David Derwin
Less Slides, More Influence: Serving Leaders in Uncertainty
David Derwin is the founder of the Illume Group, an Australian consultancy specialising in project delivery, change management, and capability development. With over 25 years in public, private, and not-for-profit organisations, he brings a practical, outcomes-first style to change, helping leaders cut through complexity, build delivery confidence, and embed ways of working that actually stick. David is an Accredited Change Professional (Master) with the Change Management Institute and is known for blending structured practice with a coaching mindset and a deep focus on human behaviour.
He is particularly interested in how leaders and teams navigate uncertainty and how better conversations, not more slideware, can reduce overwhelm, improve alignment, and accelerate delivery.
Join his workshop –
In uncharted change, the instinct is to add more, more process, more packs, more comms. But leaders don’t need more machinery. They need clear thinking and better conversations that reduce noise and increase delivery confidence.
This session is a practical, interactive workshop for change practitioners and project leaders who want to support leaders without making it all about leaders. We’ll work with a simple truth: coaching is a goal-oriented conversation that helps people shift behaviour, not a performance, and not advice dressed up as questions.
Using a small set of tools, participants will learn how to:
- quickly surface what’s actually uncertain versus what’s just noisy;
- run “better-than-usual” coaching conversations that build rapport and move work forward;
- align on outcomes and a shared definition of done without creating bureaucracy;
- and leave with templates they can reuse immediately in real sponsor and executive conversations.
Participants will walk away with a conversation structure, a one-page leader enablement canvas, and a repeatable set of prompts that help leaders feel supported and accountable in uncertainty.
