Alumni of the IWC Water Leadership Program reconnect

By Dr Andre Taylor

On the 13th of October 2020, 43 IWC alumni who had completed the IWC Water Leadership Program (WLP) over the last 10 years participated in an online, half day workshop. The workshop provided an environment for alumni to reconnect with each other, reflect on the extent to which they are still managing their development as leaders, share valuable leadership resources, and plan what innovative activities they would like to tackle in the future. The workshop also included an interactive session on coaching skills for leaders which was led by IWC leadership coach, Wouter Lincklaen Arriens.

Commenting on the success of the workshop, Dr André Taylor, the IWC’s Leadership Specialist, reflected that, “the workshop was tremendous. Originally we had planned to run this event as a face-to-face workshop in Melbourne, but we had to move it online. In retrospect, that adaptation was a ‘blessing in disguise’ as it enabled us to engage a broader audience to discuss the nature of future alumni activities. We now have a clear direction for these activities.”

Highlights from the workshop included:

Using a live poll exercise to explore the leadership development activities that alumni are using after completing the WLP. For example, it was terrific to see that 79% of workshop participants “frequently” or “often” take opportunities to help others to build their leadership capacity (e.g. they mentor others).
The opportunity to share a wide variety of leadership-related resources (e.g. pod casts, books, communities of practice, videos) that alumni have discovered since completing the WLP.
The opportunity to provide alumni with access to up-to-date WLP resources (i.e. a set of 27 one-page summaries of key concepts are currently used in the program).
Planning future activities. For example, feedback from participants indicated strong support for routinely running half day, interactive, online workshops every six months to help alumni to continue to grow as water leaders.

Asia-Australia Learning Week wrap-up

Last month, the International WaterCentre (IWC) welcomed 26 participants from across the Asia-Pacific region for the Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019, to discuss the role of decision support tools in water policy development, investment planning and the on-ground management of water resources.

Participants came from 14 countries from across the region, and comprised of nine Asian Development Bank (ADB) staff and 17 representatives from ADB Developing Member Countries. The group represented a broad cross-section of professional backgrounds seen across the water sector – civil engineers, policy and planning officers, economists, finance specialists, hydrologists, environmental scientists, social scientists and IT experts – and were each at different stages of their careers – from specialists, to mid-level managers to country-level directors.

The Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019 was funded by the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and facilitated by the IWC, in collaboration with the ADB and delivery partners eWater and Alluvium.

This year marked the third time the IWC had facilitated a Learning Week.

Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019

This year’s theme was: decision support tools to guide water policy development, investment planning and on-ground management of water resources. The program aimed to build participants’ understanding of:

decision support tools and systems (DSTS) and their role in advancing the water sector
policy, planning, management and practical considerations of applying decision support tools across different geographical scales, governance structures, institutional levels and water users
transition pathways for the enhanced use of decision support tools, including the overall history, current situation and future directions in the Australian water sector

The learning was supported by case studies that showcased the adoption and utility of decision support tools at both regional catchment and local scales and by exploring real agency experiences with decision support tools, and the adaptive management principles that unpinned their use and refinement, with a focus on both the rural/catchment context (e.g. dam operations) and the urban context (e.g. water and wastewater utilities).

The below framework provides a conceptual explanation of what the program’s aim:

A practical learning experience

During the intensive 5-day Learning Week program, participants travelled to Canberra and Melbourne, locations that offered diverse opportunities to explore Australian experiences in the context of decision support tools and systems in the water sector.

Participants enjoyed a facilitated learning process, to draw out relevant lessons from the Australian experience, and to translate these into their own country and work contexts, with the aim of supporting opportunities to adopt, use and enhance context-appropriate and fit-for-purpose decision support tools and systems.

Program overview

On the opening day of Learning Week, participants heard presentations from Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, the ACT Government and eWater. Bradley Moggridge, Aboriginal Water Expert, visited to discuss the cultural value of country and water.

Mid-week, participants heard from eWater‘s David Dreverman, Alluvium Consulting‘s Tony Weber, and Australian Rivers Institute’s Ben Stewart-Koster and had the opportunity to visit the CSIRO‘s Discovery Centre, and discuss the role of decision support tools in bridging the barriers between science and management decisions with Susan Cuddy. Participants also visited the Burrinjuck Dam, the first major irrigation dam in New South Wales, to learn about the dam’s operations and heritage, and to explore first-hand it’s structures and systems.

On the final days, the group had site visits to explore Victoria’s rural irrigation water networks and discussed how support tools and innovative management practices improved their effectiveness. Steven Kenway talked to the group about energy considerations for water infrastructure decisions. Participants interested in irrigation water then visited Golburn Murray Water, and those interested in urban water learnt from Melbourne Water about the sector and history of reform in Victoria. They also visited Yarra Valley Water‘s waste-to-energy plant.

To close the program, IWC’s Brian McIntosh and Peter Gee reflected on how a systematic approach to enhancing sector capacity is key in the face of an increasingly VUCA environment, and participants engaged in a series of intensive workshops to consolidate the week’s lessons.

Well-designed and holistic

The feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive. The majority of participants said that the program met or exceeded their expectations, and they would recommend a Learning Week program to colleagues.

The program was so well designed and holistic that I found nothing to be irrelevant and everything was useful even if I don’t work directly on some of those issues. It is unusual to go to such a learning event. Thank you to the organisers and to the Government of Australia for their generosity in funding such an excellent Learning Week.
– ASIA-AUSTRALIA LEARNING WEEK 2019 PARTICIPANT

The International WaterCentre would like to thank implementing partners, eWater and Alluvium, and the following guest organisation, who shared their knowledge, skills and experience, and made the Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019 such a powerful and transformative experience for participants:

Ethical leadership: is there a crisis?

Written by Dr Andre Taylor, Leadership Specialist

From a Royal Commission into our banking and financial system to a ball tampering scandal involving our National cricket team, the last few years have seen many high-profile examples of unethical leadership. Does this represent a crisis with respect to ethical leadership, or just a few isolated examples? Is the situation improving, getting worse or staying the same? Should we be worried? Could I, as a leadership development specialist, do more to encourage developing leaders to make ethical leadership a central part of their ‘leadership signature’?

I’ve recently come to the view, albeit reluctantly, that there is a ‘crisis’ concerning ethical leadership in the society in which I live.

In this article I aim to:

explain why I have come to this conclusion
make the case that we will need more leaders who excel at ethical leadership in the foreseeable future
explain what ethical leadership means to me
share a practical tool to help assess and improve ethical leadership (i.e. five principles of ethical leadership)
suggest some pathways we can take to promote more responsible forms of leadership.

The problem

Over the last few years, a number of case studies have caught my attention where there has been a lack of ethical behaviour by people playing leadership roles, and those aspiring to be leaders. While some isolated cases are to be expected, what has troubled me is:

the number of these cases
the extent to which they affect a broad range of institutions, including those that have core values around serving the community and the environment
that they involve emerging as well as established leaders; and in some cases
they involve some of the most highly educated leaders in our society.

In my home country of Australia, over the last two years we have seen three Royal Commissions expose unethical practices and a failure of ethical leadership. For example, the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry identified “serious misconduct in the banks, including fraud and bribery” (Robinson, 2018, p. 1). The commission concluded that the primary reason for widespread misconduct in the industry was “greed – the pursuit of such short-term profit at the expense of basic standards of honesty” (RCMBSFSI, 2018, p. 1). In some cases, such misconduct extended to the boardroom (Robertson, 2018).

In Australia, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse discovered and documented widespread, systemic failures of leadership, culture and governance to protect the wellbeing of children. These failures extended not only those organisations who had primary responsibility for the care of children, but those agencies who were responsible for investigating allegations of abuse. The scale and impact of the damage caused from these failures has been massive. To illustrate, just on the topic of abuse in Australian religious institutions, the Commission heard from 4,000 survivors who reported abuse occurring in 1,691 different religious institutions. Disturbingly, the Commission found that “the perpetrators we heard about in private sessions held various positions in religious institutions, but most held positions of leadership or authority” (RCIRCSA, 2017, p. 47).

As someone who spends much of my time working in the water sector, I also took an interest in the South Australian Murray Darling Basin Royal Commission, which aimed to explore the way water is managed in the iconic Murray Darling Basin. Water flowing through this enormous catchment (1 million km2) is the ‘lifeblood’ of numerous country towns, rural industries, unique ecosystems, and important indigenous cultural values. Among its findings, the Commission found “Commonwealth officials committed gross maladministration, negligence and unlawful actions in drawing up the multi-billion-dollar deal to save Australia’s largest river system” (McCarthy et al., 2019, p.1). One of the triggers for this commission was the resignation of New South Wales’ most senior water bureaucrat shortly after he was the focus of corruption allegations in an ABC Four Corners investigation on the Murray-Darling Basin (ABC, 2017).

One of the reasons the findings of these three Royal Commissions are so significant to me is that the organisations displaying a failure of ethical leadership were organisations with missions and values that focused on serving customers and the broader community, protecting children, protecting the health of the Murray Darling Basin and its people. How is it possible for such organisations to lose their way? Dr Simon Longstaff, Executive Director of the Ethics Centre reminds us that “people are inherently good” … but they “are susceptible to the greater threat of unthinking custom and practice. And this must change.” (AGSM, 2019, p. 2). Dr Longstaff convincingly argues for the need to create organisational cultures that normalise reflective practice to encourage people to remind themselves of their purpose, values and principles, question the status quo, and breaking the cycle of going with the flow (AGSM, 2019).

As a university educator, I have also been alert to the issue of ‘contract cheating’ within our major universities (see Main, 2019). The Australian Financial Review, in a 2019 interview with Dr Tracey Bretag from the University of South Australia, reported that organised “cheating services have expanded at an alarming rate across university campuses and the thriving industry has prompted the federal education department to crackdown on businesses offering to help tertiary students cheat on their exams and assignments” (Main, 2019, p. 1). What troubles me the most about this example of widespread unethical behaviour is that it involves our future leaders.

Sadly, there is no shortage of other examples. In 2018, the captain and vice-captain of the Australian cricket team were disgraced in South Africa after they admitted to being involved in a ball tampering incident (i.e. cheating) in a sport synonymous with fair play. In Australia, being the captain of the National cricket team is a distinguished leadership position. One of our most respected prime ministers, the honourable John Howard OM, AC, once referred to the captain of the Australian cricket team as the pinnacle of Australian leadership (Courier Mail, 2014).

I started to think that maybe Australia is a statistical anomaly, but international examples of unethical leadership are not hard to find. For example, in 2016, we learnt that it was possible to be democratically elected to arguably the most powerful political leadership role in the world after voters learned of a 2005 Access Hollywood tape in which Mr Trump reportedly talked about fame enabling him to sexually assault women (ABC, 2016). In 2019, we also learnt that it is possible to remain relatively popular as a US President despite the Washington Post documenting more than 10,000 reportedly false or misleading claims by the President (Kessler et al., 2019).

Why this matters

I believe there are three principal reasons why the current situation is unacceptable.

First, unethical leadership typically leads to harm. Individual cases exposed by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse graphically highlight how irresponsible leadership can directly or indirectly impact people’s physical and mental health.

Second, the situation doesn’t appear to be getting significantly better in Australia. Leaders in our finance industry, for example, have never been more educated or better remunerated, yet the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry revealed widespread instances of unethical behaviour, irresponsible leadership, and toxic organisational cultures that put profit ahead of people. Although there has been a slight increase in the last 12 months in the level of trust in institutions across Australia as measured by the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, average levels of trust remain low and below 50%. Specifically, in 2019, the Edelman Trust Barometer asked 1,150 people from across Australia in 2019 whether they trusted a variety of institutions (e.g. government, business, traditional media, social media, etc.) to “do what is right”, and found that the average trust level was only 48% (Bailey, 2019). Dr Simon Longstaff reminds us that building trust is not particularly challenging. Organisations and their leaders need to simply declare “this is who we are and this is what we stand for, and act in a manner that is consistent with that” (AGSM, 2019, p. 2).

Third, the need for ethical leadership is going to increase in future years given macro trends affecting our society. In the foreseeable future, leaders in most sectors will be faced with complexity, rapid change, intense competition, globalisation, disruption, and new technology. In this environment leaders will need to carefully and skilfully navigate ethical dilemmas around challenging issues such as artificial intelligence, managing people’s private data, robotics and genetic engineering to name a few. As such, we have much work to do in bridging the gap between current practice and the capacity we will need in the foreseeable future with respect to ethical leadership.

What I mean by ‘ethical leadership’

I find the easiest way to understand the concept of ‘ethical leadership’ is to firstly explore what leadership means and then explore what ethical leaders do when they engage in leadership.

We can define ‘leadership’ as a process of influence that delivers direction (i.e. a shared understanding of common goals and strategy), alignment of activities and resources towards that direction, and a personal commitment to collective success (McCauley, 2014). From this perspective leadership is typically a group-based process, and is not limited to people in positions of authority (position power). Note that most modern definitions of leadership are amoral, meaning they accept that people can engage in responsible or destructive leadership.

Somewhat surprisingly, theoretical research on ethical leadership has lagged behind other aspects of leadership and is still relatively limited (Brown et al., 2005; Cuilla, 1998; Northouse, 2018). After a review of the available literature, Brown and Trevino (2006) concluded that ethical leaders are “honest, caring and principled individuals who make fair and balanced decisions. Ethical leaders also frequently communicate with their followers about ethics, set clear ethical standards and use rewards and punishments to see those standards are followed. Finally, ethical leaders do not just talk a good game – they practice what they preach and are proactive role models for ethical conduct.” (p. 597).

Gary Yukl and colleagues (2013) developed a measure of ethical leadership which provides a useful ‘checklist’ that leaders can use to reflect on whether they are engaging in the behaviours typically associated with ethical leadership. The items in their ethical leadership questionnaire (ELQ) are:

shows a strong concern for ethical and moral values
communicates clear ethical standards for members
sets an example of ethical behaviour in his/her decisions and actions
is honest and can be trusted to tell the truth
keeps his/her actions consistent with his/her stated values (‘walks the talk’)
is fair and unbiased when assigning tasks to members
can be trusted to carry out promises and commitments
insists on doing what is fair and ethical even when it is not easy
acknowledges mistakes and takes responsibility for them
regards honesty and integrity as important personal values
sets an example of dedication and self-sacrifice for the organisation
opposes the use of unethical practices to increase performance
is fair and objective when evaluating member performance and providing rewards
puts the needs of others above his/her own self-interest
holds members accountable for using ethical practices in their work.

Five principles of ethical leadership

Following a review of literature on ethics in the context of leadership, Professor Peter Northouse (2018) identified five principles of ethical leadership. This framework is a practical tool that leaders can use to assess the quality of ethical leadership, and to guide leadership activities. These principles are described below:

Ethical leaders respect others. They are sensitive to their impact on others and care about this impact. They listen to others, are tolerant of opposing points of view, and “treat others as ends in themselves and never as means to an ends” (p. 346).Example: a leader who genuinely consults with people before making a decision that may affect them.

Ethical leaders serve others. They have a calling to serve and engage in servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1970). They selflessly prioritise serving the interests of others and act in ways that will benefit others. They care about the welfare of others, and engage in behaviours such as mentoring, empowering others and team building.Example: a leader who builds a shared vision for an initiative not by selling their own view, but by first undertaking a ‘listening tour’ to identify what their constituents need and value.

Ethical leaders are just.They place a high priority on fairness and justice when making decisions, including demonstrating fairness towards individuals as well as the broader community.Example: an organisational leader who insists upon fair and transparent processes when recruiting staff, determining remuneration or selecting external service providers.

Ethical leaders are honest. They demonstrate honesty and integrity, which helps to build trust, strengthen relationships and enhance their personal power. They are also transparent in their interactions with others, while being diplomatic and sensitive to the needs of others. They also follow through on commitments.Example: a leader who acknowledges that they made a mistake and takes responsibility for it.

Ethical leaders build community. They are aware of the needs and aspirations of their communities and look to align their leadership activities to help meet community goals.Example: a leader who sees an opportunity to address a local problem that affects them directly by solving a larger, broader social problem, and collaborates with other leaders to create an initiative that serves the broader community.

Where to from here?

The first step in addressing a problem is to acknowledge that one exists. Hopefully this article contributes, in a small way, to that process.

As part of ‘self-leadership’, we all have opportunities to improve the extent to which we engage in ethical leadership. The five principles of ethical leadership framework is a useful framework to reflect on the opportunities we have to better respect others, serve others, demonstrate justice, fairness, honesty and integrity, and build community. An ethical leader would aim to ensure that these principles are a prominent part of their ‘leadership signature’.

In terms of promoting ethical behaviour and leadership by others, we each have opportunities within our spheres of influence. In particular, leaders with significant power (e.g. executives, thought leaders and mentors) can model the way for others. Executive leaders can shape organisational culture to promote ethical thinking, ethical behaviour and reflective practice. Leaders who engage in education and coaching can help developing leaders to ensure that ethical leadership is central to their developmental vision, and they build their capacity to identify ethical dilemmas, engage in ethical thinking, deeply reflect and apply the five principles of ethical leadership.

We have much work to do, and much is at stake. I urge all my colleagues who are involved in leadership development as role models, educators, mentors and coaches to create space for discussions, reflection and learning about ethical leadership. Together, we share a precious opportunity to help leaders to grow their capacity to influence others while ensuring they also have a strong personal commitment to ethical thinking and practice.

Dr André Taylor is the International WaterCentre’s Leadership Specialist and Program Coordinator for the Water Leadership Program. He teaches Masters students at several Australian universities, works closely with business, sustainability and water leaders, and manages his own consulting business. This article originally appeared on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ethical-leadership-crisis-andre-taylor/

References

Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) (2016). Donald Trump made vulgar comments about women during taping of Access Hollywood episode in 2005. Online article, ABC news website, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-08/donald-trump-access-hollywood-vulgar-comments-women/7915146.
Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) (2017). Murray-Darling basin: NSW’s most senior bureaucrat resigns over corruption allegations. Online article, ABC news website, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-15/murray-darling-basin-nsw-top-water-bureaucrat-resigns/8951258
Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) (2019). Leading with moral courage and strategic vision: The role of the ethical leader in an accelerated world. Online article, University of New South Wales Australian Graduate School of Management, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.business.unsw.edu.au/agsm/the-leader/articles/Leading-with-moral-courage-and-strategic-vision-the-role-of-the-ethical-leader-in-an-accelerating-world
Bailey, M. (2019). Australians show surprise leap of faith in Edelman trust survey. Online article, Australian Financial Review, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.afr.com/leadership/australians-show-surprise-leap-of-faith-in-edelman-trust-survey-20190122-h1abwv.
Brown, M., & Trevino, L. (2006). Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 595–616.
Brown, M., Trevino, L., & Harrison, D. (2005). Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 97, 117–134.
Courier Mail (2014). Editorial: Prime Minister Tony Abbott must heed John Howard’s cricket lessons. Online article, The Courier Mail, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/editorial-prime-minister-tony-abbott-must-heed-john-howards-cricket-lessons/news-story/5f19d515344d59a22dd8e80c35bc716b
Cuilla, J. (1998). Ethics, the heart of leadership. Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books.
Greenleaf, R. (1970). The servant as leader. Boston, Massachusetts: Robert K Greenleaf Centre.
Kessler, G., Rizzo, S., & Kelly, M. (2019). President Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims. Online article, The Washington Post, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/29/president-trump-has-made-more-than-false-or-misleading-claims/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d1063b310912.
Main, L. (2019). ‘Alarming’: University cheats face jail time, big fines. Online article, Australian Financial Review, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.afr.com/leadership/management/business-education/alarming-university-cheats-face-jail-time-big-fines-20190702-p5239u.
McCarthy, M., Sullivan, F., Scopelianos, S., & Fedorowytsch, T. (2019). Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission slams authority for ‘maladministration’. Online article, ABC news website, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-31/murray-darling-basin-plan-ignored-potentially-catastrophic-risks/10766106
McCauley, C. (2014). Making leadership happen. Greensborough, North Carolina: Center for Creative leadership.
Northouse, P. (2018). Leadership theory and practice. Eighth edition. London, England: Sage.
Robinson, A. (2018). Banking Royal commission: Does this prove banks are not an ethical investment? Online article, ABC news website, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-04/does-royal-commission-prove-banks-are-not-an-ethical-investment/9728560?section=analysis
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (RCIRCSA) (2017). Final report, preface and executive summary, online document, accessed 12 July 2019. https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/.
Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (RCMBSFSI) (2018). Interim Report, executive summary, online document, accessed 10 December 2018. https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au.
Yukl, G., Mahsud, R., & Hassan, S. (2013). An improved measure of ethical leadership. Journal of Leadership and Organisational Studies, 20(1), 38–48.

Asia-Pacific water leaders to visit Australia for Learning Week

The International WaterCentre (IWC) will soon welcome more than 30 participants from across the Asia-Pacific region for the Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019, to discuss the role of decision support tools in water policy development, investment planning and the on-ground management of water resources.

Learning Weeks are developed around specific themes and designed to stimulate dialogue and knowledge sharing between experts, policy makers, and practitioners, from both Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019 is funded by the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and facilitated by the IWC, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and delivery partners eWater and Alluvium.

The Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019 is the third time the IWC has led a Learning Week.

“The IWC has led the successful delivery of the 2016 and 2017 Learning Weeks,” says Pablo Orams, Senior Project Officer and Learning Week Project Manager at the IWC. “This experience, together with our strong relationships with the ADB, the AWP, various governments, and academic and industry organisations from across the Australian water sector, has allowed us to build a comprehensive training program for the 2019 edition of the Learning Week. We are excited to welcome a diverse group of participants and to share our experiences, as well as learning from theirs”

This year’s participants include senior government and water utility representatives from various ADB Developing Member Countries (DMC) from across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as key ADB staff working in water resource-related projects with DMC representatives. Represented countries include the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, Mongolia and China.

Participants will visit Canberra and Melbourne, locations that offer unique opportunities to explore Australian working examples of decision support tools and systems at use in the water sector.

Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019

The Asia-Australia Learning Week 2019 is an intensive 5-day custom-designed training program that focuses on leveraging results through collaborative approaches in water sector investment for countries, cities and river basins.

Participants take part in a facilitated learning process, to draw relevant lessons from Australian experiences and to translate those experiences into their own country and work contexts. The aim is to help participants to adopt, use or enhance context-appropriate and fit-for-purpose decision support tools and systems in their home country.

The Asia-Australia Learning Week also gives participants the opportunity to establish new networks, both between the fellow participants and with their Australian counterparts, which builds the potential for future bi-lateral collaborations between ADB DMCs and Australia.

This theme of this year’s Learning Week is: Decision support tools to guide water policy development, investment planning and on-ground management of water resources. During the week, participants will explore:

decision support tools and their role in advancing the water sector
policy, planning, management and practical considerations of applying decision support tools across different geographical scales, governance structures, institutional levels and water users
transition pathways for the enhanced use of decision support tools, including the overall history, current situation and future directions in the Australian water sector
case studies that showcase the adoption and utility of decision support tools at both regional/catchment and local scales
real agency experiences with decision support tools, and the adaptive management principles that unpin their use and refinement, with a focus on both the rural/catchment context (e.g. dam operations) and the urban context (e.g. water and wastewater utilities).

The week will also feature guest speakers from leading Australian organisations, including Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Murray Darling Basin Authority, CSIRO, WaterNSW, Goulburn-Murray Water and the Water Services Association of Australia, and university partners Griffith University and The University of Queensland.

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Australia’s young water professional lead on sustainable development

Sustainable development will only be achieved through connecting, collaborating and accelerating ideas to action, and Australia’s Young Water Professionals have the ability and responsibility to lead the way. This was the key message during the fifth Australian Young Water Professional Conference in Melbourne last week.

Working in water is diverse, vibrant, challenging and inspiring. It cuts across a multitude of other sectors and it is at the centre of both our greatest opportunities and greatest challenges. How do we achieve sustainable development and prosperity for people and the planet as laid out through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), without water at the heart of our efforts?

In Australia, water security continues to sit centrally in the political, economic and social psyche of our nation. We know that addressing water issues requires innovation, new technology and new ways of thinking and managing water. Finding solutions to these complex, cross-sectoral challenges will require holistic, whole-of-water-cycle solutions that combine the technical and ‘soft’ skills of water practitioners. Young water professionals are capable and eager to contribute to tackling the wicked problems the sector faces, and emerging water leaders should have a seat at the table.

Last week almost 200 young water professionals (YWP) from around Australia met in Melbourne for the fifth Australian Young Water Professionals Conference – the biggest one yet. This year the Conference theme was Connect. Collaborate. Accelerate. Co-branded by the Australian Water Association (AWA) and the International Water Association (IWA), it sought to explore opportunities for collaboration between industry, research and government and highlight the value of connection. The conference also sought to accelerate YWPs’ professional development, and explore how ideas could be accelerated into action for a sustainable water future.

International WaterCentre Project Officer and YWP Conference Organising Committee Member Diana Gonzalez Botero was at the heart of the action leading up to – and during the event and reflected that the conference felt different from most she had previously attended.

“Perhaps it is because for the first time I was on the other side of the conference, being part of the organising committee. After putting this conference together for months, seeing it come to fruition felt like a major achievement. This conference emanated genuine collaboration and a desire from those attending to make a change in the water sector. They were vibrant and inspiring few days of showcasing young people in water and I believe we all left inspired and humbled to see what other young people – emerging water leaders – are achieving,” she said.

The conference was a full house made up of a very diverse group of people and Diana believes this is what created an energising, safe space to share, learn, inspire and be inspired. The event covered a wide range of topics, from algae research, to mapping of real-time customer complaints, to intergovernmental frameworks for transboundary water management and to WASH and sustainable development; and participants were genuinely interested in every presenters’ work, in learning from others and collaborating.

The International WaterCentre (IWC) staff, students and alumni were actively present at the conference with four presentations, a poster presentation, a facilitated leadership workshop sponsored by the organisation and representation on the SDG panel on day two.

IWC CEO Mark Pascoe was part of this panel along with WaterAid Australia CEO Rosie Wheen, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Special Advisor on Water Tony Slatyer, and RMIT PhD Candidate and IWC MIWM 2018 Scholar Lachlan Guthrie. During the panel Mark emphasised the critical importance of partnerships to achieving sustainable development and the risk of not prioritising the SDGs in Australia. His message to YWPs was that Australia has a lot to offer in the form of partnerships and that YWPs need to rally together to lead and strengthen the development of partnerships across sectors within Australia, our region and beyond.

On attending the conference, Mark reflected that the energy of Australia’s emerging leaders was visible to all in the room.

“Beautiful noise! My way of describing the atmosphere for the two days that I spent with the Young Water Professionals at their conference last week! The energy was tangible and I have great confidence in the industry’s ability to continue to stay at the leading edge of development of innovation in water management as these emerging leaders take hold of key positions. The conference was a great blend of a broad range of technical and management issues that are being addressed by the conference participants. Current leaders must continue to provide these and other platforms that ensure that we keep developing talent within the sector.”

IWC YWP and alumni strongly represented

Water Leadership Program alumnus and City of Melbourne Climate Resilience Team Leader Vicki Barmby facilitated a professional development workshop on water leadership. Vicki introduced us to the six common leaders we come across in the sector and ran an activity to explore what traits and skills do these leaders possess, who we knew that reflected these leaders and which we felt we most identified with.

We also had a number of presentations from current students including a keynote address from Kathryn Silvester, Sydney Water Process Engineer and IWC MIWM 2017 Scholar. Kathryn shared her story on how she came to work in the water sector and spoke strongly to the need of finding your Ikigai (or ‘why’ – the intersect between what you’re good at, what you love to do, what the world needs and what you can get paid for). Her message for YWPs was to get your central bearings of what motivates and drives you, find your support team and also be in other people’s support team, or ‘rebel alliance’.

Julia Bauer and Jake Robson, final-semester candidates for the IWC’s MIWM program, shared their challenges and triumphs of starting up Australia’s first Youth Water Parliament Chapter, and the vision they have for this opportunity. Lachlan Guthrie shared his experience of working with Engineers Without Borders and how he used human-centred design to build the capacity of the team he worked with in Cambodia. Fellow MIWM candidate Xuli Meng also shared a poster on his work relating to a community engagement project that students completed in Cairns in 2017.

Rounding out our strong representation was our very own IWC Project Officer and member of the AWA YWP Conference Organising Committee, Diana Gonzalez Botero. Along with assisting organise the event Diana also presented on her work at the IWC, sharing her passion for achieving SDG 6: ‘ensure sustainable water and sanitation for all’, and her experience working on water, sanitation and hygiene in the Pacific.

The future of water management looks bright

In Diana’s own words the take away from the Conference is that young people are insightful, resourceful, a mighty power for progress and innovation, and truly emerging leaders in the water sector and beyond. We are passionate, dedicated and genuinely interested in changing the world around us, and most importantly we are ready to take action!