March 2017

APAC / March 2017 23 K Company: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) Name: Matt Ormiston Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.anz.com Address: ANZ Banking Group 10/833 Collins St, Melbourne Victoria 3000, Australia Telephone: +61 39273 5555 Culture, a Conscious Choice g Building curiosity With a desire to encourage diversity of thought, we invited a range of speakers to inspire invigorate and broaden our horizons. Some highlights that come to mind: • The wonderful Millie Tapper, one of Australia’s Paralympians, who shared her story of overcoming adversity to be the first Australian to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic games. • Dr Stan Rodski, a noted neuroscientist who works with many large organisations and sporting institutions on peak mind performance and energy replenishment techniques. • Elaine Saunders, an award- winning businesswoman, audiologist and academic who improved the lives of thousands of Australians by making premium hearing aids more accessible. • The amazing Chris Varney who took his autism and founded the I CAN Network, driving a rethink of autism from “I Can’t” to “I Can” mentoring young people on the spectrum to live a life with an “I Can” attitude These and so many more brilliant speakers have opened everyone’s eyes to new possibilities and motivated them to action and a culture of giving. Giving of time, skills and experience to benefit our customers and the broader community. An Australian first ANZ has a long history of supporting diversity and continuing to lead on these important issues is part of who we are. This final example perhaps showcases best the benefit of lifting engagement and enriching culture. Many people don’t know that 1 in 63 Australian school children have been diagnosed with autism. Fast forward 20 years and only 34 per cent of adults on the autism spectrum are employed in meaningful paid work, despite often being highly-qualified. This statistic was one of the reasons why ANZ sponsored #apps4autism; the first Australian hackathon event focused on the development of technology solutions for the autism community. The winning team designed a website and app to assist speech pathology clinicians and carers of children on the spectrum to manage time between appointments. Using the app, clinicians are able to send child specific strategies to parents through a push feature, carers can maintain a personal journal, and they can also carry on conversations in a carer-to-carer discussion forum. As the winning team, they received a $25,000 grant from the Autism Cooperative Research Centre to help turn their idea into a reality. Colleagues described the event as the most inspiring experience of their careers. ANZ is now well on its way to implementing ‘Careers for Autism’ an initiative that will see interview processes tailored, roles tuned for those on the spectrum and teams properly supported to give candidates every opportunity to build and grow a fulfilling career. This has seen collaboration across teams, management levels and new partnerships with specialist recruiters, research institutes and technology organisations. It speaks to what can be achieved when we put ourselves aside and centre on a common goal Culture: there are no shortcuts While it can be tempting to pay a team of consultants to create a culture ‘program’ for your organisation, I have seen firsthand that these rarely last. Not only are these ‘programs’ expensive to run, but they often feel manufactured. Bringing people together and inviting them to shift their own culture can be messy and at times chaotic (remember the fireworks?), but in my experience, empowering people and encouraging diversity of thought leads to good things.