Title : General Manager of Technology and Strategy Company : YMCA Victoria Industry : Social enterprise Location : Greater Melbourne

On his appointment as the YMCA Victoria ’ s General Manager of Technology & Strategy , Shane Riddle knew he faced a complex challenge to bring the benefits of digitisation to an organisation that had taken only rudimentary steps on that journey but he didn ’ t think he ’ d be a crisis leader . In the event he had only seven weeks of ‘ normal ’ activity before COVID-19 hit .

Everything changed almost overnight . “ As a leader I ’ m not immune to my own doubts and fears on what was happening locally and around the world and where we were going with pandemic . The world was starting to look a very different place . The YMCA ’ s business model is not-for-profit : with the closure of centres and no revenue , we were facing the very real possibility that this 167 year old organisation was not going to survive .” As a leader and part of the executive team this was a real test of his leadership skills . As the technology leader , his contribution over the next few weeks was critical to the organisation ’ s survival .

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At only seven weeks in at the YMCA , he had a very short time to build rapport with the executive team . “ One of the best methods I use when I join any team or organisation , is to create trust , but this is not something that happens overnight . Thrown into the pandemic we were able to rally as an executive . Respect , transparency , collaborating and candour allowed us to work quickly and for me to start influencing the direction of actions we needed to undertake .” technologymagazine . com