ANZSOG’s Executive Fellows Program will return in 2026, under the co-leadership of Professor Karise Hutchinson and Jason Ardler. The program will combine online sessions with a five-day intensive in Melbourne and runs from September to December.
Karise Hutchinson is a Professor of Leadership and Ulster University and CEO of Illuminaire Leadership Institute. She has spent more than 20 years in academia and brings deep expertise in leadership, strategy, and public value gained from a career working with government, private and third sector organisations.
She will be delivering the EFP for the first time and is developing a program featuring a range of guest presenters who will help senior public sector executives understand the complexity of the current global moment, how to change the systems they work in, and their own capacity as leaders.
Karise spoke to ANZSOG about the challenges that public sector leaders are facing as they operate in a volatile, interconnected environment, and what the EFP can offer them.
There is broad agreement that the work of the public sector has become more complex and difficult, why do you think this is?
The key word for me is interconnectedness. For example, all of the things we hear on the news about the war in Iran, the progression of the war in the Ukraine, they actually affect us at a country or a local level through shocks to food and supply chains, or energy security. The level of complexity is such that one of my first questions would be: what can public leaders actually control? That interconnected web of consequence is really problematic and challenging.
You can add in climate change and AI which are both creating a massive disruption at the system level. Then you've got the complexity of leading big institutions that affect people who, at a wider societal level, are very wary and mistrustful, but at the same time have got high expectations of your institution.
This linked complexity comes at leaders from all these different directions at once and that's what makes it challenging. It’s very disruptive and a shock to our reality.
What sort of personal qualities do public sector leaders need to be able to operate or thrive in this environment? Has that changed over recent decades?
Developing the technical skills of leaders is important, but it's not the whole story. It's much more critical that we develop that level of wisdom, discernment, and the ability to make sound judgments, stand firm, and be highly relational.
Research by Oxford University talks about the shift from the ‘ego’ to the ‘eco’. The individual leader still matters, but the shift in power is to the ecosystem. How leaders then cultivate that sense of influence relationally has become really important.
This is not a time to be soft and fluffy, or for the faint-hearted. It is a time for leaders who will take on responsibility with great courage and have the inner confidence and coherence that is needed.
Where the EFP fits in is that: if you are progressing through the public sector you’re developing your knowledge and technical skills, which will have got you to the point you are at, but there is now a greater importance placed on your influence and decision-making and building culture.
You need the ability to be a relational leader who can bring an institution or a department or a group of people on the journey. This is the kind of leadership we’re trying to bring out in the EFP program.
We need public sector leaders who can engage citizens, and help them be part of shaping the conversation, shaping the solutions and not just being on the receiving end of them. Leaders that encourage transparency, genuine two-way dialogue with the public and building trust by delivering what is promised over time.
When senior leaders do the EFP, what change are you hoping to make in their mindsets?
From the public sector leaders I talk to and work with, there's that sense of being overwhelmed as they try to manage the tension of so many competing priorities..
I would hope that leaders on the EFP get a chance to take a different perspective, getting a ‘balcony view’ and making some sense of what is going on around them.
The second thing is that they would build connections and relationships with other leaders across jurisdictions, across departments, across areas of expertise, countries, that will broaden their scope, and give them some peer support.
There are a lot of different tools and frameworks. None of them are perfect, none of them will solve all your problems, but the EFP will give them things to experiment with and try and, more importantly, give them permission to try something different, because we need leaders who want to make change.
What are those changes we need to make to the way governments operate to make them fit for the 21st century?
The key question is how we build more networked and collaborative structures as opposed to silos and departments. We need to reward project-oriented ways of working that are fluid and emergent and can morph and change in response to new problems. If we look structurally in terms of the public sector, we're not set up that way. In fact, you're often rewarded if you stay in line and don’t work across boundaries.
Change is possible because the research tells us there's lots of different ways we can do it, and there's examples of that across the world. It just takes great bravery to try. It is hard to work out how you do it when you're under as much scrutiny as public services are, but the right type of leadership can lead from purpose and have a real vision and strategy that brings people on a journey. It is possible, but it's a long game. You're not going to do this in one year, or one electoral cycle of four years.
What can the public sector leadership learn from the private and not for profit sectors? What’s transferable and what’s not?
For the public sector there are opportunities for learning that don’t simply replicate the private sector or not-for-profits, but combine some of the dimensions of those organisations.
From the private sector they can learn speed of execution, clarity around KPIs and outcomes, and that sense of being able to experiment - to try, fail then try again - and of testing ideas and adapting. This is not just from small entrepreneurial firms, there are large firms that do that well.
From the not-for-profit sector it is the purpose-driven clarity of mission which is absolutely core to what they do. They are so close to the communities they serve and have deep empathy and understanding for their lived experience. It's much more human centred and trust-enabled than government.
This year’s EFP will include a focus on sustainable leadership, what does that involve?
We’ll be talking about how a leader can sustain their energy and their focus, their ability to lead, through all of this complexity. How do they hold it all together in a way that is sustainable at a personal level?
The first thing is to accept that human beings are not machines and positions of responsibility don't come with a superhero suit. Accepting that we have limits is incredibly important.
We’ll bring in some of the latest research to really drive home how critical this is, and we’ll use the model of the ‘seven nutrients’ that make up the healthy mind platter. We’ll talk about sleep, movement and fun, and some practical ways to build that into our working day and sustain it.
Sustainable leadership is very much about your whole life and the integration of your head, heart and your gut, how cortisol is a stress hormone, what that does to our bodies and how to counter it.
What does the effective leadership that the EFP tries to create look like?
There was a really compelling piece of research done by McKinsey in 2025 that tried to find what actually differentiates the most effective leaders, by asking 800 public leaders ‘what are the most important indicators of excellence’?
They pointed to purpose and character and clarity of vision. Two things which should be absolutely inherent in the public sector.
It’s that consistency between what they say and what they do, and that integrity, as well as humility, that sense of being able to listen and learn from other people.
These are what is needed to build leadership that is more relational than technical and allows you bring people on a journey with you. That’s a difficult thing to do, and you need to have an infrastructure to actually sustain the emotional, mental and physical labour of leadership at this level.
Applications for the 2026 EFP are now open. The program will be delivered from 16 September to 9 December, consisting of online sessions and a five-day residential intensive in Melbourne from 19-23 October. You can find more information on the EFP page of the ANZSOG website, including the application form and the chance to book a 1-on-1 consultation with ANZSOG’s Learner Services team to discuss if the EFP program is right for you.