Current Projects

We are working with Horticulture Innovation Australia on a strategy to drive cultural change through non – technical people / leadership focused activities and investment. We are looking at factors and trends impacting the industry requiring new / refreshed leadership capability into 2023+. We’re identifying the priority leadership capability areas / gaps and pathways towards industry leadership positions. It’s about future proofing leadership and suggesting ways the industry can activate and fund leadership initiatives for cross industry benefit. The horticulture industry contributes $18B to Australia’s economy each year making it the third largest agricultural industry. Adaptive leadership is vital to ensuring this sector thrives through fast paced change and megatrends impacting the way the sector operates. 

Beef Australia exists for the advancement of the Australian beef community and has a vision to be a world-class organisation that promotes, advances, and celebrates a sustainable beef industry. Every three years it holds the largest beef industry event in the Southern Hemisphere. Beef2024 set a new economic impact record with over 125,000 attendances. The event generated $102 million in direct and incremental expenditure for the Greater Rockhampton Region and $69.6 million for Queensland. We are working with the marketing and communications team. We are providing leadership and communications training to ensure the team is in the best position to meet the demands of the fast approaching 2027 event.

The Australian cotton industry is committed to developing leaders to futureproof industry leadership. RuralScope works with the industry to lead the biennial Leadership Dinner at the Gold Coast. Graduation of the Australia Future Cotton Leaders Program, along with a leading edge speaker and showcase of leadership pathways occurs as part of the Dinner With attendance of approximately 150 cotton growers, industry leaders and staff, this is a flagship event on the cotton industry’s events calendar. 2024 will see the 4th Dinner take place and we once again look forward to providing an engaging program.

Rice Breeding Australia drives transformation of the rice industry through innovation. Their vision is to introduce state of the art rice breeding techniques to accelerate the development of new rice varieties with a focus on sustainability and increased water productivity. RuralScope works with Rice Breeding Australia to develop the team’s strategic and operational non- technical capacity. This includes the design and facilitation of Team Development days as well as individual coaching support for employees. Development of training, values and baseline performance measures for the team and detailed individual and team personality maps underpins the work achieved to date.

RuralScope has designed and developed an integrated and customisable leadership program for industry groups to identify, nurture and develop their emerging leaders.  This is based on a model around personal, professional and industry development.  A key element of the program is an industry leadership project.  In addition to face to face delivery, online activities to foster connection, trust and confidence support participants to apply learnings into real life contexts.  Jo Eady has facilitated over 15 Australian Grain Leaders Programs for Grain Growers Limited across Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania, Western Australia, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia.

Hosted by Cotton Australia in partnership with the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, the core of this program is the identification and development of next-generation leaders.  Delivered each two years, the program coincides with the Australian Cotton Conference. The program boasts over 100 graduates with many taking on local to national industry leadership roles and influencing industry development and direction.  This includes roles at a local, state and national level including industry boards, working groups and committees.  Evaluation from the programs highlights the value of the learning experience through professional facilitation and industry integration.

The Australian cotton industry has a vision to become employees and an industry of choice for the workforce.  Shift is a 3 year collaborative research project developing a model / approach along with tools and support for employees and enterprises. Dr Nicole McDonald, a workforce planning specialist with Central Queensland University is Project Lead.  Jo Eady from RuralScope is the appointed leadership expert on this project and is keen to be working in the space between research and practical application.  Shift is seeking new approaches to workforce planning and the wicked problem of employee attraction and retention.

Developing the capability of an industry requires leadership succession planning.  Jo Eady is currently working with Cotton Australia to develop and implement this bespoke and highly integrated industry mentoring program.  Up to 4 emerging leaders will undertake this program each two years.  Mentors will come from within and beyond the industry and matchings will be made in alignment with the emerging leaders industry leadership pathway plan.  Mentors and mentees will be well supported and each program will run over 4 months.  The outcome will be an increased readiness for emerging leaders to effectively take on local – national industry leadership roles.