Consulting Matters September 2021

SPRING 2021

CONSULT AUSTRALIA'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT CONSULTANT

INFLUENCE 16

CULTURALLY RELEVANT MENTORING INCREASING MIGRANT WOMEN‘S INFLUENCE IN ATTAINING HIGHER ORGANISATIONAL ROLES IN AUSTRALIA

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WHY PROJECT CULTURE MATTERS AND HOW YOU CAN INFLUNCE IT

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INFLUENCING THE NEXT GENERATION

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Consulting Matters

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Over two days we will be inviting the entire industry to come together as One. From emerging leaders to senior leaders, SME businesses to large enterprises, we will be meeting to discuss, learn, network and celebrate Save the date and stay tuned for registration details!

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Consulting Matters

CONTENTS P.21 Î INFLUENCING THE NEXT GENERATION

P.16 Î CULTURALLY RELEVANT MENTORING

INCREASING MIGRANT WOMEN‘S INFLUENCE IN ATTAINING HIGHER ORGANISATIONAL ROLES IN AUSTRALIA

INDUSTRY UPDATES 4

Appointments

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Industry News

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSULT AUSTRALIA 6

From the President

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From the CEO

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Advocacy Highlights

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State & Territories Updates

13 SME Highlights

FEATURES 14 Integral Group Leadership 16 Culturally relevant mentoring to increase migrant women‘s influence in attaining higher organisational roles in Australia 17 Untitled Leadership: How to influence and thrive in a VUCA world 18 The Influence Gap 20 Mega-influences bring opportunity and threat 21 Influencing the Next Generation

24 Transformation of a Region How the Olympics will reshape South East Queensland 26 Why project culture matters and how you can influence it

INDUSTRY COMMENT 28 Super and the gender gap

BUSINESS ESSENTIALS 30 Business Journal 104 Successful Leadership Succession

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 34 Trust: The essential element in humanitarian work: reflections from people of action

PROJECT CASE STUDY 36 First of its kind bridge design reduces construction time, is more sustainable and requires no ongoing maintenance

22 Powers of Influence: A Recap of the NSW Building Commissioner’s Compliance and Enforcement Powers

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the magazine contains an image of a deceased person.

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Consulting Matters

Industry updates

Industry updates APPOINTMENTS

A chartered executive engineer with extensive leadership experience across public and private infrastructure and a wide range of industries, Tim brings deep sectoral knowledge and a comprehensive history of delivery through digital, innovation, change management, and strategy. Tim’s leadership has earned him accolades as a Young Professional Engineer of the Year finalist.

Principal Consultant in the Hydrology and Hydrogeology team. Both Tim and Kevin will bring a wealth of internationally recognised experience to the broader SLR group, in addition to their invaluable local insights and knowledge.

Design and engineering consultancy Arup has appointed new leaders for its Australasia region as part of a refreshed business model with additional focus on sustainability.

As region co-Chairs, Kate West and Kerryn Coker now head the firm’s integrated advisory and technical services offered by more than 2,500 staff across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, with Murray Kretschmer as Chief Operations Officer.

Kate and Kerryn have had long careers with Arup, working in Australia and overseas in technical and management roles. Before their appointment as co-Chairs, they were region Board members and led successful business teams – Kate in WA and Kerryn in NSW. They are committed to leading with social purpose, an intention which is articulated through many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and core to the Arup ethos. Kerryn is a Consult Australia Champion of Change, and a former recipient of the Consult Australia Champions of Change Female Leadership Award.

As co-Chairs, they each have responsibilities for strategic priorities, with Kerryn leading the sustainability agenda, and Kate leading on the firm’s excellence and influence agenda.

The President and Board of the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry are pleased to announce Andrew McKellar as ACCI’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective Monday, 9 August 2021.

“Andrew comes to ACCI with a strong background in industry associations both in Australia and globally. He is currently CEO of the Australian Trucking Association and, prior to this, he was Secretary General for Automobile Mobility and Tourism at the Federation International de l’Automobile in Paris,” ACCI President Ray Sputore said.

Dean McIntyre has been named Executive General Manager – Australia at GHD, one of the world’s leading professional services companies. Dean succeeds Phil Duthie who is taking up a new role as Chief Operating Officer.

Dean first joined GHD as a graduate in 1989 and rapidly established his leadership credentials. He has held a variety of leadership roles during this time, most recently as Regional General Manager for Victoria. He also has experience leading GHD’s Philippines and Southeast Asia business. Dean holds qualifications in civil engineering and an MBA.

With all state and territory chambers and more than 80 national industry associations as members, ACCI is the largest representative business group in Australia.

“We also acknowledge the committed contribution made to ACCI by Jenny Lambert as its acting CEO since January, a role she will continue to perform until Andrew starts in August.”

Integral Group has appointed Andrew Oxley, as Regional Director, Asia Pacific. He will succeed Andrew Mather and Dominic Lai who are both retiring at the end of 2021 after successful and distinguished careers in Senior Management at Integral Group and Umow Lai. Andrew Oxley will be supported by an Australian leadership team:

Beca proudly welcomes Tim Mumford as Business Director, Digital and Innovation, based in their Melbourne office.

Tim will take a leading role in the development and implementation of Beca’s digital strategy, supporting their clients’ growing needs in this space and with a strong emphasis on Australian infrastructure projects, digital twins, and smart cities.

SLR is pleased to announce the continued growth of their Asia Pacific region, with the recent addition of an office in Wellington, New Zealand.

SLRs expansion of services into this region will be led by recent recruits Kevin Tearney – Technical Director in the Land Quality and Remediation team, and Tim Baker -

•P atrick Elliott, Senior Principal, Major Projects + New Business • Ken Loh, Senior Principal, National BusinessDevelopment • David Barker, Senior Principal, National Sustainability Lead • Sean Wooster, Principal, National ICT Lead • John Avramiotis, Principal, National Security Lead.

Industry updates

Consulting Matters

INDUSTRY NEWS Consult Australia pays respects to the memory of Jane Montgomery-Hribar, AO Consult Australia is saddened to hear of the passing of Jane Montgomery-Hribar, AO. Jane was the co-creator of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (of which Consult Australia is a member), an Executive Director of the Australasian Procurement and Construction Council (APCC) and founding member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC). When leading the APCC, Consult Australia worked closely with Jane. She was instrumental in working to raise procurement standards across Australian governments, including the development of a government education guide on Professional Indemnity Insurance. We also worked closely together to negotiate the Australian Standard General

Conditions of Contract for Consultants (AS4122/2010). Jane was an excellent advocate for women in leadership and for governments working in partnership with industry, a friend and mentor to many. We pass our condolences to Jane’s family.

Editor/Marketing Manager Daniela Bozinovska

President Gerry Doyle

Chief Executive Officer Nicola Grayson

Finance Manager Penny Clark

Engagement Manager Linda Gaunt

Head of Policy & Government Relations Kristy Eulenstein

Senior Policy Advisor & VIC Manager Cindy Laird

Policy Analyst Teone Tobin

NSW Manager Alison Kirk

SA, TAS and the Territories Manager Jan Irvine

WA Manager Diane Dowdell

QLD Manager Kristine Banks

Database Manager Michelle O'Neill

Corporate Designer Fredi Cueva

Accounts Guillaume Marchand-Henderson

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Consulting Matters

What’s happening at Consult Australia

From the President

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You never know what influence you are having on people or what will come of it, but I urge you to make your influence brave, intentional and positive.

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As an industry association advocating for our members, Consult Australia is experienced in how to influence people. But for most of us influencing people isn’t something we probably think about too much, though it forms a part of our every day. Influencing a client to choose you to undertake work, influencing the team you are part of to go with your idea, influencing your boss to give you a pay rise – we try to influence people all the time. How often do we actually stop and think about the influence we have and how we use it?

As I approach the end of my time on the Consult Australia Board, I have thought over what has been achieved in that time.

Have I actually added value to what Consult Australia does over the 6 years I have been on the Board? Said differently, have I had a positive influence on Consult Australia? I am not going to try and answer this question, that is for others to say.

But I did make a conscious decision that I would use the opportunity on the Consult Australia Board to influence the industry’s approach to mental health. This was not something I joined the Board to do, rather it was something that I saw as an opportunity after joining the Board. As most of you hopefully know this is something that is very close to my heart. I have struggled with depression and anxiety for my entire adult life and a second layer of my struggle was my fear that other people would find out. I was

scared that when they found out they would use their influence to limit my opportunities, to squash my career ambitions, to make life harder for me. I don’t want that to be the situation for other people – fighting the black dog at the door is hard enough.

Why did I take the opportunity to try and influence Consult Australia’s approach to mental illness? It was the influence of 2 people. Firstly, I had the privilege to sit in the audience and hear Dr Robert Care speak about his career. During his talk he spoke about “the black dog at the door”, something that really resonated with me. I had been lucky enough to be the MC of the event so had an easy opportunity to talk to Robert after the event. What struck me was that his motivation for talking about depression was to make it OK for others. Here was a man who is highly respected in our industry, who had held some amazing positions in Arup, talking about his doubts and challenges.

The second influence was my leadership coach, Sally Dellow. Sally and I met when I was lucky enough to be doing the HighPerformance Leadership Program through IMD and she has been working with me for about 5 years since. After I had blurted something out about depression at one point, Sally said to me that I had a great story to tell, and it could have a massive impact on other people if I could tell it.

Together these two people influenced me to try and influence others on something that matters to me. It is not easy, and I find talking about my battle with depression and anxiety particularly draining, but it is something I hope is having a positive influence on others in our industry and that makes the personal discomfort worthwhile.

You never know what influence you are having on people or what will come of it, but I urge you to make your influence brave, intentional and positive. n

Gerry Doyle President

What’s happening at Consult Australia

Consulting Matters

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From the CEO Industry associations are born from a desire to influence and an understanding that there is strength in numbers. Next year it will be seventy years since industry leaders across the consulting industry came together to form what is now Consult Australia. We will be celebrating this legacy in style next year as we invite you to OneConsult, our Conference, Exhibition, and Awards for Excellence Celebration, March 30 and 31, to be held at the Hilton in Sydney. Watch out for more video announcements and follow our progress as we build up to the event.

The team and I at Consult Australia are extremely proud to carry this legacy forward and we look forward to seeing you at OneConsult 2022.

As members the more you get involved with us, the more influence you have over the strategy and direction of Consult Australia.

This year you can nominate to join the Board, so please watch out for the call for nominations in your inbox. Board directors are elected by vote of the membership, with the successful candidates announced at the Annual General Meeting on October 21.

There are many other ways to get involved with Consult Australia beyond the Board, one of the easiest ways is to email or call one of the team, we love to hear from you. Also, don’t forget that if your business is a member of Consult Australia, you and your team are all able to create a log-in via our website and access all the fantastic member-only materials, and sign up to the contact lists that most appeal to you.

Positive influence is what we’re all about at Consult Australia and we’re delighted to be casting a wider net with other related industry groups. As you might have seen we worked with the Australian Constructors Association and twelve other industry groups calling for reforms to procurement practices in response to the Commonwealth Parliament’s inquiry into procurement practices for governmentfunded infrastructure. We have also written and published a joint guide with Engineers Australia and the Institute of Architects to provide design professionals guidance about the interplay between their contract terms, insurance, and obligations under the NSW Design and Building Practitioners Act, which came into force on 1 July 2021. We continue to raise the voice of you, our members across the country with senior leaders across all levels of government and industry and you can read more about our activities in the state/territory news sections and our new advocacy highlights feature.

In your role as trusted advisors, consultants have a significant influence on shaping not only our built world, but also our environment, and our culture. Aecom shares with us how mentors and role models can increase migrant women’s influence in attaining higher organisational roles in Australia. Mikael Heinonen, Cofounder at Collabaloop builds on this by looking at influence from a group environment perspective and the value of diversity and inclusion. Natasha Gadzuric and Dr. Tom Crow talk about the value of good culture within project teams for clients and the key role the project managers play in influencing that culture.

“

Positive influence is what we’re all about at Consult Australia and we’re delighted to be casting a wider net with other related industry groups.

”

Others can and do play a significant role regarding the environment in which consultants operate, whether it’s in the role of a regulator, see Hamish Geddes and Josh Mills article on the powers of influence held by the NSW Building Commissioner, or the work of other not-for-profit organisations like the Re-Engineering Foundation that has an incredibly positive influence on children’s engagement with STEM subjects at school through their Formula 1 design competition, see Dr. Michael Mayers OAM article.

We all have the power to influence but as the saying goes, we are stronger together, and as OneConsult there is so much that we can achieve. n

Nicola Grayson CEO

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Consulting Matters

What’s happening at Consult Australia

Advocacy Highlights

With influence being the theme of this edition, I am proud to say that the team is delivering strongly on this front, ensuring Consult Australia has influence on government decision-making, as well as with other industry associations and the private sector.

This is demonstrated by our successful collaboration with 13 other industry associations calling on the Commonwealth Government to finally realise procurement reform for infrastructure projects. We were joined by the likes of the Australian Constructors Association, Ai Group, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, Roads Australia and the Australian Railway Association. We all want to see a healthy construction ecosystem with every sector able to prosper and ultimately deliver world-leading projects for Australia. In our standalone submission to the Inquiry into Procurement Practices for Government-Funded Infrastructure we stressed how current capacity issues in our sector and the devastating impacts of the current insurance market make action vital. Our solutions include government action to de-risk the market by; government clients becoming Model Clients, civil liability reform and reforms to the Australian Consumer Law. We suggested similar solutions in our submission to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) when it released for consultation its paper The Role of the Private Insurance Market. We also called for the ICA to join us in our advocacy to government on these solutions.

Another clear demonstration of Consult Australia’s influence was the recent changes to the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List.

Informed by our skills survey and member input, we advocated for key engineering occupations and surveying to be included to allow for priority visa processing. All the categories we suggested were added to the list, including Electrical Engineer, Civil Engineer, Geotechnical Engineer, Structural Engineer, Surveyor and Transport Engineer.

Also on skills, we recently submitted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ targeted review of the Australian New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations suggesting emerging occupations relevant to our industry. Additionally, we advocated for prioritised review of occupation classifications relevant to our industry noting that we need the policy settings right to capture the occupations essential to the Australian economy.

We are also recognised at the highest levels of government, as part of the Procurement Consultative Roundtable, at which the Commonwealth Secretaries from key government agencies sit with a select number of industry representatives. At the last meeting I was able to raise our member concerns about capacity in the market to deliver both private and public projects. It was pleasing to have the Commonwealth Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman raise the issue of insurance for discussion. More so, I was able to support the moves by the government to professionalise procurement as I pointed out in particular current deficiencies in some government clients on understanding commercial and market pressures (including insurance).

As demonstrated in the State/Territory updates, the whole team is developing quality relationships with industry partners and government stakeholders to ensure we maintain and grow that influence. n

Kristy Eulenstein Head of Policy and Government Relations

What’s happening at Consult Australia

Consulting Matters

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State & Territory Updates With varying market conditions around the country Consult Australia’s state and territory managers share their insights on key challenges and opportunities for our members.

NSW Alison Kirk Firstly, hello from me as the new NSW Manager and thank you to the team and the NSW Committee for the warm welcome. I look forward to meeting more of our members working in NSW as time goes on.

With the pause on construction as a part of the latest lockdown in NSW, pipeline and people issues have obviously been front of mind. The NSW government was very receptive to our advice on what site works by consultants could be allowed (with appropriate restrictions) prior to the full re-opening of construction sites. The government also understands the potential impacts on the timetable of projects, and we continue to advocate for a ramp-up that considers the wellbeing of our people. If members are having an issue relating to time extensions or payments due to the construction pause, please contact me.

Design practitioners and engineers working on Class 2 buildings should now be very aware of the start of the registration and compliance requirements of the Design and Building Practitioners Scheme on 1 July. We have received several member queries which we’ve been able to resolve with the government, contact us if you also need this assistance. Hopefully you have already seen our Guide for Design Practitioners and Engineers which we released in conjunction with Engineers Australia and the Australian Institute of Architects. This guide is a practical resource to help your business tackle the practice issues of contracting, insurance exposure and the requirements under the scheme. This guide has been endorsed by the Office of the Building Commissioner and is available on our website as well as the NSW government website.

As we prepare for the review in early 2022, we need to hear from members on what have been the main hurdles to implementing the reforms in your business.

In terms of procurement, members that work on large and complex NSW government projects should be aware of the Premier’s Memorandum which establishes an ‘if not, why not’ application of the 10-point commitment from 2018 to projects of more than $0.5billion value. The Memorandum outlines measures to streamline the way the government procures, increases participation, competition, and efficiency in infrastructure delivery, and ultimately increasing value for money for the people of NSW. The NSW government has also put into action its commitment to shorten payment times by requiring large businesses which contract with government agencies on contracts valued at more than $7.5 million to pay small business subcontractors within 20 business days. This is in addition the government’s own commitment to pay small businesses directly engaged within five days.

VIC Cindy Laird As the new Vic Manager, thank you to the members I have already had contact with and of course the Vic Committee for welcoming me and getting me up to speed on everything that is going on in Victoria. I hope to meet more members, especially those working in Vic over the rest of the year.

With the most recent lockdown here in Victoria, we were lucky to keep construction sites open which meant minimal impact on that on-site advisory work members do and therefore the pipeline. However, like other areas of Australia we are advising government of the industry constraints (including access to enough people) which will make achieving the ambitious program of projects in Victoria. Every lockdown is challenging, especially in terms of impacts on our people so please make use of the mental health information hub on Consult Australia’s website to help you and your staff get through the challenges of remote working.

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Consulting Matters What’s happening at Consult Australia

Engineers practicing in the state will know that the government’s registration scheme started on 1 July 2021, with engineers involved in the ‘building industry’ being the first engineers required to be registered. That is, any civil engineer, electrical engineer, fire safety engineer, mechanical engineer or structural engineer that work for or in connection with the construction, demolition or removal buildings. With buildings meaning all classes of buildings (structures, temporary buildings, temporary structures and any part of a building or structure) under the National Construction Code. This is a much broader range of professions than what was previously known as ‘building practitioner – engineer’ under the Building Act 1993 (Vic). We have released a member guide on the registration scheme, and also direct members to the Consumer Affairs Victoria website for more information.

We note that some members have been impacted by the collapse of Civilink, a civil constructor that was working on the Western Roads Upgrade project. We are actively pursuing the Minister for action on this issue.

On procurement, I am looking forward to engaging with government clients to talk improved contracting and insurance settings. We have been in contact with Major Road Projects Victoria on its contracting model and potential for principal-sourced insurance. Members have also raised concerns with the contracts used by water authorities throughout the state.

QLD Kristine Banks 2032! It might sound like the Brisbane Olympics are a long way off, but we already know there’s a lot of designing, advising and engineering work to be done before the opening ceremony. The morning after the announcement, Consult Australia hosted a breakfast to discuss the venue masterplan and game changing initiatives for South East QLD with key speakers Scott Smith, CEO South East QLD Council of Mayors, Jason van Paassen from SMEC and Shaun Gallagher, Architect and Principal of Populous. The team at Consult Australia will continue to ensure we are involved in the pipeline of work to deliver the best Olympics ever.

Advocacy with local council clients has been progressing well as we talk procurement, seeking less onerous contracts for consultants and talk about the impact the current insurance market is having on businesses that supply local government. Councils are concerned with a potential drop in quality assurance of drafting work and also the buildability/integration of design work. If you have input on these issues we can communicate to local government or if you have additional concerns about contracts to raise, please contact me.

We have provided advice to the Queensland Government on standardised terms regarding modern slavery obligations in government contracts.

Our primary feedback was to ensure that these obligations do not unduly burden business practice, and to suggest a move away from obligations that could be read as contractual warranties. We hope that a balanced approach is reached with obligations only applying to those suppliers that have a duty under the relevant modern slavery legislation.

In the people area we continue to work with the Queensland Major Contractors Association (QMCA) to bring to life our joint Charter for Change. The Charter initiatives were recently reviewed with industry representatives assessing progress and proposing next steps.

Complementing this work, Consult Australia has been partnering with Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and other industry bodies on the TMR Infrastructure Industry Engagement Charter. The draft of this charter will be released for consultation later this month and reflects the behaviours of a more collaborative culture.

SA Jan Irvine The SA Treasurer has invited Consult Australia to sit on the Department of Treasury and Finance Procurement Industry Advisory Group which has only nine industry groups represented. This will allow us to have direct input into government as the Executive Director of Procurement SA will Chair the group and be reporting into government. Also, in response to member calls for us to engage with the Local Government Association of SA and LGA Procurement, we have established regular meetings to address common challenges and issues.

We have recently enjoyed a number of high-profile Boardroom Lunches with key decision makers. On the pipeline, Infrastructure SA CEO Jeremy Conway took us through the recently released capital intentions statement, talked to the progress of ISA since its inception and covered off on opportunities and challenges his organisation can see across the infrastructure sector that could impact our members. Hot on the heels of Budget Day 2021 we hosted the Treasurer, Rob Lucas MLC, for a post budget discussion. At the early August Boardroom Lunch our members enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with Susana Fueyo, Executive Director North South Corridor and discuss this state's most important infrastructure project.

What’s happening at Consult Australia Consulting Matters

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NT Advocacy with the NT government has been progressing across several issues. We met with the General Managers of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics to propose early and continuous industry engagement to better understand the pipeline and programming of such projects and the position of the NT consulting industry prior to and during the roll-out of such funding. We believe this will assist with industry capacity planning, better industry alignment, hence resulting in improved outcomes. It has been agreed we meet again for a deeper dive on capacity and procurement.

Implementation of the Value for Territory Assessment Framework has commenced with new systems, tools and training being rolled out internally across the Northern Territory Government. The Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism (DITT) invited Consult Australia to attend an update on the progress of the implementation of the Framework and the work underway to develop the Aboriginal Procurement Policy and key definitions. DITT will also present options for incorporating Aboriginal Procurement Policy into that Framework and have requested our views and feedback. DITT CEO Shaun Drabsch wrote to thank Consult Australia for our engagement with the department as they consult, develop and implement procurement initiatives as our feedback and insight has been and will continue to be valued.

In the people space, we canvassed our members in late May to understand the local workforce challenges and shared this data with the DITT to highlight the acute NT workforce shortages within the consulting industry. We are now in discussions with DITT regarding the issue, and opportunities to support recruitment and retention of those vital skills.

ACT Our quarterly forum with the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) kicked off in May with a positive twoway open dialogue to enhance the working relationship between consultants and the EPSDD, with a focus on the ACT government’s 2040 zero emissions target and ambitious sustainable buildings policy covering practice areas such as building codes, registration of engineers, regulations for our industry. To achieve government targets it was agreed we need to retain our people and grow our skills. This forum is positioned as a steering group to float concepts by and share information. The group also agreed to keep the option to engage in dialogue outside of the meetings on specialist topics with appropriate individuals in attendance.

Agenda items on the table for the Major Projects Canberra (MPC) quarterly forums have included the pipeline of works and how to deliver projects well, sharing of best practice and industry initiatives to ensure the wellbeing of our people, and we have promoted the need for improved procurement practices to enable better project outcomes with a focus on tender arrangements, risk allocation, contract models and terms as well as liability reform. We presented Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance as one of the most complex and topical issues affecting our industry and outlined a range of factors influencing this, including global pressures and increased litigation in Australia which has seen PI insurance premiums rise significantly, while coverage has reduced often with restrictive policy conditions.

Our ACT members have benefited from our strong pipeline of high-profile Boardroom Lunches with key decision makers. The CEO of the ACT City Renewal Authority outline their key priorities, pipeline and timeframes for projects and project delivery mechanisms. The Chief Executive of the National Capital Authority advised of upcoming priorities relevant to our industry. The Assistant Secretary, Estate Planning within the Department of Defence explained the ambitious program to change the footprint of Defence in the ACT and the impact this will have on the local environment and how consultants can best work with Defence as they embark on this program

TAS The establishment of regular meetings with Infrastructure Tasmania, Treasury, Department of State Growth and TasWater has been proceeding well. If members would like us to make similar progress with other Tasmanian clients, please let me know.

We were pleased to hear from Martin Blake, CEO of Infrastructure Tasmania about the pipeline project which will map announced state infrastructure projects. This tool will assist government plan future projects and also give the industry a clear driver to discuss capacity issues.

To improve how procurement is done, the Tasmanian Treasury is keen to hear industry feedback on their pre-qualification scheme – that are the cost and administrative burdens stopping your business from getting involved in this scheme? I am also looking into the directions Treasury issues to state government clients to identify any improvements at a whole of government level.

We recently met with the Civil Constructors Federation (CCF) Tas to discuss the common people issues faced by consultants and contractors in the current environment and how collaborative relationships could really ease a lot of the burden. In particular we talked about how principal clients set the tone for the whole project and how adversarial and onerous contracts impact on everyone’s mental health.

We also met with Peter Graham the Director of Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading / Director of Building Control within the Department of Justice to talk how national moves with respect to automatic mutual recognition and building reforms would impact business practice in Tasmania.

The Director is keen to hear from industry about the pain points that are being felt, including any insurance concerns noting the Department had recorded no concerns about insurance issues in Tasmania since 2019 when it was a significant issue for building surveyors.

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Consulting Matters What’s happening at Consult Australia

WA Diane Dowdell

We have had a significant win on pipeline scheduling, with the Premier hosting an industry roundtable to understand industry constraints and opportunities. It was agreed to extend certain state government infrastructure projects to assist in dealing with the people capacity restrictions we are seeing. To ensure the right projects are prioritised, we continue to work with the government, including the Transport Portfolio which includes Main Roads WA and the Public Transport Authority.

Further meetings have been held with the Office of the Minister for Finance to discuss other government procurement activities and transparency of government building activities. We are continuing to highlight consultants’ desire to see a smooth pipeline of work and have been assured of future meetings with the Minister’s office and departmental staff on this issue.

Members working with local government in WA should note that the City of Gosnells has updated its general conditions of a purchase order – including changes to the insurance thresholds. The level of professional indemnity insurance has been reduced from $10million to $2million.

This is a positive outcome from both as it demonstrates the council is taking into account the pressures on business practice from the current insurance market. However, Consult Australia continues to advocate for clients to focus on setting reasonable liability caps rather than insurance limits. Remember insurance in a business tool for your business, not a risk mitigation strategy for a client (unless the client is acquiring that insurance).

Consult Australia Major Sponsors

What’s happening at Consult Australia Consulting Matters

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SME Highlights

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Special guest at latest SME Open Forum The Vice Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) joined us at our latest SME Open Forum giving an overview of the new relaxation of the collective bargaining rules to benefit small businesses. The Vice Chair also fielded questions from members on payment times and unfair contract term protections. Thank you to those members in attendance and your positive engagement. Look out for calendar invites for the next Open Forum where you get direct access to Consult Australia’s President Gerry Doyle, CEO Nicola Grayson and Head of Policy and Government Relations Kristy Eulenstein.

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Federal and state financial aid for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns With the NSW lockdown, and shorter lockdowns in Vic and SA it is a good opportunity to remind small businesses of the range of federal and state financial aid available if your business has been impacted

by COVID-19 lockdowns. In NSW support measures include cashflow payments and payroll tax deferral. For Vic support measures include the business continuity fund, small business COVID hardship fund and the commercial tenancy relief scheme. Visit state government websites for more detail.

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directly with the NSW Government, you are expected to be paid within five days under the Faster Payment Terms Policy.

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Positive engagement with local government across the country The team has been working hard to engage with local councils around the country that members have nominated as having concerning contracts. So far, every engagement has been positive with councils being receptive to discussing fitness for purpose, consequential loss and similar onerous terms. We have briefed councils on the state of the current insurance market, urging them to re-think how they rely on insurance as a risk mitigation tool. If you have concerns with local government procurement, please contact your local State/ Territory Manager for assistance.

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NSW refreshes its SME and Regional Procurement Policy

Government policies supporting faster payments Getting paid on time is one of the biggest struggles of small business. A range of government policies seek to address this issue. The Commonwealth’s Payment Times Procurement Connected Policy requires large businesses (those with an annual income of more than $100 million) that are awarded government contracts of over $4 million to pay suppliers’ invoices (of up to $1 million) within 20 calendar days, or face interest penalties. These large businesses are also required to report their payment terms and practices under the Payment Times Reporting Scheme, increasing transparency of payment times. Also, for those working on NSW projects, large businesses who contract with NSW Government agencies for goods and services contracts valued at more than $7.5 million will be required to pay small business sub-contractors within 20 business days. Remembering that if you contract

Earlier this year we submitted on the barriers to small business supplying to NSW government. In response to that consultation, the Small and Medium Enterprise and Regional Procurement Policy has been refreshed. A key improvement has been the shift to allow direct engagement by government agencies with SMEs and regional businesses for services up to $150,000 (previously the limit was $50,000).

This applies even where there is a wholeof-government contract in place. Another key win is the requirement on agencies to first consider SMEs for procurements up to $3 million where direct engagement is permitted. The policy is available on the NSW government website and through the NSW Small Business Commissioner.

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See you at the online SME Summit!

With the success of last year’s Inaugural SME Summit, the team is looking forward to seeing you at this year’s event. Once again, the online Summit has been designed by and for small and medium businesses. We’ve secured an impressive line-up of guests to guide discussions on the business-critical issues facing small and medium businesses right now as well as a dedicated session on insurance. We will have break-out sessions covering people, pipeline, practice and procurement, all topical issues and it will be hard to choose between them! Members

will have free access, while non-members will be charged a fee (reimbursable against our membership fee if they join within four weeks of the event!). Check the events page of our website to find out more and register.

Be engaged, get value!

The best way to get value from your membership is to engage with Consult Australia, be it through events and education, by responding to calls for input or just contacting your State/Territory Manager to vent about current business frustrations. n Over the past few months our team has had great conversations with some of our small business members, including:

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Consulting Matters

Integral Group Leadership All industries need influencers, not just the ones that we see on social media. Influencers are people who lead the changes that our world needs, now.

In exploring our role as consultants in the built environment – specifically in sustainable engineering – we demonstrate how knowledgeable workers in all industries can lead and inspire.

Regardless of our area of expertise, it is important that we – as consultants and stewards of the Earth – trust, nurture, and inspire the decision makers of the built environment and do it with urgency to protect our natural environment in the years to come. In supporting our clients towards a more sustainable and just future we lead by example. Our work is driven by our Deep Green mission to leave a legacy of positive impact on the world.

Whether we are considering the whole life carbon emissions of a university project in Tasmania; repurposing redundant gas pipeline infrastructure in Queensland; designing a $1.9 billion dollar hospital with state-of-art digital patient and logistics tracking; consulting with local and state governments on the future use of gas; or working with private and public sectors on their 2030 and 2050 carbon roadmaps, Integral Group is reimagining sustainable buildings and precincts at every scale. We are creating environments that inspire and influence every end user and stakeholder.

Our team sees the value in industry collaborations with likeminded organisations.

Our commitments to these relationships include being founding signatories of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, Engineers Declare Australia, and as a GBCA Carbon Positive Partner. Our Melbourne office was also the first 6-Star Green Star Interior fit out, and Integral Group have collectively designed over 100 Net Zero Carbon buildings globally.

These partnerships not only demonstrate commitment but also provide professional development and an opportunity to educate the public. This outreach effort improves our ability as consultants to use our expertise to influence positive change by making decision making easier and clearer for clients and stakeholders.

In 2020, Integral’s expertise sharing went digital via our IG|VISION webinar series, allowing us to expand the reach of our thought leadership globally.

We asked questions like: how can we enhance the patient experience through design? David Barker and James Gungl explored the use of design analytics to shape the form, orientation, and façade configuration of healthcare buildings to improve occupant amenity while maintaining focus on environmental performance.

Melissa Nouel elevated concerns around the intersection of climate resilience and social equity in the built environment, and showcasing the value sustainability consultants can add beyond operational carbon offsets to true community impact.

As industry leaders we continue to advocate for what we know the world needs in the future. And what the world needs is deeply committed and environmentally aligned influencers.

Influencers like: •R egional Director Andrew Mather, who has created a culture of innovation and inspiration both at Integral Group and at Consult Australia serving as National President of from 2015-2017.

•V ice-Chair Dominic Lai, the first registered fire engineer in Victoria who has built a thriving business around designing sustainable environments across Australia.

•N ewly appointed Regional Director Andrew Oxley, who believes his greatest accomplishment as a leader, is seeing those who he has mentored achieve great things.

•O ur next generation leaders like Tatiana Schonhobel, Alex Krickx, and Melissa Nouel who have been identified by GBCA as specialists in their field and appointed to the Expert Reference Panels.

•E lizabeth Coe, the first female engineer to become a director of an engineering firm in Victoria. Now retired, she is still a strong advocate for women in our industry through Engineers Australia.

Most importantly, influencers are also people like you, those taking the time to read and learn and become better advocates for the industry. n

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Consulting Matters Feature

Culturally Relevant Mentoring To Increase Migrant Women‘s Influence In Attaining Higher Organisational Roles In Australia.

For organisations to best harness their pool of talent requires enabling the representation and influence of their diverse workforce. Mentors and role models are important in making women influential to attain leadership roles, and especially migrant women from Culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The McKinsey report (2021) highlighted that diverse teams outperform on most measures including innovation, engagement, productivity, and financial performance. As part of a sustained focus on improving gender diversity, particularly within its leadership teams, AECOM has been running its Advocate Program for over three years. This mentoring Program, which matches senior female employees with leaders, sits within AECOM’s Sustainable Legacies strategy. To date it has supported the career development of high-performing senior women and has increased the gender balance. In 2020, AECOMAustralia established female participation targets to achieve 40% overall workforce, 25% senior and middle management team, and 50% graduates by 2022.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2020), CALD woman’s workforce participation was 43% (with one qualification), and 56% (with three or more qualifications) in Australia. However, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2021) report on the participation of all women in Australia, did not include CALD or migrant figures.

CALD skilled Migrant women continue to be undervalued and underemployed, with their representation and influence in Australia somewhat limited within a predominantly male and / or western context of top leadership and management. Under this model, people of certain backgrounds are often perceived as ineffective leaders, which is a challenge for most professional migrant women, who are often stereotyped to be submissive. For instance, Asian migrant women face a glass and a bamboo ceiling, together with the additional migrant disadvantages, in navigating their careers into leadership. They also do not often relate to the ‘conventional strong women’ archetype, often white women, perceived to be taking on traditional masculine and transactional leadership traits to get ahead.

This highlighted the importance of CALD migrant women being mentored in a culturally relevant context through the lived experiences of other successful and influential CALD migrant women. This gap needs to be addressed to achieve the gender and intersectionality objectives under the Victorian Equality Act 2020 and to have employees and organisations alike be successful. Learning from women of similar backgrounds could inspire and assist migrant women who are planning to create influential career pathways in Australia.

In a Deakin University research, a migrant woman of colour shared that her influence was enabled when an experienced and emphatic Indian lady manager became one of the top partners in her firm. Being mentored by a quiet-achieving, culturally similar, leader gave her the confidence that she did not have to emulate masculine energy or ‘talk herself up’ to get promoted. Observable elements such as gender culture, ethnicity, physical attributes, and similar personalities were important in the development of her career, and hence influence for herself and others. Similarly, the preliminary findings from an ongoing

La Trobe University research on migrant women academic leaders in Australian Universities, indicated the importance of having mentors from migrant backgrounds, along with other local mentors to gain leadership positions. The merits of modelling from ethnically similar mentors for ethnic minority students have also been demonstrated in the United States, through the integration of women in Indian organisations.

Learning from the lived experiences of other migrant woman mentors to find employment, empowerment, and influence have been core to organisations such as the Professional Migrant women (PMW) group. Through an engaging migrant women community, and tailored culturally relevant mentoring sessions, PMW has been supporting and empowering migrant and refugee women in Australia to find professional employment and increase their influence by finding their voices as future leaders. Engaging, and partnering with such advocacy groups can help harness this pool of skilled talent, while also furthering industry and organisational diversity and inclusion initiatives in Australia.

Culturally relevant mentoring enables organisations to be more representative and relatable for other employees, the organisation’s customers, and the wider community. Therefore, more support programs and organisational policies/activities to mentor CALD women in Australian organisations will help nurture future leaders and build their influence for their own success and that of their companies. n Dr Juliana Mutum, Professional Migrant Women Dr Frédéric Blin, AECOM Dr Jasvir Nachatar Singh, Latrobe University

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UNTITLED LEADERSHIP: How To Influence And Thrive In A VUCA world "For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”

This quote from Rudyard Kipling (1895) challenges our logical brains to think differently as we look to influence and thrive in this current volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. This quote reminds us that the formula for success is less about individual contributors, but rather how each impact and reflects on the group, and individuals gain just as much from the group as the group gains from the individuals.

And it is for this reason culture is becoming increasingly important to our projects and organisations, as culture is the result of how individuals’ function and behave within group environments. The role of a leader is to set the tone for a positive culture through their behaviours, remembering leadership as compared to management is a choice, not a title.

Today’s construction industry is complex and interconnected, and often there is no single or simple solution to the problems encountered. No one individual can know every solution, yet heroic leadership continues to dominate the leadership landscape. Often heroic leaders over-control and under-utilise their subordinates. Heroic leaders discourage people from feeling responsible for anything beyond their assigned area, which inhibits optimal teamwork and implicitly encourages subordinates to use the heroic approach below them. As an alternative, “Untitled Leadership” should be considered as a means to enable better outcomes for our projects and organisations in this VUCA world.

Untitled Leaders promote the virtues of strong team environments, influencing by collective contribution rather than having individuals expend time and energy protecting their ideas. Individuals who work alongside Untitled Leaders have greater support for things they played a part in creating. And finally, Untitled Leaders produce high performing teams that know collaboration with others is the only way to get complex, intractable problems solved, and allow patterns to emerge rather than just looking for facts with a confirmation bias.

So how do you practice Untitled Leadership? Here are 3 key focus areas to help become an Untitled Leader: Consistency of purpose People are more likely to buy in and follow you along for the duration when they are aware and can align to a common purpose. And consistency of that purpose must be shown through leader’s actions

(and inactions) time after time and not just at a single event. A leader’s behaviours are the seeds for the culture you want. Remaining consistent ensures you build a high level of authenticity which then allows trust to grow within your teams.

Build a psychologically safe environment The goal is not to be comfortable but rather create a climate where people can speak without fear.

Firstly, it is about destigmatising failure. Failure with the construction industry traditionally has negative connotations and often brings up visions of structures collapsing. However, from failure comes learning, and if you fail safe and fail fast you can then learn and take advantage of opportunities much faster.

Secondly, psychological safety begins with admitting our own mistakes and welcoming criticism from others. Leaders who act with confident humility understand that there are things you don’t know and have a willingness and capacity to learn. Untitled Leaders make themselves vulnerable to new ideas and alternative perspectives. To paraphrase Marcel Proust… The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.

Encourage diversity and lead with inclusion Each individual is different because of their unique background, experiences etc. that brings their own perspectives to the task at hand. And diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table, because research has found that people change their behaviours also. Individuals anticipate differences of opinion and perspective and as a consequence raise their game when we think we are going to be challenged. It puts us out of our comfort zone so we come more prepared to focus on the problem and more willing to articulate our point of view. And diversity alone is not enough, so to benefit from diversity an environment of inclusion and psychologically safety is required to maximise these perspectives. n Mikael Heinonen Cofounder at Collabaloop + The Build Better Network mikael@collabaloop.com

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Consulting Matters Feature

The Influence Gap Putting together a recent presentation on “Reclaiming the Consultant’s Design Role” made me reflect a bit more than usual on influence and who holds it in the modern construction industry, and the large gap that the modern construction industry has opened up between influence and liability.

In other words, there was a gap between the broad, influential role described in the consultants’ contracts, and the lesser role they felt they were exercising on the ground.

Last Lessons from the Lacrosse Fire

Closing the Gap

Looking at the litigation arising out of the 2014 Lacrosse Building fire, ending with the appeal judgments handed down earlier this year, the biggest lesson is the importance of a consultant defining its role, especially when that role is more limited than what is traditional for their profession.

It might be tempting to close this gap by “going small”, amending the consultancy agreements to define a limited role, with a strongly worded exclusions section. But unless someone else is standing by to shoulder those excluded responsibilities, then the project lacks essential advice, the risks of defects is high, and litigation is a real possibility.

In Lacrosse, both the fire engineer and the architect denied liability for approving the use of combustible polyethylene-core aluminium composite panel cladding on the grounds that their role after novation was limited. The fire engineer believed their role was limited to responding to specific alternative solution requests from the building surveyor, and the architect believed that some parts of their role were limited to advising only on aesthetics of materials rather than quality/ compliance.

However, quoting extensively from their respective consultancy agreements and scopes of services, the court found that both had contracted to perform a broader, more traditional consultant role that included assessing the NCC compliance of the cladding materials.

Consequently, the appeal judgment handed down in May apportioned liability 42% to the fire engineer and 25% to the architect (along with 30% to the building surveyor and 3% to the tenant whose cigarette ignited the fire). With no further appeals lodged, this appears to be the end of the matter, for this project at least.

And yet that liability finding doesn’t quite sit comfortably with all of the evidence about the consultants’ influence, power and control.

While the fire engineers did know that “composite panel” cladding was planned, which had a likelihood of containing some polyethylene, they did not ever advise on complete drawings, and were not consulted on the specific product selected. The architect, meanwhile, complained of being “sidelined” after novation.

That gap is one of the core problems the industry needs to address.

On top of that, legislative reform may make it impossible to take a limited role. For example, the new compliance declaration regime under the Design and Building Practitioners Act (NSW) applies chiefly to class 2 buildings in NSW. On buildings in-scope of the regime, before construction can commence, “construction issued regulated designs” must be lodged with NSW Government, along with “design compliance declarations” in which consultants certify that certain regulated aspects of the design comply with the NCC. For consultants whose advice touches on those regulated aspects (and that includes fire safety systems, waterproofing, essential load-bearing components, performance solutions of any kind, plus other elements) the sort of limited-scope role that the fire engineer and architect envisaged on Lacrosse will be impossible.

Instead, the obvious solution lies in consultants embracing a broad role, and reclaiming the influence and control required to fulfil it.

Contracts and Novation To support that role, consultancy agreements need to improve.

They need to give consultants the power to resist unlawful or high-risk client directions, or excessive cost-cutting, without fear of being unfairly terminated or having their fees withheld. Consultants also need time to investigate, review and produce a design that is substantially complete before construction commences – and to resist excessive, rushed and under-researched substitutions during so-called “value management”.

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The Lacrosse judgment places on the shoulders of the consultant team the responsibility of standing up to these pressures and protecting quality. To do that effectively, consultants need contracts that return to them their power, influence and control.

Since our inception in 2020 as a subsidiary company of Consult Australia PI pathway insurance broker Planned Cover, informed Lawyers Pty Ltd (ACN) has assisted many consultants in amending and negotiating consultancy agreements. The problems mentioned above are some of the key ones we work on. But with clients used to wielding a great advantage in contract negotiations, there is a lot of work to be done.

Beyond contracts

Instead, what we see all too often is this. Clients use their market power to coerce consultants into working under master/slave consultancy agreements, which give the clients rights like these: terminating the consultant for no reason with minimal notice and no compensation; withholding the consultant’s fees indefinitely on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations of fault; changing the program or accelerating it at any time; and granting extensions of time only for delays directly caused by the client.

Clients (especially government clients) might justify these master/ slave contracts on the grounds that the client can be trusted not to abuse the “master” powers it has given itself. But what happens when these “master” powers are novated to a head contractor?

What happens in the worst-case scenario, when that head contractor is inexperienced, or was selected due to a low tender price that could only be achieved with excessive cost-cutting, or a tender price with a tiny profit margin that was quickly erased by unforeseen circumstances? It’s not hard to predict that the head contractor will use its “master” powers to force through cost-cutting substitutions, leading to defects and non-compliances.

Beyond contracts, the industry also needs better education, and better collaboration between consultants, and a cultural change in favour of completing designs before tender, under more generous programs, rather than under pressure during construction. And it would be nice to see legislative reform that incentivises developers and other clients to set a culture of quality, rather than heaping compliance responsibility on consultants.

Change has to come. As has been widely reported, the insurance market has hardened greatly over the last few years, driven partly by defective building claims. Consultants are facing higher premiums and narrower coverage, and some harder-to-place businesses will need all the experience of an insurance broker like Planned Cover to obtain a suitable policy at all.

Better contracting, with a view to closing the gap between consultants’ liability and their influence over project outcomes, is part of improving outcomes, reducing project risk, and encouraging insurers back into the market. n Wendy Poulton Principal informed Lawyers Pty Ltd (ACN 635 862 145) (informed Lawyers is a new law practice owned by IBL Ltd, the team behind PI Pathway insurance broker Planned Cover)

Service, Innovation & Sustainability Excellence A two-day management course for technical professionals Conducted online and in person (Melbourne) 15 and 16 November, 2021 Program director:

Prof. Danny Samson (leading all sessions) To inquire or enrol: email (for an enrolment form) to dansamelb@gmail.com or phone Prof. Samson, 0438 782 866 for further details.

READ MORE

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Consulting Matters Feature

Mega-Influences Bring Opportunity And Threat Two huge influences will impact our sector in a big way in the coming years and indeed decades. These ‘mega-influences’ are not unrelated, but we describe them herein separately then consider their interactions. They are advanced digitalisation technologies, and sustainable development/ climate change. If we under-manage them, we are lost, yet if we get them right, there are big advantages in the offing.

Advanced Digital Technologies The cutting edge of highly advanced digital technologies are fast coming to fruition, such as artificial intelligence, cloud, internet of things, blockchain, additive manufacturing/ 3D printing, virtual reality, advanced smart materials/buildings and others. During our careers, it is likely that there will be opportunities to deploy these to great effect in engineering design, construction, and maintenance. Leading businesses are strategizing to incorporate these and integrate human intelligence with what can best be leveraged using such technologies.

This innovation frontier will lead to fast changing designs of the built environment and how professional consultants do their work. We are already fully in the age of cloud computing, and quantum computing is coming. Implications are potentially large at many levels: 1. A t the national level, Australia is at risk of being left behind by China, USA and Europe in terms of development of these new technologies and their deployment. Its not so much our level of R&D that lags, but more our ability to commercialise, an age-old problem in Australia, because our governments have underfunded innovation capability for decades, when they should be catalysing industry to do more.

2. Companies, including large and niche consulting firms, can get ahead of the pack by implementing technology strategies as part of their business strategies, always aiming to bring business advantages, in terms of costs, quality/ service, speed, or differentiated services and designs.

3. Individual professionals, such as engineers, architects, lawyers, accountants and business leaders should be continually refreshing and educating themselves on the moving frontier of what these new technologies are capable of.

The fourth industrial technology revolution that we are right now experiencing brings opportunity at all three levels above to those who ‘go hard’ with them, and threatens those who underestimate what is happening. Be the Netflix and Amazon of your industry, not Blockbuster, Borders or Kodak. The first step is to design and fit a technology/innovation element to your business strategy, which won’t happen by itself but needs careful crafting, development and testing.

Winners in other industries, such as Singapore’s DBS bank, and of course the global giants Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon have built their businesses based on deliberate technology strategies.

investment markets, in how companies select their tender bids and suppliers and in how talented professionals choose where they want to work. In the investment world, major players such as Blackrock have completely changed how they guide clients, evaluate and select investment targets. In Europe, more money is now going into ESG oriented investment vehicles than not. From original concerns over environmental factors, all stakeholders, including customers and employees, are now scrutinising the social and community practices and performance of organisations. Further, the quality of governance can make or break organisations, for example consider BHP’s best practices1 in contrast with Crown and AMP. I have been scoring and evaluating companies that are excellent in ESG, such as Toyota, and inevitably find that it correlates and indeed causes business outperformance results! A mounting body of business research shows that efforts made in taking ESG factors forward lead to advantages in cost, reputation, innovation, stakeholder support, license to operate and lower risks.

Integrating these mega influences The opportunity exists for our professional service firms to grasp these influences, not as separate but together. Looking first through the ESG lens, improvements in environment, societal and even governance qualities can be facilitated by the new digital technologies.

Advanced technologies including building materials, renewable energy sources, modular building designs, supply chain’s technical advances, and AI and cloud can themselves move the needle on environmental, social and governance outcomes. They present as good for business when carefully implemented and this rolls up to be in the national interest. There are large opportunities to develop and export such advanced services to ASEAN countries, as well as in local markets.

Including advanced technology and ESG pervasively into our business strategies will benefit our nation, our sector and companies, and the individuals who own and work in these.

Engineers and consulting engineer companies are well suited, indeed beautifully positioned to take good advantage of these megainfluences, because we understand the technical underpinnings of each, and can match them with developing business acumen. The innovation opportunities present great opportunities for further lifting our consulting businesses’ game, through leading our economic development in advanced technologies and ESG. Will we? n Professor Danny Samson University of Melbourne Professor Danny Samson conducts short-courses for Consult Australia, and he lectures and conducts research at the University of Melbourne.

Comments welcome: d.samson@unimelb.e du.au

Sustainability and ESG (environment, social, governance) Factors The advance of climate change and the multi decade set of efforts required to counter it have recently been bringing major forces of change upon us. Sustainable development has morphed into the broader domain of ESG, and big shifts are occurring in finance and

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Argus, D. Samson, 2021, Strategic Leadership, Palgrave,

https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811594298

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Influencing The Next Generation Australia intrinsically produces great problem solvers. At a time of rapid technological advancement, teachers require different approaches to help deliver education in the classroom, facilitating these problem-solving skills. Thus Science, Technology, Engineering and Math's (STEM) education comes to play. STEM education is not about "what you learn "... it's not about "more maths", "more science", "more coding" or "more of the same". STEM is about "what you do with what you learn". It's about developing analytical problem-solving capacity, communication and lifelong learning skills.

Re-Engineering Australia Foundation (REA), established in 1998, has the primary objective of increasing students' understanding of STEM and associated career pathways. "We started with an Engineering focus because we were from Industry, and we knew that the education system wasn't delivering enough students with the appropriate skills to become Engineers. Our focus has now broadened to embrace STEM," said Dr Michael Myers, OAM, Chairman of REA. REA is now a recognised leader in designing and implementing STEM career interventions.

Learning environments that facilitate an increased understanding of the different career pathways presented in a way that fits with the unique motivational drivers of boys vs girls are critical. Students currently need significant support to discover just how exciting and engaging the activities of Industry can be. They learn through both success and failure, along the way developing high levels of resilience.

REA's programs focus on linking schools, Industry, TAFE, Universities and parents in a collaborative and entrepreneurial learning environment that produces outcomes aligned with the requirements of Industry. Over the past two decades, these programs have directly mentored hundreds of thousands of students across Australia, from Thursday Island to Tasmania and from Sydney to Perth. Its STEM programs include F1 in Schools, SUBS in Schools and Space in Schools. 78% of the students who participate in these programs change their career aspirations be to STEM-based.

Students confront complex yet exciting challenges, are equipped with world-class tools and are connected to industry mentors to facilitate their thirst for knowledge. Besides the more apparent outcomes, students develop many personal and employability skills, learning about working in a team, working towards a common goal, time and resources management, seeking out industry support and mentors.

A critical differentiator of the REA programs has been the requirement for students to work directly with industry partners in their projects to see a direct relevance between classroom activity they enjoy and the world of work.

These connections empower and inspire students to learn.

"Within each of the programs, a great deal of focus is on helping students become successful entrepreneurs and to make this happen; we get out of their way". Said Dr Myers. This strategy has been validated internationally, with Australian teams, since 2003, winning 7 World Championships in the largest and most complex STEM competitions.

Team Horizon from Brighton Secondary Schools South Australia, 2018 F1 in Schools World Champions.

Over 20 years, REA has researched the impact of gender on attraction to STEM and industries that are STEM-based. Attracting girls into STEM careers has historically been problematic. This research highlighted that the story about STEM needs to be told differently to Boys than it is to Girls. Boys need continuous human interaction, particularly with role models and mentors, while girls do not. Girls seek out an understanding of the complexity of the environment to determine how they can play a role in managing that environment.

They do not overtly respond to role models.

Engagement of Industry in the process of influencing students career motivation is critical. For boys, it's about whom they meet and who can teach them. For girls, it's about where they can gain the information they seek to choose their future career pathway.

The industry needs to focus on improving its attractiveness if it is to interest the best. With students making critical career decisions by the age of 18, Industry can no longer sit back and wait for the best from University. Students decisions are locked and loaded way before they make University. To attract the best students the Consulting Industry needs, start to engage with students very early in the education process.

To learn more about what REA has been achieving and how you can become involved, visit www.rea.org.au n Dr Michael Myers OAM Executive Chairman Re-Engineering Australia Foundation Ltd.

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Consulting Matters Feature

POWERS OF INFLUENCE:

A Recap Of The NSW Building Commissioner’s Compliance And Enforcement Powers

Feature Consulting Matters

In 2020, fundamental legislative changes were introduced in NSW that delegated far-reaching powers to the NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler OAM, to investigate and enforce non-compliance throughout the design and construction process for residential apartment buildings.

Serving as a major keystone in the NSW Government’s reform of the residential building industry, the Residential Apartment Buildings (Compliance and Enforcement Powers) Act (NSW) 2020 (RAB Act) has equipped Chandler with new abilities to stop work, halt occupation certificates (OC’s), and order immediate rectification work on NCC Class 2 developments.

As of July 2021, the Commissioner has personally attended over 65 site inspections including 30 audits of projects approaching OC and issued 22 orders to numerous developers - all of which can be viewed publicly on the NSW Fair Trading website.

So, what do the Commissioner’s new powers entail? And how have they influenced the industry during their relatively short time in existence?

Stop Work Orders In accordance with the RAB Act the Commissioner, and his authorised delegates, can order a developer to ensure that work stops on a building by a specified date if he forms the opinion that the building work is likely to result in significant harm or loss to the public, occupiers, or potential occupiers of the building or cause significant damage to property.

So far, only one stop work order has been issued by the Commissioner after serious concerns were raised over the developer’s failure to appoint a principal certifying authority to supervise the work, and no scope of works or appropriate technical specifications were included in the building contract.

Rectification Orders If the Commissioner, or his authorised delegates, reasonably believe that building work was or is being carried out in a manner that could result in a serious defect to a building, they may order a developer to carry out building work to remediate the serious defect or potential defect. The cost of which may be directed back to the developer.

Over 13 building work rectification orders have been enforced since November 2020, for reasons ranging from insufficient waterproofing methods and inadequate tiling adhesive to a failure to install safety barriers in the vicinity of a car stack parking system. Importantly, these orders are now being applied to buildings that have already achieved OC and now require considerable rectification works.

These rectification orders are directed at the developer but have clear flow on impacts to the parties involved in designing, constructing, and approving the works.

Prohibition Orders Developers must now provide at least 6 months’ notice of their intention to apply for an OC. In this regard, a prohibition order preventing a certifier from providing an OC can be issued in circumstances where the developer has either failed to provide the required notice, or where the Commissioner is satisfied that a serious defect exists in the building.

An OC issued in contravention of a prohibition order will be invalid, and certifiers that disobey the order can land themselves with a penalty notice of $3,000 for an individual or $11,000 for a corporation.

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More than eight prohibition orders have been served on developers since the power came into force, which creates considerable impact for projects that need to reach OC for settlements to occur.

To assist the Commissioner and his team to ensure compliance with the new laws, further investigative powers are in place which allow ‘authorised officers’ to request information and records relating to the construction of a residential apartment; require a person to attend an interview to answer questions; and enter a building site or business premises without notice. Whilst on premises, officers may inspect, examine, and take samples of the building work by means of reasonable force to break open or otherwise access an element of the works. ‘Destructive testing’ is also permitted if the officer considers it reasonable in the circumstances.

When considered in conjunction with other recent reforms, like the new registration requirements under the Design and Building Practitioners Act (NSW) 2020, it is clear that the government is serious about bringing a compliance and responsibility focused regime into this industry. The message is clear, get the plans right, build in accordance with those plans, and deliver compliant buildings with a full set of plans to back up the physical.

These changes are already having an impact on not only the upfront compliance costs, but time and costs incurred during programming, however, those costs pale compared to the considerable rectification costs required to lift orders of the commissioner. n Hamish Geddes and Josh Mills Morrissey Law + Advisory

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Consulting Matters Feature

TRANSFORMATION OF A REGION

How The Olympics Will Reshape South East Queensland

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“THE SUCCESS OF THE BRISBANE 2032 OLYMPICS AND PARALYMPICS IS DEPENDENT ON THE COLLABORATION OF ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT, TECHNICAL SPECIALISTS ACROSS THE FULL SPECTRUM OF ENGINEERING, PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THE COMMUNITY.” Jonathan Powell

With the announcement of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic games, it is an exciting time to live in Southeast Queensland (SEQ).

The Olympics will be a significant milestone in the future growth of the region, but it is the infrastructure planning, built on long-term relationships and a shared vision, that makes it achievable and sets a sustainable trajectory towards and, most importantly, beyond 2032.

Being a host city for an Olympic games is both a privilege but also a huge responsibility. To deliver a successful event on the global stage, but also align with the long-term growth and infrastructure needs of the region, is a delicate balance of reinvention and legacy. There is also a significant investment to be made in support for the games by the citizens who will be key to its success and positivity aligned to the economic investment required.

Consultants have an important role in influencing the successful delivery of the games and need to be proactive in their partnerships and collaboration with government and stakeholders. Collaboration will be crucial in a successful delivery of the Olympics and in ensuring a strong legacy.

Planning for a connected future Since 2015, SMEC has been working alongside the SEQ Council of Mayors and the National Faster Rail Agency to investigate transformational opportunities covering the areas of liveability and sustainability, connected infrastructure and governance – relating to two key outputs, the SEQ People Mass Movement Study (PMMS) and North Coast Connect Faster Rail Business Case respectively.

The PMMS was a key document that fed into the Brisbane 2032 Olympics Feasibility and also the TransformingSEQ Proposal as part of the City Deal proposition. SMEC’s work provided expert strategic advice for the future transformation of the region in close collaboration with the government and leaders in SEQ. The consideration that SEQ and Brisbane could be a host city for the Olympics was also high, as the necessary investment required could be fast-tracked and supported by all levels of government if Brisbane was successful in its bid.

The teams of people involved in these projects were highly invested in contributing to making SEQ a liveable region whilst supporting the needs of predicted population growth over the next 20 years. There was a sense of comradery and shared vision for the possibilities, which resulted in a strong and trusting collaborative experience and outstanding outcome. To me, it demonstrated the value that can be derived when consultants and government come together and strongly influence the future direction for a region.

A legacy building opportunity In addition to the delivery of infrastructure, there is also the social legacy and value which can be gained from hosting the Olympics and Paralympics. The city will experience urban rejuvenation around existing venues, the development of new venues, accommodation and transport infrastructure and put sustainability at the core of the proposition. The role the Paralympics will play is also vital; it will influence the way our urban spaces are designed to ensure we develop a city which is inclusive and provides access and opportunities for all.

With investment and planning, the Olympics can be a catalyst for greater connectivity across our region and create a strong platform to support and influence healthy, sustainable and resilient communities long after the games – and help foster the next generation of athletes!

Together, working towards a shared vision The success of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics is dependent on the collaboration of all levels of government, technical specialists across the full spectrum of engineering, planning and urban design, and most importantly the community. The initial work completed to date has set the scene for achieving an amazing outcome and will undoubtably influence what the future will look like for SEQ. SMEC is pleased to be already contributing to many of the transformational projects which form part of this future landscape, from Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro, Breakfast Creek Green Bridge and urban renewal projects around Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.

Leaving a legacy for the long term, through improved connectivity between population centres, accessible urban centres and rejuvenated venues, is a huge opportunity for SEQ and I look forward to seeing the next decade unfold. n Jonathan Powell Jonathan Powell, National Manager Clients and Strategy at SMEC. Jonathan has worked in infrastructure feasibility planning projects in more than 30 countries and is responsible for SMEC’s national client relationship management program and leadership of strategic business initiatives.

Jonathan has been working with the SEQ Council of Mayors and other government and industry stakeholders since 2015 to bring these projects to fruition.

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Consulting Matters Feature

Natasa Gadzuric

Dr Tom Crow

BE, CPEng, FIEAust, EngExec

BE, MBuil, DTech, FIEAust, EngExec, MAICD

Managing Principal Sustainable People Solutions

Director Project Chambers

Why Project Culture Matters And How You Can Influence It As governments look to invest further in infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy following the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, now more than ever the successful delivery of these projects is paramount. The authors have recently launched a white paper arguing that the root cause of the inefficiencies and loss of productivity in the delivery of infrastructure projects is very subtle, caused by a failure in leadership to create a great project culture. This paper by the authors is titled: ‘Raising the bar’ in the delivery of infrastructure projects through a focus on project culture.

This article aims to educate the reader regarding culture in general and more specifically on projects, as well as define the relationship between leadership, culture, and governance. This knowledge is critical in starting key conversations that will allow consultants to influence their clients in the creation of a great culture on their projects.

the years becoming larger through global mergers and acquisitions, the reality is that organisations have a mix of cultures or what is sometimes referred to as subcultures. This is also the reality in organisations growing rapidly with teams working in various locations nationally and internationally.

With many different organisations coming together to deliver each project, including a myriad of subcontractors and suppliers, senior leaders can either allow a multitude of cultures to exist on their project or work hard to create a unified project culture. There is a great opportunity early in the project initiation phase to create a bespoke culture in a considered way.

With project culture defined as ‘the way we do things’ on this project, it is important to highlight that this includes both project leadership and project management elements, as well as the interdependencies between them (Figure 1). The ‘Raising the Bar’ paper identifies the key project leadership and management elements that shape it.

The authors critically acknowledge that the project culture is highly influenced by the client organisation culture, and that strong leadership is needed within client organisations to challenge bad practices and aggressive behaviours that have continued to set up projects for failure rather than success. It is critical for clientside Project Directors/Managers to be brave and challenge these organisational bad practices when creating the culture on their projects. This is where Project Directors/Managers from consulting organisations can also put their leadership skills to the test. They can influence the project culture by asking their clients the right questions from the beginning of their engagements and show leadership in action by the way that they lead and manage their teams.

Deal and Kennedy (1982) defined culture as ‘the way we do things (around) here’ and this definition continues to be the simplest and most popular in communicating the concept. With organisations over

Figure 1 – Interdependency of project management and project leadership elements, shaping project culture.

Feature Consulting Matters

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When creating the project culture, it is important to understand that the culture is further shaped during each of the three project phases: client need, project initiation, and project implementation. With the project team expanding through each of the three project phases, all members need to be taken on this journey, with the development of a Project Charter being a good first step in this process. Providing a Project Charter without any consultation with the wider Project Team will not result in the commitment necessary in achieving the project purpose, vision, and goals. It will also not encourage behaving in ways that are in-line with the values, which is necessary in creating a great culture that is critical to the project’s success.

Finally, it is worth noting that while many publications point to governance as the answer in addressing inefficiencies and loss of productivity on projects, it is important to understand that at the heart of governance is culture, and at the heart of culture is leadership.

Figure 2 – Culture link to governance and leadership on projects

People could argue as to whether culture or governance comes first but ultimately senior people in organisations make decisions, and it is their strong leadership skills (or otherwise) that shape the culture and put the governance framework in place. It is however the clientside corporate governance that influences the project governance, which ultimately has a big impact on the project culture (Figure 2).

Understanding these relationships is critical knowledge for Project Directors/Managers within consulting organisations and an important conversation starter in shaping project culture. n

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Consulting Matters Industry Comment

Super And The Gender Gap Research shows that women tend to retire with less super than men.

In fact, 1 in 4 women retire with no super*.

There are several factors that contribute to this. Women are more likely to take more time out of paid work to have families, they’re more likely to work part-time and, generally, they’re paid less. Women also live longer than men^, which means it’s even more important that they have enough super to last their retirement.

The events of the pandemic will further accelerate this inequality, especially for young women who’ve accessed their super early and as a result, miss out on decades of compound interest on their retirement savings.

So, what can you do to reduce the gap?

First and foremost, make sure your employer is paying your super. The amount your employer pays is usually at least 10% of your regular pay.

You can also: • Combine all your super together into one account It’ll be easier to manage, and you could save on paying multiple admin fees. Find out how you can consolidate your super at cbussuper.com.au/super/consolidate-or-find-my-super • Find your lost super If you’ve had multiple funds and your details have changed, your old super fund may have lost touch with you and transferred your super to the ATO. This money is called ‘lost super’, but it’s super you can still claim. Use the link above and we’ll show you how.

• Top up your super by putting in extra yourself You can do this by paying more from your before-tax salary (salary sacrificing) or from your after-tax salary. An after-tax super contribution may see you eligible for the Government’s contribution of up to $500. It may seem like a small amount now, but it can make a big difference later.

• Check your insurance Most Cbus eligible members will receive some insurance cover for death and total and permanent disablement upon joining. Check if you have insurance cover elsewhere and consider transferring your other insurance into one account for easier management.

Industry Comment Consulting Matters

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• A sk your partner or spouse to make a spouse contribution They’ll receive a tax offset of up to $540 if you earn less than $40,000 for the financial year. Visit cbussuper.com.au/ super/making-super-contributions for more information and to understand how the offset works.

There’s a lot you can do to boost your super and improve the quality of your retirement. And if you need help, just give us a call on 1300 361 784.

A NOT SO SUPER FACT IN 2016/17, THE AVERAGE SUPER BALANCE AT RETIREMENT

$336,369*

RETIREMENT AMOUNT FOR MEN

$277,880

*

RETIREMENT AMOUNT FOR WOMEN

This update was brought to you by Cbus, the industry super fund for building, construction and allied industries. n

* Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Women’s economic security in retirement Insight Paper, February 2020, https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/ documents/Women%27s_economic_security_in_retirement.pdf ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics, Life expectancy continues to increase in Australia Media Release, 4 November 2020, https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/mediareleases/life-expectancy-continues-increase-australia This information is about Cbus. It doesn’t take into account your specific needs, so you should look at your business needs, objectives and requirements before making any financial decisions. Read the relevant Cbus Product Disclosure Statement to decide whether Cbus is right for you. Call 1300 361 784 or visit www.cbussuper.com.au for a copy.

Cbus’ Trustee: United Super Pty Ltd ABN 46 006 261 623 AFSL 233792 Cbus ABN 75 493 363 262

30

Consulting Matters Business Essentials

BUSINESS JOURNAL 104

Successful Leadership Succession Introduction Planning for succession is just the first step in a chain of events that culminates in new leaders embracing a key leadership role within the business.

There is no one formula for succession, but the goals of any leadership change are similar — to retain the core values of the business, to retain and build on your client base and skills capability, and to keep the business operating smoothly according to its original vision. Having said that, if you aren’t clear on who your next leaders will be — who will sustain your design values and capability, who will nurture your clients and who will drive the business going forward — you are not on your own!

The vast majority of design and engineering practices have no succession plan in place whatsoever. Management for Design routinely finds that only one in 10 businesses have a plan in place. Of those that do, execution typically occurs in an ad-hoc and spasmodic manner. No amount of management advice will change this but, in our experience, those businesses that have successfully transferred the leadership to new principals and directors have spent many years building and cultivating a culture that enables succession to occur seamlessly. Leadership transition is an evolution.

Leadership in design businesses Leadership transitions differ for design and engineering firms when compared with most other businesses. Some of the traits that differentiate their transition from traditional businesses include: • Quite often the leader is the face of the business and is seen as the key initiator of projects and client relationships • Principals are typically very engaged in the client relationships and project outcomes and have a have a hard time separating themselves from the day-to-day activity of the business.

• Because owners tend to keep finances a secret, potential successors don’t understand the business side or the financial status of the firm • Effective business management is considered secondary to other considerations including design capability, client relationships and delivering projects • Profit and profitability can take a back seat to producing a great design or making an impact.

• The entrepreneurial drive of the founders is often not found in the second generation. The results: entrepreneurs are replaced with people who don’t like to take risks and don’t necessarily have the same motivations.

" THE VAST MAJORITY OF DESIGN AND ENGINEERING PRACTICES HAVE NO SUCCESSION PLAN IN PLACE WHATSOEVER. MANAGEMENT FOR DESIGN ROUTINELY FINDS THAT ONLY ONE IN 10 BUSINESSES HAVE A PLAN IN PLACE." •C lient relationships tend to be deeper, stronger, and more personalised than they are in many other industries.

All in all, it’s easy to understand why design and engineering businesses struggle with transition and letting go of their businesses — businesses that are built around unique projects and are an expression of personal creativity, energy and hard work. Not only that, but owners need to come terms with the fact that they are working with a generation of employees who are accustomed to moving about in search of new experiences and opportunities for professional and personal development. Many of the most talented among them would have no qualms about leaving for another firm or even starting up a competing firm of their own — and it’s never been easier to establish yourself in your own business in today’s technology focused environment.

The difference between leadership and ownership succession Typically there are two fundamental components of succession — leadership succession and ownership succession. These are not the same. Ownership is a legal, financial, valuation, and accounting issue.

Leadership is how you conduct your business, retain your clients and people, develop your new clients and manage your operations. For a successful transition, you need to execute your leadership transition and your ownership transition in parallel. Developing your next generation of leaders is by far the more complex and challenging of the two tasks.

Building a culture of succession Succession is not planning! It’s not something that happens when the existing owners decide that they need to let go or pass on the ownership to the next generation. Successful and sustainable succession occurs when succession is built into the culture of the business and is built on the existing leaderships’ desire to share.

Fundamentally the business embraces the following characteristics: •T rust and openness • Sharing of information and rewards

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• Identifying and fast-tracking standout performers

The key steps

• Collaboration

• Accountability and responsibility

Leadership succession is fundamentally about identifying, leveraging and nurturing the talent that the organisation already possesses by developing it to its full potential. Although there is no one way to succeed in nurturing your next future leaders there are some foundations that need to be in place. Some of the key elements that need to be in place are:

• Integrity

1. Articulate the opportunity

• Letting go of descisions and client relationships

The current leadership, and especially the key principals, need to articulate and demonstrate that an opportunity exists. Talk about your values, what drives success in your business, what you look for in your people, your own path to success and leadership. Explain what it takes to be a leader in your business.

• Innovation • Personal and professional development

• Promotion from within In multi-generational practices these elements pervade the organisation and, coincidentally, are inherent in a performance-driven culture. Most businesses will already have elements of each of these happening but to various levels of success. Those that do all of them well continue to thrive, to have sustained success into the future and will successfully navigate changes in leadership. Keeping an eye on these core components affects your ongoing management and recruitment decisions and the year-to-year management of your business.

" FOR A SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION, YOU NEED TO EXECUTE YOUR LEADERSHIP TRANSITION AND YOUR OWNERSHIP TRANSITION IN PARALLEL. DEVELOPING YOUR NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS IS BY FAR THE MORE COMPLEX AND CHALLENGING OF THE TWO TASKS." Identifying future leaders Young people today are more loyal to their own careers and their profession than to their employer. In their experience companies come and go, as does their employment, at a fairly rapid pace. The only way they can have some control over their own destiny is to be independent: either move among practices to find what they want — to gain different work experience, to work on different project types — or become owners fairly early.

The most talented young professionals are educated about the world, independent thinkers, and somewhat impatient for more responsibility and financial reward. They aspire to early ownership. If you want to keep them in your firm, you must make it clear that the ownership path is open to them.

The drivers of success in most design and engineering businesses encompass client relationships, design capability, project delivery capability and secondarily financial and business acumen, and people management innovation. Typically your future leaders stand out and demonstrate their capability early. They will embrace your cultural values, be highly skilled in their area of expertise, have strong client relationship skills and take responsibility for the delivery of key projects. No doubt they are already planning their way to a position of influence, so get on the front foot. In our profession, and in today’s age, opportunity abounds and typically they may have had only 5 years (or less in some cases) management experience. Start the conversation.

When you are recruiting, as difficult as it may be, recruit for ‘cultural fit’ and attitude first, and then skills.

2. Provide the opportunity and guidance Communicate your aspirations and your expectations to your future leaders and explain how you see them contributing to the ongoing success of the business — how you see them providing direction and leadership across the business in skills, client relationships, delivering projects, innovation and talent management et cetera. Develop a plan for exposing them to the operation of the business outside of the realms of their skillset — for example, financial performance, business systems, preparing proposals, fee structures and so on.

Mentor their technical contribution and client relationships skills.

Share key decision making with them.

3. Openness Although this is sometimes difficult, you need to involve your future leaders in the key decisions affecting the business. You need to start letting go of making all these decisions and allow your future leaders to set their own course. Provide them with the guidance and information necessary to make informed decisions around recruitment, future projects, their clients and new ways of working.

4. Put in place performance expectations All strong performance begins with clear expectations. Set the criteria for leadership — that way everyone understands the expectations.

Typically, the more capable individuals thrive on performance criteria and knowing what drives success. Performance criteria need to be closely aligned with the business success factors and there should be both short-term and longer-term expectations around what drives the business performance — for example, financial performance, work generation, design outcomes, strategy, people development, talent identification, innovation.

5. Ownership Clearly, establish your criteria for ownership and paint a picture that includes a conversation around ownership and a stake in the business — whether that be immediate or down the track. That is ultimately what you are looking for. Explain the valuation methodology your business uses, the valuation criteria and the path to ownership.

Discuss and work out how transitions are timed and financed.

Successful succession is an indicator to your people that the business values the mobility of internal talent and promotes an environment for building long-standing careers. Having a transparent succession process has many benefits, including increased employee engagement and retention and a broader view of talent.

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Consulting Matters Business Essentials

Ownership Succession, leadership and ownership are intrinsically linked. In order for succession to truly work leadership needs to incorporate ownership. Sometimes though, the up-and-coming generation does not see ownership as the pinnacle of their careers as previous generations did, and convincing them to become owners is perhaps the most difficult challenge in ownership transition. What you see as the opportunity of a lifetime, they see as a commitment they don’t need.

The challenge becomes to make ownership attractive — to change the culture of the firm and adjust the ownership model in favour of those potential buyers. This typically involves:

" TYPICALLY YOUR FUTURE LEADERS STAND OUT AND DEMONSTRATE THEIR CAPABILITY EARLY. THEY WILL EMBRACE YOUR CULTURAL VALUES AND HAVE GREAT DESIGN, CLIENT RELATIONSHIP SKILLS AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DELIVERY OF KEY PROJECTS." Start the process

• Less restrictive ownership models

If you are an owner of a design or engineering business and are considering your successors ask yourself the following questions:

• More transparency

•W hy do you want successors?

• More sharing of authority

•W hat are your options?

In the past, principals might wait 10 years before giving younger employees decision-making authority, but that is simply not going to cut it today. Owners must train themselves to see the transaction through the eyes of next-generation buyers and, frankly, stop wishing they behaved as the current owners. They aren’t and won’t be.

Perhaps you are counting upon a next generation that is eager to take the reins — but guess again. You may find ownership a tough sell.

• I s external transfer an option?

Problems

•W hat's unique about your firm?

There are numerous reasons that leadership and ownership transitions fail, but the vast majority come down to just a few factors.

•D o you need help?

Existing leadership dynamics The dynamics of the existing leadership are not working. This can occur when there is unequal contribution or perceived inadequate contribution. It’s difficult for this not to affect the culture of the business and affect future leaders’ transition aspirations.

Leadership The current owners have been so busy managing the firm and making all the decisions, that they haven’t spent enough time or thought to develop the people who should be ready to take over. The most serious problems are leadership problems, not ownership problems.

Financing The owners approaching retirement still own a large percentage of the business. There aren’t enough buyers in the firm with the resources to buy them out because the younger people have not been investing in the firm and have other financial commitments.

•H ow much time do you have?

•W here will the funding come from?

•W hat do the potential owners want?

•W here is your firm generationally?

•D o you have a culture of succession?

At Management for Design we have encountered plenty of discussion and material on ownership and leadership succession that have led nowhere. Unfortunately there is no formula for success, as no two design businesses are the same — and there is no magic bullet for when you decide the time is right! There are, however, fundamental principles that will lead to a more effective, seamless and harmonious journey. These are shaped by a company culture that engages your people beyond the project-to-project activity. Embrace these characteristics and succession will happen naturally. Don’t let succession become planning!

Importantly, if you are struggling with succession in your business and can’t get the traction and results you need to move forward then don’t sit on it! n A version of this article, by Management for Design’s Rob Peake, was originally published by the ACA’s The Business of Architecture on 7 March 2015 (http://aca.org.au/article/ successful-leadership-succession).

Current owners can’t bear to let go They may be prepared financially, but emotionally they still want to be the one in charge.

The next group of leaders has not been prepared

Management for Design provides integrated business systems and services to the design industry across Strategy, Finance, Information Technology, Human Resource Management and Business Systems.

They haven’t had enough opportunity to develop the necessary leadership or management skills, or they don’t have a good understanding of the business aspects of running the firm.

By working with Management for Design our clients are enabled to focus on what they are great at and to control and build their businesses. For more information visit www.m4d.com.au or phone 03 9645 8834.

Potential successors can’t afford to buy in The business hasn’t been funding the transition over a period of time: younger employees are not likely to have the independent resources to purchase the firm.

The business waited until it was too late to create a plan Requirements for a smooth transition have not been considered as part of the firm’s ongoing business planning.

?

S E E Y O PL

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Consulting Matters Business essentials

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Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT) teaches survival techniques and lifesaving interventions through rigorous classroom and simulation-based training.

RedR Australia is an internationally recognised provider of quality humanitarian training, helping to prepare people from all professional backgrounds for the challenges they may encounter in remote or hostile environments and other complex operational settings. Highly experienced humanitarian practitioners will teach your employees the skills and knowledge they need to stay safe.

Next course: 17 Nov - 21 Nov 2021

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Consulting Matters Corporate Social Responsibility

TRUST The Essential Element In Humanitarian Work REFLECTIONS FROM PEOPLE OF ACTION

Australia Assists deployee, Anggie deployed as Gender and Protection Specialist with UN Women in Papua New Guinea

The global reality is that one in 33 people will need life-saving assistance to ensure their food, water and sanitation needs are met in 2021 due to conflict and climate crises. Rotary’s centenary Future of Peace Leadership symposium in April, asked important questions about the role humanitarians and people of action play in sustaining peace.

RedR Australia's CEO, Kirsten Sayers, convened a panel with RedR Australia experts Natascha Hryckow, Anggie Burchill, and Barnaby Caddy. In the session titled How do Humanitarians Contribute to Sustaining Peace, the panel provided perspectives on engaging with government, communities and other influencers in the delivery of humanitarian action.

Trust: the essential element Focussed on the trust dimension of effective humanitarian work, the panel drew on its breadth of humanitarian experience and shared perspectives on why trust is critical to humanitarian work.

For Natascha, current Coordinator UN Panel of Experts on Somalia and former RedR Australia board member, understanding the trust deficit and what the gaps are is critical: “you need understanding to build trust – and you need trust to build understanding".

RedR Australia deployee to UN Women in the Solomon Islands in 2019 through the Australia Assists program, Anggie Burchill spoke of the importance of trust to ensure humanitarian responses are fit-forlocal communities.

" you need understanding to build trust – and you need trust to build understanding.”

Natascha Hryckow, Coordinator UN Panel of Experts on Somalia and former RedR Australia board member

Anggie is well-versed in the role of trust, particularly disaster risk reduction planning, after two Pacific deployments: “effective responses hinge on access and it is difficult to gain and retain access without community trust”. From a gender and inclusion perspective, Anggie spoke of how women are disproportionately affected by disasters and have a different capacity to recover: "we must be careful not to unravel a fragile level of trust and ensure that our support, however well-meaning, does not exacerbate existing divides".

Barnaby Caddy deployed with Australia Assists in July 2020 as an Operations and Logistics Advisor with the office of the Bougainville Electoral Commission. Learning from his experience, Barnaby reflected that "trust is not automatic," and "there is significant mistrust of many agencies and NGOs that deliver humanitarian aid within communities". Trust, Barnaby said, needs to be earned at both an individual and organisational level.

Corporate Social Responsibility Consulting Matters

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How to build trust in humanitarian work As CEO of the only UN Standby partner in the Asia Pacific with extensive experience working with communities and governments before, during, and after crises and conflict, Kirsten led reflections on the linkages between humanitarian work and peacebuilding.

Barnaby confirmed the importance of role of the ‘humanitarian ambassador’. Mistakes made by an individual can become mistakes for everything that comes afterwards, shaping perceptions on an organisation or country. “ Building trust is also about doing your homework”. Natascha said that technical expertise alone is not enough when linking humanitarian action and peacebuilding. Rather, time should be spent on asking the right questions and listening to people and communities living and working as humanitarians and leaders.

Top: Australia Assists delpoyee, Barnaby (pictured centre) with Solomon Islands Electoral Commission team members Gail and Kate in 2019.

Bottom: Australia Assists deployee, Anggie with local UN Women colleagues Beverley and Steven in Papua New Guinea.

Anggie deployed as Gender and Protection Specialist to support the humanitarian response to the earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea in February 2018.

“ Responsiveness and adaptation to the communities’ needs is a vital ingredient to building trust” said Anggie. “Without sensitivity to the contexts and capacity of people affected by conflict, trust is hard to build and quickly lost”.

In closing, Kirsten reflected on the need for people of action to be prepared, culturally and technically competent, and responsive to trust dynamics. " RedR is proud to work with Rotary and its community of talented and committed people of action". " By building trust, partnering, and working together, we can build a safer, more inclusive and sustainable peace, and future, for communities around the world”.

Visit our website redr.org.au to learn more about RedR Australia, our deployees, and our upcoming humanitarian training courses. n

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Consulting Matters Project Case Study

FIRST OF IT'S KIND BRIDGE DESIGN Reduces Construction Time, Is More Sustainable And Requires No Ongoing Maintenance IF A TOWN CENTRE IS THE HEART OF A COMMUNITY, THEN BRIDGES AND ROADS ARE THE VEINS AND ARTERIES. BRIDGES TIE COMMUNITIES TOGETHER, ENABLING EDUCATION, WORK AND FAMILY CONNECTIONS TO THRIVE. FOR SOME, THEY ARE THE ONLY ACCESS TO HOMES AND PROPERTIES DURING FLOOD AND FIRE, AND THE ONLY MEANS OF ESCAPE DURING EMERGENCIES.

Australia wide studies indicate that approximately 30 percent of all local government owned timber bridges are in poor condition. Most of these bridges are one and two-lane girder bridges that were constructed in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.

In the past, the replacement of timber bridges was undertaken with expensive solutions that required road closures of four to six months. Whilst alternative lower cost options existed, they came with a maintenance burden and were only suitable for minor roads. An innovative design solution for widespread adoption on all roads was needed.

For years, Aurecon’s bridge experts had witnessed the design and delivery issues governments, councils and contractors were grappling with. They challenged themselves to push the boundaries of what was possible. Bringing together first-hand experience, technical expertise and innovative thinking, Aurecon came up with a modular solution that overcame the shortcomings of previous designs. The ‘A-Bridge’ was born.

The A-Bridge’s unique and innovative design concept means that it is resilient, cost effective, fast to construct and meets industry standards.

Recognising the A-Bridge’s design, construction and performance benefits, Kyogle Council in northern New South Wales committed to constructing the first bridge of this type in Australia, on their busiest road, in their local area.

Being a precast solution, all A-Bridge components are built in a controlled off-site environment, substantially reducing the road closure times and quality issues associated with full onsite construction. Council estimated it would have taken 12 weeks of onsite works to replace the bridge to the required standard, using

3D view of the A-Bridge on Bentley Road, Kyogle, NSW

Project Case Study Consulting Matters

traditional methods. The Kyogle A-Bridge concrete components, including piles, headstocks and girders, were all installed, and the stitch concrete placed, in only three days. The whole bridge was ready for traffic in just two weeks.

The A-Bridge offers an ease of construction and significant time and cost savings. The precast deck connects to the substructure with simple cast in situ stitches. This feature avoids the cost and time of placing formwork, steel reinforcement and wet concrete. The design is also suitable for construction using a simple erection truss, obviating the need for heavy craneage.

The A-bridge requires no ongoing maintenance, which also delivers safety benefits for people otherwise needed for inspection and repair work. Common elements, which require replacement during the life of a bridge, such as bearings and deck joints are not required. The bridge is waterproof and there are no exposed steel dowels or tie downs to corrode.

The A-Bridge is highly resilient. There are no elements that can be dislodged, even under the most severe flooding and debris build-up or log impact. The design offers very low embodied energy, and a reduction in the quantity of concrete required, minimising the c arbon footprint.

The A-Bridge design is highly flexible. It is suitable for roll-out as single bridge or multiple bridges to suit Council funding options.

The A-bridge can be constructed by Council’s own crews, or by construction contractors. Furthermore, it is suitable for construction using locally available plant and materials.

The A-bridge is fully compliant with the Australian bridge Design Standard AS 5100 and all other known government codes and regulations. It is flexible across delivery options: span, delivery teams, accessibility and funding.

Kyogle’s first A-Bridge has given the community great confidence, reliability and security in their road access. n

Project name: Aurecon A-Bridge John Hilton, Design Director – Bridges Aurecon

Top: First A-Bridge. Ready for traffic in two weeks.

Bottom: Completed deck of the A-Bridge on Bentley Road, Kyogle, NSW

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Visit our public training courses here!

THINKING ABOUT

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Consult Australia offers a range of in-house Professional Development courses that can be tailored specifically to suit your firm’s requirements. In-house training encourages greater team work and builds awareness and understanding of each other’s roles in the organisation by enabling group discussion to be based around real examples that are specific to your business environment and policies.

CONTRACTS FOR CONSULTANTS This intensive 2.5 day training seminar is aimed at those who are regularly confronted with client contracts. The course provides essential advice and insight on managing and controlling contractual rights and obligations. It is conducted in a small group interactive format and has helped those with both limited and extensive experience to deal more effectively with contracts and their various terms and conditions. Tools and advice are given on how to develop fair and reasonable contractual relationships with clients.

ROLE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT The Superintendent’s role is a complex one. It requires a sound understanding of the law of contract, substantial engineering skills, and in particular, an understanding of the provisions of the particular project outcomes. This intensive and interactive training program teaches you how to confidently manage the various Superintendent duties, the dual roles of the Superintendent, and how to avoid common legal traps.

MANAGING PROJECTS FOR DISPUTES AND CLAIMS Claims and disputes are a common feature of construction projects in Australia and every business needs teams who are alive to this risk and have the skills that can respond.

This intensive 2 day interactive workshop is designed to provide the participants with the knowledge and practical skills and tools needed to understand and navigate this very real risk.

The workshop is ideal for both those delivering the projects, technical leads, project managers and commercial managers, as well as your in-house legal, finance and commercial teams.

An overview of the courses and standard rates for our inhouse courses can be at following link beside

MORE INFO

MORE INFORMATION For more information about education opportunities, please contact the Consult Australia on 02 8252 6700 or email education@consultaustralia.com.au.