What an amazing 3 days this has been. We have heard from more than 20 experts from around the globe in discussions covering:
- Crisis Response – How governments and businesses are responding through leadership,
- Optimism, Opportunities and a Better Normal,
- Rethinking the ‘Why’ of your business – Is your purpose now redundant?
- Take the opportunity to transform your business and your industry, and
- Rethinking the Workforce of the Future and harvesting talent
In this short video, Dr Peter Beven wraps up the key takeaways from the event. Our thanks goes to all the panelists, facilitators and participants who helped to make this event so insightful and inspirational.
For full details about the summit go to: https://virtualsummit.edu.au
Transcript:
I would just like to before we wrap up, give a little overview of the three days. And during the three days, I’ve…, the things that have resonated most with me, as a wrap-up and then I’ll summarise this particular session.
Um, when we started on the journey on day one, we were really talking about the leadership we were witnessing, we had a great panel from current assistant Ministers, the former deputy Prime Minister, some fantastic executives from different perspectives. The thing that I walked away with was a comment by John Anderson, that there is a problem, an endemic problem about leaders, and in fact, broader society, having an authentic leadership style, in that a true willingness to have authentic conversations without fear, so this conversation addresses that. This is what we need, how do we have these conversations without fear.
But it also, at the same time, creates an enormous opportunity for a reset for organisations, the way organisations play in the world in their industries, and their broader communities and society but also us. We went info Victor’s session around optimism and it was optimism, optimism, optimism. It’s fantastic! And really, the focus on the one sentence he said, one comment was “Noone follows a pessimistic leader”. How true is that? So in this new world, if you don’t have the optimistic leader, but also at the same time have the people being optimistic and helping drive possibility, that tipping point won’t be realised, we won’t get over that hump.
Yesterday, we talked about, the thinking about, the purpose, not only as it would shape the purpose of the business, but the purpose of the people, the individual. Why do they do, why do they work where they work. Is there a non-alignment? One of the biggest challenges for organisations for the workforce is retention. The more that is disconnected, the greater the retention problem will be.
We saw the comments made today by Sarah, how quickly people change jobs, change careers, and it’s getting faster and faster. So the purpose of the organisation is it, therefore, a social benefit and can that, and indeed should that, be matched up with the profit purpose? They are not distinctly separate. How do they come together? How do we get a marriage here of individual corporate purpose, the social good, while getting a great shareholder return? So that you can make enough money to pay your venture capitalists. Great stuff!
And, when we got into the transformational leadership aspect, the transformation of business. It was really that language of Doron Ben-Meir about the focus on the need of the transformational leader, standing up and actually looking at major re-invention. Stop looking at incremental change, ’cause it’s a “but”. It’s too hard, we are not willing to have an authentic conversation. Bring it together and really focus on the role of transformational leadership, but not just at the top, throughout the organisation.
Which leads us into today. This great panel we’ve had today, I think we’ve had a very robust conversation. I’m glad we at least extended it to an hour and a half because I had, I’m just adding up, about another twenty-two questions that were prompted during this session, that I am not going to get an opportunity to address. What resonated for me, the language of the competency-based workforce, agility in the workforce. In particular, an employee lead workforce. That was a very, very, strong statement that I think, I haven’t actually heard that terminology before, and it’s actually something that I want to steal, so thank you Sarah.
The issue of trust. Enforcing, reinforcing, again, have the conversation, ask the people. I was looking at the commentary coming through the chat and the questions, it’s “get out and speak”. Not everyone shares the view though, well you don’t ask your children what your direction of the family may be, there has to be, there is a reason you employ senior CEO’s with experience. But, there is something in the middle here. You know, if we ignore people it is to our own detriment.
Technology role. It’s and exciting new world. There is an enormous new opportunity for technology enablement that really can only come to fruition if you start to get this marriage between HR and the CIO. How do we bring that together? Um, that it is going to be a new world for the HR professional, it’s about being a value contributor, not the naysayer and the hygiene manager. This is going to be a new world for everyone.
And then those wrap-up comments. There is no way Sarah that you came up with that triangle on the spot, that is fantastic! Impact engagement, organisational capability productivity, and well-being. Those three dimensions. And again those skilling side of things, Mary, and a conversation that we started to have around credentialling and actually making sense for the employer and the individual. A line of sight. How do we actually do that? We’re one system, we’re one economy, we’re one ecosystem. How do we actually leverage, collaborate to get to where we need to be?
So, I extend, on behalf of all attendees, and QUT, my hearty thanks for all the panelists, for taking time out of your day. Your contribution has been absolutely invaluable.
