Your pathway. Your potential.
Greatness is not found in the path, but in the person who charts it.
Compass brings clarity to where you are, what matters next, and the leadership pathway that will take you there.
CompassThe leadership assessment
The moment
A profession remaking healthcare.
Digital health has moved from the edge of the organisation to the centre of how care is delivered. Telehealth, electronic records, data and AI are no longer projects at the margin: they are becoming the infrastructure of care.
Australia's digital health market, 2024 to 2030, expanding at double-digit rates year on year. Driven by an ageing population, rising chronic disease, and a health system under sustained pressure.
Every system, every transformation and every dollar of that growth needs someone capable to lead it.
The gap no one names
We promote our best technologists. We rarely prepare them to lead.
Many people reach senior digital and ICT roles in health on the strength of their technical performance: promoted because they're the best engineers, informaticians and project leaders, not because anyone assessed whether they could lead an executive team.
That's not a criticism. It's simply how the system works.
The hardest transition in any career is the move from being rewarded for your own technical brilliance to being effective through other people.
"Technical excellence earns the seat at the table. It does not, on its own, make you effective in it."
of careers that derail do so because of interpersonal shortcomings, not a lack of technical skill.
Center for Creative Leadershipof managers are "accidental managers" who stepped up without ever being trained to lead.
Chartered Management Institute · YouGov, 2023What the standards tell us
The gap sits almost entirely in the enabling competencies.
The ACHSM Master Health Service Management Competency Framework, the recognised Australian standard, divides leadership into two groups. For technically-promoted digital leaders, one side is already strong. The other is where careers are made or lost.
The direct work, including digital management, where technically strong leaders are often already capable.
- Digital management
- Operations
- Delivery
The personal attributes the framework itself calls what differentiates healthcare leadership as a profession.
- Self-awareness
- Impact & influence
- Professionalism
- Change leadership
The program
One focused, twelve-month membership.
A founding cohort of ten, up to sixteen, invited personally. It pairs the two things that actually move executive capability: a trusted peer community, and personal coaching.
A peer cohort
Four facilitated meetings a year, each two half-days with a hosted networking dinner in between. Members rotate hosting across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. A host presentation, tour or demonstration; a curated educational topic; and round-table discussion of the real challenges you're facing.
Personal coaching
Twelve months of one-to-one coaching, delivered monthly, carrying your development between meetings and turning insight into action. The personal depth that a peer community alone can't reach.
A community that grows
Future study tours across the Commonwealth and internationally, and collaborative benchmarking between members' organisations, shaped and prioritised by the cohort. You don't simply join a program; you help build it.
Who it's for
One or two levels from the executive team, and ready for it.
If you're an emerging digital health leader, a level or two below your organisation's digital or ICT executive, with your sights on an executive role: this is the work that determines whether you get there, and thrive once you do.
Your technical credibility is assumed. What carries you in is judgement, influence, self-awareness, and the ability to lead change and earn the trust of clinical, corporate and board colleagues.
This is for you if…
You were promoted on technical strength, and now lead through others
You're aiming for a CIO, CDO or executive role in health
You want honest feedback and peers who face the same challenges
You'll invest twelve months in becoming the leader the role needs
Who leads it
Every cohort is led personally, by someone who has held the accountability.
Dave Kempson
Principal & Convenor · Former CIO / CDO
Dave has spent thirty years leading in defence, government and health, including as CIO and CDO of billion-dollar health systems. Since 2020 he has run Digital Tactics, an executive advisory, coaching and facilitation practice working with health, government and defence boards across Australia.
He convenes and coaches the cohort personally.
Partner with us
Invest in the leaders who will run health's digital future.
The next generation of digital health executives won't appear by accident. Forward-looking organisations can help develop them deliberately, and stand alongside a respected community of the sector's emerging leaders.
Headline support for the founding cohort.
- A named association with the program
- Invitation to host or co-design a session
- Standing acknowledgement across its first year
- 4 scholarship spots annually
- Quarterly advisory sessions with the principal
Fund a seat for an emerging leader who would otherwise miss out.
- From regional and rural services, public and not-for-profit health, or under-represented backgrounds
- Widen the pipeline, and the perspectives in the room
- Sponsor recognition across program materials
- Alumni network access
Contribute to a specific meeting, dinner or study tour.
- Acknowledgement to the cohort
- A lighter way to back the work
- Connect with the community
- Logo placement on program materials
Independence comes first. Sponsorship supports the program; it never buys a seat, shapes selection, or influences coaching. We protect the integrity and confidentiality of the cohort, and we'll always be clear with members about who supports the work.
Enquire
Membership is by personal invitation. Start with a conversation.
There's no public sign-up. If you believe you're a fit for the founding cohort, or you'd like to explore sponsorship or a scholarship, request a conversation and we'll be in touch.
Request a conversation
Dave personally reviews every enquiry. Expect a reply within a few business days.