What is Collective Campus?

Collective Campus runs capability building programs for organisations around the world since 2015.

What kind of work is that?

Programs for teams inside organisations: testing ideas, customer experience, how people work, and AI. AI is one part of the practice.

Where does Collective Campus deliver?

Around the world, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, in person or remote.

Our story

Our story.

Everyone is talking about sustainability but what about the sustainability of our organisations and their people?

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Why our sessions land

Training that puts on a show

Our founder, Steve Glaveski, grew up in the 90s idolising bands who peaked before his time, like Kiss, Mötley Crüe and Iron Maiden, because unlike the shoegazing grunge scene of his time, they were all about putting on a show. He played in bands, worshipped at the altar of stand-up comedians like Dave Chappelle and Norm Macdonald and hit the open mic stand-up comedy circuit.

He brings that same energy to every workshop and capability building program we run. The laughs keep people engaged, but the real point is what happens after: practical tools people use the next morning and measurable business outcomes. It's not just training. It's something your people will remember, talk about and act on.

// How we got here

From a Meetup experiment to a global innovation partner.

2013

Where it started

By 2013, Steve Glaveski had spent almost a decade working for large professional services firms and investment banks. He was, above all, a frustrated intrapreneur, with his ideas stifled by bureaucracy and the status quo at big firms. He raised funding to pursue his own web startup and left the world of the big corporates, for a while.

Sean Qian had started Collins Collective, a tech startup hub that he had established in Melbourne's CBD. Sean was a science buff and ran conferences on the topic, having brought the likes of Neil deGrasse Tyson on his first appearance. It was at Collins Collective that Sean and Steve first met.

2 years

Two years later

Fast forward two years. Both Steve and Sean were seeking to work on something bigger, something more impactful and meaningful.

Armed with deep experience in both the corporate and startup world, the pair decided to join forces to help frustrated intrapreneurs, just like Steve was, unlock their potential to create more impact and help large organisations navigate the fast-paced, volatile and uncertain realities of today's business landscape.

What started out as a simple experiment on Meetup, "will people sign up to a lean startup for corporates class?", slowly evolved into Collective Campus, a hub, school and consultancy that works with large organisations to help them adopt the mindsets, methods and tools required to survive these new realities.

Today

Today, we help large organisations to discover, not just deliver, to explore, not just execute, and we've worked with the likes of Clifford Chance, BNP Paribas, Microsoft, Village Digital, Asahi, MetLife, Telstra, King & Wood Mallesons, National Australia Bank, Singapore Pools, Ascendas Singbridge and numerous others across Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, Auckland, Hong Kong, London, New York, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Who we are

We are a team of entrepreneurs, designers, builders, thinkers, rebels, writers, philosophers and more.

We jump out of bed each morning to create impact, and to work on something bigger than ourselves.

Why we exist

To unlock people's latent potential to create impact for humanity and lead more fulfilling lives.

// Why we exist

What we believe.

Experimentation

We believe in the power of experimentation, in challenging the status quo, in optimising and continuously improving every day, in order to drive long-term sustainable growth and impact.

Extreme ownership

We don't make excuses. We don't pass the blame to external people, factors or events. We take extreme ownership for our work. We take responsibility for all outcomes, put the customer first and always look for ways to solve problems.

Persistence

River cuts through rock not through power but through persistence. We drive relentlessly towards delivering on our mission, seeing obstacles in our way as necessary to help us learn, grow, build character, differentiate ourselves and move us forward.

Impact

Purpose is the world's greatest performance enhancer. As such, we focus on the work that matters, work that unlocks people's potential so that they can create more impact for humanity.

Empathy

We demonstrate compassion, fairness and respect by standing in each other's and our customer's shoes before making and acting on decisions.

Self-belief

We believe that a team of committed, cross-functional people with a growth mindset, an intense customer-centric focus and a culture of rapid experimentation has no limits on what it can achieve.

Emotional intelligence

We demonstrate emotional awareness and intelligence in all of our interactions and believe that talents and abilities can be developed through effort, intentional learning and persistence. We don't let ego get in the way of meaningful progress.

Gratitude

We show gratitude for the freedom we're fortunate enough to have to practice these values, unlike many less fortunate people around the world. We work towards giving more people these opportunities and always take pause to celebrate both our and our clients' wins.

Radical transparency

We engage in thoughtful disagreement and exchange ideas without creating lasting conflict, even when ideas are controversial, based on a guiding philosophy of 'strong opinions, weakly held'. We provide constructive feedback to each other and our clients empathically so that we get better as individuals, as a company and as our clients' trusted partner.

// Who we are

Meet the team.

Shay Namdarian

General Manager in Customer Strategy

Shay is the General Manager of Customer Strategy at Collective Campus. He has over 9 years of experience working across a wide range of projects focusing on customer experience, design thinking, innovation and digital transformation. He has gained his experience across several consulting firms including Ernst & Young, Capgemini and Accenture.

A regular facilitator and speaker, Shay has worked with and provided advice to leading Australian and global organisations including NAB, Westpac, Qantas, Coca-Cola, Clifford Chance and BNP Paribas. As the resident design thinking expert, Shay has supported organisations in upskilling employees in the human-centred approach, while also driving culture change.

Along with his understanding of the corporate world, Shay has a successful background in startups. Shay has co-founded two fashion startups that have had products stocked in over 40 stores. After building strong social followings, his brands have also been featured in key publications including GQ and The Daily Telegraph.

In his free time, Shay (aka DJ Shaymeless) is an aspiring DJ and an avid NBA fan.

Hillary Scherzinger

Business Development Manager

Tom Chambers

Business Development Manager

Tessa Kowaliw

Design thinking and CX facilitator

An incredibly personable design thinking facilitator with years of experience across the private and public sectors, and a passion for driving community outcomes.

Steve Glaveski

CEO and Co-founder

Steve Glaveski is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, author and podcast host whose mission is to unlock the latent potential of organisations so that they can create more impact for humanity and empower their people to lead more fulfilling work lives.

Steve wrote the Innovation Manager's Handbook, which was an Amazon bestseller. He hosts two podcasts, Corporate Innovation School and Future Squared. Future Squared won the inaugural Australian Podcasting Awards People's Choice award in the Business category. He is a keynote speaker on corporate innovation, and has spoken at Pause Fest, CPA Congress and the IBM Symposium.

He previously founded HOTDESK, an office sharing platform, and has worked for Westpac, Dun & Bradstreet, the Victorian Auditor General's Office, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Macquarie Bank.

When not working on the innovation strategies of his clients and of his team, Steve can usually be found riding his motorcycle, in the gym, at the beach or listening to the latest record from Iron Maiden.

Alec Sloman

Technology Evangelist

Alec Sloman is a technical facilitator who speaks on subjects including computing, technology, public policy and blockchain. He is interested in the intersection of computing and law, which he considers a very special and very uncertain area, perfect for a curious mind. A software developer at heart, he has taught classes at General Assembly, Code for Australia, global law firms and many others. He's a confident and passionate speaker, sure to both entertain and illuminate.

Jennifer Wojcinsky

Business Development Manager

Questions

What Collective Campus is

What is Collective Campus?: Collective Campus runs capability building programs for organisations around the world since 2015.
What kind of work is that?: Programs for teams inside organisations: testing ideas, customer experience, how people work, and AI. AI is one part of the practice.
Where does Collective Campus deliver?: Around the world, including Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, in person or remote.

Next step

Build that capability with your team.

Collective Campus works with large organisations on the mindsets, methods and tools behind this story. Book a discovery call.

Book a discovery call