Ready or Not

Don’t wait for a caped crusader

There’s a quiet revolution happening in housing, and it doesn’t have a neat label.

I’m currently working with the visionary developers of 300 homes on 10 hectares in the centre of a thriving regional town. Their explicit positioning? Not for profit, nor not-for-profit.

They’re planning tenure-blind housing, so nobody knows who’s paying and who’s not. Microgrids, so the place generates every electron it uses. Rent-to-buy pathways, so housing is attainable rather than aspirational. Services on-site or nearby (healthcare, childcare, shops, cafes). Artistic and cultural facilities — with actual artisans and makers. A commons governed by its residents. And profitable enough to replicate — so the next town doesn’t have to start from scratch.

This is private capital in service of public good. No government department required.

Then there’s Christian Bale — yes, the Batman — who just spent 17 years and $22 million building a California village where foster siblings stay together, cared for by full-time professional foster parents, with enrichment programs, green space, transitional apartments for teens ageing out of care, even temporary housing for birth parents working toward reunification. Much more than a roof. A system.

Neither example is philanthropy. Neither required a superhero.

But both required a particular kind of social entrepreneur: someone with skin in the game, and the patience, skills and networks to engineer a multi-layered solution to a complex problem.

Yes, they have a vision but, more importantly, they’re unprepared to wait for someone else to get around to making it real.

Question: What complex problem has been waiting long enough for someone, not government, to start solving?

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Not worried enough - already

A client said something to me recently that I haven’t been able to shake: “I’m worried that we’re not worried enough about AI.”

It’s a good sentence. Sit with it.

This week, entrepreneur Daniel Priestley appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast and argued that AI will hollow out white-collar professions faster than most leaders are prepared for. He's talking about the private sector. But the disruption is just as live, and arguably more urgent, in the sectors many of you lead.

Next week I’m in Canberra, facilitating the Commonwealth government’s national primary healthcare conference: 400 leaders from health services, policy bodies, PHNs, medical colleges and professional associations.

There we’ll hear from Professor Richard Hobbs, Director of the Oxford Institute of Digital Health, whose work sits right at the intersection of AI and frontline care. His provocation for our room: AI is already outperforming radiologists in cancer screening. But AI scribes are already making clinically significant errors in real consultations. And patients are already using AI chatbots for medical advice: with wrong answer rates that should alarm anyone responsible for a health service (Richard will tell us exactly what percentage of AI health information is plain wrong).

None of this is on the horizon. It’s happening now. It’s in your sector, with your clients, under your watch.

Question: How do you unleash AI's upside in your organisation, while being objective about its very real perils?

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The slipstream

I’m watching my son, Jasper, play basketball as I write this.

At 16, he’s two inches taller than me. He started playing just three years ago, and is now playing for a leading club. And, in June, he’s off to the US. Getting exposure to a level of athletic talent that will either inspire or humble him. Probably both.

Does he know he’ll make it to the top? No.

Does he care? Yes. And no.

Here’s what I find interesting. We usually think of focus as a means to an end: you pursue a goal, you achieve it. Done.

But watching him, something else is happening.

The discipline, the resilience, the ability to absorb coaching and recalibrate fast: none of that stays in the gym. It transfers.

Into his academic work, his relationships, his capacity to handle pressure.

The goal is almost beside the point. The focused effort creates something in its wake that gets applied everywhere else.

Question: When is your goal almost beside the point, and what are you creating in the slipstream matters just as much?

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I would love it if you clicked the heart — it keeps the electrons flowing in the right directions.

The future me will be with you again next Friday, so until then, enjoy your week.

Andrew