The national final of the 2022 Australasian Management Challenge was held in Adelaide, South Australia on Monday 29 August.
The event was won by Western Australia’s City of Wanneroo team with Devonport City Council from Tasmania in second and South Australia’s Burnside in third.
The competition featured teams from all states, the Northern Territory and New Zealand. Each of the teams had won their state competition to be eligible to compete in the National Challenge.
As well as Wanneroo, Devonport and Burnside, the finalists were Darebin City Council (VIC), Brisbane City Council – Meanjin Team (QLD), Napier City Council – Te Kaunihera o Ahuriri (NZ), City of Palmerston (NT) and Ku-ring-gai Council (NSW).
The Australasian Management Challenge has been at the forefront of professional development in local government in Australia and New Zealand for over 25 years.
The challenge is a simulation-based team building, learning and networking program using real local government themes – the types of issues that a senior management team in a council would most likely face.
The teams are challenged to respond to a series of tasks in a unique, fast paced, ‘pressure cooker’ environment.
Some tasks required written responses (such as a council report or recommendation document), some took the form of role plays or presentations and the teams are also scored on observations of how well they displayed energy, synergy, effectiveness and creative thinking.
