How do you cope when employees, customers, and other stakeholders are more demanding than ever before? It's impossible to solve every problem, but you can partner with others - even outside your industry - to solve complex challenges and meet rising demands. Use cross-industry collaboration to unlock innovative solutions, share resources, and strengthen your organisation.

https://swiy.co/go-cross-industry-collaboration

How are you coping – and planning to cope – with our fast-changing world in 2025?

You don’t need a futurist to tell you our world is changing faster than ever before, and we’re going to face a lot more change, uncertainty, and disruption in the future.

We’re all experiencing this every day. But as a leader, how are you managing and navigating your team through that?

Leaders have a dual responsibility now. On one hand, you have to navigate this change and lead your team through it. And on the other hand, you must keep an eye on the future so you can take advantage of the opportunities that change brings.

The problem is people expect more.

• Customers are more demanding.
• Our employees are more demanding.
• Other stakeholders are more demanding.

It’s not enough to simply try to pedal faster and faster to keep up. It’s tempting to try, but you will burn out. And even if you don’t, it’s impossible to keep up.

So, what can you do instead?

Instead of trying to solve all your problems internally, partner and collaborate with other organisations. It doesn’t even need to involve people within your industry. You just need people who can help you solve problems you’re not equipped to solve.

This idea is called cross-industry collaboration, and it’s rapidly gaining steam.

I’m sure you have seen examples of it aready – for example:

• Woolworths partners with OzHarvest to provide surplus food to charities so that they don’t waste it.
• Telstra and the Royal Flying Doctor Service are collaborating to increase the number of telehealth services for people in regional areas.
• The National Australia Bank (NAB) is partnering with Good Shepherd Microfinance to provide small micro-loans to customers who NAB isn’t equipped to serve.

This idea of cross-industry collaboration is one of ten key trends I’ve identified for leaders in 2025. I’m running an online presentation soon about these trends.

I won’t cover them all, but instead will focus on three key trends: one about customers, one about employees, and the other focused on you as a leader.

This presentation is free and open to everybody. So please register and feel free to invite others in your team, especially leaders.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-cross-industry-collaboration

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The future of leadership is about navigating complexity with clarity and purpose. As technology reshapes industries and societal expectations evolve, leaders must foster human connection, champion transparency, and embrace adaptability. Success will come to those who prioritise learning, sustainability, and collaboration, creating workplaces where people thrive. In a time of uncertainty and rapid change, future-ready leaders will be those who inspire trust, foster innovation, and thrive in change.

https://swiy.co/go-10-trends-2025

1. Human-Machine Collaboration: Leaders must foster environments where technology amplifies human strengths, so AI serves as a trusted partner, working alongside humans for greater productivity and innovation.
2. Sustainability: Customers and employees prioritise businesses that value sustainability, and leaders who authentically embrace sustainability initiatives will be rewarded, while those who don’t will be penalised.
3. Cybersecurity: As cyber threats escalate, leaders across all areas and at levels are expected to champion a culture of vigilance and accountability in their teams.
4. Transparent and Authentic Leadership: As the world becomes more digital and automated, customers and employees are demanding transparent, values-driven, and authentic leadership.
5. Future-Ready Skills: Leaders must promote and endorse a spectrum of emerging skills, such as digital literacy, cognitive flexibility, creative thinking, and emotional intelligence.
6. Continuous Learning: Leaders must cultivate a culture of learning where people can upskill, reskill, and even “un-learn” outdated practices - using AI, microlearning, and immersive technology.
7. Cross-Industry Collaboration: In an interconnected world, organisations are investing in collaboration and partnerships to help them solve problems they can’t tackle alone.
8. Employee Experience: In a competitive talent market, where employees expect more, organisations must provide empathetic leadership and dynamic work cultures that prioritise the individual’s journey.
9. Workforce Demographics: With up to five generations working side by side, leaders must navigate diverse expectations, communication styles, and priorities.
10. Crisis Leadership: Organisations everywhere are more vulnerable to external shocks, and leaders need to manage these shocks, balancing decisiveness with empathy and risk with opportunity.
11. (BONUS) Quantum Computing: Quantum computing is still in its early stages, but its impact will be rapid and massive, and has the potential to revolutionise entire industries.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-10-trends-2025

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The world is changing faster than ever, and we need teams to be embracing change. But many people are slow to change, reluctant to change, or resistant to change. If that's true for your team, maybe YOU are the problem! Many leaders unintentionally say and do things that create a change-resistant culture. Recognise these words and actions, and replace them with a new mindset and behaviour that encourages change and adaptability.

https://swiy.co/go-maybe-youre-the-problem

Are you, as a leader, getting in the way of making progress for your team and maybe even for your organisation? You might be doing it unintentionally, but it still stops and slows down change.

In a recent online presentation about the future of AI, I asked people to share their biggest questions and challenges about AI. Some were about the future of AI and what’s ahead, but by far the biggest obstacle that many people are facing is slow adoption of AI at work.

They said things like:

“We’re blocked from using AI.”

“I feel like I’m the only one who’s interested in it.”

"It’s not part of our policy."

"It’s not your job.”

These are common frustrations - not only with AI, but with change in general.

The problem is, many leaders and managers are unintentionally saying things that stop or hold back change in their teams.

Have you ever said anything like this to your team members?

“It’s not part of your job.”

“We tried that once, but it didn’t work.”

“It’s against our policy.”

“Our customers won’t like it.”

When you say these things, it’s for a good reason: You want to protect your team, keep the organisation safe, ensure projects stay on track, and so on.

But you might also be creating a culture that resists change.

If someone comes to you with an idea and you say, “It’s not part of your job”, they might feel discouraged. They might try again and get a different objection. After a while, they will stop.

As a leader, it’s a tough balance to strike. On one hand, you have a responsibility to the organisation to stay on track, protect its reputation, and remain productive. On the other hand, you also have a responsbitiliy to create a culture of change. With so much change happening in the world, your team needs to be ready to embrace it.

So, how do you remove obstacles to change while still meeting goals, KPIs, and customer expectations?

Of course, I can tell you to just stop saying these things! But it’s not as easy as that. Instead, look for reasons why those things - while they might have been true in the past - might not be as appropriate now.

In other words, find objections to the objections.

To help you with this, download my worksheet about creating obstacles to change - and how to overcome them. It’s a useful and fun activity to use with your team to tackle these objections - even before you raise them.

This is especially useful right now, as many leaders are planning for the year ahead. As you plan for the future, don’t only think about strategies and goals. Also consider the behaviours you want to encourage in your team - and yourself!

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-maybe-youre-the-problem

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Do you feel like you're only person championing AI in your organisation? It can feel like an uphill battle, especially when you face restrictive policies and scepticism. The key is to respect existing boundaries but still find ways to use - and demonstrate - AI to create value through small, safe projects. Lead by example to inspire curiosity, build trust, and create a ripple effect.

https://swiy.co/go-flying-the-ai-flag

Do you sometimes feel like you’re the only person in your team - and maybe even your organisation - flying the flag for AI? It’s not easy, especially if others are not interested, actively pushing back, or even banning it.

This is one of the most common responses when I ask people about the biggest challenges they have with AI right now. They say things like:

“I love using it and there is lots we could do with it. But our organisation is just slow to catch on to new technologies.”

“Fear, lack of trust and lack of education make AI an uncomfortable space…. It’s like you are doing something wrong!”

“I feel like I’m fighting this battle alone. My team is not really interested in trying to use it.”

Do you feel the same way? Are you excited and eager to use AI more, but you’re constantly being blocked or banned?

The solution is to smart small.

First, of course, everything you do must be within your organisation’s AI policy. Don’t go outside those rules - that would be risky, unsafe, and potentially a career-limiting move!

But within those rules, there’s often still a lot you could do.

Ideally, everybody is moving fast to becoming an AI-driven organisation. But that kind of change takes time - a lot of time. But even if you’re not there yet, look for things you can do right now.

For example:

• Use AI yourself for admin tasks like email, meetings, draft reports, and data analysis.
• Identify other AI champions in your team who can help and support each other.
• Engage your teams in running small-scale AI projects that create value just for the team.

Start small, set a good example for others, and demonstrate AI’s value in low-risk, highly visible ways. Over time, these small wins help to spread the message through your organisation.

I’ll be discussing this in my next online presentation coming up very soon - about AI in 2025 and beyond. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. Register now, and and share the link with your team and others in your organisation - especially those who are wary of AI now!

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-flying-the-ai-flag

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At what level are you using AI, and what’s your plan for using it next year and beyond?

Whenever I deliver my Leveraging AI keynote presentation at a conference, I always include an extra “hands-on” AI masterclass afterwards - run over Zoom within three months of the conference. The keynote gives them the big picture, and the masterclass shows them how to get immediate value from AI - whatever their role and familiarity with AI.

I always start these masterclasses by asking participants to rate - on a scale of 1 to 10 - how much they are using AI. Typically, the average is in the 4-6 range, with a few below or above those middle numbers.

When we dig a bit deeper, I find the main reason they don’t have a higher score is something like:

“I just don’t know how else to use it.”

That’s a reasonable response, especially for something as new as AI.

If you’re wondering the same thing, here’s a useful framework. Think of people in your team using AI at four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.

Level 1: Personal

Are you using AI in your personal life? Tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly useful, even for tasks unrelated to work. I suggest you encourage everybody on your team to exploring AI at home to help in their personal life.

Level 2: Professional

Next, use AI to enhance your professional role. This isn’t about your core job, but rather the surrounding tasks like managing emails, running meetings, or interacting with people. These tasks are essential but often time-consuming and stressful. AI can reduce the burden and make you more efficient and effective in your professional life.

Level 3: Projects

At this level, AI becomes a tool for your team. These are short-term projects - no more than three to four months - that deliver real value to the team without needing full organisational buy-in. For example, you could use AI to streamline a process or tackle a specific challenge. Of course, you do them within your organisation’s AI policy, but you can still do them independently.

Level 4: Platform

This is the highest level, where AI becomes integral to your organisation’s operations. Think of banks using AI to assess loan applications, insurers using it to calculate premiums, or HR departments designing personalised learning journeys for employees, or IT teams using AI to enhance cybersecurity. Initiatives at this level typically need a strategic decision at the organisational level, and it’s where you get the biggest overall benefits.

Broadly, those are the four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.

If you’re a senior leader responsible for a department, division, or the whole organisation, you might start thinking about AI at the platform level. But if you’re not, don’t wait until the organisation does something. Look at the other three levels. Encourage people to use it in their personal life first, then in their professional roles, and then create projects as a team.

If you want to know more, I’m running a free public online presentation soon about AI in 2025. This will help you use AI strategically and practically to solve business problems and achieve goals, including organisational and people goals. If you’re interested, register here and invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-scaling-ai

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Imagine giving every customer and employee the personal touch, even at scale. By analysing behaviours and preferences, AI lets you tailor experiences for customer journeys, learning paths, or timely interventions to re-engage people.

https://swiy.co/go-the-human-touch-amplified

For example, all four baristas at my local cafe know exactly what coffee I want because I’m a regular, and they don’t need to ask every time. With a few dozen regular customers or even a few hundred, they can remember the regaulrs and treat them personally.

But when you’re trying to scale that – with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of customers – that’s not possible for humans to do just by themselves.

That’s where AI comes in. AI lets you personalise at scale.

For example, I regularly shop at Woolworths, and every week Woolies emails me my weekly specials. These are literally MY weekly specials because the email is crafted for me, based on my buying habits.

It’s very different from the old days when everybody got the same Woolies catalogue in the post because it wasn’t possible to personalise it for every single customer. But now it is, and AI enables it.

I recently delivered a keynote presentation to a large member association in Australia, who wanted me to talk about the future of member engagement. I shared some technology, trends, and innovations this association could use to improve, enhance, and deepen their engagement with their members.

We shared a number of ideas, but those that resonated the most were about personalisation. Here are three examples I shared:

1. Individual memberships

Instead of having a few groups of memberships – like student member, affiliate member, and full member – what if every member could completely personalise the services they wanted? The association would then only offer those services to that member, and it would be different for everybody. It’s like knowing every member’s coffee order and only giving them that every time.

2. Learning journeys

The association provides individual learning journeys for every member (and the same applies to you and your employees). After a member completes a learning module, AI reviews and assesses it, and suggests the next module for them - with the appropriate content, format, and time frame for that particular member.

3. Member engagement

AI could also monitor and assess member engagement with the association’s services. If it sees engagement waning, it first reaches out to the member with additional services (again, tailored to that member’s likely preferences). And if that fails, it alerts member engagement staff to intervene.

These three examples demonstrate personalisation at scale. It was the way the corner store worked in a small town, and the way a local coffee shop works now. We lost it as population expanded and companies grew. We’re getting it back now with AI.

Personalisation at scale is just one of the ways you can use AI to enhance experience. It applies to both your external customer experience (and part of your customer value proposition, or CVP) and your employee engagement (part of your employee value proposition, or EVP).

I’ll talk about this in my next public and free online presentation, which is all about AI in 2025 and beyond. This is a free public online presentation, so please register, and invite others as well.

https://swiy.co/go-the-human-touch-amplified

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As a leader, you're no stranger to disruption! But what if disruption didn’t just happen to you? What if you could actually create it? Constructive disruption is about being proactive, not reactive - making change happen before the world forces it on you. Discover the three essential habits for embracing this mindset, so you’ll be better equipped to navigate uncertainty and turn disruption into opportunity.

https://swiy.co/go-constructive-disruption

Would you like more disruption in your life? That might seem like a silly question, and you might be thinking you want less disruption, not more! But it depends on how you think about disruption.

I was in Adelaide last week, speaking to an association of leaders from large organisations around Australia. Their event theme was "constructive disruption", which I love because it turns the common idea of disruption on its head.

We often think of disruption as something that happens to us. But I often say disruption and innovation are the same thing: They are both about change, and the difference is that disruption happens when change happens to you, and innovation is when you create that change yourself. So, constructive disruption is about being proactive and creating disruption - or change - before the world forces you to change.

We have to expect more disruption, more change, more uncertainty, and more more chaos in the future. But we also have more opportunity - if we are willing to embrace constructive disruption.

There are three key things you can do - and these should become habits in your leadership journey.

Think ahead.

Reach out

Lean in.

1. Think Ahead

We need to think more about the future. The more senior you are, the more of your salary is being paid for you to think about the future. But that’s not easy because we often get bogged down in operational, day-to-day things. Those are important, but if that takes up all your time, who’s thinking about the future? Thinking ahead is about understanding what’s coming so you can make better decisions now.

2. Reach Out

In times of change and uncertainty, people re-evaluate their goals and desires, and often re-assess the "suppliers" who currently help them achieve those goals. Make sure everything you do is aligned with solving customer problems or helping them achieve their goals. If you’re not doing that, then you’re vulnerable to a competitor who will come along and do it better.

3. Lean In

You have a talented, diverse team with different skills and perspectives. Tap into their experience and expertise, which may extend beyond their job description. Lean in to your team, so you can access a wealth of insights that can help drive constructive disruption.

Those are the three keys to constructive disruption.

If you’re not doing them already, you can’t just snap your fingers and start disrupting from today. But you can start! And then make them habits in your leadership, in your team, and in your organisation.

AI, of course, is a big part of the future, and can help you with constructive disruption. I’m running a free public online presentation soon to help you understand how AI will affect you in 2025 and beyond. So, please register and invite other leaders in your team and network to join us.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-constructive-disruption

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AI is not just the latest tech trend; it's a fundamental shift in the way we work. As a leader, follow this three-step strategy for engaging with AI, integrating it into your workflows, and bringing your team on the journey.

https://swiy.co/go-unlocking-ai-in-2025

Do you know how you will be using AI in 2025?

Last week, I delivered the closing keynote presentation for the Local Government Professionals Association of Western Australia. I was talking about leveraging AI, which of course is a popular topic right now.

The presentation went well, and was well-received, but I want to highlight something that happened a few weeks earlier, as I was preparing for it.

As usual, I had a briefing call with the client and other people in the program committee to discuss what they want from me and to ensure my presentation aligns with their theme.

In the briefing call, I shared an example of some AI software I wanted to demonstrate at the conference. For this example, I used an example from one of the local government councils whose CEO was in the briefing call. Let’s call her Steph (because that’s her name).

The people in the briefing call liked my little demo and were happy for me to present it. But the reason I’m sharing this is because Steph took this a bit further.

A week later, she emailed me, saying she had

- tried the software herself,

- shared it with her Marketing and Comms team, and

- they are now planning on using it

I love that!

What Steph did, even though I didn’t say this to her, were exactly the three things I recommend for exploring everything new - and especially with AI.

Learn.

Share.

Act.

In brief:

1. When you first become aware of it, learn what it can do, what problems it can solve for you, and how it can add value.

2. Then share it with other relevant people in your team - partly because they have a stake in it and partly because they will bring different perspectives to it.

3. Finally, plan how you will act on it to integrate it into your workflows.

If you’re interested in more about this, join my next free online masterclass, "AI 2025", where I’ll help you put your plan in place for learning about AI, sharing AI with your team, and then integrating it in the work you do.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-unlocking-ai-in-2025

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You don’t need a futurist to tell you about all the external change happening in our world. And I’m sure you know that because of all this external change, you, your team, and your organisation also have to be open to change, embrace change, and even lead the change.

But change isn’t easy, and different people respond differently.

🙅 Some are resistant to change.

🚫 Some actively reject it.

😬 Some reluctantly take a few steps, then fall away.

It’s worse if your team is already overworked and overwhelmed. Even with the best of intentions, people get excited about a change initiative at first, but then fall back into their old ways.

So how do you start the change - and keep the change?

We address this in my leadership programs. Broadly, there are two parts to the program.

First, I show you how to look into the future and scan wider, so you understand more about what’s over the horizon and around the corner. That lets you make better-informed decisions about what to do now.

Second - and more importantly - I show you how to take those ideas back to your teams and foster a culture that encourages them to change.

And many leaders struggle with that second part.

The biggest mistake they make is to make change a big deal. When people hear about a new change initiative, they often get a sinking feeling of:

😒 “Here we go again”

🙄 “Just another thing that won’t make any difference”

📋 “Here’s something extra I need to add to my big to-do list”

😟 “I’m frightened by this change”

So, instead of making change such a big deal, start small. In fact, I often say (tongue in cheek!),

“If you want to be more successful, lower your standards”

Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not suggesting we should have low standards!

But if you make the change initiative such a big deal, you’re setting yourself up to fail. If it succeeds, great! Or if your team culture loves change, wonderful! But most workplaces aren’t at that stage yet.

So, to build this culture of change, start small.

Here’s an example: Reverse mentoring.

Ask somebody more junior in your team to be your mentor (instead of the other way around). That’s “reverse mentoring”. You invite somebody to meet you for a coffee every week for, say, three months, and your job is to just listen and learn.

That’s already easy to do: You don’t need an organisation-wide mentoring program, you don’t need to announce it to everybody, and you don’t need anybody else’s permission.

But you can start even smaller, to make it even safer. When you invite the person, don’t talk about a three-month “mentoring program”; just ask them for a quick coffee meeting because you value their input. That way, you’re making a bigger commitment - unless you both want to, at the end of the meeting.

The key is to set the bar so low at first that it’s impossible to “fail“. You just keep trying things, keep what works, and ignore the rest.

For more ideas like this, download my worksheet about everyday innovation. These are all small things you can do to help build a culture of change agents. Choose one, try it, and if it works well, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, quietly stop doing it and try something else.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-small-steps-big-change

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Are you engaging your team in open and honest conversations about AI? There's no doubt AI is here to stay, and people have different opinions about it - from fear to excitement, and everywhere in between. Create a space for open conversations with your team about the the benefits, their concerns, and anything else. In this way, you're building a culture that's ready for change.

https://swiy.co/go-more-ai-conversations

I was in beautiful Brisbane last week to deliver the closing keynote presentation for an allied healthcare group, Healthia.

I was talking about the mix between people and technology, with my core message around “people first, technology second”. It was a pretty easy sell to Healthia because they’ve always made that part of their philosophy and mission. In fact, they’ve already started using AI in their organisation, rolling out tools that practitioners can use with their patients to improve clinical outcomes and make their work more efficient.

It’s great to see a forward-thinking organisation on the front foot about AI.

This is a larg group, so of course, people are at different levels of comfort with AI. Some are engaging actively with it, others are just starting to use it, and others haven’t started yet. This is true for any organisation and might be true for yours as well.

What I admire about Healthia and other organisations who are serious about AI adoption is they are starting to have conversations about AI. And I wonder: Is this true for you and your team?

Are you having open, transparent, and honest conversations about AI?

I know other organisations with big plans to launch AI projects, so they are holding back from AI conversations with their team. They are waiting to get everything right in terms of policy, governance, software and infrastructure first.

This can work, and it is important to get things right with any AI projects. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start conversation about AI! The risk is that, in the meantime, your team are already hearing about AI, using it at home, and maybe even using it secretly at work. You lose control of the conversation, which makes it much more difficult when you eventually roll out your AI projects.

Unfortunately, most of the public perception of AI - driven by the media - is negative. So, some of your people might think AI will take their jobs, or worry about having to learn new technology, or think they will fall behind.

On the other hand, if you start having conversations about AI now, you help to create an environment where they see AI as a tool rather than a threat.

So, what are you doing to have conversations with your people about AI?

For help with these conversations, download my worksheet of questions and discussion points for open conversations with your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-more-ai-conversations

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