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Dementia Australia

Leadership Training
Chat to us about a bespoke program

Driving Better Performance Conversations

Performance conversations have the power to strengthen trust, accountability, and growth – but only when leaders have the confidence and capability to navigate them well. Following an internal review, Dementia Australia identified an opportunity to better equip leaders with the practical skills needed to deliver meaningful feedback and drive lasting behavioural change.

In collaboration with Pragmatic Thinking, the Performance Conversations program was born – a tailored leadership experience combining practical tools, behavioural science, and communication frameworks. Delivered across six cohorts of National Managers and Team Leaders, the program gave leaders the confidence to prepare for, navigate and follow up on difficult conversations more effectively.

We'll let the results speak for themselves

90+

leaders across three levels engaged

73

NPS score

59%

of leaders reported being extremely confident in performance conversations, up from just 13% before the program

The Challenge

Performance conversations aren’t just about managing performance—they’re about building trust, accountability, and stronger leaders.

Dementia Australia recognised that while leaders cared deeply about supporting their people, difficult performance conversations were often delayed or avoided altogether. More than half of leaders admitted postponing at least one feedback conversation because it felt uncomfortable, and only 13% felt highly confident in their ability to hold conversations that resulted in lasting behavioural change.

Beyond individual confidence, there was an opportunity to shift performance conversations away from being viewed as a compliance exercise and towards becoming an ongoing driver of accountability, growth, and psychological safety across the organisation.

Dementia Australia required a tailored, practical solution that would build capability and responsibility across a national cohort of leaders with diverse roles and responsibilities. Equipping leaders in a short timeframe to prepare and get better results out of their formal performance conversations.

The Solution

Performance Conversations aren’t one-off conversations. Leaders were equipped with practical tools to utilise for before, during and after these conversations.

Working closely with Dementia Australia, we designed a bespoke Performance Conversations program tailored to the organisation’s leaders. Combining behavioural science, practical leadership frameworks and psychologically safe communication techniques, the program focused on helping leaders prepare for conversations, separate behaviours from personality, reduce defensiveness, and create clearer pathways for behavioural change. Sessions were delivered virtually via our world class PTV Studio to cater to a nationally distributed workforce.

The program began with a catalyst session for the Executive Leadership Group, ensuring senior leaders understood the frameworks and could actively support, reinforce, and role model the behaviours throughout the rollout. It was then delivered virtually across three National Manager cohorts and three Team Leader cohorts. Participants also received practical tools and resources to embed their learning and support more effective performance conversations before, during, and after each discussion.

The Outcome

Results extended beyond confidence, they laid the foundation for lasting cultural change.

The impact was immediate. Leaders reported significantly higher confidence in facilitating performance conversations, stronger preparation habits, and greater confidence navigating emotionally challenging discussions. Participants consistently highlighted practical frameworks such as focusing on behaviours over traits, creating psychological safety, and improving preparation as the most valuable takeaways.

The program achieved an NPS of 73 and was recognised internally as a standout learning and development initiative. More importantly, it established a foundation for embedding a stronger culture of feedback and accountability across Dementia Australia.

Ali is so engaging, brilliant the whole thing. I took away a lot but how to make team members safe in the conversation and information about pre planning helped the most.
Performance Conversations Participant

Proven results.
Lasting impact.

Every challenge is unique, but our approach remains the same: focused on delivering great results. We’ve partnered with organisations to navigate complex problems, implement tailored solutions, and achieve lasting success across various industries.

Jumbo Interactive

Helping one of Australia's leading software technology companies to create a tailored two-tier leadership experience that could grow alongside its people - reinforcing a culture of ongoing learning and personal development across the organisation.

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Dementia Australia

Supporting Dementia Australia to equip leaders with the skills, confidence, and practical tools to lead meaningful performance conversations. The program focused on practical strategies and frameworks to prepare for, navigate, and follow up on every conversation effectively.

Read More

Kinetic Group

Supporting Kinetic’s transformation by equipping leaders with the skills, confidence, and mindset to drive performance, foster accountability, and shape the future of Australia and New Zealand’s largest bus operator.

Read More

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At Pragmatic Thinking we acknowledge First Nations people both here in Australia and around the world. We have the great privilege of working on ancient country that has had countless millennia of teaching, learning, leadership and culture; we pay our deepest respects to the wisdom of Indigenous people and custom past, present and emerging.