From Doing to Leading: The real shift when you step into SES
We often find ourselves chatting with people in our network about their career journeys – the highs, the lows, and everything in between. As former EL2s, we know firsthand that being a great EL1 doesn’t automatically make you a great…
Writing should be a team sport
Everyone in a decision-making role knows the feeling. You open your inbox to find dozens of briefs, emails, and reports competing for your attention. Some are crystal clear, while others are impenetrable walls of text that make you wonder what…
Seven lessons in seven years
In 2018, I left the public service. I needed a change—a new challenge, a different rhythm, new scenery. “Start a small business,” they said. “It’ll be easy. You’ll have so much flexibility.” In seven years, running Elm has been anything…
How can we hold our work lightly?
When working in communications, we often put a little piece of ourselves into our work. Your blood, sweat and a few tears into a communication strategy, hours spent on carefully crafted messages, or that presentation that you worked on until…
From a spark to a fire: igniting an innovative culture in government
Every year, the APS census results come out, and every year, the same questions arise: Why are innovation metrics low? What can we do about it? Why is it so hard? As someone who has run countless workshops on this…
The collaboration conundrum. Why does it have to be so hard?
We facilitate workshops and planning days for large and small groups from the public and private sectors. We’ve done many of them over the last few years, and it’s one of my favourite parts of this job because I get…
- Australian Government, Blog post, Communication, Communications professional, Leadership, Professional development
The growing demand for communication services
We are hearing that communication teams are being asked to deliver more than ever. Everyone is being squeezed. Recruitment freezers are popping up across government, and budgets are tight (or non-existent). Teams are increasingly expected to provide expertise across a…
Great team culture doesn’t require an office
NSW Government’s new directive that public servants should work ‘principally’ from the office is a short sighted and disappointing move, not backed by research. Furthermore, the Premier’s quotes betray his assumptions (biases!) that people who work from home are sitting…
The unspoken language: How internal communication shapes your culture
Whether it’s intentional or not, every organisation has a culture – a unique set of beliefs, values, and behaviours that shape how things get done. It is a critical contributor to capability and performance, and it’s the thing that will…
- Australian Government, Behavioural science, Blog post, Communications professional, Team performance
Diversity of thinking in your team
This week, I sat down with Elm’s newest team member Amy. When I say new, she has been with us for six months, but we agreed that time has flown by, and it feels like we haven’t had a real…
