Lunch + Learn

Webinar Session: Monday, 11th Oct 2021 at 12:00pm (noon)
Addressing The Great Resignation

It’s being called “The Great Attrition” and “The Great Resignation”. A record number of employees are quitting or considering it. In this Lunch and Learn webinar, we will be exploring the underlying causes of this global phenomenon, and what can be done to address it.

Join SMG Senior Partner Mehul Joshi and a panel of experts including Bernadette Bruton, Executive General Manager – Culture, Leadership and Learning at National Australia Bank, Pierre de Villiers,  General Manager, People Centre of Expertise, Allianz, and SMG’s career transition specialist and former Head of Talent at Westpac, Lynn Rasmussen for this Lunch and Learn webinar.

Webinar Session: Wednesday 7th July 2021
Leading through lockdown.

What can leaders do to energise themselves and support their teams in the face of lockdowns and ongoing uncertainty? No one has all the answers. However some organisations are successfully rethinking how they are engaging with their people to meaningfully connect, motivate and inspire during times of disruption.

In this lunchtime webinar, SMG Senior Partner Mehul Joshi will be exploring best practice approaches with a panel of experts including Benjamin Morris, Mirvac’s HR Group General Manager and SMG partners Virginia Mansell and Christopher Paterson.

Webinar Session: Monday 23rd November 2020
Out of adversity comes opportunity.

It would be an understatement to say that 2020 has been an extraordinarily challenging year. Yet, to varying degrees of success, organisations have been able to pivot and ride the waves of disruption created by the global pandemic. But the cost at the human level has been high.

So, what have been the leadership lessons of the past eight months—and importantly, how can we take the opportunity to apply them to ensure a culture of ongoing wellbeing and success in 2021?

In this lunchtime webinar SMG Senior Partner, and former BBC News journalist, Mehul Joshi will be exploring this question with a panel of experts including the Global Chief People Officer of Ramsay Health, Colleen Harris and Regional Managing Director of Compass Group Asia Pacific, Mark Van Dyck.

Webinar Session: Monday 31st August 2020
When COVID-19 hit in March, organisations made dramatic and sweeping changes to meet the immediate needs of safety, business continuity and well-being for their people. Now, six months in, leaders are needing to take a more sophisticated approach to support sustained well-being, engagement and effectiveness for each person on their team.
In this webinar, we will be exploring with a panel of experts:

• How to sustain engagement now and into the future
• The key drivers of effectiveness and well-being in the current environment
• How to differentiate between those who are thriving and those who are struggling – and the importance of providing support to both

Webinar Session: 27th July 2020

COVID-19 has highlighted the crucial importance of effective collaboration within and across teams. Many leaders are discovering that the most complex organisational problems generated by the pandemic are best solved at the crucial intersection of differing perspectives and cross-functional expertise. However, crises also make people more risk-averse, meaning they are less likely to seek out different perspectives.

In this webinar, our panel of expert including, Former Australian Cricket Team Coach, John Buchanan, psychologist and SMG Founding Partner, Virginia Mansell, and Trek Bicycles Asia Pacific Managing Director, Phil McGlade, will explore:

• • How the pandemic has impacted our ability to collaborate and the ability of teams to work effectively
  • The difference between effective and ineffective collaboration
  • Strategies for promoting effective collaboration

Webinar Session: 29 June 2020

Bold leadership has never been more important. As we face into some of the strongest and most disruptive economic headwinds in decades, the fate of many organisations will rest on how their leaders think and act.

History has shown us that the organisations that thrive in such conditions are the ones that focus on reimaging and reinventing their own future: Sony launched the transistor radio in the midst of a global pandemic in 1957; Microsoft was launched in a downturn in 1975 and Adobe built the foundation of its extraordinary transformation in 2008-2009 in the middle of the GFC.

In this webinar, a panel of experts including Innosight’s Scott D. Anthony, ranked #9 most influential thinker in the world by Thinkers50, Dr Amantha Imber, organisational psychologist, best-selling author, and founder of Inventium, and Anshika Grover Associate Director, 5G Future Innovation with OPTUS, will discuss how leaders can develop their ability to emulate this success through the way they lead.

We will explore:

• The mindsets and leadership behaviours to turn uncertainty into opportunity
• The questions leaders need to be asking
• How businesses can emerge stronger from the current crisis

Webinar Session: 15 June 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered a moment of truth for leaders in business. Those that have risen to the challenge have demonstrated a range of qualities such as adaptability, agility, empathy, creativity and resilience.

So, are these the new leadership attributes that need to be developed above all else? Or, if these traits are simply what is needed for organisations to thrive right now, what are the capabilities that will future-proof leadership – and how do you develop them at an organisational level?

Join award-winning former BBC broadcast journalist and SMG Senior Partner Mehul Joshi for an exploration of these questions with an outstanding panel of experts: Susan Ferrier, NAB Chief People Officer, Virginia Mansell, clinical and organisational psychologist and SMG Founding Partner, and Alex Scandurra, CEO of technology innovation hub, Stone and Chalk.

Webinar Session: 1 June 2020

The social experiment imposed on all of us by a global pandemic has demonstrated that working from home is not only effective but, in many cases, people’s preferred option. For example, working from home minimises the risks (and the associated anxieties) about travelling to work while we are without a vaccine for COVID-19. It can also deliver productivity gains – no commuting time. Yet leaders are now faced with having to make a compelling case for a return to the office. How do they do this and why would they want to?

In this Webinar, a panel of experts will discuss the case for and against working together in face to face environments, exploring:

• Brand new global research on how our workplace values are shifting as a result of the pandemic
• What gets lost when we are only working remotely
• The DNA of wanting to “belong” and how we are socialised to be part of a community.
• The implications for organisational culture of constant remote working

As we emerge into the post COVID world, leaders will face new challenges that they haven’t previously had to consider. Returning to the workplace is just one example of what’s to come and the new thinking that will be required to deal with these situations. This webinar will help start your journey of reflecting on what leadership means in the new world.

Webinar Session: 4th May 2020

The ability of the Australian and New Zealand governments to keep a lid on COVID-19 has meant that leaders in this part of the world can begin to think beyond the immediate planning horizon and take a more strategic view. However, most strategic planning relies on some degree of certainty and predictability. COVID-19 doesn’t allow for either of these.

In this Lunch and Learn webinar, former BBC News journalist and now SMG Senior Partner, Mehul Joshi will be interviewing two experts who will provide valuable perspectives on how to solve this apparent conundrum.

CEO, entrepreneur and author, So-Young Kang will be speaking from Singapore on the “current state”: how leaders around the world are redefining how they operate in the present environment. SMG Executive Mentor, Board Director and former head of strategy at QANTAS, Steven Mann will be speaking about the “future state” — how to create meaningful strategy in the midst of uncertainty.

Webinar Session: 20th April 2020

As the current COVID-19 scenario continues to evolve, it’s becoming clear that we are running a marathon, not a sprint. What does that mean for how we need to adapt as leaders?

In this Lunch and Learn webinar, former BBC News broadcaster and Head of Leadership Practice, Mehul Joshi will lead a panel of expert speakers to explore:

• The importance of consistency, sense-making and empowerment
• The coping and resilience strategies that leaders and their teams need to develop
• The mental, emotional, physical and psychological ‘red flags’ to watch for when working from home

Webinar Session: 6th April 2020

The ongoing impacts of Covid-19 has put us in uncharted territory. Yet despite the uncertainties of what lies ahead, leaders can draw on valuable lessons from previous crises, and apply them to gain greater control of some of their immediate and emerging challenges.

In this webinar, we’ll be hearing from two former CEO’s, Murray Bell and Kerrie Kelly, who successfully led themselves, and their teams, through critical incident situations including military uprisings, earthquakes and natural disasters. Together with analysis from clinical and organisational psychologist Virginia Mansell, they will be drawing out the crucial insights and offering practical advice on how we can deal with the crisis unfolding before us.

• Understand leadership in the Covid-19 world through the lens of crisis management
• Explore how self-management is crucial to clear decision-making
• Apply the principles of crisis management to your situation

Webinar Session: 23rd March 2020

Join Founding Partner and clinical psychologist, Virginia Mansell, for a free webinar as she explores practical tools and approaches to deal with anxiety and leadership during difficult times.

Virginia will outline the psychological factors that cause fear and uncertainty for leaders during a crisis, and will detail useful ways leaders can manage both their own, and their teams reactions.