Explore every episode of the podcast Trailblazing with CorbettPrice

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. 

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.

Tim Bullard, Chief Executive Officer at the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), joins us in our latest episode to discuss adaptability. Tim knows too well how adaptability can directly influence your engagement at work, having managed the Department of Education and then the Department of Education, Children, and Young People in Tasmania through tremendous amounts of change, including COVID-19, a merger of two organisations, and other significant events.

In this episode, Tim reflects on these experiences, and much more.

Dr Ivan Williams, the Chief Medical Radiation Scientist at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), joins us in our latest episode to discuss the topic of becoming a learning organisation.

Critical to performing ARPANSA's work is being across enormous amounts of data, research, regulations, and audits. Staff must also be across contemporary developments in technology, medical practice, and clinical practice. Due to the nature of their work, it is these reasons why there is an expectation that staff invest in their own learning and development. In this great chat, Ivan provides an understanding of the critical work that ARPANSA provides to Australia and how, as an organisation, they prioritise learning while delivering their huge and essential remit.

We often speak about the importance of everyone continuing to learn. After all, learning, in its essence, is about being alive. While some may approach learning with curiosity and be open to the possibilities it may provide for us, others may find it overwhelming to be able to decide in the direction to go. David Coltman, Chief Executive of TAFE SA, joins us to discuss this and much more in our latest podcast episode on change resilience.

You can’t help but feel the passion and energy that Tess Bishop, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Secretary of Enterprise, Strategy, and Engagement, at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry brings to her team as she shares her experiences leading a very large transformation agenda in our latest episode on a growth mindset approach to change. Tess provides her perspectives on how success can only be achieved through an open-minded approach, engaging in open dialogue with others, and adapting and supporting staff along the way.

In a post-pandemic world, have we lost the art of conversation at work? After all, being able to talk and relate to one another helps us to form connections that are crucial to improving our mental health. But this can be challenging for many of us with flexible working arrangements where the lines between work and home often get blurred. Judith Formston, Deputy Chief Executive of Corporate Services at the Department of Health and Wellbeing SA, joins us to talk about how to foster connections and lead authentically in our latest episode of Thriving in Uncertainty.

Gina is the General Manager of People and Culture at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and she joins us in this episode to share her experiences of grit and the ability to persist and lead others through uncertainty. Together, we break down the stigma attached to making mistakes and how courageous leaders can pause and reflect when the emotions are running high and admit to their workforce that they don’t always have all the answers.

As an experienced public servant, Martin Hehir, Deputy Secretary for the Governance and Corporate Group within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, has led teams in the Commonwealth and ACT governments. In this episode, he takes us back to the start of his senior leadership career by providing us with invaluable insights into how he has adapted his leadership style to take on a new role in a new department, and how the importance of communication helped him to navigate unfamiliar territory where his team increased by a factor of 20.

Martin also shares the importance that a couple of mentors played at this time in his career in helping him to stay real and honest with himself, which are invaluable attributes today for leading authentically.

Maree Bridger, Chief Operating Officer at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, and the Arts 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.

Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment for South Australia, joins us this episode to talk about how important it is for every generation to be clear on their own sense of purpose and how, even with the best technological skills, future leaders must also be self-aware, vulnerable, and resilient, ensuring that human interactions and connecting with each other are valued.

Erma shares examples of some of the numerous mentoring programs that she’s led, detailing what it means for leaders to take a whole-person approach to support their workforce’s mental health and how she’s used her past setbacks to forge a new path for others in avoiding the disadvantages that she encountered earlier in her career.

It’s a powerful conversation that will leave you wanting to make a difference in supporting those around you.

Kate Driver, CEO of IPAA ACT and co-founder and board member of the CoRE Learning Foundation joins us to discuss 22nd-century leaders. While she may not have a crystal ball to predict the skills a 5-year-old will need to thrive in a 22nd-century workforce, she does offer fascinating perspectives and insights drawn from both her public sector career and her lived experiences. Through her work with teenagers in her charity, she explores what they want from leaders today and how many question or reject the long-standing assumptions about the world of work that have persisted for generations. Listen in as Kate moves beyond the excitement of science fiction hype to provide pragmatic insights on the jobs and industries of the future, framing the importance of sustaining and improving life for humans at scale.

In part two, we continue our conversation with Rachel, discussing the APS Reform, which she has been heavily involved with, and how she keeps herself and others motivated on long-term projects that are hugely significant, have many initiatives attached to them, and require enormous patience and perseverance.  

In part one, we delve into the components of a growth mindset and integrity within the APS with Dr Rachel Bacon, Deputy Commissioner of Integrity, Reform, and Enabling Services at the Australian Public Service Commission. Rachel explains how the literature on high-potential leaders has evolved over the past decade: once focused on high IQ as the primary predictor of leadership potential, the emphasis has shifted toward the importance of a growth mindset. Rachel also discusses how a growth mindset is closely tied to learning agility, which involves curiosity, openness, and a willingness to continuously learn. This openness to new experiences transcends culture, age, and gender.

In this 30-minute conversation, you will hear Mandy Young, Chief Executive at State Insurance Regulatory Authority, on 'Taking the path less travelled.'. Mandy provides specific examples from her time at the Department of Communities and Justice and the NSW Department of Customer Service when she served as Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer during COVID-19.

This inspiring chat showcases a leader who exemplifies authenticity and resilience. Mandy has been involved in some amazing transformation and reform projects, and we hope that you will find this episode as engaging and refreshing as we did!

Over just 30-mins, you'll hear Jody Grima share her experience in gauging the success of change programs working for Service NSW in the early days when they were establishing the three channels for service delivery in the state, how mindset and EQ play pivotal roles in preparing the workforce for the future, the biases that organisations need to overcome to ensure our workplaces are inclusive and equal for all, and how leaders throughout her career have inspired her to become the leader she is today.

In this uplifting chat, Janet shares her experiences from her early career, how other leaders helped her grow and develop, and how she leans on these experiences to help others grow and develop today. She also explains how important it is for leaders to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, acknowledging that the world is now different from what it was, that workplaces themselves are different too, and that it’s through a connection with purpose that you can keep yourself, and your team, motivated through times of continuous change and uncertainty.

In the series' opening episode, we spoke to Subho Banerjee about continuous learning and how organisations must adopt it to develop a high-performing workforce ready for the future.

Equally crucial to adopting a continuous learning culture is maintaining one. This involves ensuring that employees have an ongoing connection to their organisation, which sometimes is more easily said than done. Globally, there are alarmingly high rates of disengaged employees who are 'quiet-quitting,' and it takes leaders with an EQ approach to navigate the often uncomfortable conversations to reconnect employees to their organisation.

Maeve Neilson is a highly respected and experienced leader in New Zealand. In this episode, she joins Andy to discuss how she has developed and led teams in New Zealand, drawing on her direct experience in creating a cross-functional team from the Mosque Shooter sentencing event in 2020 to create a great workplace culture.

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.

Sandra Lerch, Executive Director of Strategic Workforce Futures at the Public Sector Commission for the Queensland Government, joins Andy in this latest episode to explain how organisations can create workforce agility. She shares her experiences and learned lessons from her direct involvement in the recently released Even Better Public Sector for Queensland Strategy for 2024-2028.  

Listen in to hear Sandra explain how organisational agility is a change process and how, by putting people at the centre, you can achieve the agility you need to be fit for the future. Sandra also shares the three important ingredients for being purposeful and holistic in your approach to developing and embedding workforce agility in the way you work.

In today’s episode, we dive deep into the current skills landscape, outlining the skills that are becoming increasingly important and discussing proven strategies that can help organisations become more skills-based in how they attract, develop, nurture, and retain their workforce.  

Our exciting new series explores critical dimensions of capability building across five insightful and thought-provoking episodes. This series is designed to help leaders instil continuous learning into their organisation’s DNA and develop high-performing workforces that are equipped and ready to embrace the future. 

As the perfect start to our series on Solving the Capability Gap, Subho Banerjee, Deputy Commissioner of the Australian Public Service and Head of the APS Academy and Capability, joins Andy to discuss continuous learning.

Andy Corbett introduces the third podcast series of Trailblazing with CorbettPrice, "Solving the Capability Gap," and provides a brief overview of what's to come.