The Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) Management Challenge is designed to provide executive development for current and emerging Local Government leaders. In its 17th year, councils from all over Australia and New Zealand adopted the Challenge for its real life problem solving experience and hands on approach to leadership development.
The 2010 LGMA Management Challenge attracted a record 128 teams, who were given a pre challenge task on the theme of Women in Local Government.
The teams were required to analyse their council’s workforce data, identify gender barriers and issues, then develop an action plan on how council would go about overcoming the issues and barriers faced. These action plans were then presented to their council’s executive management teams.
LGMA National Chief Executive John Ravlic said that while the pre challenge task objectives were modest at best, the surprise to all was the effort to which the teams went to in meeting the task requirements.
“Many teams not only undertook the data analysis and interviews with the CEO and Mayors, they also conducted focus groups and staff surveys and interviewed senior women in their executive, as well as female elected members,” he said.
“While the pre challenge task was designed as a conversation starter, many councils considered the findings of their Management Challenge team and determined to proactively respond to the team’s action plan.”
John Ravlic said this resulted in significantly more work than the organisers ever expected.
“YoWiLG 2010 was designed to acknowledge, celebrate and promote the participation of women in Local Government with a view to raising the necessary awareness and educate councils of the need to engage their female staff and encourage them into management and executive roles. We expected that the real change was going to take place in 2011 and beyond. But, there is no doubt from the evidence we have collected that some of this change has already commenced around the country as conversations went much deeper than expected and resulted in consideration and implementation of various initiatives.”
The pre management challenge task was supported by the Federal Government’s Office for Women as one of the four projects funded to advance women into senior management and leadership roles.
In collaboration with the Office for Women, LGMA developed and published a pre challenge task outcomes summary that represents a collation of key issues, challenges, recommendations and potential pathways forward as identified by the 123 participating council teams.
The outcomes summary is available for download from the Year of Women in Local Government website at www.lgwomen2010.org.au and from www.lgma.org.au.
