Practice In Tray Exercise Instructions Please read the instructions on this page, then turn over the page

to begin the exercise. Your assistant has left 10 items (documents) on your desk marked for your attention. These appear in a variety of formats including emails, letters, etc., just as you would use in an office environment. Some of these items may appear to describe isolated issues, while others link to one or more of the other items. A summary listing each item is provided for you on a subsequent page. You need to review each item and then need to provide the following: - A list of actions, written in brief, which include your analysis of the key issues in each of the 10 items. - The priority that you would assign for dealing with each item. Please use these 3 categories: high priority, medium priority, and low priority. When determining these, a balance needs to be struck between urgent tasks (that need to be completed as soon as possible) and important tasks (that have a high impact on the business). - Please include who should be involved. For example, if you want to forward an item to a colleague, or if you want to call a meeting. You have 60 minutes in which to complete this task. You are strongly advised to spend the first 5-10 minutes reviewing the documents as a whole before considering actions pertaining to each item. There is a template at the end of this file for you to enter your Actions and Priority Ratings. Role You have joined the DOH through its Graduate Trainee Programmes and after 2 years have just received a new placement in the anti-smoking section as 2IC to Tim Powers. You see this as an excellent opportunity to put what you have learnt about management into practice. There are a number of outstanding issues, some more urgent than others. Although the Division Manager made it clear that he will be too busy to offer much day-to-day support, you do have his authority to take whatever decisions you feel are necessary. Tim has asked for regular updates, so you are advised not to defer any important issues. You can delegate suitable tasks to your Assistant, Fred Lopez. Today is the 10th of June 2013 your first day as Interim Section Manager.

ITEM 1 STRUCTURE CHART

Anti-Smoking Section Head - Tim Powers HR Freedom of Information Compliance Office

YOU

Wally Lamb

Hung Lee

Ruth Modan

Assistant - Fred Lopez

Mary Luna

Jess Daioh

Ahmed Khan

Other Section Staff

ITEM 2 EMAIL FROM SECTION HEAD To: Liz Thompson From: Tim Powers Date: 2013-06-09 Re: New Position Hi Liz, Welcome to our section! Sorry I cant be there to greet you Ive been told by your previous manager that you are a creative thinker and youll be a great addition to the team. As you know our top priority is our people and I hope you will continue to organise the monthly Innovation Group meetings an open forum for members of the grad program to share professional learning experiences. There are a few other points I tell all new comers to remember, regardless of their experience to date: - we must be careful to abide by the APS code in all our actions.

- we need to promote DOH values in all we do. - we need to keep expenses to a minimum. - we are a team. As individuals, we all bring a range of different skills and Id like you to focus on developing the talents of those in the section We can catch up when Im back from Sydney I know Fred has left a few things for you to be getting on with. Keep me posted on how things are getting on. Best wishes, Tim Powers ITEM 3 STAFF OPINION SURVEY RESULTS FYI just back from the latest staff survey. -Hung Lee, HR Q. No. 5 8 10 Question My manager coaches and supports me I received all the training I need I have a clear career development plan I am able to manage my workload I fully understand the APS values % Strongly disagree 10 16 13 % Disagree 19 45 35 % Cannot tell 40 15 30 % Agree 21 15 18 % Strongly agree 10 9 3

13 15

18 16

47 18

18 33

10 19

7 14

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Section Dept. Avg.

ITEM 4 EMAIL FROM COLLEAGUE FROM: Jess Daioh TO: Liz Thompson DATE: 2013-06-08 Dear Liz, Im working on a policy brief on the plain-packing laws. I remember Tanya said some things the night before it started but cant locate them. Any chance you could have a ferret around its probably really obvious where the transcript is and Im just being blind! Thanks, Jess ITEM 5 MEDIA RELEASE Hi Liz, Can you have a look at this media release? Is there anything I need to fix? Would love to get it out ASAP. Mary Joint Release Health Minister, The Hon Tania Plibersek, today lunched a brand new wave of smoking advertising in the Australian Governments latest global-leading efforts to help Australians stop smoking for good. The new National Tobacco Campagn Stop before the Suffering Starts highlights the immense suffering people, and their families can go through as a consequence of smoking related diseases like emphysema.

Smoking is known to cause harm to nearly every organ and system of your body. Many medical conditions caused by smoking can result in not just death, but in living for years of suffering with disabling health problems, Minister Plibersek said. Tobacco smoking is still the single large cause of preventable premature death and disease in Australia it kills 15,000 Australians each year and costs the economy $31.5 billion. We want to let people know the health dangers associated with smoking and help to prevent hundreds of thousands of Australians from suffering as a result of smoking related illnesses," said Ms Plibersek. Advertising is part of the Governments strategie to reduce smoking rates to 10% by 2018 AD, other measures include our world first plain packaging legislation and putting smoking replacement therapies onto the PBS. The campaigns focus on suffering, as a result of smoking related illnesses, is an extension of previous Australian Government anti-smoking messagin and acknowledges the significant impact that these illnesses have on smokers and their families. Advertising starts today via TV, FM and AM radio, online and in print and social media (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram) and runs through to June 2013. ITEM 6 EMAIL RE: GRAD PROGRAM FROM: Wally Lamb TO: All graduate program DATE: 2013-06-02 Hi all, We are looking at reworking the grad program website to make it a bit friendlier. When you get a minute could you have a look and send me any comments you have and maybe a brief testimonial? Thanks, Wally ITEM 7 TRAINING WORKSHOP FROM: Wally Lamb TO: All graduate program DATE: 2013-06-02

Hi all, Here is the next round of personal skills courses. Please send booking requests for these workshops to wally.lamb@doh.gov.au Places guaranteed if bookings are made within the next 2 weeks. Workshop Written communication skills Coaching your colleagues to success Making difficult stakeholder relationships work Best practice in project management Managing staff APS basics ITEM 8 FOI REQUEST FROM: Ruth Modan TO: Liz Thompson DATE: 2013-06-01 Hi Liz, Ive got an FOI here for any and all material we have relating to British American Tabaco between May 2012 and January 2013. Could you please check with everyone in your section and send me an itemised list? Thanks, Ruth ITEM 9 EMAIL FROM CONFERENCE ORGANISER FROM: Conference Systems Canberra TO: Liz Thompson DATE: 2013-06-09 Hi Liz, I tried to call you this morning about some of the details of the setup for the upcoming anti-smoking conference. Could you give me a buzz on 0428991974 as I will be out of the office today and Ill run a few things by you. Cheers, Tom ITEM 10 MEDIA RELEASE Hi Liz,

I was hoping you would be able to do some research on the Quit Now: My QuitBuddy and Quit For You, Quit For Two apps the DOH has put out and get a draft media release covering the following points together: - impact - policy context - target audience - availability of the apps Do you have any ideas who it would be worth getting some supporting quotes from? Looking forward to reading your thoughts shoot me a line if you need anything. Ahmed Khan

Item No. 1

Key issues and recommended actions

Priority (high, medium, or low)

10