The Problem

Transgrid approached us because they wanted to build their internal culture and capabilities during a time of growth and industry change. In addition, they, like so many businesses, needed to do this within the challenges of a hybrid working environment.

  • They wanted to give their team the skills they needed to:

  • Facilitate meetings effectively;

  • Communicate well, especially virtually;

  • Draw out the right conversations and questions;

  • Manage the people and energy of a room to achieve the best results;

  • Generate engagement and buy-in from stakeholders;

  • Get the message across to leaderships with confidence and clarity.

What we did

In order to achieve this, we designed and delivered a comprehensive online facilitator training programme to staff within their L&D team.

Due to the success of that first program, we have continued to deliver the training, now face to face, and have extended it to encompass Human-Centred Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Facilitation Training.

Participants got access to some of the most powerful and practical frameworks to understand what it means to be a good leader and facilitator (we actually see leaders and facilitators as the same thing). We believe that Emotional Intelligence is the foundation of great leadership and facilitation, and so we provided participants with practical activities to develop this essential human skill. We gave them specific processes to develop their ability to assess, empathise, plan, reflect, communicate, decide and act.

The outcome

We provided Transgrid with the essential ingredients they needed to develop their people into great leaders and facilitators of change. Added to this, our sessions were so transformative, that participants left with the necessary mindset shift to believe that they could be great leaders and facilitators.

Participants said that they were able to use the tools not only at work, but also in their personal lives.

This is an example of an organisation that a client who experienced the personal transformations at an individual level and then wanted to spread that impact across the whole organisation. Whilst every person who attended the workshop said that it needed to be delivered to the whole organisation, it wasn’t until we reached 3% that they started seeing the potential for wider transformation.

We are now working with Transgrid to bring our leadership training out to all staff with the view to having a more empowered and engaged workforce.

Testimonial

“Monty is an amazing facilitator, great energy and very authentic. He’s inspired me and I’m already applying the learning back in the office. Highly recommended!”

Stuart Barber - Manager, Technology Operations at TransGrid

The Problem

Over the past two years, EY has engaged in hugely successful campaigns celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. We were approached by EY Oceania on the lead up to International Women's Day a support them in creating a call to action for further accelerating gender equality within the organisation.

They wanted us to help them to:

  • Celebrate the contributions of women (social, economic, cultural and political).

  • Shape the conversation on gender equality and amplify diverse voices.

  • Highlight the steps EY is taking to close the gender pay gap through the voices of key leaders.

  • Engage more men in such a way that inspires a safe environment for learning and a powerful motivation for change

  • Turn inclusive intent into inclusive action. Activate our people to commit to accelerating gender equality through big and small action.

They wanted their people to:

  • Recognise the role they play and inspired to bring about change;

  • Engage in in challenging conversations on gender and identity and learn how to draw in different perspectives to explore solutions together;

  • Move past a “transactional” or "politically correct” understanding of gender and inequality, and move towards a more transformative, empathetic and practical appreciation of human difference and diversity.

Our Work

We facilitated the Flagship IWD event: #BeTheAnswer webinar, for over 7000 people.

In response to positive feedback from EY’s IWD Panel, we were then asked to help Ey to refocus their energy on ‘engaging more men’ in gender equality by having brave conversations about gender.

For this to happen, we needed to create a safe place for men to talk about their challenges/reservations, with regards to gender equity in the workplace. We were asked to deliver our “Men After #MeToo” workshop to all the male Partners, Associate Partners and Directors in the organisation.

Understanding the need to empathetic connections that drive intrinsic motivation and enable profound change from within this has now broadened out to include a mix of genders. As such, we are now to all our Partner, Associate Partners and Directors within EY Oceania.

The outcome

We have helped EY continue their great work as they examine beliefs about gender, privilege, inequality, and how these issues impact organisation and cultures. Participants are able to acknowledge how highly complex gender is, but understand the business case WHY in order to make it a priority. We have supported them to develop a method of engaging in challenging conversations and learn how to draw in different perspectives to explore solutions together. We have helped them move towards a more transformative, empathetic and practical appreciation of human difference and diversity and equipped them with the knowledge of where to go for resources and programs supporting gender equality at EY.

The Problem

The Vincent Fairfax Fellowship is a unique, transformative program that aims to help leaders to know what’s right, want what’s right and to what’s right for the benefit of the people they lead, the communities they influence and the society they inhabit.

The program tries to support a community of high-calibre leaders who, individually and collectively, are champions of ethical decision-making, moral imagination, care and the common good.

The new Program Director needed our help to make the previous version of the program more experiential and engaging. Rather than simply being an introduction to the core concepts, each component was to take the participants into a broader level of moral engagement.

They needed our help to provide a powerful experience at the begging of the fellowship that brought the cohort together in a way got them to conn ect with each others shared humanity, beyond the masks of their professional selves

Part of the fellowship got participants to create a social impact project intended to engage  the fellows in ongoing philosophical conversations about our human capabilities. The intent as to empower these highly influential leaders to put ethical change into action within their organisations. They needed our help to coach the fellows through the ethical learning opportunities that arose through the development of the projects.

What we did

We ran our Brave Conversation workshop titled “Being Human” at the launch of the program and provided coaching to fellows during their social impact project.

We also delivered our Human-Centred Leadership and Facilitation Training to the Program Director and a number of the fellows.

The outcome

The Director was able to develop a more engaging, experiential and transformative program. Fellows reported being more aware of their privilege and having a greater ethical sensibility towards their influence int he world. They talked about the worth of fighting to be more inclusive of the marginalised, acknowledging the value of different perspectives and the importance of a values driven engagement in their work.

Fellows reported having greater confidence in their abilities and that they were more attuned and responsive, rather than being reactive. They emphasised the benefits of having a human-centred approach that values relationships, especially when trying to move beyond the myths of ethical leadership and embrace an inclusive and just practice.

Testimonial

“I've been facilitating, moderating, lecturing and delivering keynotes for years, and feel very confident in my abilities, but Monty's training and experience have helped take me to another level! I've engaged Monty as a coach and a presenter within the Vincent Fairfax Fellowship, and participated in his facilitation training, and I can't recommend him highly enough. Not only is he an absolute pro, who embodies the 'show, don't tell' approach to training that keeps your eyelids from getting heavy, he's one of the most authentic, generous and insightful people I know. I'm looking forward to a long working relationship!”

Dr. Matt Beard - Program Director, Vincent Fairfax Fellowship at Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership

The Problem

The National Gallery of Australia was undergoing a period of change that lead to uncertainty and disagreement around their values, purpose, and vision for the future. This was affecting team cohesion, productivity and their collective sense of direction.

They needed our help to:

  • Build their internal culture and capabilities during this period of. Change;

  • Increase their risk threshold and embrace failure as a path to success;

  • Increase ownership and empowerment in order to decide and act without displacing responsibility;

  • Nurture a culture of distributed leadership and creative confidence;

  • Generate engagement and buy-in from diverse stakeholders;

  • Be more responsive and less reactive as a team;

  • Get staff to talk openly and safely about their challenges, their vision and the direction of the Gallery;

  • Have Management really listen to the needs and concerns of staff during this period of change;

  • Increase trust and connection within the workplace and develop productive professional relationships that enable the Gallery to embrace positive and inclusive change.

Our Work

We ran a number of engaging human-centred, experiential workshops which created a psychologically and emotionally safe space that helped staff feel comfortable being honest with each other and sharing their true thoughts and feelings.

Habitus underwent a design thinking and strategic planning process using ethnographic methods to identify and understand what their problem was at a foundational level. 

We drew out and encouraged diverse opinions to forge a shared vision and purpose that united the disparate teams. Participants collectively defined a realistic action plan for moving forward, identified likely obstacles, and developed shared systems of accountability to ensure their plan became a reality.

The outcome

The depth of the shared experiences we facilitated enabled individuals to move beyond engaging with each other in silos, as faceless colleagues who were protective of their domains, to see each other as real humans who embraced their differences as collective strengths.

By using the Brave Conversations framework and combining it with ethnographic processes, we were able to get to the heart of the problem and take their negativity into concrete action items for inclusive change.

The Problem

Martinus Rail is a proud Australian owned and operated family business specialising in the delivery of rail infrastructure projects. Five years ago Martinus was an innovative, young, progressive company - it was small, and different and the culture emerged organically. The culture used to be very human, organic, flexible, trusting and open. People came in because of culture fit, not qualifications alone.

However massive growth, resulting in a high turnover of employees, led to the erosion of the Martinus culture and the Martinus vision.

COVID-19 and an already geographically dispersed team made connection within the organisation very difficult. Martinus struggled with the complexities of rapid growth and commercial success. Their unique family inspired corporate culture was at risk of being lost to the process and drivers of scale. The result was that high performers, who were initially attracted to the small-company values and feel, started leaving the organisation.

Our Work

We engaged in an in-depth consultation process using ethnographic research to better understand what was happening on a day-to-day level, and how the rituals, symbols and relationships of Martinus had changed as the organisation had grown. Using a combination of participant observation, interviews and document analysis, we began to paint a clear picture of the ‘as-is’, and define a strategy for re-embedding the values, vision and culture that had helped them get to where they were, and were needed to take the next big leap forward.

We co-designed and delivered a custom Leadership Training Program that:

  • helped their leaders to articulate and live their values and purpose

  • created new processes, practices and artefacts that embedded these values and purpose into day-to-day operations

  • provide strong, authentic leadership that was inclusive and engaging

  • achieve better getting results.

MORE CLIENT STORIES

The Problem

Brighton Grammar is currently engaged in a number of successful initiatives that support boys in their transition to manhood over the crucial developmental period during years 9 and 10.

Prior to their engagement with Habitus, all the ingredients were there, but what they really needed was someone who could drive that change from within. They had engaged external providers to deliver a Rite of Passage program for the boys and their parents, but those providers couldn’t fully understand or appreciate the unique needs of the school community like someone from the inside.

What we did

Habitus was engaged to consult with students, staff and key members of the community to identify their challenges and empower the school community to deliver a world class, research-informed and highly professional program for themselves.

Through a consultative co-design design process and ongoing coaching, we helped define and establish an internal position for a key staff member to drive change from within. Through an in depth coaching and mentoring process, we co-designed a Rite of Passage experience for students that facilitated their transformation from boys to men in an inclusive, experiential as well as a psychologically and emotionally safe manner.

The outcome

Right from the start, my goal has always been to support them to get a point where they could run it for themselves.

We trained and empowered staff at Brighton Grammar to deliver the program for themselves on an ongoing basis, reducing systemic risk, financial costs, and building internal capability that positively affected student and teacher engagement across the school.

We built on existing structures and facilitated incremental change with minimal initial disruption to achieve maximum buy in from staff, students and parents.

Brighton Grammar went from having their Rite of Passage program fully facilitated by external providers, to now running it completely internally with past students returning to facilitate programs and coach current students.

Testimonial

“Dr. Monty Badami and Habitus are highly recommended. One of the keys in our work was to really understand the views and values of our community and to work in a coherent way within those views. Monty has a great mix of skills and abilities: he is highly aware and sensitive to his context as an ethnographer, and is also able to be very specific and outcome driven. Monty’s advice has helped shape our programs and experiences for our parents and kids and has been an important part of the success of those programs.”

Dr Ray Swann - Head of the Crowther Centre I Deputy Headmaster at Brighton Grammar