Corporate Training Specialists

Leadership Profile - Rebecca Barry

About Rebecca
Rebecca Barry is the General Manager, Human Resources, at the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS). In this role she oversees all human resource elements for the RAS, Sydney Showground, RAS Foundation, Australasian Animal Registry and the Sydney Royal Easter Show including Sydney Royal competitions and events.

Major achievements in this role include re-negotiating the RAS Enterprise Bargaining Agreement twice, implementing programs that have seen employee satisfaction grow from 48% in 2006 to 83% in 2013, and reducing employee turnover from 43% to 12.5%. In her current role, Rebecca also oversees the delivery of the Sydney Royal Easter Show Event Volunteer Program consisting of 400 volunteers. In 2013, this volunteer team won Regional Volunteer Team of the Year awarded by The NSW Centre for Volunteering.

Prior to her role at the RAS, Rebecca has held several other senior human resource roles including Manager, Human Resources, Event Staff & Administration, at Stadium Australia. In this role she managed the establishment of a 700-strong customer service team. In 2001, this team won the Parramatta City Chamber of Commerce Awards for Business Excellence - Excellence in the Delivery of Customer Service.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Rebecca was seconded to SOCOG in the Venue Services team where her major responsibility was the delivery of customer service throughout the Olympic Stadium.

Rebecca is a past winner of the Western Sydney Industry Award for Outstanding Contribution to Tourism by a Young Achiever. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Human Resources and Industrial Relations, is a recent graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds TAFE qualifications in workplace training, hospitality and marketing.

We have worked with Rebecca Barry for 5 years and recently both RAS and Happening People won the LearnX Asia Pacific Award for Best Learning Partnership so we thought who better to interview.

Leaders often need to make tough decisions.  What tough decision have you had to make in your career?
Downsizing is always tough. Finding and engaging good people isn't easy and being in a position where some will need to leave the team is awful.
Structure in your process supports decision making. A robust framework provides clarity, certainty and objectivity when you're downsizing (but it is still horrible).

How did you manage your personal stress?
Prioritising helps. How do you eat an elephant ? One bite at a time.
Sometimes taking five minutes to review and plan makes what seems to be an enormous task seem far more manageable.
I exercise - it's a great physical and mental release.
I have a fabulous network of professional colleagues that share stories, advice and experience that enables 'stress' to be put into perspective.
I have a fabulous team that I work with, both in the HR group and broadly across the RAS. They're passionate about what we're here to do and there is a serious recognition that we are all in this together. You don't have to look very far to find someone willing to give you a hand or share your load. Oh, and wine, wine certainly helps!

What do you like and dislike about leading people?
Like - how much fun you can have with a great group of people. Having scope to dream and innovate.
Dislike - you are often stretched in many directions. Can't have an 'off'
day - you are on show at all times.

What is the best advice you have received about leading people?

Sara Henderson wrote - "Don't wait for the light at the end of the tunnel.
Go to the end of the tunnel and turn the bloody thing on". I love this attitude and was so thrilled when I found it articulated in this way. It's how I'd always felt, but from then I had Saras words to put around it.
Of course there's - Talk, consult, seek out what's not immediately obvious.
There's always more to the story or situation than meets the eye.

What advice would you give others in a leadership role?
Look around you. There is so much to learn from others. Leaders don't always sit at the top of the traditional org chart. Surround yourself with smart, energetic people from a variety of backgrounds that share the vision. Together you'll achieve so much more than you would have on your own.

Who in the public eye do you admire for their leadership skills and why?

Leadership extends to your personal life too, so, the skills you develop and the experiences you have all add value along the way.

Who in the public eye do you admire for their leadership skills and why?
Richard Branson - he started with an idea and backed himself all the way.
Completely irreverent but entirely commercially savvy. He's not afraid to have a go. His attitude to staff is wonderful, each and every one is recognised as key to the success of each venture - and he encourages them to be having fun while they're at it.

Q & A with Strategic Innovation Specialist- Alan Kuczynski


What’s a single piece of advice you have been given that you still work with?
“DON’T be realistic.” Some time in the past there was a guy who wanted to fly like a bird. People would definitely have told him it was impossible and that he should be realistic. Flying is for the birds only. Well he didn’t listen to them and strapped a pair of wings onto his back and jumped off a cliff. The result? Not just planes, but we are now planning to inhabit other planets. All because of that guy and our subsequent knowledge of flight!
Everything we have today is because someone WASN’T realistic….because they didn’t accept that it was impossible or impractical.

What gives you the biggest thrill?
I’m a results oriented person. When I see the light bulb go on with the participants in my workshops, or hear of the success stories as a result of the new learning, I know that I am making a difference. And that excites me, and motivates me to do more.

Your specialty is strategic innovation. How would you describe to corporate Australia what you do?
In six words: teaching people how to think differently.

In a few more words: most of us approach problem solving in a very predictable, universal manner. We look at the issue from the same perspective and using the same methodology as we have in the past. The net result? The same thinking, the same conclusions, the same strategies, and the same results as in the past.
Why do we do that? Because we don’t know how to think differently.

Our brain goes down the same path as usual, we employ the same strategic models as usual, and the participants in the process are the same as usual.

Yet we expect a result that isn’t the same as usual. It doesn’t make sense!

People talk about “thinking outside the square” or use similar terms. Yet most of us don’t know how to. We run brainstorming sessions that often yield very poor results, so we get frustrated and go back to doing things like we have always done them.

And because our competitors have been taught to think the same way as us, and have access to pretty much the same information as us, they usually end up with the same solutions as us.
Occasionally there is a breakthrough in thinking and we all get very excited at this happening. It’s treated like a miracle, like something out of the norm. Well it should be the norm, not the exception!

These breakthroughs should be, and can be, happening all the time. It’s a matter of learning HOW TO think differently. And like any other skill it can be learned. And anyone can learn these skills and be good at them.
What I do is teach people “how to.” How to look at things from a different perspective. How to redefine the problem. How to ask better questions. How to apply specific tools to problem solving to get a better list of possible solutions.

Creative, innovative thinking and strategic thinking are not, as many people think, at opposite extremes of the spectrum. When they are both incorporated into any problem solving situation, the results are significantly different to taking the traditional way of resolving issues. Strategic innovative thinking can be used in any situation, whether it be new product development, dealing with customers, new business prospecting, or even developing a business plan. Anything.

How do you keep motivated?
A major part of who I am is someone who wants to help people get the most out of life.
I work with several not for profit organisations helping young people from disadvantaged backgrounds take a different path in life. This is, in my mind, comparable to what I do in the corporate environment. I help people in business obtain a better result from their efforts, and as a consequence, raise their self-esteem and confidence. And this impacts on the level of enjoyment that they have at work. It consequently has a flow on effect on their lives outside of work as well.

What’s a single piece of advice you have been given that you still work with?
“DON’T be realistic.” Some time in the past there was a guy who wanted to fly like a bird. People would definitely have told him it was impossible and that he should be realistic. Flying is for the birds only. Well he didn’t listen to them and strapped a pair of wings onto his back and jumped off a cliff. The result? Not just planes, but we are now planning to inhabit other planets. All because of that guy and our subsequent knowledge of flight!
Everything we have today is because someone WASN’T realistic….because they didn’t accept that it was impossible or impractical.

What gives you the biggest thrill?
I’m a results oriented person. When I see the light bulb go on with the participants in my workshops, or hear of the success stories as a result of the new learning, I know that I am making a difference. And that excites me, and motivates me to do more.

What attracted you to [work with] Happening People?
I have always taken the approach that I will only work with people who have similar principles to myself. Sometimes it has meant that I’ve missed out on work, but that to me is of little consequence. Morals and ethics are critical elements in my decision making process.
I believe that Happening People has a similar philosophy to me when it comes to working with clients. It’s not about dragging out the “off the shelf” training program hoping that it will be relevant. I need to know what the real issues are that my clients are facing and want to address. And then work out how I can assist them. And if I can’t, be honest enough to say so.

What role models do you have?
My parents are the key role models. They were immigrants who came to Australia with nothing. No money, no English, no skills that were recognized in this country. But they had a vision…a better life for their children.
It was that clear focus on WHAT they wanted, that lead them to try a number of different HOWS to achieve their goal. Some worked, some didn’t.
And that’s what I’ve done in my life, and what I teach.
Have a clear WHAT, and don’t get caught up on HOW. Because if you focus on HOW, and don’t know the answer, or think it may be too hard, you will procrastinate and take no action. Or you will take the same safe action you always have. And it’s usually what your competitors will do too.

If you could invite 3 people to dinner (dead or alive) who would they be?
1. Richard Branson. Now there’s a guy who thinks differently. He’s someone who refuses to be “realisitic” or “practical.”
2. Robin Williams. His stand up shows demonstrate that he has one of the most innovative minds of our time. I’d love to find out from him how he takes a situation and links all this seemingly unrelated aspects to it, to end up with a great result.
3. My future self just before I die. I’d find out what I did and didn’t do in my life, and if necessary, take the steps to prevent certain actions or events taking place, or ensuring that I took specific steps to get a better result.

When you have spare time what do you like doing?
I took up sculpting as a hobby a few years ago. Surprisingly I discovered I had a latent talent. I have exhibited and sold a number of my works, and still love learning how to improve.
I also started French classes a year ago. I just love the sound of the language, the country, and thought it would be good for my brain to learn a language. When I was in Quebec where they speak French in a very different dialect to the French themselves, I was told by someone that I had a “French accent.” That was the highlight of my trip!

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