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Pre-conference Workshop

Leading Change in Complex Organisations
Navigating Structures, Stakeholders and Politics

Workshop leader: Assoc. Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite PhD
Date: Thursday 6 April 2006
Venue: Mercure Hotel Sydney on Broadway
Time: 8.30am - 4.30pm

The workshop

It's tough out there. Things are changing more rapidly than ever. There are multiple stakeholders, all with a finger on the pie. There are so many issues to deal with, and too little time to do anything well, or so it seems. With all the changes going on, you're juggling balls in order to navigate through your day, week, a year and it's extremely challenging. It tests and confronts you mentally.

Complexity theory, a relatively new set of ideas, was quickly joined by chaos theory. That sounds about right - it's not just complicated, it's chaotic, you say. That's true enough, as all systems can display levels of unpredictability, uncertainty and irregularity.

You have a leadership role in the health sector. How do you manage better this type of change? How successful are you? In particular, how do you lead change in your complex organisation and navigate the structures, stakeholders and politics? We will integrate the experiences of participants and real-world problems and challenges with various ideas, materials and cases. The aim is to learn together and grapple with what we can do to lead organisational change. The workshop provides space to think these issues through

Learning objectives

It will be an interactive workshop involving no more than 25- 30 participants. In the workshop you will:
  • Analyse systems dynamics, and complexity and chaos theory
  • Critically examine past attempts to induce change
  • Learn from a range of new ideas and studies in order to deepen understanding of the issues
  • Consider the implications of our work together

Workshop content

  1. Introduction and purpose - our resources and initial views
  2. What's all this about systems theory, complexity and chaos? Context for our work
  3. The current state of play - environmental audit
  4. Established and new proposals in leading change - examining ideas on what to do
  5. Voices from the field - real world problems and issues
  6. Some evidence - a contemporary unfolding story
  7. Putting it all together - implementation issues - how do we proceed?
  8. Next steps - solution possibilities and future actions - the journey of 1000 miles…

The workshop leader

Jeffrey Braithwaite, PhD is Head of the Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health and Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at University of NSW. He has researched and published widely on health policy and the organisational aspects of health care. He is particularly interested in the structural, cultural and governance aspects of the system.

Costs

ACHSE Member$440
Non-Member$495

Cost includes Morning and Afternoon Tea, Buffet Lunch and all workshop materials. Please note there is a $50 discount off the overall price if you are attending both the pre-conference workshop and the conference.