Studer Group Australasia

21/09/2026

Healthcare is becoming more complex.
But not all complexity comes from outside the organisation.

Over time, new priorities, committees, reporting requirements, meetings, governance arrangements and approval processes can accumulate.
Most were created for good reasons.

The problem comes when we keep adding without regularly asking what can be simplified, stopped or removed.

Our first AHSG Insight explores one of the growing challenges facing healthcare leaders:
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁?
𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱?

Please explore the full briefing here:

https://www.ahsg.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Insight-10-Why-Is-Healthcare-Becoming-Harder-to-Lead-2026.pdf

08/09/2026

𝗣𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝗶𝘀𝗲.

When healthcare teams are under pressure, one of the first things that can disappear is clarity.
Not because people are not working hard.
Often, the opposite is true.
People start compensating for uncertainty with more effort.

They chase information. Repeat conversations. Attend additional meetings. Make assumptions. Check and recheck decisions. Try to work out what has changed, what matters today and who is responsible for the next step.

One of the practical responsibilities of leadership is to reduce that noise.
Sometimes that means clarifying the priority.
Sometimes it means making a decision.
Sometimes it means telling people what has changed.
And sometimes it is simply closing the loop on an issue that staff have raised.

Leaders will not always have every answer.
But they can help people understand the direction, the priorities and what needs to happen next.
Clarity allows people to put their effort into the work rather than into trying to understand the work.

01/09/2026

A leadership program can create insight.
It can challenge thinking, introduce practical tools and generate some very good conversations.
But none of those things, on their own, change an organisation.
The harder part begins afterwards.

It is what happens when leaders return to full calendars, competing priorities, difficult conversations and the everyday pressure of running a health service.

Do they use what they learnt?
Do they change a behaviour?
Do they have the conversation they had been avoiding?
Do they follow through on the commitment they made?
Do other people notice something different?

Building leadership capability requires more than attendance at a program. It requires practical application, reinforcement and accountability over time.

The real measure of leadership development is not what happens in the room. It is what changes outside it.

31/08/2026

Leadership development asks something different of people when the conversation moves from theory to themselves.

One of the moments that stood out during the StriVe Leadership Day at St Vincent’s Lismore was watching leaders articulate what they wanted to achieve, what they needed from others and, importantly, what they were prepared to commit to themselves.
Then they stood in front of their peers and shared those commitments.
For some, that came easily. For others, it required a degree of vulnerability.
That matters.

Leadership is not demonstrated by knowing the right framework or being able to describe what good leadership looks like.
The real test is being prepared to be clear about what you will do differently, allowing others to hear that commitment and then following through.

We finished the day with each leader identifying a leadership behaviour they will work to change before the end of the year.
And that is where the real work begins.

Because the next part cannot happen in a workshop.
It happens in the conversations they have, the decisions they make and what they choose to do differently when they return to work.

Thank you to the leaders from across St Vincent’s Lismore for their openness, energy and willingness to lean into the conversations throughout the day.

And a big thank you to our Studer Group coaches, Michele Dobe and Jaime Thomson, for facilitating the day and creating the space for those conversations to happen.

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26/08/2026

Healthcare leaders spend a significant amount of time in meetings.
The problem is not always the number of meetings.
It is what happens inside them.

Working with a partner site recently, we spent time looking at what makes meetings effective. One of the strongest reflections from leaders was how easily calendars become filled with back-to-back meetings that involve plenty of discussion but do not always result in a clear decision, action or outcome.

A good meeting needs more than an agenda.
People should understand why they are there, what needs to be decided or progressed, who is responsible for what happens next and when the group needs to come back to it.

Otherwise, the meeting finishes and the work simply follows everyone out the door.

Meetings are one of the everyday places where leadership, accountability and ex*****on become visible.

The measure of a meeting is not how much was discussed. It is what moved forward because the meeting occurred.

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20/08/2026

Last week Ian MacDonald and Kylie Vos commenced the Advanced Leadership Program with senior leaders at South West Healthcare.

Delivered across six interactive days over three months, the programme creates space for leaders to step outside the immediate demands of their roles and work through some of the real leadership and organisational challenges they are managing.

The focus is not simply on learning new concepts.
It is about practical application. Exploring how leaders create clarity, make decisions, strengthen accountability, work across organisational boundaries and translate priorities into action.

The first sessions generated plenty of discussion, challenge and shared experience across the group, with leaders actively applying the thinking to their own roles and areas of responsibility.
That application between sessions is an important part of sustained leadership development.

We look forward to continuing the work with the group over the coming months.

12/08/2026

People don’t judge their healthcare experience only by what happened. They remember how it felt.

The Beryl Institute’s consumer research consistently points to the same things people value: listen to me, communicate in a way I understand, and treat me with dignity and respect.

In Australia, this is also reflected in the NSQHS Partnering with Consumers Standard, which reinforces the importance of involving people in their care and communicating clearly.

From a Studer perspective, this is why what we say and how we say it matter equally.

Three practical ways to strengthen the how:

1. Standardise the interaction, not the person.
Use AIDET® to create consistency in connection and communication while keeping the interaction personal.

2. Make listening visible.
Before jumping to the solution, pause and reflect back what you’ve heard. Even a simple, “Let me check I’ve understood…” can reduce anxiety and signal respect.

3. Lead with non-verbal compassion.
Tone, pace, eye contact, posture and calm presence are all part of the experience. In pressured environments, small behaviours can carry significant weight.

Clinical care matters enormously. But so does the experience we create while delivering it.

What’s one communication behaviour you’ve seen make an immediate difference for a patient, family member or colleague?

28/07/2026

Visibility is not about being everywhere.
Healthcare leaders are often told they need to be more visible.

That advice is sound, but it can also be misunderstood.
Visibility is not about walking around for the sake of being seen. It is not about appearing briefly in a unit, saying hello, and moving on before anyone has the chance to raise what really matters.

True visibility has purpose.
It helps leaders understand the reality of the work.
It gives staff a chance to raise concerns early.
It creates opportunities for recognition.
It helps leaders see whether priorities are clear.
It builds trust over time through consistency.

In a busy healthcare environment, staff quickly learn the difference between symbolic visibility and genuine presence.

Symbolic visibility feels like a leader passing through.
Genuine presence feels like a leader paying attention.

A leader does not need to have every solution in the moment. But when staff see that their leader is approachable, curious and willing to act on what they hear, trust grows.
The question is not just, “Are leaders visible?”
The better question is:
“When leaders are visible, does it make the work clearer, safer or better for the people delivering care?”

19/07/2026

We’re seeing more leaders step into senior roles with energy, curiosity and a genuine desire to do well.

That’s exactly what you want.
What matters next is how we help them succeed.

Too often, onboarding is left to chance. A bit of informal guidance, a few conversations and plenty of learning on the go. Helpful, but inconsistent.

Good onboarding isn’t accidental. It’s structured, intentional and connected to how the organisation actually works.
New leaders need to quickly understand not only what to do, but why it matters. How leader rounding, traffic light reporting and monthly accountability meetings connect to the operational plan and, ultimately, to better outcomes.

The organisations that do this well keep it simple and consistent:
• Clear expectations for the first 90 days
• Practical training in core ways of working
• Regular check-ins with their manager or executive sponsor
• Peer mentoring and shadowing opportunities
• Real examples, not just theory

And they’re clear about one thing.
These aren’t simply administrative tasks.
They’re the mechanisms that align teams, surface risks early, recognise great work and keep the service moving forward.

When onboarding is done well, it removes guesswork, builds confidence faster and sets leaders, and their teams, up for success from the start.

14/07/2026