Susanne writes most weeks on leading through change, complexity and pressure. Six years of it sits here. The recent pieces are written for senior leaders in organisations affected by heavy regulation, complex funding and public accountability. The older ones come from an earlier stage of the business and are kept as they were published.
When I was a manager leading enterprise bargaining for doctors, I got to attend the Cabinet Budget Review Committee and present our case alongside the Director-General. I had to respond to direct questions from the Premier and then influence the Under...
Read it
All through high school, I spent Monday afternoons at speech and drama classes at Mrs Davis’s house. It was more than public speaking. We learned elements of performance, and we did improvisation. You were handed a small slip of paper with an idea or a phrase on it. You had one minute to think about...
Read it
At the Professional Speakers Association of New Zealand convention in Auckland, Dr Samantha Rush and I ran a session for professional speakers from more than five countries. At one table, a player became very upset with the people learning as they went. They hadn’t read all the instructions themselves, so they couldn’t be confident that...
Read it
For a week, a large python turned up on our deck, directly opposite the front door. It arrived in the afternoon and stayed into the evening when the outside light was on, coiled in a strike position, with part of its body tucked under the decking. We got into the habit of checking before we...
Read it
We live on acreage, with a long, steep driveway and a gate at the top. Our dogs have always slept in the house, behind a screen door with a latch. One morning when our kids were still at school, my husband left the gate open when he went to work, because he knew I’d be...
Read it
I recently ran a session for QUT’s Pathways to Politics program, with a group of women preparing to stand for office at every level of government. They worked in pairs, one as the politician and one as the adviser, with a scenario built from the experience of three women who have held office and a...
Read it
We picked up our new puppy Ripley, a Boerboel, from Kingaroy when she was eight weeks old. On the drive back we needed a toilet stop, and Avo Fest was on in Blackbutt when we drove through. It seemed as good a time as any to get her out of the car. We carried her...
Read it
On a work trip to Sydney that crossed over with the weekend of the Sydney Marathon everywhere I would normally stay was either full or priced like it knew I had no choice. The pickings were slim, so I read the reviews and chose what I thought would best meet my needs. I arrived to...
Read it
My kids were born at a hospital birth centre. I felt like I’d won something when I got through the ballot. It was even better than I expected. We had the same midwife the whole way through for both kids and my husband there for all of it. When our first child, a son, arrived,...
Read it
I reorganised the pantry earlier this year. Everything came out onto the bench. I wiped down the shelves, sorted through what was still good and what was well past its use-by date, then put what was left back in an order that made me feel very organised. Three weeks later it was back to being...
Read it
If you’re like me, you may have noticed the Louis Theroux documentary Inside the Manosphere. It was released in March 2026, and I’ve been meaning to watch it since then. And even though it’s still on my watch list, I could tell you about what is in it. The sort of men who appear, the...
Read it
A chief executive I worked with in her first year in a new role had a director on her board with a habit. Nearly every piece of advice he gave her started the same way: “As a CEO, you should…” As a CEO, you should be doing this. As a CEO, you should be across...
Read itIf the complexity in your organisation isn't going anywhere, and you have less certainty than you'd like, that's ground Susanne has worked for thirty years.
Start with a conversation to find your team's way through.
