Introduction to the Community of Practice November 2018 video transcript

Thanks Jill, and welcome everyone. So particularly welcome to everyone within the regions and also to so many of you here in Canberra. It's really a pleasure to host the fourth community of practice for workplace mental health and I think today's turnout really just shows the momentum that this group is forming. I know many of you have shared connections and networks and use this as an opportunity to do that, so there'll be plenty of opportunity to do that throughout the breaks.

We are also recording this event for the first time so that those that can't make it have an opportunity to share some of the insights and learnings from this event also, so we'll be looking to do that after the event. We have a record number of attendants today. We have over 200 people attending today, right around the country. I'd like to welcome, we have over 50 representatives from our Commonwealth agencies and we also have 15 representatives from our licensees.

So again, this is an opportunity to bring our jurisdiction together to focus on what is a really important issue. And we know that creating mentally healthy workplaces is a priority right now, but also into the future as well as we look to support those that are experiencing mental health issues. But also about protecting and building mentally healthy workplaces. So today's theme is very much of interest to many of you I know. Organisational change and its impact on mental health.

We know that change is a constant in our working and personal lives. It can be positive and provide opportunities for work satisfaction, better productivity, and at times even future professional or personal development. But if it's not managed well, we also know that the impacts of change can lead to poor morale, engagement, high absenteeism rates and reduced performance and even illness or injury. And of course we know this through the work that we do and continue to do together.

Just to share some data with you. We know from the APS employee census that 38% of respondents said that change could have been better managed within their agencies. We equally know within the media there are many examples of organisational change. Particularly in the private sector at the moment, which are affecting future jobs and the future direction of organisations such as Telstra and NAB.

So we know that regardless of what industry we sit in and regardless of whether we are government or at private sector, organisational change is a reality, not only now, but certainly into the future as we continue to talk about the emerging challenges as the future of work and what work will certainly look like in the future. While change management solutions will be different for every business and every organisation, it's important to see how research, learning through case studies and sharing through these experiences can help to bring us together to draw new conclusions and new opportunities to create and support the change within our organisations.

We have some outstanding speakers today as Jill alluded to. Simon Wearing, he's going to talk to us about change management through his personal story which shows the importance of resilience and personal resilience and choosing how we respond to change. Clare McLaughlin, who will give us a change management case study from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. Kylie Watson from Deloitte, a partner specialising in data analytics and global accredited change manager will examine change management through the lens of digital disruption.

And our last but not least, Kirsten Way, an organisational psychologist who specialises in the study of worker and group level psychology and its influence in organisational performance. So without further ado, I just want to acknowledge the work that we've done together today to create this forum, but also to create this event in which we can continue to support and create mentally healthy workplaces. This is an important topic.

So with no further ado back to you Jill, thank you.