Guidance

Guidance for agency executive

• Set the agenda
  • Drive and role model the change, in line with the Charter of Leadership Behaviours. Enable, coach and remove blockers for your staff. Be open to change and encourage new ways of working.
  • Share what you want leaders and staff to do differently.
• Set the tone
  • Redefine success for your leaders – reward people who grow capability and devolve decisions
  • Encourage ‘failing fast’ and testing new ideas.
• Use your governance levers
  • Adopt flatter structures, in line with guidance on Optimal Management Structures
  • Lower financial and HR delegations
  • Review governance arrangements and find opportunities to devolve responsibility
  • Lower clearance levels for recurring work types (e.g. parliamentary, media). Reconsider whether work needs to flow through every set of hands in a reporting line.
  • Consider Work Level Standards when determining the lowest appropriate level for different types of decision
• Build capability
  • Agree your agency’s tolerance for risk across different functions and be clear on how you want staff to apply it
  • Share the context to build judgement to support decision making
  • Directly engage with staff about purpose, priorities, expectations and how you make decisions
  • Determine any guardrails needed while capability is being built.

Guidance for leaders and managers

• Role modelling
  • Model the Charter of Leadership Behaviours
  • Enable, coach, mentor and remove blockers for your staff. Help them ‘do’ and ‘decide’ themselves
  • Encourage the use of descriptive titles and focus on people’s expertise rather than their classification
  • Be open to change and encourage ideas of what can be done differently
• Nurture good judgement
  • Share context when tasking new work, including any risks and government considerations. Be conscious of including staff working remotely as well.
  • Tell staff the outcome you want and how you like to be kept in the loop.
  • Where decisions have a legislative basis, ensure teams understand their responsibilities.
  • Be open when things don’t go to plan. Help people learn from missteps. Setting up a regular team retrospective is a great way to embed this way of thinking
• Trust and empower
  • Set vision and guardrails, without dictating how problems should be solved
  • Encourage staff to rethink who approves routine decisions in their work teams
  • Look at work that can be delegated as a responsibility rather than tasks
  • Don’t over correct errors with extra controls—address capability instead.
• Encourage collaboration
  • Role model good collaboration by communicating with people at different levels and in other work groups
  • Help staff to build their networks, both inside and outside to the organisation, and find others working on similar things
  • Advocate for mobility, so people get exposure to different parts of the agency and APS.

Guidance for teams

• Know your patch
  • Be clear on the purpose of your role and what you need to achieve
  • Understand how your work fits into the broader organisational goals
  • Weigh up risks and uncertainties – what could go wrong, who needs visibility, and how can you make a positive outcome more likely? Can you use a test and learn approach?
  • Know your work areas procedures and processes on day to day tasks
  • Know your escalation points and when decisions expand beyond your scope.
• Own the decisions that are yours to make
  • Talk to your manager about expectations – what decisions are they happy for you to make yourself and when do they need visibility?
  • Come with solutions – recommend a way forward, when you escalate an issue or risk
  • Be curious about how other people weigh up choices. What do they consider?
  • When new work arises, be clear on the intent – ask questions and test assumptions
  • Make choices you’re happy to stand behind. If things don’t go as planned, what can we learn?
  • Keep communication open about the decisions you’ve made so others can learn.
• Involve the right people
  • Get to know people in other teams and agencies and how their work connects with yours
  • Encourage more experienced staff to mentor those who may not have experience in decision making
  • Think about who can assist you to get the best outcome. Are colleagues working on similar things? Can you coordinate and share learning? Are you seeking diverse viewpoints?
  • Consider who this choice affects. Do we know enough about the impact on people/business? Are there any unwanted consequences?
  • Involve people with lived experience, those from underrepresented groups and/or those who will be directly impacted by the decision.