Episode 34: A future-oriented approach to change with Rachel Balmanno

A lot has changed over the past ten years, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is no exception! From the 2016 capability review, the COVID pandemic, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, and the second capability review in late 2022, the department stands at a critical point in its history, having evolved considerably in how it approaches change and prepares itself for the future. Rachel Balmanno, First Assistant Secretary of the People, Communication, and Parliamentary Division, at the department, joins us to discuss a future-oriented approach to change in our latest episode.

Listen to episode thirty-four:

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:

About this episode:

This episode is a masterclass in change management and future-proofing your workforce, emphasising how crucial it is to bring your people along with you to help shape and drive the narrative forward. It’s an episode that’s also packed with excellent advice from leader to leader on being self-aware in terms of your risk appetite, the factors that drive your response behaviours, and how you can plan to react differently, enabling you to lead more authentically and with empathy.

Rachel discusses the importance of everyone knowing their department's story and having the opportunity to be involved in shaping it and driving change. While the department’s story may seem simplistic, it has been intentionally crafted that way through a consultative process that distilled their story down into three key things that their organisation thinks will make a difference now and in the future.

“Any investment in change management is better than no investment in change management.”

A similar sentiment applies to approaching change management, with Rachel sharing her advice on the importance of doing the work upfront, as it is more effective and efficient than doing what you think is right and ending up with workarounds that compromise the overall objective.

Rachel also explains how she defines systems thinking and how, at its core, it involves stepping back and looking at the issue more broadly, ensuring that context is taken into account when moving forward. Rachel acknowledges that, like most skills, it has to be exercised and used regularly. However, for many in the public service, capacity issues and the general busyness of the ‘must-dos’ in their workday can often get in the way and narrow their focus.

Another key topic in our conversation was the department’s positive, no-blame culture, which has contributed to higher-than-average engagement and overall positive scores in the APS census, with further improvements this year in innovation and wellbeing.

Rachel shares how it started during COVID times, when the department’s priority was to act, and that their people needed the confidence to do so and try new things. To create this, they needed to provide a high level of psychological safety and an inclusive environment where people felt they could be themselves, try new things, raise issues, and make and learn from mistakes. This has resulted in additional benefits, including increased innovation, creativity, engagement, productivity, and loyalty.

Rachel leaves us with four key lessons that leaders throughout her career have taught her and inspired her to lead with, which are relevant to every public servant, in how to approach change, lead and work with others, be more self-aware, and take a future-oriented approach in everything you do, every day.

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Rachel Balmanno

First Assistant Secretary - People, Communication, and  Parliamentary Division

Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing

After over 20 years working on health and aged policies and programs, Rachel decided to make a change and moved to her current role leading the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s people, communication, change management, parliamentary support and property functions. In recent years Rachel has had a keen focus on supporting the department to adapt to changing workforce expectations and responding to the department's 2023 Capability Review.

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

Episode 33: Navigating change with Mark Williamson

The Clean Energy Regulator (CER) certainly has a large and growing remit of work. As they administer Australia’s climate change mitigation laws, CER not only serves as a regulator but also as a carbon markets agency, acting like a bank due to the carbon units and certificates it issues.

Speaking with Mark Williamson, the Executive General Manager, who has been at CER for thirteen years on the topic of navigating change, it’s clear that as an organisation, they have had to get very good at managing ongoing change at pace, which is highly aligned to their purpose of accelerating carbon abatement for Australia and how from doing this, adaptability to change has become a permanent part of their organisational DNA.

Listen to episode thirty-three:

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:

About this episode:

This episode is an excellent example of an organisation that prides itself on being open, transparent, and collaborative in how it navigates and manages change. With a pragmatic approach to actively managing change — “don’t admire it, just get on with it” —they have helped create a workplace culture that is practical, grounded, quick, and commercially savvy in how they manage risk and support one another in meeting legislative requirements and deadlines.

Mark talks about how foundationally, it comes down to creating and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships that are open and transparent, regularly scanning the environment for what’s happening in their space, being focussed on their purpose and engaging sensibly with risk and not avoiding it, stressing the importance of employees being transparent on where their projects are at and if they are falling behind.

Of course, Mark acknowledges that growth and change inevitably bring challenges along the way. With regular changes to schemes, CER must adapt the way it works and apply a project management lens, enabling its workforce to be agile, open, and supported in completing the workload at hand, which often involves ending and building new programs.

Mark also shares the digital transformation journey that CER has been on over the past few years in modernising their architecture to operate in a much more ecosystem approach with far more market interoperability. He explains how this transformation has resulted in a new online services transactional platform featuring approximately 50 smart forms, a new reporting system, and a blockchain registry.

We also talk further about managing risk and how, from a senior leadership standpoint, CER has always been very strong about engaging with risk, with a clear escalation framework that focuses on sharing the problem and sharing it up, and by doing that, their workforce will get the help that they need to resolve it.

Mark leaves us with a great AFL analogy from his fellow Executive General Manager on dealing and managing change, which is: “Kick the football as far down the field as you can, and then run hard after it.”

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Mark Williamson

Executive General Manager

Clean Energy Regulator (CER)

Mark Williamson reports to the Chair/Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Regulator. In his 12 years at the Regulator, Mark has successfully led many major initiatives including the Regulator’s role in Australia meeting its Renewable Energy Target.

Mark had extensive senior executive experience in the private sector and state and local in government prior to joining the Commonwealth 2012.

Mr Williamson has tertiary qualifications in applied science and postgraduate qualifications in management.

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

Episode 28: How failure can lead to your biggest success with Tania Rishniw

Do your employees operate with a license to innovate? It's an interesting concept. When you have a real problem to fix where usual solutions haven't worked, understanding the benefits and risks of innovating and articulating that to others around you gives you a licence to try a new and different way forward. But you have to be prepared for failure to be a part of that. Tania Rishniw, Deputy Secretary of Employment and Workforce at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) joins us in our latest episode to talk about this and much more about how failure can lead to your biggest success.

Listen to episode twenty-eight:

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:

About this episode:

This episode showcases an engaging and authentic leader whose experience in crises and uncertainty offers excellent advice on overcoming challenges, managing risk, innovating, and building resilience.

Tania talks about how it's necessary sometimes to know not what to do before you can figure out what to do, and you need to think through contingencies and plan for those when you're innovating.

In a point often made by senior leaders in past episodes on overcoming setbacks and building resilience, Tania also acknowledges that you can't get to becoming an SES leader or manager without having made mistakes or experienced times when things haven't gone according to plan.

Tania looks back on those times in her career. She shares a specific example from when an environmental impact assessment's advice that she was involved with to a minister didn't go according to plan. That experience helped her learn an important lesson: Sometimes, the answers to ministers and government are that there is no actual basis for them to make a specific decision. You have to fight your natural inclination to try and give them different options unless it is robust and well-seasoned advice.

Tania also describes her time working on the crisis response to the Montara Oil Spill in 2009, an unprecedented time in Australian history. There was no playbook to follow, so they had to try different things to manage it and think about a different way of operating.  

As she looks back on leading in these times of uncertainty, Tania offers terrific advice that's helpful to anyone overcoming challenges in their workplace and working in uncertainty. This includes having clarity of objectives and a common purpose, building trusted relationships with others, having a team around you that gives you strength, and focusing on an outcome without blaming others when something goes wrong.

Another important element is storytelling because occasionally, you need relativity, perspective, and the knowledge that others have dealt with issues just as hard to help you keep going.

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Tania Rishniw

Deputy Secretary

Employment and Workforce

Department of Employment and Workplace Relations

Tania is the Deputy Secretary of Employment and Workforce, in the Department Employment and Workplace Relations in the Australian federal government. She leads a range of programs that enable services to support and help people overcome barriers and develop skills to gain employment.

 Prior to commencing with DEWR, Tania worked in the Department of Health from 2015-23 delivering primary and community care policy and programs. She has worked for over 20 years in public administration, across areas of social, environmental, and economic policy.

 Before being appointed as Deputy Secretary in May 2020, she held senior positions in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Department of Finance, Department of Education and Employment, and Department of Environment.

 Tania has delivered policy reform at the federal level in environmental and financial regulation, First Nations' employment and education, primary care and mental health, and service delivery. She led the response to the Montara oil spill, has represented the Australian Government at the United Nations, and successfully negotiated with states and territories in areas of hospital funding, mental health and suicide prevention, primary care COVID arrangements and wider health reform.

 Tania has a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, as well as holding an Executive Master's Degree in Public Administration.

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 Marie Boland

Our next Trailblazer’s interest in history and learning from it, particularly the history of labour movements and work, has been a common theme that has led her throughout her fascinating career. Marie Boland, Chief Executive Officer at Safe Work Australia, discusses this further in our latest episode on Taking the Path Less Travelled.

Listen to episode twenty-one:

About this episode:

Marie talks about growing up in Ireland and how her dad, who was a great history buff, used to take them around Dublin, telling stories and looking at statues of famous people. He particularly liked stopping at statues of great union leaders, and the stories and figures stuck with her.

After moving to Australia in 1992, Marie worked as a curator in museums. While working at one particularly council-run museum, Marie had the opportunity to be a staff representative during council amalgamations in South Australia, where she was part of the negotiations and enterprise bargaining. And the rest, as they say, is history. Through this experience, Marie ultimately became a union member, reigniting her interest in law and then studying law with the long-term aim of being a labour lawyer and working in industrial relations.

Listen in to hear from Marie as she talks about both personal and professional drivers that keep her going during confronting and tough times at work. She explains how she is focused on harmonising and strengthening tripartism during her tenure as CEO of Safe Work Australia, working with unions, businesses, and the government to reach consensus outcomes. Marie also talks about how she believes your time will come and the importance of backing yourself.

We also discuss Marie’s 2018 national review of model work, health, and safety laws and how this helped to influence the Commonwealth to change the 2011 regulations to include psychological health. Together, we discuss the pivotal role that leaders need to play in keeping up to date with what’s going on in their organisation through risk management and consultation and the importance of the work design piece in potentially eliminating potential hazards at the point of deciding how work is done.

Whether you believe in fate or not, this enthralling episode is a testament to how interests and passions in your life, even from a young age, can help lead you to the path you were meant to be on.  

Episode references:

Codes of Practice

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/law-and-regulation/codes-practice

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Marie Boland

Chief Executive Officer

Safe Work Australia

Marie Boland has been the Chief Executive Officer of Safe Work Australia since 1 November 2023.

Marie is a Member of Safe Work Australia and its subsidiary committees and a Commissioner of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission. She is a member of the Respect@Work Council and the G20 Occupational Safety and Health Expert Network, and an observer on the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities and the Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities.

Before joining Safe Work Australia, Marie offered independent work health and safety and workplace relations consultancy services.

Marie’s work health and safety experience spans many roles, including completing the 2023 review of the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner, the 2022 Review of the Conduct of Work Health and Safety Prosecutions in the Australian Capital Territory, an independent review of the South Australian local government sector's One System WHS Management System in December 2020 and the 2018 National Review of the model work health and safety laws (Boland Review). Marie was the 2021 Inaugural Thinker in Residence at the University of South Australia's Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory. Marie has held senior roles at SafeWork South Australia as an Executive Director, Policy and Community Engagement Director and Chief Policy Officer.

Marie holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Master of Arts from University College, Dublin, and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Adelaide.

Tune in next time 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.