Australian Corporate Challenge was tasked with developing a Charter of values and behaviours to ensure zero harm throughout the 2 year contract as well as strategic training.

This was combined with identifying the key leaders for the project and investing in ‘leading edge’ leadership training and profiling to ensure the project is on time, on budget and injury free.

A recently conducted 2 day professional and personal development conference completed by Australian Corporate Challenge saw an outstanding Charter and Life Saving rules completed in conjunction with personal work/life and wellness training overarched with Leadership Skills needed in the tough and unforgiving environment of Underground Mining.

 Using experiential learning simulation activities under the watchful eyes of Australian Corporate Challenge staff, Tenix SDR leaders were stretched, evaluated and guided to achieve critical objectives, while ensuring every team member was actively engaged.

As Peter Davis, Tenix SDR Operations Manager, explained “We have to have a leadership team onsite that is exemplary in their behaviours towards safety and their duty of care to all our staff. This training is critical to our success”.

Under the leadership of Tenix SDR’s Operations Manager Peter Davis and George Golowyn, Water Corporations Projects Manager, a series of workshops have been completed in Perth and Busselton to establish a Charter of Aspirational Behaviours.  

Life Saving Rules and Leadership Skills have been developed to drive each project for the Alliance.  The workshops have allowed the key players, including major sub-contractors Tenix SDR and Water Corporation employees, to build a unified team with exemplary behaviours to build water projects in the south west of Western Australia to world best standards in a safe, on time and on budget paradigm.  Under the stewardship of Dr Garry Tester and Jacqui Finnegan from Australian Corporate Challenge, the workshops have produced ‘best practice’ documents for every worker on site of life saving rules and behaviours.

As one sub-contractor explained, “This is the first time we have been inducted both professionally and personally so thoroughly on any job I have worked.  The investment by Tenix SDR makes me really feel valued and I want to be on board with them for the long term.”

Australian Corporate Challenge was tasked with developing a Charter of values and behaviours to ensure zero harm throughout the 2 year contract as well as strategic training.

This was combined with identifying the key leaders for the project and investing in ‘leading edge’ leadership training and profiling to ensure the project is on time, on budget and injury free.

A recently conducted 2 day professional and personal development conference completed by Australian Corporate Challenge saw an outstanding Charter and Life Saving rules completed in conjunction with personal work/life and wellness training overarched with Leadership Skills needed in the tough and unforgiving environment of Underground Mining.

 Using experiential learning simulation activities under the watchful eyes of Australian Corporate Challenge staff, Tenix SDR leaders were stretched, evaluated and guided to achieve critical objectives, while ensuring every team member was actively engaged.

As Peter Davis, Tenix SDR Operations Manager, explained “We have to have a leadership team onsite that is exemplary in their behaviours towards safety and their duty of care to all our staff. This training is critical to our success”.

Under the leadership of WA Manager Andy Wood and supported by Water Resources Managers Don Chappell and Ian Marshall along with HSE Advisor Paul Laycock, Australian Corporate Challenge and the University of Western Australia’s school of Exercise Science are completing extensive health screening, not only anthropometric data, but also of life style.

This will allow a snap shot of the health of the work force to support a ‘best practice’ strategy moving forward.

The completely volunteer testing has had an outstanding take up rate of 78%.

The testing covers blood profiling, functional movement activities, cardiovascular levels and basic anthropometric data of height, weight and girth ratio. Further data is being collected pertaining to exercise patterns, diet, alcohol, smoking and recreational patterns.

Each staff member will receive a complete profile of their scores compared to National standards, along with comparisons of mean scores by age and gender of the Thiess work force.

The enthusiasm shown by those tested so far and the feedback from those staff all goes well for individuals taking ownership for improving their own health and wellness, with the ongoing support of Australian Corporate Challenge.

As one Thiess worker explained “It is a wakeup call for all of us, to pay more attention to our own personal health as we get older, thank you for the opportunity”.

 Again in April 2011 a two day live in leadership conference highlighted how the 30 identified leaders of the business had grown in stature with their skills.

 Under the guidance of Garry Tester, the leadership team was objectively measured, involved in experiential (hands on) activities to demonstrate their developing leadership skills and involved in ‘leading edge’ learning to keep Tenix Gas at the forefront of the business units.

 Commander Richard Cass from the Australian Navy (ANZAC Class ships), spoke at length about the similarities between Military Leadership and Business Leadership to ensure the ‘troops’ develop the desired behaviours to keep them safe. This message fitted well with the Tenix initiative of ‘Zero Harm’ and the Charter of behaviours developed for the Gas division.

 After two intense days, the words of the long serving Manager John Spallotta summed up the conference:

“I have been around a long time and it is refreshing to see the young boys step up to take this leadership training. They are our future and I love being part of this great initiative by Marco”  

As Chris explained, “by investing in up skilling our leadership team, a cascading effect onto our students will be the result. We want to have the best collegiate community of any University accommodation.” To this end over the past 3 years, Australian Corporate Challenge and the Currie Hall Executive have developed an effective Charter of desired and inspirational values, up skilled staff in management and leadership and practice their new skills through ‘experiential learning’ activities.

To further build the leadership team in April 2011, a half day workshop welcomed the new staff and revisited the Currie Hall Charter, while developing the desired leadership and behaviours of the team.

To reinforce the importance of team training an afternoon of sailing on the Foundation 36 yachts was organised. This highlighted the team work skills required to build a high performance Currie Hall leadership team, which will allow progress towards ‘best practice’ in University accommodation, anywhere in Australia. As Janet Linn, Assistant Principal, explained “we are all so time poor, especially with being on call for the students (24 x 7), to have time like this to talk and interact with each other while learning, will build us into a formidable and caring team at Currie Hall.”

With the Sports Challenge team bringing all their equipment, computer and printers from Perth instant feedback was provided to allow each staff member a suite of paper work and personal evaluations completed before they left the work shop.

At the end of a long, hot day the sentiments echoed by Principal and Deputy Principal Ric Eade and Deb Olle summed up the impact.

“To have the quality of this type of PD in the territory is a unique opportunity for all involved and will assist us all in providing the best possible education to the students in remote schools. Thank you Sports Challenge!”

Starting this year, the Department of Mines and Petroleum have partnered with Australian Corporate Challenge in implementing an 18-month Mentoring Program offered alongside the exisiting Graduate Program within the department. The graduates, or mentees, participated first in a one-day workshop focused on the themes of organisational dynamics, mentoring, teamwork, and communication. The mentees were then joined on the second day of the workshop by senior staff within the department, their mentors.

Over the course of the workshop, the mentees and mentors worked together in a variety of hands-on activities and challenges. The atmosphere was consistenly buzzing with positive interaction, communication, and integration between the mentors and mentees. Australian Coporate Challenge serves to facilitate the workshop; however the effectiveness is solely dependent on the mentor and mentee’s attitude and willingness to work together to achieve the desired outcomes throughout the 18-month program. As such, the majority of the program is intended to be self-led, and thus a strong level of commitment and motivation is required from both parties.

This will be no problem for this group, judging by the success of the first two sessions. Thanks to the outstanding organisation by Ms Janice Tan (Strategic Planning) and Mr James Donnelly (Strategic Planning), Australian Corporate Challenge has no doubt that both the mentors and mentess will benefit tremendously from the program.

In mid-January, the BankWest Retail Sales Division showed off their talents in a teambuilding program held at the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. The teams were raring to go right from the start, showing a keen enthusiasm to get involved and compete for the final prize for the overall best performance.

In these trying economic times, Retail Sales Manager Phil Colton’s philosophy is to maintain BankWest’s cutting edge position in the banking industry by investing in its people. The partnership with Australian Corporate Challenge will undoubtedly set 2009 off on a positive note with a focus in the areas of change management; an integral focus area for BankWest in maintaining its leading position in this current economic climate.

The teambuilding program was structured around a series of hands-on activities, both indoor and outdoor. The themes of Emotional Intelligence, health and wellness, communication, creative thinking, motivation, relationship building, achieving work/life balance, and problem solving were focused upon. The highlights of the day, as reflected by the participants, included getting to know interstate work colleagues on a more personal level, and integrating in an out-of-office environment.

In the end, it was the competitive element of Australian Corporate Challenge’s teambuilding program that left participants hungry for the challenges to come in 2009.