On Thursday, I attended one of the Brand South Australia Free professional development workshops, that is put on with the support of Bernie Lewis Home Loans. The event on Thursday was run by Jo Marshall from Culturise and was in the amazing Majestic Rooftop Garden on Frome Road.
The session went in to an area that was completely new to me, which is the Adversity Quotient. Commonly called AQ, it falls in to the same style of psychometric as EQ (Emotional Quotient).
AQ looks at how resilient people are, and how we can build on it to ensure our teams are well prepared to deal with the ever-increasing pace of today’s work place. AQ is not only individual, but also team focused, and is a key part of ensuring a workplace culture is established that gets the most out of your team.
The participants took a GRIT (A measurement and metric type for AQ) test, and everyone was given detailed feedback on how they can improve their overall adversity.
Some of the standout points that Jo raised were the ability for teams, and people to “Not Panic”. It may sound simple, but having that ability to pause, assess, and then work the problem without panic, is much easier said than done.
APF Cold Storage & Logistics is firmly focusses on creating a strong workplace culture. I want the team to enjoy working, and the tools provided in the session will help in making sure it stays a great place to work.
AQ is also a strong part of Industry 4.0. Not only automation is seamless in the value chain, but the employees that deliver our goods, as part of our Refrigerated Transport need to have a high AQ, as if they are dropping off goods to clients, and are panicked, or upset, it reflects poorly on us, and our client.
APF at all levels tries to embody the “Don’t Panic” rule, and we work hard to be the calming presence, when our customers are flustered. AQ is a big focus for us now, we just never knew the science and terminology behind it.

This was the first Brand SA event I have attended, and it was great. If I walk away from any session with one thing to think about, I consider it a success. And at this event I took away plenty. I will be looking far more in to AQ, and it was excellent to talk to other great local businesses. A special thanks to Tania Cunningham from Blackbird IT for being so friendly to me at my first event too, and also to Helena Senesi for being so wonderful in making sure I had all the information for the event.