Most organisations say they want people to speak up. The real test is what happens after they do.
What happens when something difficult is named inside an organisation?
When power is uneven. When relationships are complicated. When loyalties are tested. When the truth is uncomfortable. When staying silent feels safer than saying what needs to be said.
And what happens when, instead of addressing the problem, the person who raises it becomes part of the problem the system tries to manage?
Walking on Broken Glass will open Day Two of Thriving with a brave and deeply human conversation about power, silence, trust, psychological safety and organisational accountability.
Not to point fingers, but to explore what happens when good people find themselves inside difficult systems, when trust breaks down, power comes into play and doing the right thing becomes complicated.
IN THE CONVERSATION
Hosted by Genevieve Hawkins, Founder, Mentally At Work
Genevieve’s work focuses on psychological safety, workplace conflict and helping organisations have the conversations they most need to have.
Alison Rossiter, Senior Healthcare Executive and Non Executive Director
Bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience across healthcare, transformation and change, alongside her own perspective on identity, disruption and what leadership asks of us when circumstances shift.
Jo Tarnawsky, former Chief of Staff to Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister
Bringing decades of experience across government, diplomacy and senior leadership, alongside a deeply personal perspective on speaking up, power and what can happen when workplace trust breaks down.
Joanne Yates, Chair, Centre for Women’s Economic Safety
Bringing decades of experience across advocacy, public policy, government and gender equality, with a powerful systems lens on voice, power, safety and what meaningful accountability really requires.
WHY THIS CONVERSATION MATTERS
Culture is not really tested when everything is going well. It is tested in the moments when something goes wrong.
When someone challenges the prevailing view.
When a concern is raised.
When relationships fracture.
When power enters the equation.
When doing the right thing becomes uncomfortable.
Those moments tell us an enormous amount about psychological safety, trust, accountability and the culture we have actually created, not simply the one we say we have.
WHAT CAN LEADERS LEARN FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE?
Jo, Alison and Joanne bring very different experiences, but together they offer something incredibly valuable: the wisdom that comes from having lived through moments where leadership, systems and human vulnerability intersect.
Their stories invite us to think more deeply about what psychological safety really looks like when the stakes are high.
How power changes the experience of speaking up, being heard and being believed.
The difference between having the right policies and creating a culture where people genuinely feel safe enough to use them.
How quickly trust can fracture and what leadership does in the moments immediately afterwards.
And perhaps most importantly, what leaders can do differently before someone ever has to feel like they are walking on broken glass.
This is about learning from lived experience so we can see earlier, respond better and create cultures where difficult things can be raised, heard and handled with greater humanity.
Walking on Broken Glass is just one of many powerful conversations across two days at The Thriving Workplace.
Come and be part of the conversations that are easy to avoid, but too important not to have.