“During times of turmoil and change leadership is essential…Leadership is not connected to title and position but is invested in behaviour.” 

Developing Academic Leadership Capability 1 – Australian Learning and Teaching Council with Curtin University of Technology 

Higher Education Leadership Development

All Manner of Things brings over two decades of experience to supporting a diverse range of Higher Education Leaders and practitioners to care for and develop themselves, their roles, their roles, their disciplines, their colleagues, and the student experience. 
Offering Individual Mentoring and Network Facilitation Support for… 
  • Unit Chairs 
  • Course Leaders 
  • Associate Heads of School 
  • Heads of School 
  • Associate Deans 
  • School Executive Officers & Managers 
  • Divisional Directors 
  • Executive Deans 
  • Pro and Deputy Vice-Chancellors
"When I first became an Associate Dean Research I had only the most basic understanding of the role. I was fortunate, however, in meeting Pippa who was leading a professional development program for a cohort of Associate Deans. Through Pippa’s outstanding facilitation of these cohort meetings and workshops I was able to expand my knowledge of the role, understand its place in the university, develop new skills, and operate with greater effect. I also worked with Pippa, one to one, and benefited immensely from her insights and suggestions. 
​Working with her has been a pleasure. It has also been one of the most important experiences of my executive career in universities."
Professor Geoffrey Stokes, former Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research & Innovation College of Business, RMIT University
​"I began meeting with Pippa in 2017, in my former role at Deakin University, initially to build and consolidate my leadership capacity as I took on a new and senior leadership role. But what developed out of our working relationship became so much more, with the development of a Postgraduate Course Leadership Community of Practice.  This Community of Practice, co-moderated with Pippa brought together multiple course leaders, from across separate courses, to create and foster inter-course collaboration and problem-solving towards the innovative enhancement and leadership of courses. " ​
Melissa Bloomer,  Professor of Critical Care Nursing, Griffith University; European Association of Palliative Care Postdoctoral Researcher 2020 ​

Career and Life/Leadership Mentoring (CALM)

CALM was first developed in 2016 by All Manner of Things in collaboration with Professor David Crawford, (then) Head of School, and women at levels B & C in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences (SENS), SENS developed and supported 27 participants through this three-year development cycle from 2016-2018. CALM participants continue to go from strength to strength!
"Sport has always been a part of my life and I have been fortunate to build an academic career around my passion. As I found myself taking on more responsibilities and leadership in my academic career, I would often reflect on the scenario in a sporting context to help guide my processes and decisions. Early in my leadership journey I started working with Pippa. To assimilate her role in a sporting context, she is my coach. When I think about what a great sporting coach means to me, I think about the qualities of compassion, professionalism, expertise, kindness, values-driven, athlete centred, strong and grounded. These are the qualities Pippa has brought to our sessions, she has helped me to navigate the realities and challenges of leadership in academia. Most notable is the authenticity she brings to the sessions and empowers within me."
Associate Professor Natalie Saunders, PhD, AEP Co-Director, Centre for Sport Research/School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University
"Pippa guides, encourages, and resources your exploration of yourself as a leader and the world you lead within. She helps you to step outside yourself to understand your world, and to see yourself and how you create, influence, and respond to that world.  For these reasons, I have also commissioned her to work with a wide variety of staff each looking for very different processes and outcomes from leadership coaching… Pippa has found ways of mentoring that worked for every one of them, with very positive outcomes."
​Professor Catherine Bennett, Chair of Epidemiology, Deakin University and Founding Chair and President of the Council of Public Health Institutions Australia.​
"In five short years, Pippa’s coaching has helped me grow from a very green, overwhelmed head of teaching, to a calm and happy Head of school. "
​Professor Brad Aisbett, Head of School, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University (Number One Sport Science School & Department in the World: 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities, ARWU).​

“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” 

JK Rowling citing Plutarch in her speech to Harvard graduates, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination."

Neighbourhood Houses, Schools, ​and Early Learning Environments 

Based on an ever-increasing demand for professional development and support across the whole education sector, All Manner of Things also partners with in a range of other educational leaders and service providers devoted to strengthening and sustaining primary and secondary education, Neighbourhood Houses, and Early Learning Environments. 

“The future is created through a declaration of…the possibility we stand for. Out of this declaration, each time we enter a room, the possibility enters with us…”

Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation, Civic Engagement Series.
​Peter Block, 2007.
Now, more than ever, it seems crucial to embed individual quests for meaning and purpose in a broader social context if we are to succeed in creating new possibilities for ourselves and the communities we hope to serve.
Well-designed conversations that allow individuals and groups to explore the cross-roads at which they find themselves at this stage of their lives, or work, or projects have the power to transform the future.  ​
To find out what possibilities we could inhabit, we first need to become adept at creating the spaces and places in which genuine inquiry can occur.  In these environments it becomes possible to ask ourselves and others real questions, such as:
  • What is the crossroads at which you find yourself?
  • ​What matters to you most, now? 
  • What have been the unexpected gifts in the transition you are undergoing so far? 
  • And what losses do you need to mourn as you emerge to face a new reality?
  • What resonates powerfully as we hear others’ experiences today and as we listen to ourselves? 
  • What risks are we now willing to take? 
  • About what do we still have doubts and reservations?
  • What is calling out to us so strongly that can sense we have become willing to promise ourselves to it?
  • What can we create together that we cannot create alone?
​To learn more about these approaches visit:
www.margaretwheatley.com
www.artofhosting.org
"Scientists have discovered that the small, brave act of cooperating with another person, of choosing trust over cynicism, generosity over selfishness, makes the brain light up with quiet joy."
Natalie Angier