Leadership in Complexity - Surviving to Thriving

Name: Leadership in Complexity - Surviving to Thriving
Start: 2026-08-21T09:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-08-21T09:00:00+10:00
Location: Karstens Sydney

About

In the high-pressure world of healthcare, conflict is inevitable—but it doesn’t have to be destructive. When conflict is allowed to escalate, it can erode the cohesion required for delivery of safe care. Yet, conflict can spark innovation, drive meaningful change, and foster stronger teams when approached with skill and insight. It can build stronger teams and help deliver better outcomes.

Key learnings
• explore the complex and interconnected reality of healthcare and understand the implications for leadership
• explore the link between team cohesion and safe care
• identify sources of conflict within teams and across the healthcare system
• develop an understanding of conflict dynamics and sources of conflict
• explore options for management of conflict and tools to develop conflict competence
• build skills to enact conflict competence in your work.

Your Facilitators: Professor Andrew Johnson and Dr Georga Cooke

Prof Andrew Johnson, MBBS (UNSW), MHA (UNSW), MConfMgtRes (Distinction, JCU), FRACMA (Distinguished Fellow)
Andrew’s career spans over twenty years in senior executive roles across the Australian public and private health sector and most recently back to his beginnings in Defence. He has enjoyed developing clinical services, medical education, health research, health infrastructure and most importantly, creating an environment for safe care through a commitment to interprofessional learning, team relationships and communication. Awarded by his peers as a Distinguished Fellow in his field of practice, Andrew is an Honorary Professor with the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University. He has won numerous national and international awards and recognition for his work in patient safety, clinical governance, medical education and medical workforce. He has published several book chapters and peer reviewed articles in these fields.

Dr Georga Cooke
Dr Georga Cooke is the Deputy Executive Director of Medical Services at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. With a background in general practice and medical education, she is passionate about workforce wellbeing, leadership development, and improving healthcare systems. Georga combines quality improvement methodologies, technology, and evidence-based leadership strategies to enhance both patient care and staff experience. In 2019, she was a Healthcare Improvement Fellow with Clinical Excellence Queensland, focusing on system-level improvements. Recognizing the critical role of wellbeing in healthcare, she completed a Master of Counselling at QUT to further support clinician wellbeing and workforce sustainability.