Episode 24: Thriving in Uncertainty with Amanda Cattermole
When our next Trailblazer took up the challenge to take on the role of CEO and lead the Australian Digital Health Agency at the height of the pandemic, she felt that it was a near-impossible place to lead from, considering the limitations of not being able to be in the same physical space as most of the staff. But on reflection, Amanda Cattermole now sees how this has shaped the flexible and hybridised work environment that’s now fundamentally everywhere. In our latest episode, Amanda joins us to talk about taking the path less travelled and leading in uncertainty.
When our next Trailblazer took up the challenge to take on the role of CEO and lead the Australian Digital Health Agency at the height of the pandemic, she felt that it was a near-impossible place to lead from, considering the limitations of not being able to be in the same physical space as most of the staff. But on reflection, Amanda Cattermole now sees how this has shaped the flexible and hybridised work environment that’s now fundamentally everywhere. In our latest episode, Amanda joins us to talk about taking the path less travelled and leading in uncertainty.
Listen to episode twenty-four:
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify:
About this episode:
This episode is a great example of a leader who is passionate about creating an organisational culture that’s focussed on stewardship, built on deep collaboration, and comprised of leaders at every level who add to the culture by enabling stewardship and innovation and creating a convening role with the broader ecosystem.
It also conveys a powerful message of the impact that leaders can have in seeing things and pathways for others that they can't necessarily see for themselves and how, with the right encouragement, it can profoundly impact their career journey in a really positive way.
Even in the midst of the pandemic's uncertainty, Amanda could immediately see that everything had changed in the world of health and digital innovation. The conversation had changed. No longer was the debate around privacy and security, though these were still critically important; it was now about accessing healthcare immediately.
Amanda shares how another important change at that time was that the players in the healthcare ecosystems had to come together in a completely different way, which required radical and immediate collaboration. These fundamental changes saw the introduction of telehealth and electronic prescribing, things that had been spoken about for years, being implemented in six weeks.
As a response to these pivotal changes, the Agency needed to be really different, too. They needed to step into the role of convenors of the system. Leaders needed to have a relational skill set in crafting and amplifying the Agency's role as a steward and deliverer and focus on the organisational culture.
Amanda details this further, diving into the importance of hiring the right people, how every leader at every level needs to contribute something to the collaborative culture of the organisation, and how you can create an environment where the artefacts and daily ways of working exemplify what you have said your organisation is going to be. By creating artefacts that reflect this, you show clarity, which trust is built on.
“Some of the most unexpected ones (jobs) are the ones that I kind of couldn’t have seen if you’d gone back to my earlier self that I wouldn’t have predicted in anyway, have in some ways been the most incredible.”
Having also served as interim CEO of Services Australia during the 2019/2020 bushfire season, you may presume that Amanda has always been one for taking up challenges. Still, as Amanda describes, whilst the sense of making a difference and seeking purpose have been a common thread throughout her career stemming from her childhood and influenced by her parent's deep passion and dedication as public education teachers, it has also come from the privilege of working for leaders who have seen things and pathways for her, that she couldn't see for herself, and who were caring enough to press her in the right ways to take on roles that were seen as riskier.
Through these critical junctures, Amanda has overcome her own uncertainty in taking on roles that seemed unfamiliar to her at the time to realise that her skills aren't bound to the particular area that she worked in. Rather, they are broader and could be applied in different places and in different ways of leading teams during change, nurturing other leaders, and setting and creating positive cultures.
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Amanda Cattermole
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Digital Health Agency
Ms Amanda Cattermole PSM is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Digital Health Agency, a role she commenced in September 2020.
Auspiced by the governments of Australia, the Agency is the steward for digital enablement of Australia’s health system, with a lead role in coordinating national engagement, delivery and adoption of digital health to enable person-centred, connected healthcare.
The Agency also builds national health infrastructure and delivers national digital health products and services that make it easier for healthcare providers and Australian healthcare consumers to access, manage and share health information and that support a sustainable health system delivering safe, high-quality health services for all Australians.
Prior to this Amanda held several senior roles at Services Australia, including interim Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer, and Deputy Secretary, Health and Aged Care Group, where she was responsible for the delivery of payments and services to Australians under Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits scheme and in the aged care sector.
Amanda has previously held senior roles in Commonwealth departments, including Treasury, the former Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Department and Prime Minister and Cabinet. She has held senior State government roles in the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services and the Western Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs. In her earlier career Amanda worked as a lawyer in Victoria, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Amanda holds a Bachelor of Laws, a Bachelor of Commerce, a Master of Laws and a Master of Business Administration. In 2013, she received the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service leading reform in providing housing for Indigenous people in remote communities and the National Gambling Reform laws.
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 6
Thank you for joining us for the sixth episode of our podcast series on organisational health and the seven dimensions of wellness. In this episode, we will cover the essential topic of organisational purpose and leadership.
Listen to episode six:
Also available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts:
The leadership style of an organisation can profoundly impact an organisation's health, affecting the workplace culture, employee experience, engagement, performance, and organisational agility and resilience.
The prolific global expert in open and digital government and former public servant Pia Andrews joins us as we discuss how public sector professionals must lead and navigate their teams now and in the future.
Hear Pia's thoughts on how we need to get back to servant leadership, how any leader's first strategy should be to slow things down, and how human-centered design approaches require you to come from a position of being your best human in the first place.
Listen to also hear Pia share three practices from her background in Gung Fu and Chan Buddhism martial arts that play an important role in her work and career every day.
Download the full transcript of episode six (with references):
Find out more about this Trailblazer:
Pia Andrews is an open government, digital transformation and data geek who has been trying to make the world a better place for 20 years. She usually works within the (public sector) machine to transform public services, policies and culture through greater transparency, democratic engagement, citizen-centric design, open data, emerging technologies and real, pragmatic actual innovation in the public sector and beyond. She believes that tech culture has a huge role to play in achieving better policy planning, outcomes, public engagement and a better public service all round.
She is also trying to do her part in establishing greater public benefit from publicly funded data, software and research. Pia was recognised in 2018 and 2019 as one of the global top 20 most Influential in Digital Government and was awarded as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Australia for 2014. Pia has also studied martial arts since 1990, and brings the philosophies and practices of Gung Fu and Chan Buddhism into her work every day.
Pia is currently taking something of a public sector sabbatical, working as a Strategic Advisor to the Public Sector in AWS. She is in a newly formed team made up of experienced public servants who provide futures oriented policy and outcomes focused advice, support, exploration and experimentation, to agencies and departments across Australia, New Zealand and Oceania.
In 2023, Pia joined Apolitical’s Advisory Council on 21st Century Government, where some of the world’s most distinguished government leaders, innovators, and thinkers have come together to help accelerate Apolitical’s mission to help build 21st century governments that work for people and the planet.
Web: pipka.org
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/pia-andrews/
The Mandarin articles: www.themandarin.com.au/author/pia-waughgmail-com/