Virtual event
The Policy Playbook: Delivering Impact in Complex Systems
Exclusively for public servants and policymakers
Thursday, Apr 9, 2026
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Speakers
What to do next
- Catch up on the 10-minute highlights above or dive into the full recording
- Join the the Global Policymaking Community
- Check out our upcoming event Futures Thinking Fundamentals for Busy Public Servants
Resources
- Event Transcript
- The Policy Playbook by Suhit Anantula, Catherine Althaus and Pia Andrews
Join the Global Policymaking Community
The Global Policymaking Community is an online space for policy practitioners worldwide to explore, develop and implement flexible policies that adapt to changing needs and disruptions.
Event Description
What if policy wasn’t a document, but a living practice?
Why do bold, people-centred policies so often fall short in the systems meant to deliver them? And what can public servants do to close the gap between great ideas and lasting impact? In this panel event with the co-authors of The Policy Playbook, we’ll explore what it really takes to make policy work across levels, departments and time.
This session will bring together insights from practice, research and government to unpack the real-world journey of policy: how it’s shaped, adapted, challenged and delivered in complex systems. You’ll gain tested approaches for navigating uncertainty, designing policy around human behaviour and sustaining momentum in systems that resist change.
Drawing on the panel’s decades of reform experience, this session provides the practical toolkit you need to move beyond policy intent and achieve measurable real-world impact.
Image Credit: Unsplash
Speakers
Catherine Althaus
Professor at UNSW Canberra and Co-author
Australia
Pia Andrews
Serial Public Sector Reformer
Australia
Suhit Anantula
Architect of Co-Intelligent Organisations and Co-author
Australia
Catherine Althaus, who is a Professor at the School of Business (UNSW Canberra) and a Founding Director at the Academy of Adaptive Leadership at UNSW. Catherine is also a Extraordinary Professor (University of Pretoria), ANZSOG Distinguished Fellow, and Honorary Fellow (South Asian Network of Public Administration). A former Queensland public servant and Director, School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, she works at the intersection of practice and scholarship focusing on leadership, policymaking and public administration specialising across Indigenous and non-Indigenous wisdoms and trauma-informed contributions at the global and local levels. Catherine is a University Medallist, Australia Day Medal awardee for services provided through Queensland Treasury, and an award-winning academic, executive coach, adviser and facilitator.
Pia Andrews, a serial public sector transformer and reformer, usually working within the machine to drive adaptive policy management, policy infrastructure, participatory governance, high trust and legitimate systems and operating models (inc AI), citizen-centric design, service agility and real, pragmatic continuous innovation in the public sector and beyond. She is on a mission to transform public sectors to be more humane, adaptive and impactful in the 21st century, at the speed of continuous change, public trust and perpetual urgency.
Suhit Anantula, a strategy designer working at the intersection of policy, design, and innovation. He has helped governments and organisations navigate complexity across Australia, leading initiatives from South Australia's mission-driven economic strategy to federal design-led policymaking programs. As founder of The Helix Lab and author of The Helix Moment, he explores how leaders can reimagine strategy and policy as adaptive systems in the age of AI.
