Learnings from LTAG - Dr Sally Martin

The LTAG supported my participation in a PACE professional development course, Leading Change. This was a 2-day workshop aimed at understanding and implementing organisational change which, given our current efforts to merge with UniSA and become Adelaide University from 2026, was timely.

One thing that surprised me in undertaking this activity was…
The participants in this course came from a variety of organisations across Adelaide, ranging from insurance companies to aged care service providers to companies that develop banking apps. While I came into this course with the University merger at the front of my mind, I was surprised to learn that this type of organisational change was a common experience for ALL of the participants…. our situation is certainly not unique (although perhaps the scale of it is).

What was a key learning from this activity?
While we covered a lot of different frameworks and discussed many different aspects of organisational change (e.g. beliefs and assumptions, decision making processes, the phases and interpretations of change…), I think one of my key learnings was that some elements of change can be managed or influenced by you, whereas others cannot. Therefore, it’s important to work out which aspects of organisational change you have the power to influence and focus your time and energy on those.… and don’t worry about the rest. For me, that has meant focussing my attention on the course build process and making sure that the courses I am designing (with UoA/UniSA colleagues and talented learning designers) are going to be amazing.