Simon Rountree is the founder of Change Ready and a recognised expert in change leadership. He has partnered with many organisations across the corporate, government and not-for-profit sector to improve business outcomes and help equip people with the skills and tools to become mentally strong and resilient. Simon understands that creating optimistic and resilient mindsets leads not only to improved staff engagement and communication but also to innovation and sustainable growth. Positive mindsets are also linked to reducing risk, sick leave, workers compensation claims and turnover.
As an early adopter of practices to create mentally healthy workplaces, Simon took Camp Quality from financial difficulty, servicing a few thousand children, to become Australia’s most trusted children’s charity, providing cancer support to over 250,000 children each year. In future-proofing the business, he moved its people through a volatile, uncertain, competitive and complex period to achieve a unique organisational culture built around resilience, optimism, engagement and change ready behaviours.
Simon has qualifications in management, positive psychology and coaching, together with real-world leadership experience of applying these methods in organisations. He is uniquely equipped to build productive workplaces and provide organisations with the skills and tools to empower their people to grow during change so that they feel engaged, connected and contribute to organisational success.
Simon is a sought-after keynote speaker. He has featured in numerous publications and has authored two books. His second book (Build The Person You Want To Be) is available now through Exisle Publishing.
Simon supports organisations to improve business outcomes and reduce risk through high-performing teams that are agile, resilient and change ready.
Speaking topics
Creating a Flourishing Culture
Businesses may be able to copy what you do but they can’t copy your culture and the essence of high performing businesses is a great culture. Recent breakthroughs in the field of psychology expand our understanding of how cultures and groups work.
In this presentation you will learn:
- The key ingredients to building a great culture
- How to align behaviours to the organisation’s culture
- The importance of creating values that support and enhance the business
- Ways to identify your unique organisational culture
Build The Person You Want To Be – The Oranges Toolkit
Throughout our lives we face many challenges, both personal and professional. Often, we struggle to know how best to cope and wish we had greater personal resources to draw upon to support our resilience and well-being. As author of the book Build The Person You Want To Be – The Oranges Toolkit, Simon talks about his personal journey and how as the CEO of Australia’s most trusted children’s charity (Camp Quality), his leadership in implementing the principles and philosophies of this book created a positive impact that enabled the organisation and its people to thrive.
In this workshop you will learn:
- The core principles in changing a business; Ways for businesses or teams to bounce back and thrive
- The key elements that support human flourishing and meaning
- How to create a culture to support innovation
Leadership
Leadership starts in the mind. Most training and education for leadership is focused on external factors such as creating a compelling strategy or bottom line forecasting. While that is important, when it comes to managing people and culture, leadership is much more about understanding ourselves. Without this self-awareness, then we can’t lead ourselves and others effectively and efficiently.
In this workshop you will learn:
- The key traits of great leadership
- The importance of emotional intelligence
- How to deal with change successfully
- How to build the skills of self-awareness, optimism and resilience
Change
According to a McKinsey report (2015) 70% of all change efforts introduced into the workplace fail to gain full traction.
Making long term sustainable organisational change is often very difficult. New research shows that using an appreciative inquiry model to engage stakeholders in self-determined change builds on organisational strengths and delivers lasting impacts.
In this presentation you will learn:
- Main factors why long term change fails
- Strategies to overcome these
- The tools of appreciative inquiry and how to support change in individuals
- The importance of empathy in reducing anxiety brought on by change
Doing More With Less – Optimism, Resiliency and Attitude
Each year businesses and their staff are under greater pressure as they are asked to produce more with less resources. Many businesses are looking to be a leader in their field, to get a competitive advantage through innovation, or build high performing teams that exceed their goals and targets. This environment puts enormous strain on the workforce and often results in high turnover, increased sick leave, workers compensation claims and low engagement. In order to flourish, businesses need to be able to draw upon a workforce that has grit, determination and a belief that they can learn and grow in spite of the challenges they face.
In this presentation you will learn:
- How to shift from pessimistic to optimistic thinking
- How to build grit and resilience through simple practical tools you can use every day
- How to build a growth mindset for success.
