Community of Practice for Engineering Leaders

Reduce risk by exposing your blind spots

Our community of practice is where leaders come together to work on real problems. Leaders share their challenges and experiences, reflect on setbacks, and collaboratively explore new possibilities.

Professional development as a leader or executive is impossible to get within the organisation, which is why this program exists. Sessions like these enable growth that's good for you and your organisation. The benefits for you include addressing actual challenges at work gaining ideas from other companies, and building a support network of trusted peers. Fresh insight from an external perspective will help you reduce risk by exposing your blind spots.

Collective brain power to unlock your leadership potential

Each week, we explore individual challenges in guided group discussions. We understand that everyone has very busy schedules, and thus our community of practice program is structured to provide you maximum learning with very little investment outside of the weekly sessions.

The process leans into dialogue and reflection, rather than instruction. We come up with ideas and find answers together. The structure ensures that everyone has the opportunity to not just address their challenges, but also support peers resolving their own.

I only wish I got to experience this at many more points in my career. From the format and facilitation to the diversity of experiences and ideas from the group; I felt safe, heard, understood and valued. Every session gave insights that will be useful well into the future.

Kayt Edwards

I was part of a cohort of technical leaders for the Community of Practice over five weeks and it was one of the best leadership development initiatives that I've ever done. Real problem-solving, diverse perspectives and exposure to techniques from a really qualified group of people. The format was super engaging over Zoom. Keeping it virtual meant it was able to fit better with working from home. Elle and Lachlan were really insightful and did a great job providing psychological safety for us to be vulnerable. If I had the chance, I'd do this every 6 months.

Franca Moretto , Engineering Manager at SEEK

What we ask

  • "Talking out problems in groups of smart capable people is awesome."
  • "How nice it must be to have people spend time trying to help you solve a problem. As leaders we spend so much time solving other people's problems. It is almost healing!"
  • "Thank you to this group using some of the collective brain power to help me with my problem. I honestly really appreciate it."
  • "Even when we feel clear about the picture there is always more/different perspectives. So good this group can provide that. It's a wonder anyone can solve anything well on their own."
  • "Elle and Lachlan are :chef's kiss: facilitators."
  • "What an amazing group! Wow!"
  • "We all have such diverse experience. I love hearing about the pros and cons of start-up/scale-up life."
  • "This session has made me look forward to presenting my own problem to the group."
  • "Everyone's advice is so helpful, I don't want this to end! 😁"
  • "Was able to relate to both challenges. I wish I had this type of advice back then."
  • "Sometimes the questions and answers make me think of some of my own situations and it's great to get my own takeaways."
  • "It's easy to forget all the good practices that we know when we are in the depth of the situation. So good to be reminded of them all."
Community of Practice members

Logistics

When:
Starting first week of July
Format:
  • A 30-minute individual chat to set expectations and identify challenges to bring to the group.
  • Five consecutive weeks of 1.5 hour online sessions.
  • 8 participants, with a maximum of one person per company to maximise breadth of input.
    • If more than one person from a company is interested, we will organise them into separate cohorts.
Cost:
$1,200 AUD plus GST

Apply

We match you with a suitable cohort of peers using your role and company details.

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Talk to us, we're listening

Would you like to improve team effectiveness and productivity? Got a project you think we can help with? Interested in leadership coaching or engineering training? Basically, want to work with us? Get in touch: gday@blackmill.co and we will be in touch in a jiffy.

We live on, and benefit from, the colonised lands of the Arakwal and the Minjungbal peoples of the Bundjalung nation, and those of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of these lands and recognise their enduring connection to land, waters, and culture. We pay our respects to their elders, past and present.