Change is a constant in rural, regional and remote Australia, but adapting well is something we all have to learn.

In this episode of Rural Leaders, host Oli Le Lievre sits down with Dr Ananth Gopal, co-founder of Polykala, to explore what adaptability really looks like in practice. Drawing on years of experience in leadership development and experiential learning, Ananth unpacks why adaptation is not just about reacting quickly, but about understanding what to hold on to, what to let go of, and how to grow through change.

Together, they explore the realities of leading through uncertainty, from shifting markets and technologies to the emotional weight of loss that often comes with change. This conversation challenges the idea that people resist change, instead reframing it as a natural response to perceived loss. It also highlights the importance of compassion, clarity and curiosity in leadership.

As part of this season’s focus on ARLF leadership practices, this episode dives into adaptation, the ability to respond to changing contexts while staying grounded in purpose and values. It is a thoughtful and practical discussion for anyone navigating change in their team, business or community.

This episode offers a powerful reminder that leadership is not about having all the answers, but about creating the conditions where people can move through change together.

Some highlights:

• Why adaptation is about balancing what we keep, what we lose, and what we grow

• The difference between reacting to change and responding with intention

• How loss, not change, is often what people are really resisting

• The role of experiential learning in building leadership capability

• Why leaders need to create “holding environments” to support people through uncertainty

• How to regulate the “heat” in teams during times of pressure and change

• Why clarity, compassion and communication are critical when leading others through transition

• How curiosity can help you better understand your own response to change

Our host:

Oli Le Lievre is the host of Rural Leaders, an ARLP Course 28 alumni, and the founder of Humans of Agriculture.

Resources:

Polykala

Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

Rural Leaders podcast

Alyssia Kennedy knows what it feels like to leave school and realise that knowing how to pass exams is not the same as knowing how to navigate adulthood. Growing up in Tasmania, Alyssia saw firsthand the gap between what students are taught in the classroom and the practical life skills young people need when it comes to budgeting, understanding taxes, navigating Medicare, managing car expenses, and making confident decisions about work, study and life after school.

In this episode of Rural Leaders, Alyssia shares how one invitation to speak to a group of Year 10 students became the spark for her Life After School program, which is now supporting young people across Tasmania. What began as a single session at one school has grown into a broader advocacy effort, driven by Alyssia’s belief that all young people deserve access to practical, relatable tools to help them step into adulthood with confidence.

As part of this season’s exploration of the ARLF leadership practices, this conversation focuses on advocacy - the willingness to take action, speak up for a need, and work towards what could exist rather than accepting what already does. Alyssia reflects on the courage it has taken to grow her idea, the power of community and support networks, and the resilience required to keep going through some of life’s most difficult seasons.

This episode is a practical and inspiring conversation about identifying a gap, backing yourself before everything feels ready, and building momentum for change by bringing others with you. Alyssia’s story is a reminder that advocacy can start small, but with persistence, collaboration and purpose, it can create lasting impact for communities and future generations.

Some highlights:

• Why practical life skills like budgeting, tax, Medicare and car expenses matter so much for young people leaving school

• How Alyssia turned one school session into a growing program reaching students across Tasmania

• What advocacy looked like as she pitched the need for change to decision-makers at Parliament House

• Why leadership is not positional, but something we practise and grow into over time

• How grief, challenge and recovery helped Alyssia clarify what matters most

• What success could look like if practical life skills were embedded more deeply in schools and communities

• Why Alyssia believes that if you care about an idea, you should start the conversation and take action

Our host:

Oli Le Lievre is the host of Rural Leaders, an ARLP Course 28 alumni, and the founder of Humans of Agriculture.

Resources:

Upturned Tasmania

Life After School program

Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

Rural Leaders podcast

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

‘Communities thrive when people gather.’ This is what a flood, a drought and a pandemic have taught Kalen Sowter as she has repeatedly stepped up for her community in the lower hunter region of New South Wales. In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, Kalen shares how these events and experiences have helped her find her calling as a connector and community builder through her ‘Little Red Tractor’ consultancy, and her social impact initiative, ‘Ladies on the Land’.

In early 2024, Kalen embraced the opportunity to take part in a two-day Changemaker workshop in Tamworth, where she was in her element adding to her collaborative skills and unlocking friendships and practical connections with her Changemaker cohort. The group has continued to meet monthly, and Kalen says it only takes one or two people to get connections rolling and enduring bonds established. She shares how lessons from the Changemaker workshop have reinforced her practices of identifying shared aims and values, and understanding unique strengths to ensure that each person has a role and everyone feels valued.

This episode is the final of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• How ‘co-design’ and ‘appreciative enquiry’ set network-building up for success
• Why Kalen rates the power of food and conversation to bring people together and give good ideas lift-off
• It only takes one person reaching out to plant the seed of lasting relationships
• Strong connections are what serve communities well in good times and bad
• Why there will always be a need for face-to-face coming together
• The potency of knowing (and seeing) that you are not alone, and the ripple effects of collaboration

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog

ARLF website

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Little Red Tractor

Ladies on the Land

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, we explore resistance to change: what might lie at the heart of that resistance; and how to become free of the fears that can hold us back. Lynn Whyatt is an American-born community leader based in Geraldton in WA. In this conversation she generously shares her first-hand experience of meeting resistance to change and the strategies she drew on to try to bring others along with her.

As you’ll hear, Lynn’s story reflects the realities faced by many change makers, in that the resistance persisted, and it was she who had to regroup and redirect her energies and aims. Her experience on a Changemaker program proved an invaluable lens through which to reflect on her experience grappling with this resistance. It also offered her strategies to rebuild her sense of purpose and embrace a different way of making a positive impact, with confidence and resilience. Lynn works with small businesses, community organisations, and not-for-profits through her consultancy Three Point Turn. Currently, she is collaborating on a fulfilling project with a fellow local leader to expand the impact of a wellbeing program for teenage boys.

This episode is the seventh of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• Lynn shares just what resistance to change can look and feel like
• She unpacks where resistance can come from, and her own process coming to terms with it
• How the Changemaker workshop’s ‘change and transition’ model helped her apply a new lens to understand resistance
• Why ‘going with the willing’ is a mantra that serves her well
• Reflecting vulnerably on the impact resistance to change has on confidence and self-perceptions
• How this experience has sparked a reframing of her understanding of where and how she can contribute as a leader in her community

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog

ARLF website

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Transformative Growth Institute

Three Point Turn

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, we explore how a seemingly insurmountable challenge can be reframed as an opportunity for transformation. We’re joined by Tammy Price as she shares moments in which perceived problems have revealed their potential. Tammy is the president of the Bruny Island Community Association, and she’s no stranger to the unique and sometimes curly challenges that come with life on an Island. We chat about her direct experience reframing a challenge as an opportunity for transformation. In this case, it’s the metaphorical bridge she and fellow community leaders have provided between the needs of those who live in and travel to and from Bruny Island, with the constraints and priorities of the commercial ferry service provider. Tammy reflects on the actions needed to drive progress, and the leadership insights gained along the way.

Tammy is an advocate for the big impact that small contributions from many can have. She knows that change in her community is a matter of her and others like her stepping forward and doing their part to grow collective trust and bring everyone along to build a better future for the community that they all have a stake in.

This episode is the sixth of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• Tammy shares the interconnectedness of the factors that impact the prosperity and functionality of life on Bruny Island
• How her embedded mindset of never accepting a ‘no’ helps her to see the potential in a problem
• Why every ‘failure’ is simply a learning opportunity
• Close community ties and trust are the keys to strong communication
• A round table with the transport minister has provided a chance for broad community representatives to be heard

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog

ARLF website

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Bruny Island Community Association

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, we explore value of curiosity, embracing networks, and fostering connections as a means of creating personal and community transformation. In this chat with Alice Springs business owner, Max Fonte, we uncover strategies for fostering strong, effective partnerships that drive meaningful change and create a ripple effect.

Max Fonte had no background in business, yet he’s found himself running two of them very successfully from the heart of Central Australia. Since arriving in 2013 from Argentina as an adventurous backpacker, Max has followed his natural instinct to embrace challenges and possibilities, and now finds himself at the helm of two cafés. But they are more than just retail ventures. Thanks to a network of friendships and partnerships fusing migrant culture, First Nations knowledge and community wisdom, Max has built the trust and openness needed to bring people together. He credits his experience on a two-day Changemaker workshop with helping him to see the power of all those connections. And to understand that he had all the ingredients needed to foster community bonds; entice newcomers to put down roots and improve retention throughout the Alice Springs workforce – right at his fingertips.

This episode is the fifth of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• How Max challenged his ideas of a business’s boundaries and a vehicle to affect change

• Not having done something before is never a reason not to do it now

• Max shares powerful insights into belonging

• The potency of cross-cultural collaboration

• Understand the myriad ways a thriving business can positively impact retention for small town populations

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog

ARLF website

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Yayes Café

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, we explore what it means to build resilience during challenging times, from coping with drought and trauma to tackling community-wide issues. Sally Williams has an open and honest relationship with resilience. It’s a muscle she’s been required to flex many times in her personal life – weathering the death of her much loved dad and living with the complicated crisis of a brain tumour that required urgent treatment during the COVID lockdown – and in her role as the Executive Officer of Katanning Landcare. Using the ‘adaptive cycle' as her framework, Sally shares her strategies for navigating crises, finding strength in adversity, and creating opportunities for growth and renewal.

For Sally, the Changemaker Workshop she took part in opened the door on new tools for building resilience in the face of challenges. These have served her and her Katanning Landcare team well as an FRRR grant has enabled the organisation to resurrect a vibrant community event known as Eco-Week. Connection to fellow community members and the chance to become better known to one another is something Sally sees as vital to fostering resilience in a community and readying to adapt to change.

This episode is the fourth of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• Learn how Sally and her community actively work to create community resilience through connection
• Take a look at how the ‘adaptive cycle’ can help individuals and organisations manage periods of change and renewal
• Personal and professional examples of finding strength in adversity
• The peace in understanding what we can and can’t control
• Seeing a collaborative approach to events as a tool to build resilience

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog: https://rural-leaders.org.au/blog/

ARLF website: https://rural-leaders.org.au/

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative: https://rural-leaders.org.au/helping-regional-communities-prepare-drought-initiative/leadership-development-in-your-region/

Katanning Landcare: https://katanninglandcare.org.au/

This conversation is part of a series exploring the impact of the Changemaker Workshops delivered across more than 30 regions by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, thanks to the Future Drought Fund. These workshops are part of the Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative.

In this episode of Rural Leadership Unearthed, we’re joined by Kate Coffey and Brett Thompson. Kate is the Senior Project Manager at Riverine Plains, where she leads the organisation’s Farmer and Community Engagement activities. Brett at the time of this chat was coming to the end of his role as Executive Officer of social organisation LEAD Loddon Murray, and has just completed a Masters of Teaching which will carry him into his next chapter. As leaders, Kate and Brett are both embedded in their home communities of Yarrawonga and Bendigo (respectively) and they shared the experience of completing a Changemaker workshop in Euroa in 2024.

In this conversation, Kate and Brett illustrate how the Changemaker program added a deeper layer to their leadership within community organisations. They explain why different perspectives and mindsets are vital when working out solutions to challenges. They look at the realities of engaging and retaining volunteers in our rural and regional communities. Brett and Kate both have experience working to deliver FRRR community impact programs, and they share some of the resulting benefits these projects have already had in their regions. They also sum up precisely why initiatives that are designed to build connection, networks and greater engagement within our rural communities – are essential in the face of disruption and natural disaster. It’s how we ‘get into credit’ for those times of need.

This episode is the third of an 8-part series within the Rural Leadership Unearthed podcast where we delve into stories from people passionate about transforming their communities. This is a practical resource designed to provide insight into what it takes to drive positive change in rural, regional and remote Australia.

Some highlights:

• Practical tips on offering your services and finding where you belong
• How connection with others lessens stress in challenging times
• How FRRR Community Impact Programs are making a real difference
• There’s always something new to learn about our communities
• Embracing opportunities is essential for leaders
• Why community leaders shouldn’t undersell their roles and impact

Our host:

Claire Delahunty, is a writer and journalist who has worked with the ARLF for more than ten years, interviewing leaders having a positive impact on rural and regional Australia.

Resources:

ARLF podcast blog

ARLF website

Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative

Riverine Plains

LEAD Loddon Murray