Gathering builds our capability

People shared stories – on stage, over coffee, and in the hallways. And I was reminded, yet again, that in person, there’s a different kind of honesty: a willingness to admit uncertainty, to ask better questions, to speak openly about the hard stuff.

Capability is more than skills. Capability is also mindset, judgment, and the ability to adapt and deliver value in real time. Capability shows up in how we manage, how we learn from each other, and how work gets done. It’s what enables teams to adapt quickly, solve problems collaboratively, and turn ideas into value. And there’s something uniquely powerful about being in a room together. It creates space for learning, for shaping the supportive cultures we need as individuals, organisations, and industries to thrive in times of change.

Productivity isn’t just about output. As Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh put it in a recent speech, productivity is about “improving the rhythm and texture of daily life.” Productivity comes from how workplaces are run – what they prioritise, how they empower people, and whether they build trust. Shared curiosity and context unlock our productivity, helping us deliver more value with less.

At AgileAus25, I was grateful to hear international voices offer fresh perspectives on a world in motion. And I was inspired by stories from people working in sectors far from my own- medicine, retail, cosmetics, pet care. These stories expanded and shifted my thinking on everything from trust and leadership to AI and work design. At gatherings like AgileAus25, we’re reminded of what’s possible when people are empowered to experiment, to iterate, to own their work.

Right now, AI is both a shiny promise and a messy reality. Organisations are at wildly different stages on their AI journeys. And many are still unsure how to design work that genuinely delivers productivity. Gatherings like AgileAus help move us beyond hype to grounded conversations about implementation: How are teams using generative AI? What’s working? What’s not? Where are the blockers? How are we embedding AI into workflows in ways that are useful, ethical, and human?

Natalie Field, CEO of .id (informed decisions) and a past AgileAus speaker, recently warned that we’re at risk of losing the learning curve altogether. As AI accelerates, the foundational experiences that help people build judgment, context, and leadership are vanishing. Entry-level roles are disappearing, and people aren’t getting the exposure they need to grow into the roles we say we want them to fill. No amount of clever tooling can replace the tacit knowledge and culture-building that happens person to person. Tools don’t grow trust. People do.

That’s why I believe in-person gatherings are a valuable part of building our learning curves. Whether it’s a brown-bag lunch or a national conference, these IRL occasions give people a chance to try out their voice, hear other perspectives, and realise they’re not alone in the challenges they face.

Natalie Field poses a powerful question: How are you and your organisation balancing AI-driven productivity with capability development? The answers may live in those trust-filled exchanges found at gatherings that prioritise sharing: “Here’s what we tried,” and “Here’s what we’d do differently next time.”

Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh made a similar point in his speech, The Progressive Productivity Agenda:

“Productivity is not an abstraction—it’s the sum of what individuals can contribute, adapt to, and create. When we invest in people, we invest in productivity.”

So if we’re serious about being more productive, about delivering value to our customers and communities, we have to invest in people. That means making space for conversations, for learning, for gathering.

You can read the Hon Andrew Leigh MP Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury’s speech – The Progressive Productivity Agenda – here:
https://www.andrewleigh.com/speech_the_progressive_productivity_agenda

Natalie Field, CEO, Informed Decisions shared what she had written in their newsletter on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7343796294735273987/