Building capability, confidence & connection in complexity

Is this course right for you?
Today’s public sector leaders are working in an environment defined by volatility, AI disruption, hybrid teams, workforce fatigue and shifting stakeholder expectations. Technical expertise alone is no longer enough.

This interactive program is designed for public sector professionals who need to lead through uncertainty, whether you’re managing hybrid or dispersed teams, driving reform, or influencing across agencies and jurisdictions.

You’ll explore the mindsets and behaviours that underpin adaptive leadership and practise applying them to real public sector challenges. Through practical tools, reflection, and live discussion, you’ll strengthen your ability to respond with clarity, influence, and confidence when issues are complex, ambiguous, or fast-moving.

Whether you’re leading a team, a program of work or policy change, this workshop offers strategies and space to expand how you lead, not just what you deliver.

What will you learn?

Adaptive leadership is about seeing the bigger picture, focusing on what truly matters and helping people adjust to change.

In this program, you’ll examine the difference between technical and adaptive challenges and learn how to work with complexity rather than against it. You’ll explore VUCA and VUCA 2.0 frameworks, systems thinking and stakeholder mapping to better understand the interconnected nature of public sector work.

You’ll strengthen your own leadership presence and emotional intelligence, build a growth mindset and practise coaching-style conversations that foster trust, ownership and engagement, especially in hybrid or dispersed teams.

Across the modules, you’ll integrate theory with reflection, real APS scenarios and practical tools you can apply immediately back in your workplace.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges and choose an appropriate leadership response.
• Clarify and articulate your leadership values and purpose, and align these with your agency or department’s mission.
• Apply a growth mindset to lead yourself and others through uncertainty, experimentation and resistance to change.
• Strengthen your emotional intelligence and presence in high-pressure, ambiguous environments.
• Navigate complexity using systems thinking, stakeholder mapping and other practical tools.
• Influence outcomes without relying solely on formal authority, particularly in cross-functional or matrixed environments.
• Lead and motivate hybrid or dispersed teams by building trust, clarity and flexibility.
• Use coaching-style questions to unlock insight, engagement and shared ownership within your team.
• Connect individual leadership behaviours with broader organisational priorities to build alignment, trust and strategic execution during change.

This course complements Manager or Leader? Strengthening Authority and Influence in the Public Sector by taking the next step: moving from building core authority and influence to applying adaptive leadership in real-world complexity and change.

If you would like to learn more about this course or our other offerings, please contact the IPAA ACT team on 02 6154 9800 or capability@act.ipaa.org.au

Courses that do not reach the minimum required participants 14 days before the commencement date will be cancelled with a full refund.

If you work for the federal or ACT public service, or in the broader public-for-purpose sector, you’re most likely already a member of IPAA ACT. Check our membership list if you’re not sure.