Mildura Rural City Council reset their decision-making mojo after an organisational review

In 2022, Mildura Mayor Liam Wood, and Council CEO, Martin Hawson met Alicia at the Australian Local Government Association’s National Assembly. Mildura Rural City Council was regrouping after an extensive external review.

A Councillor’s role is to be a strategic community leader making decisions for the future of their region. However, not all elected members have the skills to fulfil this responsibility, and their public profile brings a unique blend of pressures. Professional development is valuable for Councillors, yet it can be rare. Mayor Wood is forward-thinking in recognising the importance of development for Midura’s elected members.

Mayor Wood recalls, “The review went through the whole organisation from head to toe, and there was a real air of change. I’d just become Mayor, so I wanted to do some training with the Councillors - focus inward, understand our dynamic, and how we can best represent our community. You do this kind of development in any other organisation, and it’s just as important in local government.”

“Alicia is enormously relatable, and so engaging. She’s very down to earth, very cut through the bullshit. She’s not your standard local government consultant. For somebody like me who’s a working mum with young kids and lots going on, it’s refreshing to have a consultant like me, not a traditional bureaucrat.” - Kate Henschke, GM Corporate Performance, Mildura Rural City Council

Battling the inevitable overwhelm

Overwhelm strikes elected members and executive managers alike. Councillors must understand their role's high-level strategic nature and learn to prioritise, delegate, and make strong decisions to be effective. However, as community representatives, Councillors are also bombarded with demands from all angles.

Mayor Wood explains how overwhelming Council can be at the start. “There are so many governance rules, and you get thrown in the deep end. You’re expected to put the gloves on and become a surgeon overnight.” Hawson agrees, “Councillors get elected, and suddenly they’re responsible for an organisation with a $200 million budget. They’re expected to become remarkable strategic leaders overnight, when they may not yet even understand the full parameters of their role.”

With the direct nature of the democratic role, even experienced strategic leaders would struggle to stay high-level. Hawson is under no illusions about the difficulty his elected counterparts face, “It’s challenging for Councillors to stay out of the operational weeds because they’re acting on behalf of the community. It's hard to stay in the strategic zone when you get calls at nine at night saying the footpath has a crack! Councillors are drawn back into the vortex of the day-to-day, and they need to be seen to be responsive – but the community also expects Councillors to have a clear direction and to deliver on a vision.”

Hawson reflects on the importance of role clarity in supporting Councillors and officers in balancing responsiveness with a strategic perspective. “Councillors need tools to work strategically. They need to understand what will change the game and the big levers to pull to benefit their community. Alicia’s framework helps Councillors, the Council executive, and operational staff understand their various strategic roles. Working with Alicia brought together elected representatives and executive staff in a shared understanding of how the whole strategic process works and gave more rigour to how we think.”

Overcoming the traditional adversarial Council dynamic

“One of the best things about working with Alicia was that it brought the team closer together. Council staff and Councillors are the closest I've seen in my three years in Council. And many people I've spoken to, who’ve been here longer than me, say the same thing.” - Liam Wood, Mayor, Mildura Rural City Council

Local government has a unique and complex governance/ management relationship, which risks creating an almost adversarial dynamic between Councillors and officers. Opportunities to build shared purpose and understanding between the two arms without the eyes of the media and community are rare but extremely valuable.

Mildura Rural City Council was no different. Mayor Wood says, “Council felt very much like two different entities with a sense of us versus them, which always intrigued me.”

This is why the Strategic Public Leaders programme is all about shared development, bringing elected members and the executive together. It's the programme's number one requirement—and not everyone is up for it. Some organisations can’t contemplate bridging that gap.

But when the gap is bridged, magic happens. The single most significant determinant of the effectiveness of a Council is the relationship between the Mayor and the Chief Executive, followed closely by the wider Councillor group and the executive team.

So, did the programme work for Mildura? Mayor Wood thinks so. “Council staff and Councillors are the closest I've seen in my three years in Council. The relationship is so strong that Councillors will fiercely defend Council staff. And many people I've spoken to who’ve been here longer than me say the same thing. Breaking down those barriers through open dialogue has been really good for the organisation. One of the best things about working with Alicia was that it brought the team closer. We learned more about each other, and while we have our differences, we can work positively together.”

The importance of clearly defined Council roles

The Strategic Public Leaders programme emphasises role clarity and the distinctions between governance and management because these are pain points for Councils. The role of a Councillor isn’t always clear from the outside, which can lead to elected members who want to solve operational issues.

A Councillor’s role is to make intergenerational decisions for their community. But they often have to do that without clarity about their responsibilities and little to no training in making good long-term decisions. As a result, Councillors fall into the weeds. Once we tease out how well things could work and the potential for positive impact, all participants see the value of role clarity.

Hawson touches on the importance of having clearly defined roles for elected representatives and Council executives. “One of the challenges for any large organisation is getting executives to operate in the strategic space while managers operationalise the plan.”

Strategic Public Leaders uses interactive and experiential learning to clarify roles and responsibilities, with exercises like role-playing driving laughter, connection, and mutual understanding. Mildura Councillors particularly enjoyed this part of the session. Mayor Wood said, “The role-playing exercise, where Councillors and senior executives flipped roles, helped us experience sitting in different seats. There’s a saying that sympathy is easy, but empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes. As local government members, that’s where we should always be.”

Preventing quick-fix thinking and oversimplistic solutions

“Alicia’s strategic framework is an empowerment tool. It reminds us to ask critical questions of ourselves before we come to meetings so we can identify pitfalls and make good decisions. Having a common framework and language has changed how we talk about these things. I’m not saying we've got it right yet, but more people are thinking in that space. We're falling forward and have scaffolding to help us.” - Martin Hawson, CEO, Mildura Rural City Council

The Strategic Public Leaders programme is designed to help elected members to ask great questions, interrogate systems, and make better decisions. Working with Alicia has transformed the way Councillors and executive officers in Mildura think day to day.

Hawson says, “Councils are always trying to find the answer to problems. Sometimes, we fall into the trap of oversimplifying the complex and wasting time on solutions that don't make any difference. Strategy is about working out the stepping stones to achieve something meaningful. Alicia’s framework helps us put our effort into defining answers in a robust way.”

Hawson is enthusiastic about the observable change in Mildura: “Applying our new strategic framework day-to-day stops quick-fix thinking. If we ask the hard questions, we move forward towards better answers. We need to prosecute the case and have a solid why. We need to back that up with data. And the same goes for diagnosing what our solution will look like. Asking: ‘Is this really what we want?’ rather than simply settling for the bright idea of the day. Testing and evaluating our actions to see if they reach the desired outcomes.”

“The strategic framework is an empowerment tool. It reminds us to ask critical questions of ourselves before we come to meetings so we can identify pitfalls and make good decisions. Having a common framework and language has changed how we talk about these things. I’m not saying we've got it right yet, but more people are thinking in that space. We're falling forward and have scaffolding to help us.”

Mildura’s GM of Corporate Performance, Kate Henschke, values the new approach. “Putting clearer frameworks around planning and strategy was a light bulb moment. As a Council, you need strategies, but they don’t need to be complicated. They can be simple goals. The programme taught me to take things back to basics, work out what's important, and stick with that – not to dilute what we're trying to do by overcomplicating things.”

It can be difficult to drive more rigorous thinking while keeping things simple. One exercise Alicia offers as part of the programme is a strategic planning session, where Councils apply their new strategic thinking frameworks to real-life scenarios in a budget or an annual plan. Putting those new skills into practice immediately helps them stick and guides Councils for future discussions and negotiations.

Better decision-making as a group

“Alicia’s framework helps Councillors, the Council executive, and operational staff understand their various strategic roles. Working with Alicia brought together elected representatives and executive staff in a shared understanding of how the whole strategic process works and gave more rigour to how we think.” - Martin Hawson, CEO, Mildura Rural City Council

Making decisions in a group is hard even before you throw politics, administrative tension, resource constraints and regulatory pressure into the mix. In a complex environment like local government, there's often no clear right decision. All we can aim for is alignment, commitment and flexibility.

Strategic Public Leaders supports that alignment, teaching simple but powerful decision-making models that help Councils do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason, and with the right people. Councils use these models to make decisions together and evaluate them afterwards, and the impact is powerful.

Henschke describes how Mildura Rural City Council are putting their new skills into practice. “Alicia showed us you have to align several things to make a good decision, and involving the right people is a skill. We’ve reflected on that and used that framework to make difficult decisions. When we’re recommending the best approach, I’ll use Alicia’s prompts to test the robustness of our process. The models help broaden our thought process. We ask things like: “Is this the only solution? Have we thought through all our options?”

In a collaborative environment like Council, decision-making is as much about how people work together as it is about the decision made. Mayor Wood is delighted with the change in the dynamic Strategic Public Leaders has driven in Mildura, enthusing, “To peel back the onion, look at the layers of decision making, know the reasons why people make decisions, and feel the way they do, you have to have a safe space and understand each other. Since we worked with Alicia, the group dynamic has been so healthy that we’re willing to talk things out robustly. We’ve learned to tackle the subject, not the person. It wasn't that way when I got into Council. People were arguing and attacking each other.”

Interrogating the status quo and changing the way things are done

“Alicia's frameworks give you the confidence to challenge things. Sure, there are many parameters in local government, but there's also flexibility. And it'd be great if new Councillors knew that! Because you come in feeling you want to change the world and then think you can't. But you can. There's a lot of rules, but you can still make a difference.” - Liam Wood, Mayor, Mildura Rural City Council

When a Council becomes more strategic in their thinking, they start to query their status quo. They start to ask why things are done the way they’re done, and if things can be more efficient, inclusive, or productive. The Strategic Public Leaders programme has helped Mildura Rural City Council identify positive ways to evolve.

One of the Mayor’s main goals for the coming local elections is to have as many diverse people as possible run for Council. He explains, “Unfortunately, Council is very conducive to semi-retired, white males. Council forums used to last six hours, meaning anyone who had other demands on their time, like a single parent or a student, couldn’t attend.”

“A positive outcome from the programme with Alicia was being able to ask: ‘Why are we doing things this way?’ When we asked ourselves that question, we realised we were only doing six-hour forums because someone started them ages ago! So we decided to change.”

“Now anyone who wants to present a discussion topic at a forum records a video, so people can watch them anytime, anywhere they want. Then, when the panel comes together, everyone has watched the background material, and we only have question time for an hour. So, anyone who’s time-poor can think about putting their hand up for Council now.”

It is common for Councils to find opportunities to drive progress when they consider their operations with fresh, strategic eyes. Mildura’s changes to its Council forums exemplify the benefits of questioning inherited Council processes.

Challenge your thinking in a constructive way

Habit and groupthink can stop Councils from leaving a meaningful legacy. Mayor Wood says, “Alicia's frameworks give you the confidence to challenge things. Sure, there are many parameters in local government, but there's also flexibility. And it'd be great if new Councillors knew that! Because you come in feeling you want to change the world and then think you can't. But you can. There's a lot of rules, but you can still make a difference.”

Sometimes, to make a difference, you need a gentle push. Hawson says, “Part of the role of a consultant is to challenge people's thinking constructively. Alicia ensures we have those hard conversations on the edge of the unknown, challenging our preconceived views. If a group stays too much in their safety zone and doesn't have someone challenging them, they won’t change how they think or behave.”

Henschke feels challenging the status quo is important. “Just because we're local government doesn't mean we can't be innovative and creative and do things we haven't done before. Alicia challenges thinking in an open, respectful way, particularly some of the overthinking that ingrains itself in Council. We've people in our organisation who’ve taken a certain approach for years, so she’s very good at asking: ‘Why do you think that way?’ ‘Is that the only way to do things?’ ‘Is that really what’s important?’ That takes a real skill.”

Get your Council out of the weeds and into the future with the Strategic Public Leaders programme

Strategic Public Leaders is designed precisely for the needs of local government leaders. Waste less time in meetings, make better decisions, and fulfil more community promises by becoming influential civic leaders.

Martin Hawson, Chief Executive at Mildura Rural City Council, has the last word. “Legacy is an important component of being a Councillor. And unless Councillors are strategic, they won’t leave a legacy. If you want to bridge the gap between where Councils aspire to be and their day-to-day activities in the operational weeds, Alicia’s programme has some handy tools.”

“I recommend doing the programme with a new Council to build that relationship between elected representatives and the Council executive team. Clarifying the roles of Councillors and the executive is critical. If everyone understands that early in a Council term, it will help the next four years operate much smoother.”

Strategic Public Leaders has transformed relationships, decision quality, and strategic implementation for Councils across Australia and New Zealand. Your local Council could be next. Find out more.