Let kids ‘skin their knees’ to beat Cyberbullying

By Jody Melbourne

Give your kids freedom on the Internet rather than impose authority or try to limit them.

The "command and control" approach to keeping children safe from online Cyberbullying is doomed to fail in this age of social networking. Parents need to adopt a high-vigilance, low-touch approach when supporting their children to survive the epidemic of Cyberbullying that is sweeping Australia and many other countries. Last year, South Australian police revealed they were receiving reports of Cyberbullying on an almost daily basis.

"Cyberbullying" is a term coined to describe the age-old practice of schoolyard bullying extended online, using technology as a tool to harass an individual. Examples of Cyberbullying include spreading nasty rumours by email or online postings; publishing online or emailing embarrassing photos or videos; making abusive comments online; and even threatening or intimidating someone online.

Phil Burgess and what’s wrong with our political culture

By Nicholas Gruen

It's not just bad politics to turn up somewhere in a powerful position and tell the locals that they don't quite measure up to standards back home.

I haven't paid much attention to Telstra's participation in the public policy debate. It usually manages to get itself seen in a fairly poor light at least if one is not paying much attention as I haven't been. Even so, I've just read this speech by Phil Burgess, and I'm impressed. I'm impressed with it because its argument is interesting, and quite persuasive – except for one thing. He outlines some differences between Australian and American political culture. He does so in a very informed and perceptive way (at least for someone who's only been here a while – and I presume he had some decent research assistance, and indeed wonder whether, as such leaders often do he's passing off research assistance as his own wide reading. But I may be being ungenerous.)

In any event, Phil thinks that Australian debate is not vigorous enough. That people defer too much to what the government and senior government figures think…

Paranoid about customer satisfaction? So you should be

By Neil Stollznow

Responding to customer complaints and attempting to win them back generates a surprising level of customer loyality and enables you to create a significant point of difference in an otherwise indifferent market place.

Here's a scary thought: some of your customers don't like you, and no I don't just mean they are a little bit annoyed.

Why do they stay with you?  Some are so jaded that they don't believe they'll get anything better from anyone else, others find the transfer costs (i.e. their time) too onerous and the rest are locked into a contract – a little like consumer gaol.

Now, none of this is a problem so long as you're not working under the misconception that they're with you because they like your product or service, and that they're going to stay after their "contract" expires.

Here's an even scarier thought: some of your ex-customers don't like you, left without telling you, and are actively undoing all the good work your marketing department have been doing for so long.

Dealing with the big shift

By Rebekka Tuqiri

It's easy to forget those first few weeks of parenthood.

It's easy to forget the total sense of powerlessness and loss of control the arrival of a tiny, helpless, demanding little creature precipitates in the formerly ordered, neat, punctual lives of new parents.

And it's funny, because part of the reason this first few weeks is so challenging is that it's soon forgotten, and rarely experienced by those who aren't actually physically going through it.

Until we have our own tiny infants thrust upon us it's rare for most women, and almost unheard of for most men to have even held a new-born.  Yet, suddenly, sleep-deprived, dripping with breast milk, dishevelled and confused, we're expected to understand the needs of a screaming infant.

And then we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror, and the total disconnect between the societal images of the successful, attractive, well groomed parents, and the reality of the bloodshot eyes and birds nest hair is just too overwhelming.

A big part of the problem is the expectations we set up for ourselves. If we lived in communities where we had more of an opportunity to come into contact with little ones and the parents of little ones it might be a bit different.

Not that I'm suggesting you go to live in a hut with your pregnant relatives and extended family. There are better and far more practical ways to solve the challenge.

It's more about balance. It's about being forewarned so that people can understand what to expect and not to expect in the first six weeks, from themselves, and the baby, and their relationship, and just about everyone else.

Realising the Adaptable Workforce

By Justyn Sturrock

The latest report from IBM highlights how ‘cracking the code for Talent' can help companies take their workforce performance to the next level.

Today, more than ever, organisations worldwide are focusing their time and attention on maximising the value of their workforces.

As organisations become more globally integrated, and as traditional geographic and competitive boundaries disappear, the need to identify, develop and connect talent has never been more critical.

Every two years IBM conducts a global CEO Study where we go out and talk to over 1,000 CEOs, and each time we do this, the people agenda is always top of mind.

In 2004, when we asked CEOs what their greatest concern was for their organisation, three primary themes emerged: growth, responsiveness and agility.

And CEOs were almost unanimous in their belief that the greatest hurdle to addressing these themes was the capability within their organisations.

Online Question Time for the Hon. Chris Pearce MP, Member for Aston

The first elected representative to take Question Time online is the Hon. Chris Pearce MP, who was elected to represent the Melbourne seat of Aston in the 2001 Federal election. 

Health Care Agreements: Paper for Open Forum

Tony Abbott reflects on his time as federal health minister and says the upcoming health care agreements could achieve most of the benefits of a federal government's  takeover of public hospitals.

At the recent 2020 summit, delegates' frustration with the dog's breakfast of divided responsibilities in health was sidetracked into proposals for a national preventive health agency funded by a tax on junk food and a new health equality commission. Keeping people healthy and giving everyone the best possible health outcomes are worthy goals, but are unlikely to be achieved by creating new bureaucracies. Avoiding discussion of today's actual problems by focusing, instead, on vague aspirations for the distant future seems to be the new government's style. Let's find something that sounds visionary, but that doesn't threaten current power structures or imply blame for current problems. That way, we can all be seen to work together.

Health Care Agreements: Paper for Open Forum

The Hon. Tony Abbott MP reflects on his time as federal health minister and says the upcoming health care agreements could achieve most of the benefits of a federal government's  takeover of public hospitals.

Greenhouse Challenge: Can IT deliver?

The world's leading analysts predict that energy costs will be eating up more than a third of IT budgets within the next five years, says Sundeep Khisty. 

Global warming has emerged as the critical issue of the 21st Century. While governments worldwide debate the best formula to cut greenhouse gas emissions, change is inevitable.

Most world leaders concede that global warming is the fault of human kind and that intervention is a priority.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), left little doubt on the issue. Drawing on work by 2500 scientists, the UN-backed IPCC concluded that it was more than 90 per cent likely that recent warming has a predominantly human cause.

Australia 2020 Summit: A chance to continue the conversation

Summits such as this should be extended beyond Australian shores to include our near neighbours, says Ben McDevitt.

I felt honoured to be part of the 2020 Summit in Canberra.  The opportunity to share ideas with such a diverse array of people from all walks of life on critical issues affecting our nation was fantastic.  My only regret is that the time we had to actually put ideas onto the table was very limited and the opportunity to actually explore those ideas in a meaningful way was virtually non-existent. 

I think the organisers and facilitators did a great job under considerable pressure to identify key ideas emerging from each of the streams in the limited time available and I was pleasantly surprised at the wrap up session on the second day that some really innovative ideas had been generated.  Prior to attending the summit I held the view that the best we could hope for was to create opportunities for further discussion and I sense that will occur.

Inside the 2020 Summit: A healthy look at the future

The twelve years from now to 2020 will be constrained by demographic imperatives, economic realities, demands of sustainability, Asian development and climate change. Within those constraints we will have choices – how wisely can we make them, asks Prof Stephen Leeder.

In proposing a national health strategy, major points of agreement emerged quickly among the hundred delegates in the Health Strategy Stream. The 17 years less life expectancy experienced by Indigenous Australians was unacceptable, and to ensure more equitable care for people in remote socio-economically disadvantaged Australia was urgent. A more energetic approach to IT for a portable, personal medical record was proposed, essential for the decades of care for people with long-term continuing health problems such as emphysema. The continuing value of research was acknowledged.

Chronic illness scares everyone, especially mental problems, and better linked up care is critical between public and private, health workforce and Commonwealth and States.

Reflections on the Australia 2020 Summit

The Summit was unquestionably a success in engaging the imagination, but many questions have been left unanswered, writes  Narelle Kennedy.   

The Australia 2020 summit with its catch cry of ‘Thinking Big' certainly had the sense of being an historic occasion.

Led by the Prime Minster Kevin Rudd, it was a new collaboration, opening up the corridors of power to captains of industry, indigenous leaders, community activists, quiet achievers from rural communities, celebrities, youth, world class scholars, past and present political leaders and today's working journalists and politicians.

The tone was about wider dialogue and fresh ideas – not through oratory and speechmaking, but by getting down to business with new solutions to the big issues affecting Australia.

Working side by side and sharing the task, there was a sense of collegiality, passionate and robust questioning and distilling the essence of the new ideas that emerged and testing them. Not always harmoniously, and with many questions still left unanswered.

The end products from each of the ten streams were pulled together, using typical processes of our management consultant facilitators, and summarised in an interim report presented to the Prime Minister. The full report – with more nuanced ideas and background thinking – is still to come.