Region’s leaders teach visitors what it means to thrive and survive in the country

The region’s leaders filled Katanning’s Premier Mill Hotel last Thursday night when Leadership WA brought its metropolitan program participants to the Great Southern to “give them a taste of what it’s like to live, thrive and survive in regional WA”.

Participants ranged from State Government advisers to company chief executives, all keen to learn what makes effective leaders.

Leadership WA invited some of the region’s most high-profile leaders as guest speakers, including Great Southern Police Superintendent Ian Clarke, livestock leader Bruce Mullan and WA Country Health Service regional director Geraldine Ennis.

“You really see the qualities of innovation, collaboration, creativity and sense of community from leaders in regional WA,” Leadership WA chief executive Dominique Mecoy said.

“As we all know, life here is very different to in the metro area and it’s a real eye-opener for many of our participants who have never been in that sort of environment before.

“Quite often decisions about what happens in regional WA can happen from Perth, so we really try to create a bit of a connection between metro and regional and try to forge a real sense of understanding between the two”.

Kelly McManus, a policy adviser with the State Government, said the Katanning trip was a good opportunity to get out of the Perth “bubble”.

“We learn so much out here, and then we can go back to work in the city and figure out how to implement that,” she said

Ms Mecoy said that was exactly what they were trying to achieve with the program.

“If even one person goes back to Perth after this and says, ‘hey, let’s do things a bit differently’, I think that's an absolutely wonderful thing,” she said.