James Eracleous is an Organisational Services Consultant and Organisational Psychologist with Altius Group, applying psychological principles to support workplace health and safety, employee engagement, wellbeing, and performance. James works with organisations across industries to build psychosocially safe workplaces, to support leaders through change, and to equip people with practical tools for improving their wellbeing.
James holds a Master of Psychology (Organisational), a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) from Deakin University, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Human Resource Management) and Psychological Science from ACU. His previous research projects include “how leaders can use humour to improve their leadership effectiveness”, and “the role of humour, behaviour, and the dark tetrad of personality traits on leadership effectiveness”.
Outside of his consulting work, James volunteers with St John Ambulance Victoria. In 2025, he was admitted to the Order of St John for exceptional volunteer service and dedication to community health, demonstrated through 13 years and over 4,000 hours of volunteering.
Leading Through Change: Using the SMART Work Design to Protect Your Team
We all know the world of work feels different than it did five years ago. Dispersed teams, digital pressure, and shifting expectations are now the norm, not the exception. For leaders and managers on the ground, these changes often translate into one persistent challenge:
How do I keep my people safe, connected, and performing well?
This session introduces the SMART model of work design, a practical, evidence-based framework developed and tested with major Australian organisations, including state and federal government agencies. It gives leaders a simple language and actionable steps to address the psychosocial hazards that emerge when work changes faster than our ability to manage it.
We will transition from discussing the theoretical aspects of psychosocial hazards to concentrating specifically on practical strategies for eliminating them through design. Using the SMART model (Stimulation, Mastery, Agency, Relational, and Tolerable demands), attendees will learn the core components to create meaningful, productive, and healthy roles in their team.
For example, we will explore how a lack of 'Agency' can fuel anxiety during organisational restructures, or how poor 'Relational' connections in a hybrid team can lead to isolation and disengagement.
The session is built around practical application. We share lessons learned through applying these principles with organisations and share a real-world case study. They will leave with practical strategies they can immediately apply to have better conversations with their teams, allocate workloads more equitably, and build resilience to manage ongoing change.