Human on the Inside. We’re big believers in the power of human skills. But don’t just take our word for it - the evidence for excellence powered by human (‘soft’) skills is everywhere! In this engaging, ever-enlightening series, we speak with industry leaders, innovators and game-changers to learn a little about their personal career journeys, and how human-led strategies, philosophies and cultures are proving a force for good in their working worlds … 

Maxme: Welcome Katie, and thanks for stepping into the #SuccessIsHuman spotlight. You’re currently Partner at Scyne Advisory, and specifically, a leader in the  Centre for Strategic Co-Design.

In 1 sentence (ok, we’ll give you 3), what does your role entail?

Katie Reid: Thanks for having me. My role involves supporting executives in ‘for-purpose’ organisations, like governments and not-for-profits, to apply a system-wide view to the challenges they face. 

Sometimes that is focused on understanding the many conditions across a system that have contributed to a societal issue. Sometimes it is creating new ways for people to work together across the systems to design strategy, solutions or new ways of working that are more sustainable and create greater equity or shared value.

M: Given Scyne launched less than six months ago, your impressive career is of course much deeper!

It all started back in the US as a journalist, editor and investigative researcher. Towards the end of this chapter you developed a not-for-profit organisation recognised nationally as the most “Innovative Outreach to Scholastic Journalism” in 2005 - bravo!

In 2005 you made the move Down Under (lucky us), and joined Editor Group, serving clients including the likes of American Express, Apple, ASX, Cisco, Hillross Financial, IBM, NRMA, Optus, Oracle, PwC and The Australian Trade Commission. This proved a valuable launching pad for a fruitful Aussie career in consulting to follow. 

In mid 2007,  you joined PwC’s Corporate Affairs team, and over the 16+  years to follow, progressed steadily up and across the ranks in many and varied roles, leading projects in the US, UK and Singapore, and making Partner in the Consulting business in 2018. 

It’s challenging to convey the impact and extent of your great work with private and public sector… suffice to say it has been recognised globally by the likes of IABC, Kennedy Research and Forrester Research.

How does all your work speak to your personal purpose and what drives you as an individual? 

KR: I’ve always been curious about how cultures evolve and especially conscious  of the role information and communication plays — how it is shaped, how it is shared and how it is used to shift power. Whether you are talking about a nation or an organisation, how communication is approached is often the starting point of driving equity or inequity, trust or distrust, unity or division. Through all my career transitions, that curiosity and interest in being able to influence those dynamics and help people understand them has always been front and centre. 

Communication and engagement is one of the fastest and most cost effective strategic levers leaders can use to both enable and accelerate inclusion, innovation and change. People participate in fundamentally different ways when they are equipped with information, can influence their future, and have experiences that foster mutual respect. This is something that transformative leaders seem to understand intuitively and traditional leaders are increasingly underestimating.

M: Tell us a little about your personal education pathway/s - what led you to where you are now? How closely do your formal qualifications match your current career?

KR: Something that initially attracted me to journalism was the lifelong promise of learning. In journalism’s purest form, you are constantly needing to understand new and diverse topics, distil what is relevant, identify patterns and different angles others might not see, and explain it in an unbiased way that contributes to societal discussions and decision-making. In that way, journalism is not hugely different from the skills you need to be a good consultant.

I think all the formal education or courses I’ve done have simply provided additional tools for the journey. What has most shaped my professional path has been choosing to work with organisations, teams and leaders who I respect and clearly see something unique I can contribute and that I can learn. I’ve always sought that over bigger titles or faster progression.

M: If you could share one piece of career advice to your 21 year old self it would be ...

KR: Play your own game. Determine for yourself what is important and how to measure your success at the end of every year. Otherwise people, organisations and/or society will shape this for you based on motivations and values that aren’t necessarily your own. While you need to be conscious of the rules and structure of the gameboard you are playing on, the earlier you define your own game on it, the more impact you will have and the happier you will be.

M: Maximising the potential of individuals, communities and businesses through the power of human skills is the reason Maxme exists. Can you tell us a little about the role and / or value of human skills in your work right now?

KR: For me this is about creativity more than anything. I work in strategy and find it really sad and dated that so many organisations don’t see creativity as a core discipline in shaping strategy. This is true of many business disciplines.. I believe all humans are inherently creative, but it’s something most of us forget as we go through education systems and workplaces designed for efficiency and standardisation over effectiveness.

In the same way digital is becoming something every professional needs to understand and apply to their work — not a separate team or isolated concept — creativity is a critical discipline everyone should be learning to foster in their teams and professions. I think we’ll see this understood and amplified in businesses and government much more in the coming decade.

M: Self Awareness sets the critical foundation for all Maxme learning experiences. With that said … what’s your strongest trait / personal super power?

KR: My dad has been a public servant his whole life and modelled nothing but servant leadership to me from a very early age. Because of that I never expected work to be anything other than a platform to be in service of a greater purpose and community of people. While that can sound quite altruistic, the practical side of it has been a strong sense of resilience and grounding throughout my career. It keeps day-to-day turmoil in perspective, makes everything less personal, and provides a lot of inherent motivation to make everything the best it can be and then continue to find ways to make it better.

M: And on the flip side, what’s one human / ‘soft’ skill you’ve had to really work on improving over the course of your career?

KR: To create followship people need to be able to see the path you are on. Between journalism and speech writing for CEOs and Board Chairs from my early 20s, sensing competing dynamics and synthesising diverse data points became a skill I learned early. That  led to often having strong instincts about how to progress through an issue. Learning to pause and deconstruct that intuition, understand it, and articulate it to others took much longer to develop. It’s the other side of the coin that’s important to both being able to influence outcomes and engage broader teams who need a clear structure and rationale to be able to easily add additional skills and perspectives.

M: If you could share one piece of career advice with recent Uni graduates or candidates keen to work in a field like consulting or strategy, what would it be?

KR: Know why you do the things you do and who you are ultimately doing them for. Some of the most meaningful and fulfilling things you do in your life will never be acknowledged by anyone, called out in a performance review or appear on your CV. No matter what sector or profession you work in, high performance and hustle work cultures can make it easy to lose sight of that early in your career. 

Equally, take accountability for your headspace and the choices you are making in every moment at work. You always have free will and accountability first and foremost to yourself — whether it is agreeing to work back late, double checking something when everyone else says it is fine, or speaking up if something doesn’t feel right. Anytime your language starts sounding like you are a hostage or a martyr you need to find a way to change your mindset, change the conditions around you, or move on.

M: You’ve been granted approval to add one University graduate to your business, but have 100 applicants, all with outstanding academic results. How do you find your perfect candidate - what are you looking for?

KR: I think my best hires have always had diverse skills and interests, strong work ethic, and confident humility.

Learning agility and the ability to build trust with others is a much better indicator of future success than academic scores when you work in a people-oriented business. The hard thing is those attributes are very difficult to assess without meeting someone in person. I always worry how many great candidates never make it through mass screening rounds.

M: In the words of John Dewey, “education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” 

What’s next on your #learning agenda? 

KR: This is a great question, and one I’m actively trying to work through at the moment. I’ve had the benefit of spending time with a number of incredible women over the past year who have all inspired me in different ways to further expand the frame in how I think about systemic change and adaptation. That’s included everything from indigenous knowledge and innovation to socially-oriented cybernetics. Right now, I’m in a space of trying to weave together that mix of ancient and more emerging perspectives and work through the implications. It feels challenging yet critical to find ways it can all practically be applied to leadership and decision-making today.

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