Originally posted on May 14, 2019 @ 5:06 PM

The Beaconsfield Leadership Workshop

The subject of the Beaconsfield Crisis has been raised on occasions during the campaign for the approaching Australian election (Federal election 2019: Bill Shorten meets ‘real hero’ of Beaconsfield mine disaster ). A great deal of mythology created by the media surrounds the crisis, much of it is simply untrue. Much of the reporting in the media raises the issue of ‘heroes’ of the crisis when it was in fact the collaborative effort of hundreds of people all with critical parts to play. Indeed, anyone who acted like a hero hampered the rescue and there were plenty examples of that. Heroes are examples of anti-leadership.

There is nothing like anchoring lessons learned in leadership to an actual crisis, this is what this workshop is about. The realities of leadership rest in the collective actions of many and the way leaders are able to influence culture and sub-cultures when the stressors and stakes are high. Yes, there are individual leaders who call the final shot but unless we understand leadership as a dialectic between followers and leaders, we will be deluded into thinking heroes save the day (https://safetyrisk.net/i-have-the-power-im-a-safety-hero/). The reality is often very different than the mythology.

Dr Robert Long was on the Emergency Coordination Operations Group for Beaconsfield and later Manager of Community Recovery for the Mine.

You can see an overview of the Beaconsfield Leadership One Day Workshop here: https://vimeo.com/335974284

The Beaconsfield Story from Human Dymensions on Vimeo.

If you are interested in the workshop you can contact Rob here: rob@humandymensions.com