chief Commissioner of State Revenue, and Commissioner of Fines Administration, joins Andy in this episode to discuss how Revenue NSW has applied agile principles to transform their organisation to become adaptive and responsive now and in the future. Hear how Scott manages to be a regulator while also delivering excellent customer service to Revenue’s three-and-a-half-million customers, his thoughts on empowering the whole organisation to innovate, his top tips for how leaders can respond to changing customer priorities, and much more.
Download the full transcript of episode two:
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Scott Johnston is a highly experienced senior leader with a career spanning the Australian and United Kingdom public sectors.
An internationally recognised statistician specialising in economic analysis, his work at the UK Office of National Statistics guided key decision making for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union.
Scott joined the Public Service Commission in June 2014 where he held the roles of Director Workforce Information Branch and Assistant Commissioner, Performance and Analytics Division.
He then moved on to the NSW Public Service Commission as Acting Public Service Commissioner, leading the NSW Government’s agenda - driving diversity, work of the future and reform across the sector. In April 2020, Scott was appointed to his current role of Deputy Secretary, Revenue NSW, Chief Commissioner of State Revenue and Commissioner of Fines Administration.
Since joining Revenue NSW, Scott has focused on providing flexibility and an improved customer experience for Revenue’s 3.5 million annual customers, with a focus on digital transformation and supporting the State’s most vulnerable customers. Over the past two years Revenue NSW has become sought after for its automation achievements, collaboration skills, innovation, and customer centred design.
Scott is passionate about shaping future workforce strategy through evidence-based decision making, innovation, diversity, and inclusion, and building digital capability.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scott-johnston222/