Who we are
Our vision is for a vibrant, healthy Australia. Public servants make that happen.
Airlie Beach serves as the strategic gateway to the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef. Under the vigilant stewardship of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, critical conservation efforts are in place to protect this fragile ecosystem.
Our mission is to amplify the public sector’s positive impact on our world.
To do this we identify the moments when public sector staff are vulnerable to losing their effectiveness, then deliver interventions that permanently improve their capability.
Our Purpose
By empowering public servants, everyone wins.
Our purpose is to deliver training to public servants that achieves three things above all else:
Our Training
Is inspiring, showing attendees the value and impact of their contribution to their organisation’s mission.
Our Training
Is immediately useful, expanding attendees’ capability from day one.
Our Training
Is transferable and scalable, helping attendees be more fulfilled and effective throughout their careers.
Everything we do focuses on ensuring
OR CALL: 1300 UPSIDES
Our Values
Service
The public sector exists to provide what our societies need. Not what individuals want – that’s what the private sector is for.
So everything we do at Upsides starts with the recognition for the fact that we’re here to serve the public sector, who serves the world. Need drives it all.
Integrity
For us, integrity means we’ll never sell you something we don’t believe will work. In fact, we’ve already turned down multiple $5-figure jobs because we could see that what our client was asking for wouldn’t solve their problem. In these cases we invested significant time to explain why we’d reached that conclusion and what we recommended our client do instead.
Every client who reaches out to us delivers public good, and they’re reaching out because something hurts. Even if we aren’t the solution you need, we want to help you fix the problem. Which is one reason we cultivate a trusted network of other consultants, and have referred clients to them when it’s the right thing to do. Scroll down to meet some of those good eggs.
Inspiration
For us, inspiration means two things. Firstly, we strive always to bring fresh, clear thinking to the question of how to deliver extraordinary public service. If what we’re doing isn’t making our chest swell with inspiration and pride then we don’t do it!
Because we know that when what we do inspires us, it’ll also inspire you and your people. And that’s the real inspiration we chase! From a heartfelt message of thanks on LinkedIn, to a bear hug at the end of a training session, those moments when we see our work land and that beautiful lightbulb go on in the heart of another public servant – that’s the gold!
Connection
The more we love anything, the more it can hurt us. Public service is a tough gig, and it’s all too easy to want to shield ourselves with cynicism.
So here at Upsides, we consciously chase connection – connection to service, to purpose… to everything that fuels public servants to keep turning up every day, fighting the good fight, despite its costs.
We use this to shape what we discuss – in our training, our keynotes, our writing and our social media – so that we can guide our audience to maintain connection with what matters to them.
We connect, reflect and project, to affect.
Resilience
Public service is a marathon, not a sprint. So in order to create powerful public servants capable of lifetime service, we ensure that everything we teach fosters lifetime resilience.
Whether that’s the influencing skills to engage your new Exec, or the coping skills to roll with the next setback, or the perspective to remember your wins more than your losses – everything we teach strengthens public servants, for life.
Seen
We will listen deeply to you. As a result, we won’t give you canned answers or generic advice. We love getting to know each and every one of our clients, including identifying what unites you with the 2 million other members of the public sector in Australia, as well as recognising and embracing everything that makes you unique.
Supported
The foundation of every Upsides process is compassion and a deep belief that every single public servant matters. So we meet you (and your team) wherever you are in your journey. We have a process, sure. but it adapts to you, not the other way around.
Structured for Success
Every Upsides course is based on decades of relevant experience backed by cutting edge research. We’ve spent years thinking about what makes people at work succeed (and fail). Crucially, we also continuously improve how we impart that insight to busy managers and staff. We’re only interested in methods that lead to relatable, retainable and repeatable improvements in performance. We don’t just rely on the fact that we’re entertaining and insightful speakers; we underpin our work with formulas, templates, and lots of other structures to encourage transformational learning, every step of the way.
Georgie Smith, MEM
Upsides Founder and Head Trainer
Staff deliver strategy. So why does most staff training embed mediocrity?
Georgie wondered this many times across her public sector career. From her beginnings in a Queensland Minister’s office in the late 90s, to the Queensland Ambulance Service, the Marrickville (Sydney) City Council, and then the Victorian Environment Protection Authority, Georgie has watched great teams waste time and money on lousy training that more often than not failed to even understand, let alone have respect for, what makes the public sector unique.
So drawing wisdom from her 20 years of experience, Georgie wrote the book on excellence in the public sector: The Formula For Impact guides public servants through the five critical components they need to succeed. No BS, no business speak, just the lessons that we all wish someone had told us when we were starting out!
Now, utilising her ground breaking Thriving Teams Methodology©, Georgie delivers training that gives public sector staff and their managers a foolproof roadmap to mastery.
Bringing illuminating insights and rock solid commitment to public sector values, participants rave about Georgie’s ability to transform how they see themselves, their roles and their pathway to impact.
That’s why federal, state and local government managers trust Georgie to help them grow high-performing teams they love to lead.
Travis Bates, BSc, MAICD
Upsides Co-Founder and Trainer
In a chaotic world, clarity counts.
From the ground floor to the boardroom, Travis specialises in integrating organisational strategy, operational realities and individual drivers to illuminate what really matters.
Travis’ 15 years in the public service started in the mines and ports of WA, before he came home to inspect the abattoirs and landfills of Victoria as an Environment Protection Officer. Moving from the field into operational policy enabled Travis to begin translating his real-world experience into the wisdom and structure that can be passed onto the next generation of officers. It’s also where his love for training took hold – guiding new staff to transform abstract concepts into real-world wins.
Now, as a Garry Weaven Scholar and former board member of the public sector’s largest superannuation fund, executives trust Travis for his integrity, insight and independent thinking. And with a track record earnt through a decade of staff advocacy, even the toughest teams know Travis is on their side.
Our Story
A thriving public sector is more than just our job.
For us, it’s personal.
“Travis and I met in 2013, working at the Victorian Environment Protection Authority (one of those special places you never forget). We actually met while both Travis and I were advocating for our colleagues as union delegates.
I was actually the president of the union chapter, but needed to step down, because I’d taken on the responsibility of leading a big organisational restructure.
Travis took over the presidency, then gave me hell every inch of that restructure! But that process helped us really see each other’s character. The photos on this page probably give you a hint as to how that worked out – we got married in 2015, and our “Squisho” was born 3 years later.
When the world stopped in early 2020, we started asking ourselves what we wanted our legacy to be. Over hikes through our local forest, we gradually realised we had something important to say.
Our years of unique insights made their way to the surface. The result was our book, The Formula for Impact, and now, Upsides Training, where together Travis and I head a small team of passionate people with a huge goal – to reach all 2 million Aussie public sector workers and help them be their most awesome!
Upsides Training is our contribution to making our wonderful country the best it can be, by helping the people who help us all.
If you’re a dedicated public servant intent on being your best, we’d love to work with you!”
-Georgie
There’s no substitute for a chat
Book a zero obligation,
30 minute Clarity Call.
OR CALL: 1300 UPSIDES
Meet a team of world-class Good Eggs
The public sector has many allies! Here are some other consultants who understand and respect what you’re doing.
We personally know everyone on this list and deeply resonate with how they do what they do. So if Upsides isn’t quite who you need to solve the problem that brought you here today, then perhaps one of these other Good Eggs is!
Tell them we say hi 😊
Emma Broomfield
Locale Learning
Learn More
Locale is a small, dedicated and trusted team of deep-listeners and problem solvers who are committed to creating better outcomes for communities.
It matters to Emma and her team how people are connected to their places and spaces, and each other.
They love improving community spaces and places, solving complex issues, engaging communities and elevating local leaders.
They specialise in providing leadership and professional development support for local government Councillors and have recently been recognised as global trailblazers for recognising and addressing mental health in politics.
You can find out more about Emma and the Locale team at localelearning.com.au.
Liz Mackevicius
Sentier
Learn More
Liz has worked with private and public sector clients, drawing on her nearly 20 years’ experience in professional services consulting and the public sector.
She understands what it’s like to work where balancing competing priorities is the everyday, and when there’s always more to do.
Her facilitation, speaking and training centres on
• Decision making
• Self awareness & managing mindset
• Strategy development & implementation
• Nature, wilderness and the positive impact on creativity, wellbeing and productivity
Liz has a mild addiction to running ultra marathons and playing in the mountains, and while she doesn’t make clients go into the wilderness with her, she brings lessons from those experiences into her work.
Liz will make sure you do the hard work, and will be there to support, facilitate and guide the process along the way.
You can learn more about Liz at sentier.com.au
Melanie Turner
Plan to Perform
Learn More
Plan to Perform is passionate about driving and embedding sustainable, long-term public sector change. They believe in big picture clarity and ensuring organisations are aligned to deliver and monitor their desired outcomes and performance.
You can learn more about Mel’s work at plantoperform.com.au
Paul Bowers
Purpose in Practice
Learn More
Paul is a strategist and mentor with working at the intersection of purpose, leadership and implementation. He works with NFP and government leaders to ensure staff can flourish while delivering value.
Services Include:
- Facilitating the development of strategy and major initiatives
- Crafting implementation through structure, culture and process.
- Mentorship tailored for executives and project leaders facing new challenges in their roles.
He doesn’t offer cookie-cutter solutions and thought-leader buzzwords, because every situation is different. There are insightful conversations, creative co-design, private advice, team exploration – all crafted to meet the actual challenges as they are.
Endlessly curious and an avowed generalist, Paul is extremely nerdy about how strategy, governance, culture and leadership all fit together. This helps him help people thrive, and get great things done.
With a first-class Honours degree in chemistry, a Masters in communication, and a coaching certificate, his is an unusual background: two decades crafting museum experiences and leading teams through intricate public value projects, as CEO of a national sustainability organization and as as COO at a large cemeteries trust.
Recently he set up Purpose in Practice: dedicated to mentoring and consulting, with a commitment to leaving clients stronger and more resilient. He keeps a hand in the culture sector through serving as a Non-Exec Director of the Abbotsford Convent Foundation.