About.
Our bold aspiration is to shape a working, evolving practice of collective leadership, through grounded insights and experimentation. And to share our findings as they emerge.
Our Story
Leading for our times involves embracing complexity, leaving places better than we found them, and shaping cultures and social networks aligned and contributing to a sustainable future.
Organisations, institutions and communities face an unprecedented pace of technological change combined with complexity and uncertainty in all facets of strategy and operation.
The Centre’s purpose is to cultivate leadership practices that facilitate thriving workplaces and meaningful progress in increasingly complex and contested times.
We examine, design, experiment with, and facilitate new ways of leading and working for the times we are in.
Our aspiration is to re-imagine the ways we lead and work. This means continuously and consciously adapting to meet the challenges of our times.
Our approach is to design, test and facilitate the practices of collective leadership and experimentation with groups of leaders as they work on real issues to effect change. This means leaders learning together as they take action, not waiting for the perfect moment to “apply new knowledge”.
Founders
Co-founders Mary-Claire McDonald & Kathy Hilyard
Our co-founders, Kathy and Mary-Claire have worked in the fields of consulting and leadership over many years and within many and varied client environments. Disillusioned with the traditional consulting model of creating reliance rather than building capability, they decided it was time to build something new.
Kathy Hilyard
Kathy brings a 30 year track record in the design and facilitation of leadership initiatives. Previously the national lead partner for client leadership development and transformation services for a Big 4 firm, and with15 years running her own consulting business, Kathy started her career in the Australian Public Service working in Health and community services among other portfolios. She is a compassionate and imaginative leader, renowned for her contemporary thinking and her engaging and skilled facilitation.
Kathy has deep expertise in contemporary leadership, collaborative practices and creating collective models for leadership and organisation design. Her passion is enabling leaders to bring contemporary leadership practices to their unique context and roles. She works with a diverse range of senior leaders in health services, aged care, public service, corporates and not for profit organisations.
Mary-Claire McDonald
Mary-Claire is an experienced facilitator and executive coach with specialist expertise in complex facilitation, leadership development, and organisation culture. She has extensive experience in the public, health, ageing and human services, and not-for-profit sectors, and has also worked in large private sector contexts including financial services.
Mary-Claire designs strategic interventions to assist boards and leadership teams to think and work collectively to face into the challenges of our times. She is an energetic, enthusiastic and forthright leader who brings these qualities to her facilitation work with groups of leaders across Australia and across industries and cultural contexts.