By Emily Stocks | APS Academy
A few weeks ago, I finished a meeting, closed my laptop, and stepped outside into the quiet of a regional town. It was the middle of the workday, but instead of an office corridor, I was looking at paddocks and a few unimpressed sheep, with my nearest colleague several hundred kilometres away.
Like many people across the APS, I work flexibly. For me, that means working fully remotely. My colleagues are spread across multiple cities, some work compressed hours, others split their week between home and office. Our team is rarely sitting in the same place at the same time.
This is not unusual. Hybrid and distributed teams are now a normal part of how the APS operates, and there is a lot to like about it. Flexible work opens opportunities to draw on talent from across the country, which I (for obvious reasons) am a huge proponent of. It has expanded who can participate in the APS and how we work together. But flexibility also changes some of the conditions that previously supported how managers learn, test judgement and develop confidence in their role.
In a system as large and diverse as the APS, managers often learn as much from each other’s experience as they do from formal frameworks. For hybrid, flexible and remote workers, the networks that once formed naturally through those long-touted water-cooler conversations can be a little harder to come by—especially when the closest audience for your lunchtime walk is a sheep.
These are some of the challenges that the APS Academy’s new Management Edge program is designed to address.
Designed for APS6–EL1 managers, Management Edge brings participants together from across agencies—and the country—to examine the practical decisions that shape how teams experience work and deliver outcomes. Through cohort-based learning, shared discussions, practical activities and reflection on real management challenges delivered flexibly and online, participants build connections that extend beyond their own teams and agencies, regardless of where they are based.
At its core, the program focuses on the judgement and decision-making that sit at the centre of effective management: areas like how work is structured, how priorities are communicated, how scrutiny and risk influence judgement, and how teams remain effective when the context around them is complex or changing. With both a management and public administration perspective, Management Edge aims to equip people leaders with practical tools and takeaways to implement immediately in their teams.
Registrations are now open for the first delivery of Management Edge, beginning on 20 April and running for 13 weeks. The program combines facilitated live sessions with flexible online learning to support participation from managers working across different locations and work patterns.
APS6–EL1 managers across the APS can learn more and register through APSLearn, and agencies can organise bulk enrolments or get more information by emailing the Management Edge team.