Community directors training helps senator’s national mission

The Victorian senator is among the many graduates of ICDA’s Diploma of Governance, and he says he continues to draw on the lessons he learnt while studying for the qualification.

Ciccone was elected in 2019, two years after graduating with an ICDA diploma.

By that stage – like many ICDA students – he had already built a strong resumé in community governance.

In 2010 the former financial planner and union official joined the board of Link Health and Community (then Monash Link), with a strong interest in finances, audit and risk, innovation and business development.

Ciccone stayed with Link Health and Community for nine years, helping guide the organisation through a merger, and chairing the board for his last two years.

He says the ICDA training served him well.

“For me that's been really important, to be able to use those teachings in a real-life scenario,” Ciccone said, during a visit to his Blackburn electoral office.

ICDA’s governance training proves helpful in government

The practical training proved useful as he rose through the ranks to serve on a string of federal parliamentary committees covering foreign affairs and trade, intelligence and security, migration and parliamentary standards.

He applied what he’d learnt in the lively world of party politics, too, including as a member of the ALP’s national executive. As he points out, the Labor Party stands as a community organisation with more than 50,000 members nationally, and like other NFPs, it must keep members happy and be “fiscally responsible”.

“What I really took out of the course was the ability to understand my duties as a director, having been a former director on a community health board for close to 10 years and chair of that board as well for a couple of years,” he told Community Directors Intelligence, between bouts of wrangling his infant son.

“Whether you're a member of a not-for-profit or a company listed in the ASX, you’ve still got the same legal and financial responsibilities, and I think that sometimes gets forgotten by many people.”

The diploma reinforced the “privilege” of board leadership and the responsibility directors have to shape their organisations, he said.

Course helped guide organisation’s merger

He said the course fed into the Link Community board’s transformation, including its challenging 2020 merger with the Latrobe Community Health Service.

“We were able to turn the organisation from one that did not have a lot of money, that did not have a strategic plan in place, did not have a vision for where it wanted to go in over the 10 years, to one that had grown threefold [and] had a vibrant employee workforce that was happy to be part of the organisation.

“We changed the culture, we instituted new policies, and we were able to reshape the organisation and refocus it so that it actually met the needs of not just the members but the clients as well too. That's the power that I think directors have.

“I do think that doing a course like that inspired me – and many others – to understand the power of what courses like the Diploma of Governance can do, to help focus your mindset on making sure that you adhere to your responsibilities as a director.”

Ciccone said the course prepared him for the merger that lay ahead.

The merger focused the board on “the value of what it is that we are trying to achieve, and what's our objective?”

“Listing the values is always important in the culture of the organisation, and I think that's where a lot of people fall over. They don't do their homework at understanding ‘Can the two organisations come together because the cultures are so different, or are the cultures so aligned that it will actually make that transition very smoothly?’

“If you don't get that right, I feel like that you ultimately end up in a situation where one side feels like they've lost out, or the process just stops, and you've just wasted lots of money on legal bills, on why we should have merged or should not have merged.”

He said tight finances in the NFP sector meant that failed mergers put a great deal of pressure back onto organisations forced to explain the result to funders, including governments.

“Doing the course made sure that we were able to understand the right processes were in place, understanding how our members and the values of the organisations aligned, so that they could come together, to ensure that any merger proposition is seamless.”

Community leadership, negotiation and compromise

One of the key attributes of a successful politician, whether at the federal or community level, is willingness to compromise. The art of negotiation is something that Senator Ciccone is familiar with, and he understands that for many not-for-profits, coming to a negotiated agreement can be tough.

“Sometimes you can't always negotiate the right outcome. Sometimes it's not about the ‘right’ outcome. It's actually about what the two parties can actually compromise on, noting that there is a bigger objective, which is actually making sure that the majority of people are very happy with where they've landed.

“You can't always get everything you want, and I think a good leader needs to understand that, but being a leader or a chair, you need to also read the room and say, ‘Well, look. Are most people on the board happy with where we're going?’”

He said it was worth trying to work with those who were not in agreement, “but you also don't want a situation where certain individuals might also want to be problematic … and bring down the whole process, because they don't believe in what has occurred.

“That's where negotiation, and consultation and discussions have to occur.”

He said talking to people in person can help achive a breakthrough.

“It doesn’t hurt and actually often achieves a lot more. It might be difficult to have a chat over the phone, [so] go have a coffee in person and just talk to the other person about why it's important that we want to be able to proceed with a particular project or an idea that they may not agree with. If you understand from their point of view what they're trying to fulfil … it might be something very simple that both parties can agree on, compromise, and move forward.”

Ciccone said NFP leaders wanting to influence politicians, especially ahead of budgets, should:

• improve their understanding of the budget process
• be timely in their approach, knowing that the wheels of federal budget machinery start turning in October each year
• be well-prepared with proposals, especially innovative ideas that are easily understood and demonstrate a strong community benefit
• generate a short one- or two-page document outlining objectives, proposals and funding requirements
• build the relationship formally and informally
• understand your local pollie’s interests
• be persistent, be strategic, and accept that there are no guarantees.