Crawford School of Public Policy

Crawford’s immersive course for emerging leaders enables participants to embrace a world of policy challenges and learn to operate more effectively as a leader.

In an increasingly complex world, it is important for leaders to be able to inspire others and create meaningful change as well as having the ability to adapt in times of uncertainty. Crawford’s upcoming short course for emerging leaders enables participants to look toward the future with a fresh perspective and design effective strategic solutions.

“The policy landscape is only increasing with complexity. The gravity of the issues are increasing exponentially and so are the consequences. In the world of today and tomorrow, society and government no longer have the luxury of responding to complex policy issues inappropriately,” course presenter Dr Gary Saliba said.

In the course, leaders will develop skills to work in a policy environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), using a framework built around Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and Systems mapping.

“The course will provide leaders with proven practices that will add to their current problem solving toolkit,” Dr Saliba said.

Most policy issues facing government are interwoven in nature. Examples of such policy issues include the national response to COVID-19, structural transformation of the Australian economy, and biosecurity. These and other complex policy issues are characterised by many interconnected factors including, murky relationships that compound the problem. Facing such complex policy issues, emerging leaders need to be able to both identify the key factors and apply the appropriate paradigm to solve the issue.

“A Systems paradigm response will enable participants to develop effective policy solutions because the principles of this approach align much more closely to the nature of the policy problems issues that are facing society and government,” Dr Saliba said

The course will provide leaders with an additional set of perspectives and practices that add to their current approaches and enable them to:

• present complex policy and strategic issues using new language and concepts that better align with the nature of the problem/issues;

• develop policy and strategy and monitor implementation from an adaptive rather than a retrospective perspective;

• greatly enhance their skills to manage and lead people in a VUCA context to develop policy and strategy solutions that are natural to the problem/issue and;

• greatly enhance their capacity and capability to navigate a VUCA policy environment with much greater confidence and competence.

The opportunity for participants to review their leadership identity is a valuable one, which the course explores in depth.

The course will run as an online and distance program in 2021, making it more accessible and providing leaders with the opportunity to review the material as they progress in the journey after completion of the program. It provides YouTube clips with a vast number of different perspectives that add another dimension to the learning experience. 

“This online course provides a rich array of course material that can be pursued over time. Leaders are able to continually review the material, reflect and develop a deeper sense of what can be achieved. The online question and answer sessions enable many different perspectives to be presented providing a richer learning environment.” Dr Saliba said.

The Emerging Leadership series commences Monday 8 November 2021.