Emergency Management

High-Performance Team and Strategy Workshop

Sector: Emergency Management (Government)
Governance: State Department Unit within Regional & Primary Industries
Purpose: Strengthen connection, decision-making, and team resilience
Scale: 3-day workshop | 45 participants

Context / Challenge

Following a sustained period of consecutive, compounding emergency events, the Emergency Management Unit was recalibrating how it operated as a team.

Staff were managing fatigue, rapid structural change, and the tension between business-as-usual and response work. The leadership team sought to rebuild connection, clarify strategy, and create shared ownership of the unit’s future direction.

Intervention / Approach

Dr Isabella Allan designed and facilitated a three-day workshop at Q Station, Manly.

The program blended evidence-based techniques in dialogue, systems mapping, and world-café conversations to surface patterns in team behaviour and identify opportunities for collaboration.

Key design elements included:

• Day 1: Operational updates using specifically designed summary formats to add strategic decision making in the team and orientation on new digital systems.

• Day 2: Team cohesion and decision-making focus using The Bean Decision and Dialogue simulations to explore consensus, authority, and adaptive leadership.

• Day 3: Strategy co-design session with keynote speaker Shane Fitzsimmons, where participants reframed emergency preparedness as both operational and human work.

Additional components:

• Post-event reflection videos were produced as behavioural nudges, designed to reinforce key workshop insights and remind participants of the collective commitments made during the session.

• Flexibility built into the agenda to accommodate a spontaneous team-driven strategy session when participants requested deeper involvement.

• Notes and speaker guidance developed for executive reflection on connection, trust, and communication in crisis leadership.

Outcomes / Metrics

• Over 20 individual feedback comments praised the openness, inclusivity, and respectful facilitation of discussion.

• Workshop participants choose a team symbol, produced an agreed set of team principles and a draft framework for ongoing engagement and capability development.

• Increased cross-divisional collaboration and psychological safety reported in post-event discussions.

• Immediate leadership shift: agenda for Day 3 was modified at the group’s request to co-create the strategic direction — signalling new ownership and empowerment.

Leadership Lift / What Changed

The workshop moved the unit from event-driven reaction to team-driven reflection.
Participants reported a renewed sense of belonging and shared purpose.

The leadership team gained deeper insight into decision-making culture and the need to design for flexibility in both structure and mindset.

As one participant summarised:

“A space was created where everyone felt comfortable sharing their views — all due to Isabella’s approach, experience, and skill.”

Impact Pulse

From response to reflection — transforming emergency management from operational reaction to strategic connection and capability.

Interested in designing adaptive workshops that build connection, capability, and strategic clarity? [Book a Conversation →]