Professor Emeritus John F Newton

Professor Emeritus John F Newton, conferred at NIODA graduation ceremony 2018    Read of this fitting tribute to an extraordinarily gifted man, and his career that has impacted Victorian organisations in a profound way. You are likely to have been privy yourself to John’s wisdom (and wit) or know of others who have learnt through […]

‘This’ by Susan Campbell, NIODA graduation

‘This’ by Susan Campbell, NIODA graduation speech 2018   The poet Marie Howe wrote ‘This’ following the experience of caring for her brother before he died at age 28. It’s called ‘The Gate’. I had no idea that the gate I would step through to finally enter this world would be the space my brother’s body […]

How to coach leaders for a networked society

Our workplaces and home life are becomingly increasingly networked. Through the use of technology, people are able to connect just as easily with people who are geographically distant as they are with people in their local area. In addition, our definition of the ways in which work is contracted and conducted has changed. The gig […]

Alumnus Insights

Address to the NIODA Graduands from alumnus, Deb Martindale (RMIT Organisation Dynamics Masters Graduate 2009) What a great privilege it is to be here with you tonight. I feel very humble. Between you and our new mutual friends Bion, Trist, Chapman, Alderfer and the rest of the gang, I’m a lot more like you than […]

Learning about Economics and Organisational Dynamics

Learning about Economics and Organisational Dynamics Economics: the science of the creation and distribution of resources Organisation Dynamics: the capacity for understanding and influencing the ‘push and pull’ of conscious and unconscious resources in the human endeavor to collaborate on primary work tasks. Neo-classical economics is often referred to as ‘the dismal science’ because […]

Leading and Managing in the Emergency and Trauma Sectors Symposium

NIODA SYMPOSIUM 2018 Leading and Managing in the Emergency and Trauma Sectors Symposium Exploring the dynamics of interoperability before, during and after crises. Saturday 15th September 2018 Friday 14th optional pre-symposium dinner & accommodation Leading and Managing in the Emergency and Trauma Sectors Symposium This year, NIODA’s Annual Symposium will explore how leaders and managers […]

Experiential Learning: ‘Market’ value or real value?

Experiential Learning: ‘Market’ value or real value? The Australian literary figure Clive James, who coined the term Cultural Amnesia, argues that we can forget that some things don’t have a market value, they only have value. And the current Banking Royal Commission is surely resurrecting this crucial point. I argue that ‘experiential learning’ or learning-in-experience […]

Let’s (not) Talk About Accountability

A good deal of my consulting work boils down to creating a pretext for necessary conversations between people at work. These may be conversations about clarifying roles and role boundaries, agreeing priorities, establishing group norms and shared values, working through divisive conflicts or untangling baffling conundrums. But sometimes the consultancy begs the question, ‘why are […]

Leadership, Management and Organisation Dynamics, Sydney

Convenient Fiction? Diagnostic surveys and other blunt instruments

Sometimes I say, with a bit of cheek, that Executive Teams are prepared to pay a lot of money NOT to learn about what is really going on in their organisations. Every year, so many resources are spent on quantitative survey tools that loosely point to areas of challenge (e.g. poor communication, bullying, low morale, distant managers, high turnover etc.), but provide little or no rich detail about what sits behind the data…

NIODA Insights

I have recently joined NIODA as the Board Secretary / Office Manager and am regularly delighted by the insights that theses wonderful people have into who we are and how we can work well as a team.  They not only have the expertise and experience to share these ingiths, but they live and breathe what […]