Darren is a Behavioural Scientist with a track record of driving impactful government policy and corporate outcomes through innovative, human-centric interventions that leverage data and science.
Having founded, grown, and successfully exited three human services businesses, he has seen firsthand how doing good and doing well can go hand in hand.
Darren has keynoted in 6 countries, providing fascinating, humorous, and practical insights to help improve our professional and personal lives.
More than 250,000 people have participated in his programs.
He has had the privilege of directly advising Prime Ministers, Ministers, Senators, corporate leaders, and senior civil servants across Australia, the UK, USA, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Canada, but he honestly usually finds more insight and inspiration at the front line (and from my kids!).
Make Reform Contagious – The Surprising Behavioural Levers for Leading Change
Aged care leaders are being asked to hold more than most sectors ever have to: reform, workforce shortages, funding that isn’t keeping pace with rising costs, growing community expectation, and now AI and technology decisions layered on top. The old playbook, work harder, push through, wait for stability, doesn’t work when the instability is permanent, and it works even less when there’s less money to do it with.
Delegates will leave with a practical model for values-led decision-making under pressure, a clear distinction between the discomfort that’s normal in reform and the warning signs that need attention, and language they can use with their own teams to name what’s happening without pretending it isn’t hard.
This session draws on an evidence-based approach to leading under pressure, developed in clinical and organisational psychology, and 25 years of leadership research and practical experience, to give leaders a different way through: not eliminating uncertainty, but building the capacity to act well within it. We’ll cover what actually separates leaders who stay clear-headed and decisive under sustained pressure from those who burn out or freeze.
We’ve spent the past few years working alongside boards and leadership teams in both large and small aged care and faith-based organisations navigating exactly this kind of sustained reform, under real financial strain. The same pattern shows up every time: the teams that name the pressure openly, rather than pushing through in silence, make better decisions faster and hold their people longer.