Over 130 CEOs and 30 chefs came together on February 6 to raise much-needed funds for charity and feed 800 people who are doing it tough. Held at St Mary’s Cathedral, the CookOff is a joint annual initiative between Qantas and Australian Charity OzHarvest.

This year’s event raised over $945,000, which will help OzHarvest and Mission Australia to continue to support Australians in need.

Working with Rod’s team was chef Adrian Richardson, owner and head chef of La Luna in Melbourne and co-presenter of Channel 10’s Good Chef, Bad Chef. The experience proved to be an interesting one for Rod, who commented that he might just trundle down to the local ABC Shop to get a copy of Richardson’s book Meat.

“It’s nice to share the stove with a bloke who knows his meat,” joked Rod. “I have now got a few handy prep tips to take back and impress the family.”

More
www.ceocookoff.com.au
Photo Library – Chefs & CEOs

Credits
Photo by Mark Sherborn

With more than two-thirds of projects not meeting their objectives or delivering expected outcomes, a new report suggests that it is due the failure to have five critical conversations about the execution of any given project and the failure of project leaders to speak up about issues or problems. And for those project leaders that do speak up, there is a clear difference between speaking up and speaking up well.

According to Silence Fails: The Five Crucial conversations for Flawless Execution, many organisations have implemented formal project systems yet still experience significant project failures. Its authors suggest that formal systems on their own are not enough to deliver effective project delivery that meets the expected outcomes, instead identifying five key areas that can predict and explain failure, including:

• Setting up a project to fail because of unrealistic deadlines or insufficient resources
• Lack of leadership, clout, time investment or energy from stakeholders to see a project through to completion
• Project leaders and teams working around priority setting processes
• The failure of leaders and team members to admit a project has issues or significant problems in the hope that someone else will speak up
• The lack of support or inability to support a project by teams within the project

The report found that most projects that fail have significant issues that are not dealt with effectively, for example,  project leaders not speaking up for reasons such as internal politics, lack of confidence or lack of support, as well as their inability to be effective in raising issues about a project to senior management. In some cases, critical issues have become so common that many project leaders have stopped seeing them,  much less confront and discuss them.

Cultivating a culture of open dialogue was identified as a key method of addressing these issues, and the report highlights five key methods that project leaders need to facilitate :

• Make problems visible
• Measure the behaviours of team members
• Upskill their team members to handle politically sensitive issues and lead discussion
• Enable organisations to hold senior management accountable
• Send a clear and public message that these conversations are crucial and people who raise these issues are highly valued.

For more information about Silence Falls, visit www.silencefalls.com  to download the full report.

It is with great pride we announce that Quay has been selected to be on the BRW’s Fast 100 2011 list, an achievement that is possible thanks to your continued support of our company’s growth and success.

We have taken the opportunity to refine our name to Quay Consulting, refreshed our website and our capability statements.

You will now see the full remit of our services, be able to keep up to date with our work and follow our team on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Thank you again to our clients for your ongoing support of Quay.

Presented by Quay’s Michael Bolton, this webinar will assist you in understanding:

• the nature of organisations
• the changes at play
• how capturing, sharing and assuring an organisation’s knowledge
  can de-risk your organization and improve productivity and return on investment.

Anyone in a supervisory, management or leadership role will benefit from this webinar. Space is limited so you will need to register.

Webinar Details

Topic:           Keeping the Tribal Fire Burning – Passing Along Organisational Intelligence
Presenter:    Michael Bolton
Date:            Tuesday 8 November 2011
Time:           1pm
Duration:      1 hr
Cost:            Free of charge
Register:      Click here

This webinar is part of Redback Conferencing’s fortnightly Business Skills Webinar Series. You can find out more about upcoming webinars by visiting www.redbackconferencing.com.au.

Do your processes ensure quality outcomes?

When working within the triple constraints of time, cost and quality, each constraint can be used as a lever in delivery however more often than not quality suffers in the drive to deliver. Assurance is all about ensuring that desirable outcomes are achieved.

Assurance = quality, integrity and outcomes
Assurance is an essential part of working with Quay, providing our clients with the ability to tap into a wealth of accumulated knowledge, experience and collateral on key deliverables such as strategy, methodology, risk management, critical success factors, application of fit-for-purpose and best practice.

What assurance means for you
Assurance helps CIOs and CEOs to see how effectively they are delivering their projects and enables stakeholders to take corrective action where it’s needed. It can be applied to foundational and operational elements.

Assurance is built into each Practice, providing our clients with the ability to tap into a wealth of accumulated knowledge, experience and collateral on key deliverables such as strategy, methodology, risk management, critical success factors, application of fit-for-purpose and best practice.

Want more information?
Visit our Assurance service page to find out more.