Informal is the new formal

In any corporate environment meetings are an important aspect to making sure everybody in the

organisation is heading in the same direction. I always imagined corporate meetings as a daunting

experience that just gave bosses a reason to complain about something they disagreed with you

on in front of others. That being said, my experiences at meetings within DoT have challenged my

previous assumptions.


I’ve experienced many meetings while here and, although I haven’t contributed to discussion too

often, I’ve observed what people are like in this setting. What surprised me is the equality within the

agenda. What I mean by that is no matter what your role, if you are involved in a meeting your input

is always well received.


There is obviously an agenda that is run through during any given meeting but that agenda is

flexible. I recently experienced a meeting where the entire thing was taken up by one item on the

agenda that included a PowerPoint presentation about transport changes to the City of Perth. The

discussion and cooperation amongst the various representatives of each transport portfolio caused

it to run quite over time. This was great to see because everyone was genuinely passionate about

making sure that the events discussed were as coherent as possible. What got me is these meetings

I’ve attended have a very casual feel to them. While people are filing into the room, there are little

conversations going on all around the room.


This environment has shown me that not everything is as formal as you’d anticipate. Obviously

people have a job to do but that doesn’t mean they’re robots. This office is just like any other

workplace. I work in retail and the way I act is very similar to how I act here at DoT. I have a job to do

but I don’t mind stopping and chatting with the people I work with. There is so much going on with

transport here in Perth right now and I’m grateful I am able to see projects starting to take shape

around the city.