James is a co-founder of Fire up Solutions with expertise in Human-centred transformation. Fire up reshapes strategy to put humans back into changing human-services organisations in the complex, highly regulated sectors of education, children’s services, aged and disability care, community, and transport.
James has over 20 years of experience guiding leaders to lift leader and organisation performance, workforce capability and engagement to achieve strategic outcomes. Working closely with leaders to build trust, James improves their capacity to lead human-centred transformational change.
He brings significant operational leadership experience and has thrived in delivering results in disengaged and change-weary workforces across many regulated sectors, particularly drawing on his extensive experience in the airline sector, navigating significant periods of disruption. James delivered a popular keynote recently at Ageing Australia’s conferences: ‘Put Your Own Oxygen Mask on First. Embrace resilience and avoid burnout – so you don’t break yourself, your workforce or organisation.’
Lifting leaders’ capability to transform our sector- Can you rebuild the plane as your leaders learn to fly?
Precis
Leading transformational change is no longer just a necessity—it’s a real competitive advantage in aged care. The most successful aged care providers are those with leaders who can continue to drive transformation, foster innovation, and create a cultural shift—all while managing daily operations.
As we race toward the reform deadline in November, we should remember we’re only at the beginning of the journey to transform our aged care sector. It’s not an evolutionary change; it’s a transformational change. As highlighted in the State of the Sector report published at the end of 2024, two-thirds require significant changes to their core services, one-third are anticipating an acquisition this year, and half are planning to expand their business models in the next 12 months to provide a greater continuum of care.
‘Now more than ever, there is a leadership imperative to lift the capability of all our leaders to lead transformation’. We need to ‘rebuild our plane as we fly’, as one sector CEO recently said.
Yet, with all the competing demands, all our leaders struggle to find the time or headspace for more learning. Many traditional leadership development programs fall short for leaders for three key reasons. It:
1.Doesn’t help leaders manage their capacity. Most leaders are already overloaded with compliance and managing daily operations.
2. Doesn’t reflect the real-world challenges leaders face to transform their organisations. Most leadership programs use fictitious case studies or hypothetical exercises that feel disconnected from the transformational challenges leaders face every day, and
3. Ignores how leaders learn – by taking action. Research shows that 90% of learning happens with peers as they put into practice what they have learned with practical tools in the workplace, not in a classroom. And if new knowledge isn’t applied within 48 hours, it’s lost.
A recent study by the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) showed that a ‘learning-by-doing’ or ‘learning on the job’ with structured support is up to 80 per cent more effective and delivers three times more impact.
In this session, we will explore:
1.How to assess the level of transformational change in your organisation
2. How transforming your organisation requires lifting leaders in a few key competencies and helping them adopt 4 essential practices
3. How to rapidly lift your leaders’ capability with ‘learning by doing’ – blending classroom learning, online skill-bites, and ‘real work’ done with their peers and along with structured reflection.