A PLUS UTS Business Futures signature upskilling program on Complex Problem Solving was the genesis of one of this year’s winners at the Australian Good Design Awards (AGDA), the most prestigious design awards scheme in the country.
The Complex Problem Solving program, designed by Professor Natalia Nikolova, was delivered to high-potential and high-performing First Nations leaders participating in the NSW Public Service Commission Leadership Academy Aboriginal Career and Leadership Development Program in 2022.
For one team of participants, it was the launch pad for an app called Connect with Country that took out AGDA’s Digital Design Category (Web Design and Development). It’s an outcome that speaks to the impact of the PLUS UTS Business Futures program.
A human-centred guide to success
In the PLUS UTS Business Futures program, participants work together to select a series of meaningful problems to tackle in small groups.
“We work with the client on defining the challenges that they see as relevant for their organisation right now,” says Professor Natalia Nikolova, Director of PLUS UTS Business Futures.
“We’re talking about strategic, human-related challenges — how do we enter a new market? How do we improve our client-centric culture, how do we increase our customer satisfaction? How do we innovate better? These are all examples of complex challenges that we can help clients to address.”
One team of participants in the Leadership Academy program, who called themselves the Deadly Four, identified the lack of understanding of how to perform an Acknowledgement of Country as a challenge that needed to be addressed. Despite the near ubiquity of these acknowledgements at meetings and events across the country, many people deliver them without a genuine understanding of appropriate language, the Country they’re on, or how to pay respect to the Traditional Custodians.
The challenge was exciting but taking the first steps towards bringing it to life was not straightforward. That’s because complex problems are rife with uncertainty, says Professor Nikolova. Not knowing where to start when facing such a challenge is a common experience, which is why the PLUS UTS Business Futures program provides learners with a step-by-step guide to reaching their end goal.
“We give participants a very structured process: these are the steps you need to follow when you work on strategic challenges, and these are the tools and techniques you use at every step,” Professor Nikolova says.
“The minute you remove those uncertainties, you’re giving them something tangible and specific to work with. Then, as a team, they can divide the roles and responsibilities based on the steps that will lead them to a result.”
Building leadership through strategic thinking
The true power of the program lies in the fact that it can be tailored to meet the needs of organisations of any size and in any sector, and its problem-solving processes can be applied to complex challenges regardless of discipline or context.
Based on strategic consulting and human-centred design techniques, the program takes an industry-standard approach that’s used by consultants and strategists across numerous sectors. Learning content also helps participants explore and develop their strategic leadership skills — an added bonus for a client undertaking the program.
“It’s about elevating your ability to think strategically and then to find ways of delivering on your strategy or leading others towards an outcome,” Professor Nikolova says.
These leadership outcomes are reflected in the learner experience. Holly Bartram, the Connect with Country team lead and a project coordinator at TAFE NSW, says that the program gave her an opportunity to draw on skills she knew were there but that she hadn’t previously had the opportunity to utilise.
“Being able to become a leader that can work, not just within TAFE, but within cross-government organisations, has opened a whole different aspect of opportunities,” she says.
“It’s also provided us with leadership skills and communication methods that we've had to use constantly, and these came directly from the upskilling within the program.”
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