Connection isn't a personality trait. It's a skill.
And for the first time at Lendlease, you can learn it an hour a week. Live, with Mitch himself.
For five years the only way into Real Conversations was a full day out of work with a facilitator. Most of you told us the same thing: the training is brilliant, the day is impossible. So we changed the shape, not the depth. Six Thursdays. Sixty minutes each. Live online with Mitch Wallis, who built the method, and a replay if the site gets in the way.
One cohort. Limited seats. Open to everyone at Lendlease, leaders and peers, site and office, Australia and Asia.
Seats are limited and confirmed in order of registration.
“Connection is one of the top two leadership behaviours we want to see at Lendlease in the next five years.”
Mitch's invitation is being filmed. This slot goes live with the final cut.
This is not wellbeing training.
It's the skill that will future-proof your career in the next ten years alongside AI. Retention, performance, psychosocial risk, culture: every one of them runs on how well you handle a hard conversation. Most people were never taught.
Same depth. New shape.
This is the exact program 312 of your colleagues have done. We changed how you get it.
Nothing was cut to make it fit. It was re-sequenced so the skill builds between sessions instead of being poured in over one day.
Nobody trained you for this part.
You got the job because you were good at the work. Then the work became people. Tap every line that sounds like your week.
Someone on your team says “I'm not coping” and you reach for “have you tried EAP?”
A subbie or a client unloads on you before 7am and you carry it for the rest of the day
A colleague goes quiet on a Teams call and you let it slide because you had no idea what to say
The performance conversation you have rescheduled twice
You are the manager, the HR department and the shoulder to cry on, all before lunch
It follows you home, and your partner gets the version of you with nothing left
If you tapped two, this was built for you. Every one of those moments is a conversation. And conversations are a skill, not a personality trait.
If you tapped two, this was built for you. Every one of those moments is a conversation. And conversations are a skill, not a personality trait.
Lendlease colleagues have done this program. 100% recommend it.
This is for you if...
Someone on your team says ‘I'm not coping’ and you freeze. You default to ‘have you tried EAP?’ or change the subject. Learn to lead the conversation instead of dodging it. Turn the moment you dread into the moment they remember.
A manager has as much influence on someone's mental health as their spouse, and more than their doctor or therapist.
A colleague opens up in the kitchen or on a Teams call and you don't know what to say. You care, but you don't have the words. Learn to be useful without overstepping, underdoing it, or burning out in the process.
The first person people turn to at work isn't HR. It's a colleague. Learn to be ready when that happens.
Subcontractors, clients and community members bring you their stress every day. You absorb it. Learn to stay steady when things get emotional, and stop carrying it home. The ‘accidental counsellor’ toolkit.
53% of public-facing workers have dealt with verbally abusive or threatening behaviour in the past six months.
This stuff follows you home. Your partner, your kids, your mates. The same patterns play out everywhere.
The #1 predictor of divorce is contempt: the conversations that were ignored. Learn to get real.
The most powerful predictor of a child's development is how their parent makes sense of their own life. Learn to regulate, so you can co-regulate your kids.
Open to everyone at Lendlease. Leaders, peers, site-based, office-based, Australia and Asia.
ELSA-B: a clear, sequential method for the conversations that matter most.
Start conversations that actually open people up
Connect so they feel understood, not just heard
Respond like a pro when the stakes are high
Help people move forward without trying to fix them
Support others without burning out
A proven five-step framework shown to improve connection skills by up to 4x.
Six Thursdays. One skill, built in order.
Find your primary connection mistake before someone else points it out. The science of what support does to a nervous system, and why your instincts in a hard moment were trained into you long before Lendlease.
The exact words, cues and timing that get a person to open up. How to spot someone who is quietly not coping before they say so.
Listening that makes people feel understood, not just heard. Techniques that hold on a noisy site and in a back-to-back Teams day.
What to do, and what not to do, when a disclosure is serious. Risk, privacy and the line between caring and overstepping.
Coaching instead of rescuing. How to help someone move forward without carrying them.
Guilt, over-functioning and the cost of being everyone's go-to. How to keep caring without running yourself down, and what you commit to for the six months after.
Sixty minutes live online each Thursday, 11:00am to 12:00pm Sydney time, with Mitch. Can't make one live? The replay is yours.
Everything you get. Your seat is covered.
Not a USB. Not a QR code. Things you can hold, write in, and reach for before the hard conversation.
The six weeks build the skill. The Hub keeps it alive for a year.
Across teams, sites and regions, so connection becomes something Lendlease people do, not something they hope for. When your whole cohort speaks the same five steps, the hard conversation gets easier for everyone in it.
The capability assessment + certificate - signpost to your team and to Lendlease that you're trained and ready to lead the hard conversations.
“The best professional learning I've ever done, by far”
Five years of evidence at Lendlease.
312 Lendlease staff have been through Real Conversations. This is what they said, and what an independent evaluator found.
Trust, psychological safety and stronger team dynamics
Workplace stress and stigma around mental health
Leaders now proactively check in with teams, employees feel safer to confide in one another, and mental health is embedded in everyday workplace discussions.
“Started yesterday with ‘oh no, why am I stuck here for the whole day. There is so much work to do’. But I ended the day feeling energised, refreshed and reminded of mental self care for me and also others. Thank you Mitch Wallis. Your sharing and perspective has touched my life more than you know.”
“I've undertaken lots of training in this space, even Mental Health First Aid, but found this such a real and practical workshop that hones in on the communication skills we already have.”
“The feedback is phenomenal, but I'm not surprised. Every leader I've spoken to that's attended has said the skills they've got are so transferrable - in work, at home, with whoever they're having a conversation with. That's where we had our biggest gap. So Real Conversations is really filling that for us.”
The person who built the method is the person in the room.
Mitch Wallis is a psychology thought leader (Masters in Psychology, Columbia University), author of Real Conversations, and founder of Heart On My Sleeve, a nationally recognised suicide prevention movement. Before that, seven years leading teams at Microsoft. He has trained 10,000+ people across 200+ organisations on four continents, and Lendlease has been one of his longest partnerships.
For five years his facilitators delivered this program at Lendlease. This cohort, he delivers himself.
Zero reasons to come back later.
or speak to your HR Business Partner
The last six objections.
I can't commit to every Thursday.
Every session is recorded and the replay lands the same day. Sites run late and meetings move. You won't fall behind.
Is this a mental health course?
No. It's leadership and communication capability. You'll get better at the human conversations your job already involves, performance, pressure, disclosures, boundaries, without playing therapist to anyone.
I've already done the full-day workshop. Is this the same?
Same method, same depth, new shape, and this time Mitch delivers every session himself. If you did the full day two or three years ago, this is the refresher most people ask for.
I'm not a manager. Is it for me?
Yes. Half the program is built for the go-to colleague, the frontline and the person who takes it home. If people bring you their problems, it's for you.
I'm based in Asia. Does the time work?
Sessions run 11:00am Sydney time. See the regional times in the details above. Replays cover the rest.