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Scratch most Australian organisations and you'll discover a productive diversity that's too good to miss.
The most useful ideas that think tanks produce are those that are not only practical and applicable, but imbued with easy logic. Sometimes they provide a new slant on things so that existing processes can be made more efficient. Other times, they reveal hidden assets that few have identified, though they're right in front of our face.
One such example was a project undertaken nearly 15 years ago by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), in conjunction with the then Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), which was part of the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. Sandy Hollway, who later went on to manage the Sydney Olympics ran OMA. The project looked at ways of making business more aware of the repository of skills, talents and contacts buried inside the country's multicultural workforce.
It is not uncommon in Australia to find firms scouring the globe for new markets for their products when, say, the brother of a foreign-born employee in the HR section is looking to import that very thing into their home country.
With a rich mix of work tools and capabilities, you can be as productive in the office, at home, in hotel rooms and airport lounges all around the world.
The nature of work is changing and consequently we're witnessing a proliferation of workstyles that reflect new demands for flexibility, balance and autonomy. Organisations in all sectors confront the need to respond urgently to a bunch of demands that include the ability to work in less predictable patterns of time and location and to work in new and more complex patterns of collaboration and co-presence.
Some days you need to work on your own, some days you need to work with a team of people who are all in the same physical space and the next day you need to work with team members who are all on different continents. On top of that, people are juggling professional ambition with personal commitments to family and community. Maintaining personal good health and looking after the health of the planet are dimensions of life that can't be conveniently forgotten or pushed to one side in the face of work demands and routines that are physically, emotionally and environmentally unsustainable.
The country that produces the best equipped talent pool to work in the global economy will receive the cream of the world's work.
Around the world we are seeing a change - economic growth is being accompanied by a growing role for services and knowledge-based industries.
In Australia, with unemployment at a record 33 year low, and predictions that skills shortages will run to half a million people by 2020, we will need to access high value, competitive skills from beyond our borders.
This year IBM released the findings of its Global CEO Study which surveys over 1300 CEOs worldwide. The CEOs interviewed from Australia and New Zealand highlighted people skills as the greatest external force impacting their business in the next three years.
We are also dealing with the emergence of the globally integrated enterprise which is allowing work to be done from anywhere, and more importantly, where the skills are available.
And the world is getting more competitive. The globally integrated economy is going to increase competition particularly in services, which underpin our economy. And much of this competition will come from increasingly skilled labour forces in places like China and India.
"A person's passion for using their talents is the power source that drives an organisation" (Dr Carlos A. Raimundo).
A recent Gallup study suggested that approximately 74% of all employees are either "unengaged or actively disengaged."
Assuming the statistics are correct, that means the average business organisation is operating with a loss of about one third of its potential effectiveness.
That's not taking into account the cost of missed business opportunities or lost customers, and certainly doesn't include the cost of sabotage and other acts of revenge disengaged employees might undertake to "get even" with an organization.
According to Dr Carlos A. Raimundo, psychiatrist, MBA and researcher in behavioural modification and neurophysiology, even the most reliable employees, if not truly engaged, can become robots.
"A robot is someone who maintains the cultural standard without adding ‘new life'," he said at a recent Ten Minutes to Clarity workshop. "Every human needs to know he or she is making a difference; contributing something unique which ultimately inspires new style and growth."
Work place flexibility is about looking for different models of success, rather than creating roles only for individuals, apparently with no extraneous caring responsibilities, who can provide a 24/7 commitment to their paid work.
The first challenge we need to tackle in order to create more flexible work practices in Australia is a couple of cliché's which are holding us back.
I realised early on, that if I was to be effective in this role I would need to tackle these clichés, and work proactively to place gender equality firmly back on the national agenda.
The first attitude we need to tackle is the notion that gender equality is somehow a battle of the sexes, an eternal tussel for supremacy rather than an attempt to create a more workable, more productive society for everyone.
The second attitude against which we need to struggle is the notion that flexible work practices are somehow a women's issue, and limit our discussions to maternity leave and looking after small children.
Will women be better off under the Rudd government?
Advance Australia Fair! I can't think of a better title for a session exploring issues affecting women in the workplace.
Because we want a fair deal for women. We have not had that for far too long but we can hope that, with the election of the Rudd government, that is going to change.
In the time available to me today, I want to remind us of what we lost under the Howard government and what we want restored to us under the Rudd/Gillard government.
In November 2003, I published a book called The End of Equality, which documented the reversal of women's rights under the coalition government. It made three key points:
1) That the Howard government brought an ideological perspective to women and tried to send us back to the 1950s; in particular, it tried to bribe us into having more babies and it used policy to deter mothers from working, unless they were single mothers in which case they were given no choice.
2) The Howard government also downgraded, disempowered or outright abolished key agencies and offices designed to advocate for women's equality and to monitor our progress. As a result, it sent a strong signal to the community that women's status was no longer of concern.
