Programme
Our Programme
8th May 2025, 9am - 2.30pm, online via Zoom
9.00am | Welcome
Te Radar, Master of Ceremonies
Welcome to our 18th HR Virtual Summit – Shaping Workplace Culture: From Discovery to Transformation. It is my pleasure to be your host today as we explore how to identify, understand, and shape workplace culture, moving from discovery to meaningful change. Through expert insights, interactive discussions, and real-world case studies, we’ll equip you with the tools to drive cultural transformation in your organization. Let’s get started!
9.05am | Opening Keynote: The Power of Culture – Why Workplace DNA Matters
Kickstart Your HR Virtual Summit Experience with Kirsten Patterson (KP), CEO, Institute of Directors
Culture isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the DNA of every organisation, shaping employee engagement, performance, and long-term success. In this opening keynote, Kirsten Patterson (KP) will set the stage for the day, exploring why workplace culture matters more than ever.
KP will lead a thought-provoking discussion, offering:
- Insights into how culture drives productivity, innovation, and retention.
- The critical link between leadership, culture, and business success.
Start your summit journey with inspiration and fresh perspectives—because a thriving culture starts with intentional leadership.
Stream One: Understanding Influencing Factors
Dive into the internal forces—such as industry trends, leadership dynamics, and societal shifts—that shape culture. Learn strategies to navigate and adapt to uncontrollable influences.
9.40am | Why culture perception is the internal make-or-break component of optimising your company culture.
Michael Henderson, Corporate Anthropologist and Co-Founder Cultures at Work
In this insightful and interactive session, Corporate Anthropologist Michael Henderson will unpack how an organisation's internal perspective of culture is often the handbrake to optimising the culture's contribution to the business and how to realign this perception for success.
- Why 92% of organisations never reach their full potential due to the internal culture perspective.
- What are the consequences of a misconceived cultural perspective?
- How can H.R. teams recalibrate their internal perceptions of culture to optimise their contribution to the business?
10.20am | Morning Tea
Stream Two: Discovering Workplace Culture
Explore techniques to uncover and analyse your organisation's cultural DNA. Gain insights into how culture impacts employee engagement, performance, and overall success.
10.50am | What the Best Workplaces Do Differently: Lessons in Leadership and Trust
Rebecca Moulynox, General Manager, Great Place to Work, Australia & New Zealand
What sets great workplaces apart isn’t just policy or perks—it’s the everyday experience of trust, purpose, and meaningful leadership. In this session, we’ll explore what we can learn from consistently high-performing organisations, with a focus on the leadership behaviours and cultural practices that create thriving, resilient teams.
Grounded in real-world examples and employee feedback, this discussion will unpack how the best leaders build trust, listen with intent, and act on what they hear. We’ll examine how employee voice can be a catalyst for change when paired with leadership accountability, and how small shifts in approach can lead to big cultural impact. Attendees will leave with practical insights to strengthen trust, lift engagement, and lead in a way that positively shapes the employee experience.
11.25am | Workshop: Diagnosing your workplace culture
Georgia Murch, Founder, Can We Talk, a business committed to building workplace cultures where people thrive, will lead a hands-on workshop to help you assess and diagnose your organisation's culture.
Culture is lived through all levels of an organisation and it is modelled from the top. We know this. What we are less clear on is what are the key levers to create amazing workplaces. And the impact they have in the workplace. When we have competing priorities, a complex workforce and a challenging economy it's super important to be clear on what really matters.
Georgia's session will help you be clearer. After this session you will:
- Understand the 7 key pillars that contribute to workplace culture
- Diagnose the areas that need attention and those that we can amplify
- Become a little more aware of the role we play in helping or hindering
Georgia Murch has been in the dance of building better cultures and growing better humans for over 25 years now. She’s also led teams and businesses so she understands the complexity of people and the workplace.
12.25pm | Lunch Break
Stream Three: Creating and Leading Cultural Change Programs
Get hands-on tools and strategies to design and lead effective cultural transformation initiatives. From goal-setting to stakeholder engagement and communication, you'll leave equipped to turn cultural vision into reality.
1.15pm | The Host Mindset: How HR Professionals Can Create Conditions for Culture Change
Digby Scott, trusted mentor, guide, and catalyst for leaders and change-makers will challenge long-held assumptions and provide practical frameworks for becoming effective change agents.
Culture change isn't a programme with a beginning, middle, and end—it occurs within a complex ecosystem where HR professionals must navigate what can and can’t be changed. In this provocative session, Digby Scott challenges the conventional "hero" mindset that leads many HR practitioners to implement culture change initiatives that don't address the deeper, unchangeable aspects of organisational culture.
Drawing on the metaphor that "you are traffic"—both part of the system and limited in your ability to change it—Digby introduces a "host" orientation that focuses on the vital 20% where real impact is possible. Attendees will leave with a transformative perspective on their role: not as drivers of culture change programmes, but as curious observers, insightful facilitators, and cultivators of possibility.
This session will challenge long-held assumptions about HR's relationship to organisational culture and provide practical frameworks for becoming effective change agents who nurture rather than impose, listen before acting, and focus on the possibilities that matter most.
1.55pm | Panel Session: From Vision to Reality
Facilitated by Te Radar with the following Panelists:
Gil Sewell, Kaihautū Tikanga | Chief People & Culture Officer at Ember Korowai Takitini
Barbara Daxenberger | People and Culture Director, Tonkin + Taylor
Jolene Harford | Head of Employment Relations, NZ Post
Transforming workplace culture is no small feat—it requires vision, commitment, and the ability to navigate challenges along the way.
In this insightful panel session, our experienced HR leaders will share their journeys in leading successful cultural transformation initiatives, covering:
- Real World Stories - hear firsthand accounts of cultural change in action, from initial challenges to measurable impact.
- Key Lessons Learned – Discover the strategies that worked, the obstacles encountered and the pivotal moments that shaped the outcomes.
- Practical Takeaways – Gain actionable insights into what it takes to engage leadership, foster employee buy-in, and sustain cultural shifts.
Facilitated by Te Radar, this engaging discussion will bring together the experiences of HR leaders who has successfully integrated people-first strategies into organisational culture. Expect a dynamic and thought-provoking conversation providing insights and strategies to turn vision into reality along with practical knowledge to drive meaningful change in your own workplace.
2.35pm | Wrap up and End