Jessica Kriegel’s TED talk, “The counterintuitive secret of leadership,” lands on an idea that feels deeply relevant to the NDIS right now: the pursuit of control can hold teams back.
That matters because reform often triggers a control response.
More forms.
More approvals.
More rules.
More checking.
More distance between leaders and the work.
Some of that may be necessary. The NDIS absolutely needs stronger safeguards, better oversight and higher standards. The government has specifically identified fraud, non-compliance, exploitation and harm as issues that undermine the social licence of the scheme.
But control alone does not create quality.
Quality comes from culture.
It comes from whether staff understand what good support looks like when no one is watching. It comes from whether leaders have created the conditions for honesty, learning and reflection. It comes from whether participants are treated as people with goals, dignity and agency—not as units of service delivery.
At Life Your Way, we are not trying to build a business where every human interaction is scripted. That would be impossible, and frankly, it would miss the point.
We are trying to build a culture where staff can exercise judgement inside a strong values framework.
That means investing in:
training, but also reflection
policies, but also conversation
risk management, but also trust
compliance, but also purpose
The danger for providers during reform is that we mistake control for leadership.
Control asks, “How do I stop people from getting it wrong?”
Adaptive culture asks, “How do I help people understand what right looks like, even when the situation changes?”
That is the work.
Practical takeaway:
Do not respond to reform by only adding control. Strengthen culture at the same time. Ask whether your staff can explain not just what your policies say, but why they matter.
Here’s the link to Jessica Kriegel’s TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT_1qlY8BO8
