Today on the Take On Board podcast, I'm speaking with Jaala Pulford about setting up a new statutory authority, scale an organization or scope, and having to manage staffing changes quickly.

Jaala chairs MTPConnect and the Children's Cancer Foundation. She's a non-executive director with several growth stage companies and the Tech Council of Australia. A member of parliament from 2006 to 2022, Jaala was Victoria's first female agricultural minister. Between 2014 and 2022, she held ministerial portfolios including roads, employment, innovation, and fishing.

Jaala lives in Ballarat. She loves scuba diving. She totally loves scuba diving. There's photos of it everywhere. Uh, she loves travel and having the time to read.

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Jalaa on LinkedIn

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Today, on the Take on Board podcast, I would like to talk to you about reclaiming your white space and why total downtime might actually be a fiduciary duty.

Let me give you a bit of the context. So I'm about to embark on a two-week holiday and will be off the grid. I'm doing the Larapinta Trail hike in Central Australia. It's about 250 kilometers over 14 days. There's no internet, there's no computer. Because I'm going with a group, there are actually no decisions for me to make. Someone's gonna tell me what time to get up, they're gonna tell me what direction to walk in, uh, there'll probably be somebody at the front where I can just follow.

As someone who feels like they are always "on," I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities of taking a break like this. I'll report back about what I learned during this unplugging when I am back. Until then, enjoy and try to carve out some white space for yourself.

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This week on the Take on Board podcast, Karen Tisdell is back for this Take on Board event. Karen responded to questions from the Take on Board community about how to use your LinkedIn profile to get the maximum benefit whether it's for a job search or getting traction with a post, Karen is the insider you want to hear from.

So key highlights: How much of your experience should you include, using LinkedIn for board roles, approaching people to expand your network and engaging with recruiters.

Karen has been a guest on the podcast before you can listen here:

Episode 160: Karen Tisdell on LinkedIn for board members, tips and tricks for being recruited and networking

Episode 353: Karen Tisdell wants to help you maximise your LinkedIn profile

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I wanted to take you inside a scenario that leaves even the most seasoned corporate directors in a cold sweat. The dilemma is this: you’ve just landed your first board seat and are immediately faced with a time-sensitive request for approval of a massive acquisition that the rest of the board has been debating for six months, yet it’s completely new to you.

I attended a masterclass on governance hosted by Pioneer Collective, where we broke down this exact challenge. The group initially split between directors who would abstain due to fiduciary duty and those who would request a softer mid-meeting intervention for a quick 5-10-minute background. Many noted that the surprise vote is a major red flag, potentially indicating a failure of board culture, and that the correct move might be to pull the chair aside to take the vote off the table.

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 Today on the Take On Board Podcast, I'm speaking with Malini Raj about how boards stay connected with the people that they serve.

 Malini is on the boards of The Parenthood, Entertainment for Change, and the Settlement Council of Australia. She's previously been on the boards of the Australian Pituitary Foundation and FinSIA. Malini is the executive director of Australian Multicultural Women's Alliance.

She brings over 20 years' experience across financial services, corporate, and the not-for-profit sector, and serves on several national boards that I've already mentioned. She's a strong advocate for inclusive leadership, gender equality, and greater representation of multicultural women in governance and decision-making.

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Malini on LinkedIn

Spotlight on Cultural Diversity - Women on Boards

How WOB is working to get more diverse women on boards

WORKING TO GET MORE DIVERSE WOMEN ON BOARDS (Page 26 - 27)

Counting Culture

Social Impact and Board Roles

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Today on the Take on Board podcast, I share key takeaways from a WorkSafe Victoria event, “Hearts, Minds, and Improving Your Business,” featuring Professor Lea Waters on the neuroscience and business impacts of psychological safety in the workplace.

I explain the difference between psychological health and harm, including how each affects thinking, decision-making, behavior, and workplace outcomes like profitability, turnover, innovation, and incidents. I also outline four pillars boards should oversee: work design, work management, workflow systems, and workplace environment, and the hazards and protections that sit under them.

I highlight why this matters for boards, including that, in Victoria, psychological health is now legislatively on par with physical safety, and I suggest practical board actions such as reviewing risk registers, resourcing, and boardroom psychological safety.

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WorkSafe Victoria

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Today on the Take on Board podcast, Sarah Federman joins me to talk about "corporate reckoning," which she defines as the process of finding a way back and healing massive, irreparable harm that organizations have caused in the past. I was keen to dive into how organizations, many of which in Australia have reckoning to do around issues like stolen land or people, can address their inherited legacies.

Sarah shared that the temptation is to defensively hand these issues over to legal or PR teams, but this can make things worse. Instead, I learned that the whole board needs to be involved, acknowledging that they have inherited both the good and the bad from their predecessors. A great example is The Guardian, which set up a 10-year restorative plan after discovering its founding money came from slave owners.

We also discussed her powerful idea of having a literal or metaphorical "seat for the past" at the board table. This spot, which could be filled by a historian or descendant, allows the board to step back from present-day concerns and consider their long-term legacy and how they will be remembered. Ultimately, the work is ongoing, hard, and should be restorative, not punitive, to strengthen the company's integrity.

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Sarah on LinkedIn

Sarah Federman's Website

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This week, I’m sharing a short, focused solo episode on board inductions. I’ve been having numerous conversations with board chairs and directors, as well as with my own board, regarding this topic, especially since we have some new board directors joining soon.

I’d like to share some ideas for creating an effective induction process. Like anything else, the best induction is tailored to your organisation. I’ll go through various ideas I've been discussing with others and have encountered. Feel free to take inspiration from these suggestions if they resonate with you.

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Board induction checklist

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