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.

Listen to episode twenty-six:

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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.

Innovating in Uncertainty with David Thodey

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:

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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.

Series three – Solving the Capability Gap – episode four

We hope that you have been enjoying our podcast series on Solving the Capability Gap.

Already, we've had the pleasure of being joined by three phenomenal trailblazers who have shared their insights and top tips on how leaders can build workforce capability in their organisations to prepare for the future.

In today's episode, we hone in on arguably one of the most important skills everyone will need to learn, regardless of their position, going forward: AI.

According to LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report for 2024, 4 in 5 people want to learn how to use AI in their profession. But in the public sector specifically, there has been much trepidation about where to use it, how to use it, and, importantly, ensuring that it is used safely with the proper guardrails in place.

James Christie, Director of Artificial Workflow, and a guest instructor on our Elevate course on Enhancing Processes with AI, joins Andy to discuss the increasingly popular and in-demand skill of AI. Listen in as James answers the fundamentally essential questions on learning AI skills, including if having a technical background is necessary in learning AI, what the best use cases are in getting started, what other skills are complementary to learning AI skills, and the five critical success factors in implementing AI in an organisation. You will also want to take advantage of James's checklist to get going with AI in your organisation, which is provided as a download below.

Listen to episode four:

Also available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify:

Download the full transcript of episode four:

Download James’s AI Adoption Checklist:

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

James Christie is a co-founder of Artificial Workflow, an AI solutions firm that has developed a flexible AI platform called Echobase, that can support a range of consulting and business use cases.

James has spent a significant proportion of his career working for an international FMCG company and in consulting with EY and boutique firms practicing in the areas of corporate, organisational and customer strategy. 

Please tune in next week as we conclude our series on Solving the Capability Gap with Maeve Neilson, General Manager of Health, Safety, and Security for the Ministry of Justice in New Zealand, as she shares her unique perspectives and advice for leaders on how to foster a culture of continuous learning in your organisation.

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Embracing organisational change - episode 5

Thanks for listening to our second podcast series on embracing organisational change. We hope you’ve found the insights our trailblazers shared valuable.

In our fifth and final episode of this series, we are tackling a significant change that’s on the minds of most public sector leaders today: how to adopt new technologies responsibly.

According to a recent McKinsey report, more than half of global survey respondents on AI said that they had adopted AI in at least one of their business units, and nearly two-thirds expected that their company’s investments in AI would increase over the next few years. Yet according to Boston Consulting Group, Australia lags globally, with around 70% of Australian organisations yet to succeed in delivering digital transformation, a critical first step to succeed in AI.

Pia Andrews, a global expert in open government and digital government transformation and former public servant, joins us to navigate this important change and provides her unique global and local perspectives on how public institutions can approach the responsible adoption of AI. In this episode, Pia shares her six fundamental questions that the public sector must answer when designing for trust, which are part of The Trust Framework for Government Use of AI and Automated Decision Making whitepaper she developed and her top tips on getting started.

Listen to episode five:

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Download the full transcript of episode five:

Find out more about this Trailblazer:

Pia is a prolific global expert in open and digital government, and a former public servant. Pia has spent the last 20 years trying to make the world a better place, working within and around the public sector 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 beyond.

Pia was one of the global top 20 most influential in digital government in 2018 and 2019, and now works as a strategic advisor to the public sector at AWS as well as a member of Apolitical’s Advisory on 21st Century Government. 

That now concludes our second series on embracing organisational change. Thank you to our trailblazers and all our listeners for tuning in!

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