Award-winning sustainability scholar and recognised pioneer of professional coaching in Australia, with two decades of experience embedding systems thinking into organisational leadership.
Dr Josie McLean has spent more than two decades working at the point where sustainability, leadership and systems thinking intersect. Her award-winning PhD focused specifically on how organisations embed sustainability into their DNA — not as a compliance exercise, but as a genuine shift in culture and strategy. She is a recognised pioneer in Australia’s professional coaching industry, and has worked with councils, community leaders, industry bodies and executive teams across the country and internationally.
What distinguishes Josie’s work is her ability to hold difficult conversations about climate and systemic change without triggering the paralysis that often accompanies them. Her keynotes help audiences move from the overwhelming nature of the problem — which she does not minimise — to practical, grounded thinking about what they can actually do. Testimonials consistently describe her as someone who makes bridging the gap between where we are and where we need to be feel genuinely possible.
Dr McLean speaks to sustainability, leadership, coaching, local government and purpose-driven business audiences. For organisations grappling with complexity, climate pressure and the human dimensions of large-scale change, she offers a perspective that is simultaneously rigorous, compassionate, and practically useful. Her presentations leave audiences not with a sense of doom, but with a clearer understanding of what adaptive leadership actually looks like.
Dr Josie McLean is a keynote speaker based in South Australia who speaks on education, leadership and sustainability & ESG. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
We are all changing whether we want to or not! Change is a force of nature – it’s natural despite an organisational desire for certainty and predictability. Change creates a context in which we can learn about ourselves as humans and what we can contribute, enabling a deep sense of meaning and purpose. Mergers, restructures, technological changes, weather disruption and AI are all realities for many organisations. With years of experience working with service organisations undergoing rapid and transformative change, Josie understands how disturbing and challenging these times can be. She asks us to redefine our daily doing, reconsider our beliefs and reset our identity.
In this keynote you will:
• Understand why change is natural and hard to plan.
• Explore the underlying fundamental neuroscience of profound change.
• Understand the emotions that are a part of profound change.
• Discover the importance of learning to manage your emotions.
• Develop a stronger sense of agency to initiate or respond to change.
Complexity is complex and so much more than problem solving and aligning everyone. Obsessed with opening up new possibilities for organisations, Josie has been researching and practicing in the sphere of complexity for 20 years. Reconciling the different perspectives in organisations and communities where there are many stakeholders is always a challenge. Emotions and stakes are high! We are now in the world of rolling disruptions where we need to engage people to learn new ways of responding together. Sharing the responsibility to generate adaptive and coherent responses is the secret to innovation, cultural evolution and profound change for sustainability.
In this keynote you will:
• Identify the distinction between ‘complex’ and ‘not complex’.
• Raise your awareness about how our unconscious thinking impacts our effectiveness.
• Reflect on the different effects that zooming in and zooming out have on problem solving.
• Understand the importance of engaging people within the system to enable them to take responsibility too.
• Identify a model for engagement of the broader system.
The world needs us to move from a focus on parts to a focus on wholes. Whole people, teams, communities and landscapes. We need a world of nested systems that are in constant dialogue with each other. All living systems evolve to survive and thrive. Josie brings a different understanding of sustainability and how we need to ‘be’ in the world. Her thinking has a strong resonance with many First Nations cultures. It is a worldview with humanity at its heart. Sharing findings from her award-winning PhD thesis, Embedding sustainability into organisational DNA: a story of complexity. Josie is able to teach the ability to zoom in and out, to notice the interconnections between everything sustainable and complex.
In this keynote you will:
• Recognise how the unconscious assumptions we make determine our effectiveness.
• Explore the shift from seeing parts to wholes and how it can improve your effectiveness.
• Learn how the world of living systems includes humans.
• Identify what and how an organisation may profoundly change itself from the inside out to be sustainable and sustaining.
Are your people struggling to keep up with wave after wave of change? Is their wellbeing suffering? Josie is passionate about organisational transformation. Creating cultures where people can be themselves, are enabled to grow, develop their strengths and speak up with their ideas. ‘Purposeful organisations’ is a term that is usually associated with those enterprises that seek to deliver positive impacts in our communities. What if you could nurture a human environment, adding meaning and purpose in which whole individuals and teams could contribute for the benefit of society.
In this keynote you will:
• Understand why innovation is cultural rather than a prescribed process.
• Identify the team environment as a primary container for organisational cultural change.
• Recognise the connections between personal growth, adaptation, diversity, and resilience as key leverage points in your team and organisation.
• Discover simple ways to promote wellbeing personally, in your teams and organisationally.
She has a rare ability to hold space for the discomfort of facing reality—challenging assumptions while guiding constructive dialogue. In our sessions, she has helped council members and leaders alike move beyond wishful thinking and into meaningful action. Her expertise, clarity, and ability to engage diverse perspectives make her an invaluable contributor to any discussion on sustainability and systemic change.General Manager, City Futures
It’s not easy keeping experienced community leaders engaged, but all were enthralled from start to finish. Josie possessed a unique vision and an unwavering commitment to empowering others. She has an exceptional ability to inspire those around her, fostering an environment of collaboration and innovation... She will leave a lasting impression on all who have the privilege to listen.President, Local Government Association of South Australia
Despite the often-overwhelming nature of the climate change topic, Josie managed to establish a strong connection with the audience... Her presentation was both engaging and thought-provoking, offering practical strategies to begin conversations on what can be an overwhelming topic within our communities, workplaces, and families.Community Services Manager, Organising Committee, Light Regional Council
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