We were lucky to have Matt Anderson and Rob O’Donnell leading a corporate therapy session at SydDT #116 last Thursday. They ran an exercise with the audience on spotting the dumpster fires we’ve experienced – that harm both people and the business.
The biggest design challenges are really about people and our behaviours, not tools and processes. That means we need to connect as humans to build trust and collaboration. I really liked the way Matt and Rob framed the four types of leadership.
It all starts with leading ourselves, then leading others, leading the organisation, and then leading the future. Check out the video for what that looks like in practice.
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
A huge thanks to Matt and Rob for generously sharing your wisdom and experience. You can tell it resonated with so many people by the great conversation.
A big thanks to Ellyn Cho who did the graphic recording this month. This initiative is a collaboration with Sh8peshifters and their Think Visual Morning Meetups community. SydDT is a friendly environment for people to practice their live graphic recording skills.
Lucas was the lead organiser for this one, and a massive thanks to Sarah Stokes and Frankie Balfour from Atlassian, Alan Chen and Diana Ayoub from Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen.
Our next meetup is a collaboration with our friends at Melbourne Design Thinking for their inaugural meetup on Thursday, 4 September in Melbourne. I’ll be on a panel with Teresa Huang and Mark Woodland hosted by Rach Zhang and Mickey Rummery as we explore failing forward.
Our next meetup in Sydney is SydDT #118: Wicked Solutions for Wicked Problems with Frank Newman on Thursday, 11 September… organised by Lucas and brought to you by Atlassian, Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4. Grab your ticket!
Meetup Announcement
Thursday, 14 August 2025 @ 6pm. Atlassian, Sydney
Most design problems aren’t customer problems. They’re leadership problems. Turf war problems. “Larry from Finance doesn’t like change” problems. In this no-BS session, Matt and Rob pull back the curtain on why customer-centred design isn’t enough and why the real design work starts inside the organisation.
You’ll walk away with a fresh lens, one that positions you as a designer of culture and capability. We’ll unpack the four types of leadership every designer needs to master to stop being ignored and start creating actual change.
Because none of us became designers to make stuff pretty, while the company burns.
Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community.
New members are welcome! If you’re not already a member, feel free to join our community.
Speakers
Matt Anderson
Corporate Plumber
By day, Matt unblocks businesses so they can actually become what their strategy decks promised. By night, he co-hosts Corporate Therapy with Rob equipping middle managers with the know how to tackle the messy stuff in business.
He’s been doing change since ages ago, lucky enough to hang out with diverse folks including CBA, IAG, Carnival, Qantas and Royal Rehab.
A few folks picked up that he might know a thing or two about transformation and spotlighted him in Foresters book on customer experience “Outside In” and Nathan Baird’s ‘Innovators playbook’. He’s won a few awards along the way including Miro’s Global Research & Design award, and Content Creator of the Year 2024.
His roots are grounded in operations, where his marketing colleagues made wild promises and then needed a pragmatic, fast way to bring them to life.
Rob O’Donnell
Leadership Locksmith
Rob has spent nearly 30 years helping leaders, teams, and entire organisations build cultures that actually work for people. He’s worked alongside big names like CBA, Virgin, the City of Newcastle, and AGSM, but he’s just as energised helping individuals figure out how to lead without burning out their team, while keeping the imposter syndrome at bay.
He helps people face the real stuff: trust issues, turf wars, power games, self-doubt, and the quiet disengagement no one wants to name. Not through a leadership framework in a binder, but through conversations that matter and habits that stick.
He co-hosts Corporate Therapy with Matt, where they unpack the dumb stuff businesses do and how to fix it.
Rob genuinely cares about people and is a lifelong believer that no business outperforms its culture. And that culture doesn’t shift without doing the real work, with conversations, courage, and clarity.
Event Sponsors
This event is brought to you by Atlassian, Sh8peshifters, and Dynamic4.
We take photos and record our events for documentation and promo purposes. Just let us know if you prefer not to be featured.
