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Articles by David Schmidtchen
Beware the watermelon: Green on paper, red in reality
On September 1, 2004, those responsible for Britain’s Nimrod reconnaissance fleet were asked whether its new safety case was complete. The contractor presented it as finished, without mentioning that more than 40% of identified hazards remained ‘open’ and more than 30% ‘unclassified’. One engineer said he could not support completion because he had not seen the key documents.
Frank and Fearless 2026: Leaders are borrowing against the future
If you have spent time in a large institution, you will recognise a particular kind of tiredness or fatigue. It’s not burnout or disengagement. There is simply a flatness to the atmosphere. People still turn up, still care about the work, and still do more than their job description requires. But they feel their effort isn’t leading anywhere, and it isn’t improving the overall outcome.
What have we learned from APS redundancy programs?
Across the Australian Public Service this year, at least 17 federal agencies have run voluntary redundancy rounds. The Department of Home Affairs approved 679 departures from nearly 2,000 expressions of interest. The Department of Social Services paid out roughly $26.6 million, including packages for nearly 150 middle managers. The Department of Education nearly tripled its redundancy numbers from the previous year. The APS treats voluntary redundancy as a budget management tool.
Development without consequences isn’t development
Young people are often asked to demonstrate readiness before they are trusted with responsibility. The harder institutional question is whether readiness can be known without giving them consequential work in the first place. Early on a Saturday morning across Australia, people watched 18-year-old Lucas Herrington play 120 minutes against Mohamed Salah, one of the pre-eminent players of his generation.
What working from home is really telling us
Lately, I’ve sat through a few presentations from senior business leaders, chief executives of major companies, and chairs of national and international boards. The insights into business trends are often useful. But I’ve noticed when the conversation turns, as it often does, to declining national productivity and the role of working from home (WFH), assertion tends to take the place of evidence.
‘Tactical slacking’ and the loss of hope
Modern work is increasingly discussed as if it has become a theatre of effort: people perform busyness, organisations reward appearances, and the link between contribution and recognition grows harder to see. That perception has helped make workplace alienation one of the defining anxieties of contemporary employment. In 2013, anthropologist David Graeber gave that anxiety a memorable name.
The effort paradox at the heart of AI productivity
According to Greek myth, Sisyphus, as writer Robert Graves tells us, “always lived by robbery and often murdered unsuspecting travellers”. He is condemned to roll a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down to the bottom every time he reaches the top. An eternity of futile labour was his punishment. Despite his endless, futile labour, the writer and philosopher Albert Camus famously portrayed Sisyphus as happy.
Why AI output is always a map, never a territory
As exposure increases, our anxieties about AI continue to bubble to the surface. We worry about the atrophy of judgment through disuse; about the decline in our individual and collective understanding as AI prompting replaces comprehension; and about becoming passive overseers of systems that make decisions at speeds beyond our capacity to comprehend, using information we can’t verify. The patterns of our worries about technology are old.
Transformation without imagination is only reorganisation
Leaders have become masterful at initiating organisational ‘transformation’, ‘reform’, or ‘change’, but as the results often show, less successful at delivering on the promise. There is a common pattern in large-scale organisational reform that most insiders would recognise. A problem is identified. A structural solution is planned — often a new organisation, a consolidated function, or a revised accountability framework.
The catastrophic threat of unmanaged AI drift
In 1960, the mathematician Norbert Wiener published the short essay Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation. In it, he warned that automated systems do exactly what they are told, and that this is precisely the danger. Human beings, he observed, are often unreliable in understanding or clearly defining their true desires. Once out of the bottle, the genie obeys the letter of the wish, not its spirit. By the time you notice the difference, the consequences may already be irreversible.
Trust, fatalism, and the fragility of Australia’s social fabric
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare provides an insight into what many people see and experience. Social cohesion in Australia is declining. The AIHW, in its usual thorough manner, reports that since 2021, Australians have become more pessimistic about their own future and that of Australia. Trust in others has decreased, community connections have weakened, and feelings of national identity and financial satisfaction are at historic lows.
Rebuilding Defence capability begins with rebuilding the bureaucracy
The Albanese government’s announcement of a new Defence Delivery Agency is presented as a structural reform: merging three major acquisition and sustainment groups, establishing a new national armaments director, and clarifying ministerial accountability. It comes amid record peacetime defence expenditure and a pressing strategic environment. The reasoning is simple: as the nation invests billions, we need to develop the processes to deliver capability more quickly, reliably, and cost-effectively.
Navigating the leadership gauntlet, part 3: Why bureaucracy (again) will decide the shape of 2026
Every year, analysts forecast the forces that will shape the future — technology, geopolitics, markets, demographics. We seldom check back to see if their predictions held true. These forecasts highlight the pressures coming our way but overlook the systems that absorb and adapt to them. In essence, they focus on the weather rather than the terrain that influences it. To understand 2026, we need to focus on something calmer and more definitive than headline trends: bureaucracy.
Navigating the leadership gauntlet, part 2: 2026, the year leaders mistake movement for progress
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that modern organisations rarely name. It is not simply overwork. It is the fatigue of constant change without visible transformation. According to Gallup’s Wellbeing Index, the percentage of the Australian workforce who consider themselves ‘thriving’ is steadily declining. In Gallup’s framework, thriving is not happiness in a narrow emotional sense.
Navigating the leadership gauntlet, part 1: 2026 will test judgment
January is traditionally a month for setting resolutions and making forecasts. We often craft optimistic narratives about achieving great things this year. Leaders will acknowledge that the world and markets are becoming increasingly complex, but technology will offset uncertainty, analytics will reduce ambiguity, and artificial intelligence will help us navigate challenges that once felt overwhelming. In 2026, I wonder how long it will take for that story to feel thin.
The price of admission: Belonging after America’s values break
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that he had become solitary because “the most desolate solitude seems preferable to the society of wicked men, which is nourished only by betrayals and hatred”. Rousseau was describing more than loneliness. He was describing a moral atmosphere: a social world that is contaminated because the bond that holds it together is not trust but treachery. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has recently offered a similar diagnosis at the global level.
Who buys the most thoughtful presents: Poet, economist, or public servant?
As Christmas nears, bringing a month of excessive advertising and guilt-driven personal excess, it might be time for a quiet rebellion on how we approach the gift-giving season. We could remind ourselves that thoughtful gift-giving involves noticing and paying attention to others. Christmas gift-giving now feels like an elaborate social test. An annual check on how well we have paid attention to the people we say we care about.
Why bureaucracy matters, part 6: Bureaucracy then, now… next
As David Graeber notes in The Utopia of Rules, the term bureaucrat has become a synonym for a ‘civil servant’. During a press conference in 1986, Ronald Reagan expressed a common concern about government bureaucracy: “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The television series Yes, Minister brilliantly cemented this view in the minds of a generation.
Why bureaucracy matters, part 5: The indispensable knowledge machine
What if we stopped treating bureaucracies as dysfunctional engines of red tape and started seeing them as institutions that make knowledge? What if they provide us with the sort of situational knowledge that helps us tell truth from noise? When exaggerated claims about “mass migration” circulated, Australia’s chief statistician, David Gruen, stepped forward to clarify what the ABS figures do (and do not) show.
Why bureaucracy matters, part 4: Living in the paper labyrinth
What does bureaucracy feel like from the inside? Harriet Martineau imagined bureaucracy as a logical, humane alternative to the fragmentation of local governance. To her, centralisation offered fairness, consistency, and compassion through skilled administration. Charles Dickens, on the other hand, saw bureaucracy as a farcical, self-perpetuating machine that overwhelmed ordinary people with red tape and empty rituals. Both were right; bureaucracy can both protect and harm.
Why bureaucracy matters, part 3: Bureaucracy’s ink-stained soul
Bureaucracy has always been a part of us and always will be. The metaphor of record-keeping is common in religion. Our sins and judgment are portrayed as an impartial, bureaucratic audit of lives. Our deeds are recorded in two ledgers, with the final tally determining our eternal fate. The image of a soul being audited combines the structure of bureaucracy (fair, impartial, and evidence-based) with its personal outcomes (responsibility and accountability).
Why bureaucracy matters, part 2: Productivity = investment + bureaucracy
As media attention on the government’s Economic Reform Roundtable subsides, the APS faces the challenge of implementing reforms with a shrinking budget. Policies, strategies, and plans need development, consultation, workshops, and refinement into practical solutions. Regulations require review, streamlining, harmonisation, and reduction. Tax incentives will be introduced, labour supply expanded, and emerging technologies embraced.
Why bureaucracy matters, part 1: Public service craft has a bureaucratic future
Whenever we hear the word bureaucracy, our thoughts are rarely positive. We picture red tape, inefficiency, and bloated systems. It’s a common shorthand for everything that’s wrong with big institutions, especially in government. However, like all stereotypes, it’s an oversimplification that promotes opinion over evidence. Research and public servants’ experience provide a more nuanced view.
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New procurement rules: The trouble with assessing ethical conduct
The government’s inclusion of a mandatory ‘ethical conduct’ clause in the Commonwealth Procurement Rules will cause public servants to sigh heavily and spur the executives in multinational consulting firms to reiterate their commitment to ethical practice. In a market that is already highly competitive, these executives will likely pay much closer attention to the rule that ‘only Australian businesses be invited for tender for government contracts below $125,000’.
AI adoption in the shadow of robodebt
AI is set to become an essential part of public service governance and decision-making. Across Australia and worldwide, governments are grappling with how to effectively utilise AI to boost efficiency, expand capacity, and deliver services at the fast pace communities now expect. For the APS, AI offers more than just automation; it presents an opportunity to rethink how the public service learns, makes decisions, and acts in real time.
Wonder, boredom, and technological forgetting
I recently flew from Sydney to London on an Airbus A380. It was a long trip, but nothing out of the ordinary. I settled into my seat, browsed the entertainment system, and endured the usual mix of mild discomfort and distraction that characterises modern air travel. While I was gliding through the stratosphere in a 560-tonne machine, 12 kilometres above the Earth, at nearly 1,000 kilometres per hour, I wondered why I wasn’t surprised by the whole situation.
Rethinking institutional reform, part 4: Organisational change norms, conformity, and dissent
Conformity masquerading as consensus is one of the most persistent and invisible forces shaping organisational life. It operates through expectation and unspoken agreements about what can be said, what must be ignored, and who is allowed to speak. This essay, the fourth in the series, examines how norms emerge, how they hinder change, and what kind of leadership is necessary to preserve the space where dissent and clarity can coexist.
Rethinking institutional reform, part 3: Who should lead organisational change?
Revolutions don’t start in the boardroom. They begin with discomfort, dissent, and the quiet refusal to obey. So why do we still expect organisational change to be driven by those at the top? Perhaps the clearest sign that reform is necessary is when people start to withdraw. Not loudly, not with anger, but quietly, subtly, and consistently. The great resignation of the pandemic, the follow-on behaviour of quiet quitting, and the persistent decline in workforce engagement are all signs of withdrawal.
Rethinking institutional reform, part 2: Leading on unstable ground
Why do so many transformation efforts fail, even when well-planned? Well, because organisations are complex socio-technical systems, and most leadership frameworks teach leaders to acknowledge but ignore the messy reality of organisational life.
Rethinking institutional reform, part 1: When systems fail, who has the right to fix them, and what does it cost?
Technological, political, and cultural pressures are destabilising Australia’s institutions. Internally, the need for reform is recognised. However, as the Vice Chief of the Defence Force (VCDF) recently stated at the recent Defence and Industry Conference, the preference is for ‘evolution not revolution’. This phrase is commonly used by senior leaders. It signifies stability, continuity, and gradual change.
The quiet courage of frank and fearless leadership
When truth becomes dangerous, what kind of leadership remains possible? Today, it seems truth is optional, facts are dismissed as ‘fake news’, history is rewritten to serve the few, and leaders speak in slogans. In an era where appearance is valued more than authenticity, the frank and fearless public servant can seem like a relic of a gentler and distant time. Australia has, for now, rejected the ‘truth is optional’ worldview in government.
It’s only a poor institutional memory that works backwards
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” ~The White Queen, Through the Looking-Glass In government, learning from the past is a ritualised expectation. Royal commissions, integrity inquiries, and lessons-learned reviews all signal the enduring faith in reflection as a path to reform.
Conquest’s Third Law and the quiet resistance of institutional reform
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made it clear: Australia’s second-term economic agenda hinges on reviving productivity growth. “The first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity; the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.” While productivity is often framed in economic terms, another aspect that sometimes gets overlooked is the institutional systems through which national capability is delivered.
The importance of hope in a cynical age
Hope for the future remains central to the political imaginations of most Australians. Australians aspire to higher living standards, increased respect from others in society, better-paying jobs, durable physical infrastructure, enduring safety and security, and responsive government action to social problems. Hope is both an individual and a collective property of society. Hope and hope-making intertwine Australia’s broader social, cultural, and economic processes.
The illusion of precision: How election polls shape (and mislead) voters
Election polls are a staple of modern political campaigns. We are assaulted by competing polls offering a glimpse into the future fortunes of political parties and candidates. The effects of politicians’ campaign successes and gaffes are presented in mystifying charts, and commentary focused on shifts into positive and negative ‘territory’. To the untrained eye, the percentage point variance often seems marginal and not deserving of the accompanying feverish commentary.
The democracy sausage and the complex psychology of voting
In 2016, the Australian Word of the Year was ‘democracy sausage’, beating out other contenders such as ‘census fail’ and ‘smashed avo’. Defined, with the detachment of lexicographers, a democracy sausage is a ‘barbecued sausage served on a slice of bread, bought at a polling booth sausage sizzle on election day’.
The illusion of efficiency: Why downsizing the public service won’t fix bureaucracy
A curtain of pessimistic fatalism descends on the Australian public as it enters the febrile atmosphere of a federal election. The community braces itself for five weeks of performative politics, perfectly summed up by The Shovel: “I’m not sure I’ve got it in me to give a shit. Just fast-forward to the bit where I can get a sausage in bread.” The public service was once again central to the guerrilla encounters between politicians leading up to the election announcement.
The illusion of authority: Why return-to-office mandates fail
The NSW government’s service-wide ‘workplace presence’ policy may have seemed like a good idea at the time. It wasn’t. The premier might have believed he was in good company when the idea was presented. Globally, notable leaders in the tech and finance sectors were contemplating and behaving similarly. What could go wrong if Elon Musk believed getting people back to the office was a brilliant idea?
The fragile power of charisma
Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2026, 30% of workers will use ‘digital charisma filters’ to achieve previously unattainable career advancements. Before interacting with someone, consult AI for suggestions to improve your phrasing, tone, and body language. During the meeting, AI provides nudges to help you maintain eye contact and regulate your speech pace. Afterwards, AI offers feedback on effectiveness, including sentiment analysis and recommendations for improvement.
The power of emotion in leadership: Why authenticity matters in public service
We are in a time when leadership arrogance has become more prevalent. Political and business leaders frequently assert that they know what’s best for others and act as if they are free from legal constraints or social norms in chasing their objectives. The portrayal of leadership is warped by misinformation, rendering the truth hard to discern and authenticity tough to assess. Public service leaders are uncomfortably positioned at the heart of this leadership crisis.
Embrace your inner imposter
Have you ever felt like a fraud, thinking your success is a fluke or a ticking time bomb before you’re discovered? In the 1970s, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes introduced the concept of impostor syndrome, which describes that uneasy feeling of not measuring up. It can lead to self-doubt about your skills and accomplishments, making you worry that you’ll be exposed as a fraud.
Does AI promote human creativity or encourage social loafing?
In 1995, Jeremy Rifkin published The End of Work. In it, he argued that as computing power became cheaper and more powerful, designing and building new types of machines controlled by miniature electronic ‘brains’ became possible. Rifkin drew international attention to technology automation, human displacement, and the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.
Vengeance Most Fowl: An AI warning
As we transitioned from 2024 to 2025, Feathers McGraw, an unsettling villain and master of disguise, returned. In Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, he proves that his desire for revenge for the events of The Wrong Trousers is strong. Feathers’ tool for this mission is Norbot, an AI-powered garden gnome created by Wallace to free Gromit from the supposed tedium of gardening.
Leaders, leadership and time are entangled
Time is an assumed and, consequently, unexplored dimension of leadership. Time is present in our leadership discussions but is discussed through proxies. The epidemic of busyness plaguing organisations is a proxy discussion about time. It is implicit in our action-orientated leadership narratives that shape the future and the tools we use to plan, manage, and decide in the present. Our assumptions draw on an implicit, hidden, human-centred view of time.
Aspiring to evidence-based policy: The curious case of hybrid working
Eliminating remote work is a theme of leadership among business leaders. Amazon’s chief executive, Andy Jassy, sent a message that delightfully begins, ‘Hey team’, but goes on to demand that all employees return to the office five days a week. Jassy’s directive is in line with those of Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs.
When leaders fall silent
It was one of those meetings you recognise before entering the room, where consultation is just a performance. The decision is made; your input is for show. The leader beams with positivity, painting a future so rosy that it denies reality. You nod, knowing that if reality slips into the room, it will be dismissed as irrelevant pessimism. You speak about small, safe things, careful not to disrupt the script.
What even is a ‘cybersecurity profession’?
The past 10 years have seen a quiet but persistent conversation about the future of professions. But we live in a post-truth world, where politicians and the media continue to wage a war on science and expertise. The democratisation of knowledge ensures that ‘Dr Google’ is the first call for any medical diagnosis. Our core life skill is wading through misinformation, and expertise has taken a battering.
Cultivating an eye for beauty in the business of public service
article-body We are not short on predictions for the future. Plenty of self-styled futurists tell us about the future of work, entertainment or retail. Technologists predict that embracing AI will improve our lives, while others warn that Terminator is about to appear in our backyards. To this, we can add the anxiety-inducing existential threats to climate, social cohesion and democracy. Against this background, the future of public service might seem the least interesting of our pressing concerns.
The soft skills revolution: Do we know what we are talking about?
It’s not hard to find a statistic showing that soft skills are essential. When things go wrong, say 89% of recruiters, it’s down to a lack of soft skills. Sagely, 57% of leaders say that soft skills are more important than hard skills. The demand for soft skills has increased over the past five years, according to 83% of HR professionals.
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