Ashley started out his career as a lawyer, and like most lawyers, his dream was to achieve the elusive Partner status in a top law firm. After years of hard work, blood, sweat and tears, he reached what he thought was the pinnacle of his career only to discover that his definition of success had been wrong all along. Not only was he unhappy himself, but in striving to achieve the status he so desired, Ashley’s health and relationships had suffered immensely. That’s when he sought to redefine what success looks like and build a more meaningful life for himself.

Today, Ashley is happier and healthier than he ever has been. He has better relationships, is more productive and this results in better business outcomes for Holden in his current role as Executive Director of HR. The passion and purpose he now brings to every aspect of his life has led to a culture of caring and inclusion at Holden Australia with the wellbeing of its employees a major priority.

What you’ll take away from this session:

1. A definition of what success looks like for YOU! How to ensure you’re consistently fighting for the right things and identify any perceptions that might be holding you back

2. How to create and maintain boundaries at work. Getting others to not only respect them but also enable them!

3. The importance of every leader investing in good nutrition, fitness and sleep. How you can integrate this into your own life and help others in your team or organisation.

The concept of psychological safety is often used for managing mental health in the workplace, but did you know it’s also an essential ingredient for any thriving team or workplace culture? An organisation lacking psychological safety may display conflict, low trust and a lot of energy expended by individuals ‘defending’ themselves from the workplace environment. The result can be a team that is unproductive, exhausted and lacking in creativity and decision-making capability!

As a contrast to this, a psychologically-safe culture has the ability to improve performance, boost creativity and allow for more sound decision making.

What you will take away from this session:

1. How to find out if your culture is ‘psychologically safe’ – defining your culture and measuring what’s really going on!

2. Understanding the drivers for psychological safety and how to leverage the levers

3. Ways to address a psychologically ‘unsafe’ culture – structures and dealing with in individuals in conflict situations

Anthony has worked in Fairfax Media for 31 years, originally as a plant electrician and today as HR Director and Health, Safety & Environment Manager. During Anthony’s time at Fairfax he has seen significant change, firstly from technology that changed the way newspapers were produced and printed through to the emergence of the internet and the digital age. The last 10 years in particular has disrupted the traditional print media model and has challenged not only Fairfax but media companies across the globe. 24-hour news cycles have been replaced with instant news, images and video. This rapid change has led to a significant adjustment in the way Fairfax operates and subsequently led to significant impacts on workforce and employee numbers.

As part of this change, Fairfax increased its focus on the health, wellbeing and safety of its employees. One of the results of this focus has been a significant reduction in the number of lost time injuries across the organisation which has led to a massive reduction in workers compensation premiums in excess of 10 million dollars pa compared to 7 years prior. All this has been achieved through a process of educating line managers on the importance of caring and supporting for their people – as well as giving them financial accountability and increased visibility for their team’s claims. In addition, Fairfax has and continues to adopt flexible work practices across many of its sites and is focused on expanding this program.

What You’ll Take Away from This Session:

1. Educating leaders and line managers to build resilience in their teams through the concepts of care, support, involvement, early intervention and prevention

2. Giving financial accountability, increased visibility and streamlined process for line managers to take care of their people’s welfare

3. Fairfax’s journey to a fully flexible workplace, and how more hands-on business units can also embrace the concepts of flexible working.

Currently the Chief Customer Officer of Sumo Salad and founder of Get Raw Energy, Lawrence has held numerous CMO and CCO roles across the UK, US and Australia. Whilst never directly responsible for employee wellbeing in his roles, Lawrence’s passion for his own personal health inspired him to build a corporate wellbeing program from scratch at his previous employer RELX. After great success, the program was rolled out globally and later awarded ‘Best Health & Wellbeing Initiative’ at the prestigious CIPD awards in the UK.

Lawrence has continued this dedication to building thriving workplaces at Sumo Salad and other brands – most recently heading up a culture and customer-experience based initiative to evolve and define the company’s purpose, mission and values to create a firm foundation for business transformation and growth.

What you will take away from this session:

1. Insight into how any leader, regardless of their position, can start a wellbeing program in their company – where to start, how to gain support, finding the ‘hook’, dealing with the cynics, measuring success

2. A highly successful marketing-based approach to wellbeing / culture programs that ‘borrows’ concepts from product innovation

3. How to drive the program forward, maintain investment and embed it into the organisation so that it doesn’t fizzle out when you leave!

Lesley Anne Clifton is the IT Superintendent at Tomago Aluminium, one of Australasia’s largest aluminium smelters employing over 1000 people. When a new CEO took the reins 5 years ago, he initiated a massive program of cultural transformation promoting positivity and openness through a myriad of programs and initiatives.

In 2015 Lesley Anne was project managing a massive ERP upgrade when the unimaginable happened – one of her sons was diagnosed with cancer. Her son lived 180km away and whilst the initial prognosis was for a full recovery, as a mum she wanted to support him and when 4 months into treatment he had a relapse when the cancer started to spread rapidly, she decided she needed to be at his side whilst he underwent his lengthy treatment.

Lesley Anne’s initial reaction was to hand over the reins of the ERP upgrade, however her managers and the organisation as a whole, made it possible for Lesley Anne to be there for her son every step of the way, whilst still delivering the project on time and under budget. Lesley Anne firmly believes that without the cultural transformation and focus on wellbeing at Tomago, this would never have been possible!

What you’ll take away from this session:

1. A real-life insight into how managers and organisations can help people thrive through their darkest hours. Sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest difference!

2. The impact that workplace initiatives in culture, leadership, health and flexibility can have on people in your team and your business.

3. What do you want and what will work for you? How honesty and openness at all levels builds better relationships.

Anne is a commercially astute leader and a systems thinker. She has shaped cultures in ASX listed organisations and major growth brands with high performing teams, prolific communications and robust transformation programs that bring faster revenue growth. Anne believes that while leadership is the biggest lever to shift culture, many organisations put all their eggs in one basket by focusing only on expensive individual leadership development programs rather than the more commercially viable and sustainable option of harnessing the power of the collective. Listen to this case study that on how an iconic Australian financial services organisation used data to gather insights about its current culture as well as harnessed its organisational levers to start shifting its culture into the future state.

What You’ll Take Away From This Session:

1. Understanding the difference between culture, engagement and experience

2. Identifying what is the best culture for your organisation when there are countless options. Plus a technique to measure culture which you can credibly take to your C Suite

3. How to design systems that ensures leaders act collectively

Synopsis coming soon

Rowena Hubble is a hands-on mother of two, a wife, a friend, an active local community member, and Head of Finance Transformation at ASX-200 company, Metcash. Following the birth of her two children (now teenagers), Rowena was determined not to have to choose between a successful career and success in everything else in life. Through more effective management of her time and energy, she was able to manage the game of life and work.

Based on her own success in re-engineering her workday to create time for life, and researching the best ways to manage time from around the world, last year Rowena self-published a book to share her insights (writing the book whilst working full-time is testament that she clearly does manage her day well).

What You’ll Take Away from This Session:

1. How your current lifestyle choices are impacting your life. Use your personal goals and values to focus on what matters most to YOU

2. Key insights and ‘aha’ moments from Rowena’s interviews with other top executives

3. Practical tools and techniques based on research dedicated to prioritising, focusing, motivation, multitasking, managing emails and embracing “good” stress

Katherine is a world leading expert in human performance. A Chartered Psychologist with a PhD in Sport and Performance Psychology, she’s supported athletes and coaches at the last 5 Olympic/Paralympic Games and worked with leading global businesses to help them perform better and maximise their potential. Katherine has a passion in supporting people to perform to their potential – at work, at home and at play. That essentially means she helps people make better choices to be ready to thrive – and perform – whatever the conditions!

While Katherine now spends most of her time working with business leaders, she retains a role as lead ‘readiness’ consultant with the GB Paralympic team, leading the ‘Readiness to Thrive at the Games’ strategy and programs – a highly successful program to ensure that the Paralympic team is 100% ready to perform – and deliver – at Games time.

What you will take away from this session:

1. Insight into how the world’s best athletes and leaders approach their performance, and how ‘readiness to thrive’ is an essential element of that

2. Real-life experience of how one of the most successful teams/organisations has implemented a ‘thriving’ strategy, and a framework that you can take back into your own organisation

3. Reflect on your own performance and readiness to thrive, and get started on a simple 4 step process so you’re ready to thrive and perform consistently well in your environment!