MKI Political Leadership Model

Our approach to professional development is based on the best evidence of how politicians learn and what they need to know to be effective.

We integrate research, education and practice, offering participants direct access to a globally-recognised faculty, including policy and political leaders.

Our aim is to help ministers develop the knowledge and insights to assess a situation in real time and take appropriate action. We do this by helping them build a set of skills (outer circle) and mindsets (inner circle).

Our approach to leading change is underpinned by the notion that we achieve collective outcomes by working well with others and rolling with events.

We support politicians to develop critical qualities such as humility, collaboration, process management and the ability to think and act in the face of complexity, uncertainty and contestation. In particular, we focus on:

• Courage

• Empathy

• Situational awareness

• Persuasive communications and

• Curiosity

An ability to reflect and act on one’s own values and motivations, and awareness of how one works and thinks, is a critical foundation for better planning, better relationships and collaborative problem solving. Our courses focus on developing skills to support:

• A sense of self/purpose

• Prioritisation

• Developing and executing an agenda

• Developing and recognising temperament

• Ethics and integrity

This, above all else, is what the public wants government to do.

We develop in learners an understanding of the characteristics of the big policy, societal and democratic challenges of our time, and explore the stewardship role that this demands of our leaders. Our courses focus on developing skills to support:

• Sound judgement

• Problem framing

• Navigational capacity

• Data and evidence literacy and

• Adapting with implementation

Developing productive partnerships with the right people expands our collective bandwidth, grows our collective capability, and builds the social and political support we need to implement and sustain change.

We offer frameworks and a range of tools that can assist in the when, who and how of partnering well. Our courses focus on developing skills to support:

• Emotional intelligence

• Collaboration

• Negotiation

• Building relationships and networks

• Working with public sector.

Australian politicians are creatures of its democratic institutions. They lead change through those institutions, are shaped by them and, in turn, shape them.

Leaders’ behaviours and practices, and the standards they set, contribute to the stock of legitimacy, credibility and trust of our institutions. We encourage our learners to maximise the impact of their work by not just achieving their immediate policy goals, but by doing so in a way that invigorates our democratic institutions, and helps them adapt to meet evolving challenges.

Leading is learning. The most successful politicians throughout history are those that have shown the ability to evolve, adapt and learn from their mistakes.

Yet few professional environments are more hostile to learning than politics. Changing one’s position is seen as weak, to admit you don’t know the answer is to hand ammunition to your enemies, and the frequency of reshuffles and elections makes it difficult to build a base of expertise in any one area.

Our programs foster an approach to learning as an intentional practice strengthened through practice, encouraging an openness to feedback and a willingness to seek help from others.