WANT TO KNOW WHAT WE’RE THINKING?
To keep ahead of the game, we’re always open to learning from evidence-based research, ideas from the worlds of business, psychology, design and technology and just general cool stuff. Here are a few concepts that have got our attention right now.
Performance
Have hybrid approaches to business demonstrated a reduction in performance? And if so, how do we rectify it? The widespread impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce have meant that the success and cohesion of hybrid-work models have become more crucial than...
Coming Clean: why net zero is important to your organisation
The decisions that we make on carbon emissions over the coming years will impact our planet and quality of life for generations to come. It is for this reason that the future of our Earth’s climate is contingent on whether the world’s population can manage to...
Professional Intimacy
Professional Intimacy. Another buzz word, or the latest tool in progressive leadership? Over the years, there has been a greater understanding blooming in corporate spheres for the importance and impact of professional intimacy. When the corporate culture shifted from...
Hybrid, Not a No-Brainer
Over the last few years hybrid work (the combination of both in-person and remote working) has become increasingly popular, with most of us having been required to adapt to working in this blended mode since the beginning of 2020. However, despite a lengthy adjustment...
Getting Hybrid Right: How to Design a Hybrid Workplace For Your Business
Article summary: Law firm Hall & Wilcox gives us a nuanced example of how to transition to a hybrid workplace.The first step is to determine whether continued remote working is right for your employees.Prioritising compassionate leadership…
International Women’s Day Spotlight: Go Girl, Go for IT
To celebrate International Women’s Day, JOST&Co would like to champion the work of volunteers at the VicICT program Go Girl, Go for IT, which informs girls about career opportunities in the IT field. We know that IT has been a traditionally male-dominated field,...
Coming out of the 2020 tunnel: A Roadmap for People Leaders
2020 was a year full of new challenges for everyone, both in our personal lives and at work. Businesses had to quickly pivot to working remotely and when the demand for flexibility could not be met, weaknesses in work structures became apparent. As HR...
Leading with Compassion: the difference is in the doing
Not so long ago, pre COVID-19, we were compiling research into cultivating compassion-based leadership. We became increasingly aware that today’s organisations seem to lack compassion – or at best, it was thought to be scarce…
Working together when we’re forced to disconnect – enabling the social distancing mandate. Early lessons from South Korea
The Corona Quarter – that’s how the first quarter of 2020 could be referred to in Seoul, and across most of the globe. It has been one of disruption…
3 Reasons we’re still talking about ‘that’ gender issue (and it’s almost 2020)!
We’ve all been pushing really hard for decades to get gender balance in the workplace right. So much research and so many programs, awards, policies, committees, #metoo campaigns, movements… culminating in a lot of motion…
Song of the Sirens: the seduction of abandoning performance appraisals and ratings
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were captivating, dangerous creatures; their enchanting singing luring unwary sailors off-course, causing disastrous shipwrecks. Today, unwary business leaders…
Culture’s deadly sins: what we’ve learnt from the Banking Royal Commission (so far).
If you walk through the offices of any of Australia’s financial institutions, you will be met by rigorous systems and processes designed to drive behaviours steeped in values purported to be honourable…
8 Strategies to future-proof HR
Despite the evident need and purpose of HR in a changing world, the organisations they operate within need to constantly reinvent themselves to compete. As HR leaders, it is our responsibility to highlight this to our businesses and drive agility and adaptability. The future of HR is about making the business better, not HR…
HR Analytics: Taking HR data beyond the headcount
In a previous post, we discussed the extensive impact that several up-and-coming technological breakthroughs are having on HR as we know it. A prominent theme was that Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) will pave the way…
Is HR immune to automation?
As our workforce changes, technology advances and shifts to support how jobs and functions operate. Tasks we have traditionally deemed necessary are now streamlined and automated, revolutionising the way we work. This emerging reality reveals a rare window of opportunity for organisations…
Digital Ethics in HR: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
In a world that’s evolving faster than ever before, many would agree that it’s hard to keep up with the new conventions and guidelines that come with technological change. As HR leaders, in order for us to optimise the access we have at our fingertips…
The Changing World of Work
The exponential rate of progress in the world is fast becoming a day-to-day reality. And when the world changes, so does the world of work. And as always, change organically affects customers, employees, communities, sectors, and industries in varying ways. But now, it is time for all organisations…
Three Things Newsletter
This is the archive of our monthly newsletter. We keep ahead of the game by sharing our current thinking in our monthly newsletter.
Getting fighting fit to fortify against cybercrime
A year ago, we wrote about the need to mitigate cyber risks. Since then, the situation has worsened. According to the Australian Federal Police, cybercrime is one of the fastest growing crime types in Australia. The Australian Signal Directorate’s latest Cyber Threat...
Using organisational design to keep pace with progress
The discipline of organisational design has been around for a long time. While it emerged in the mid-20th century with the use of strategy and hierarchy to better manage controls and bigger workforces, organisational design has its roots way back in the industrial age...
Hard-won Olympic lessons for leaders
The Olympics have been a source of inspiration for Three Things this month. While we’ve seen many individual and team success stories in Paris (including 6 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Bronze for Australia as we press send on this newsletter), we think there’s some important...
Are you transformation fit?
It feels like there’s a tsunami of disruption happening at the moment. Organisations are facing intersecting challenges associated with leapfrogging technological advancements, shifting consumer and client preferences, regulatory change, social disruption and global...
AI’s role in the future of work
JOST&Co recently engaged the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Business School to deliver a project looking at Artificial Intelligence. The university’s Future of Work program involves students researching real life issues being experienced by organisations. ...
A story of leadership on the fast-track
I loved hosting our clients at the Australian Grand Prix again this year. The Australian Grand Prix Corporation is also one of our clients, so when I saw April’s Boss Magazine’s “How missing AFL’s top job drove the F1 Grand Prix CEO” article I was…
Plugging the skills gap
It’s no secret that there’s a skills shortage in many industries, including healthcare, construction, technology, energy and renewables, retail and education. It’s a phenomenon that’s being experienced around the world, which is impacting productivity for...
Beyond rules: mastering psychological safety and healthy work
Amy C. Edmonson, a leading voice in this space, describes psychological safety as being "a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking." The...
ESG is being shunned by some, but don’t give up on the idea just yet…
ESG, which stands for environmental, social and governance, refers to standards that socially conscious investors use to screen investments. There’s been a recent shift in market sentiment regarding ESG because investors are wary of exposures around greenwashing, and...
The perfect NY resolution – look up!
The first two quarters of each year are the introspective times to plan ahead, for the year, for the next horizon. There are many shiny new things demanding your attention as you plan this year, and many of them require transformation to your mindset, culture and...
Why it’s Important to Rip Off Generational Labels
Earlier this year, it was reported that there are now five generations in the workplace, reflecting the fact that most Australians are now working longer to achieve “a comfortable retirement”. While it’s useful to understand the diversity of worker ages, it can be...
Mitigating Cyber Risks
While Cyber Security Awareness Month has just finished, we must remain vigilant about cyber risks. We are in the fourth industrial age and have been pushed faster than we expected into digitisation and remote working. Those conditions create even greater opportunities...
Longing for Belonging
Diversity is a prerequisite for inclusion, and inclusion is a prerequisite for equity. All three are the mechanics that must be in place for people to feel like they belong. When people feel like they belong, they thrive. And that’s when organisations can realise the...
Three Success Factors to Achieve a Successful ‘Hybration’
We’ve coined a new term: ‘hybration’. It describes the challenging but rewarding process of creating a permanent, sustainable hybrid work model. Why? Because the hybrid workplace is here to stay. According to the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s latest...
Leaning into the Economic Headwinds
Three years ago, we were all talking about the ‘unprecedented’ times we faced during the pandemic. In workplaces around the country, we’ve weathered lockdowns and belt-tightening, followed by the emergence bounce and “great resignation” phenomena, and the subsequent...
Overcoming Burnout
There’s a simple litmus test for burnout. It involves understanding how each person in your team feels about going to work – physically or virtually – when they wake up each morning. Unless they are bouncing out of bed and looking forward to the day, you could have a...
Getting AI-Ready
Let’s face it, AI is hardly a new phenomenon. It’s been baked into many of the devices around us for years – just ask Siri! What is new is the speed with which we’ve seen the ability to control generative AI become mainstream. The most obvious example is ChatGPT....