90percent Consulting, Darwin (2026)

12/03/2026

Leading in the Northern Territory isn’t simple.

With staff turnover at 17.5% and increasing psychosocial health and safety obligations under WHS legislation, many leaders are carrying more than their role formally recognises.

It’s not just about attracting people. It’s about sustaining them.

The most mentally healthy workplaces in the NT aren’t relying on resilience workshops or surface-level wellbeing initiatives.

They’re making deliberate structural decisions that reduce burnout, manage workload pressure, strengthen psychological safety, and support real-life complexity.

The difference isn’t culture statements.

It’s systems.

If you’re responsible for workforce retention, leadership development, or psychosocial risk management in the Northern Territory, this matters.

Here are 5 things that the mentally healthiest NT workplaces are doing differently...

09/03/2026

1 in 5 women experience symptoms severe enough to disrupt their work, during the most demanding years of their careers.

Yet it’s something workplaces rarely talk about.

On this (belated) International Women’s Day, I’m shining a light on an experience many women are quietly navigating; changes that can make everyday work unexpectedly harder.

For many, this is linked to perimenopause - the stage leading up to menopause - when hormonal changes begin.

It often begins in a woman’s 40s and lasts around 4–6 years on average, sometimes longer.

This means it often overlaps with the years when women are contributing some of their most valuable leadership and organisational experience.

Research suggests:

• 60% experience mild to moderate symptoms
• 20% experience symptoms severe enough to affect daily life

Common symptoms include:

-> hot flushes and night sweats
-> sleep disruption and fatigue
-> brain fog and difficulty concentrating
-> anxiety or mood changes

When symptoms are significant, the impact at work may include:

💡 reduced concentration and productivity
📉 increased absenteeism
🌱 reduced confidence
🎯 stepping back from promotions
⏰ reducing hours

Workplaces can make a meaningful difference through:

-> flexible working arrangements
-> time for medical appointments
-> comfortable working environments
-> supportive, non-judgemental conversations

These adjustments help women manage their health while continuing to contribute their experience and leadership.

Supporting women through this stage of life isn’t simply a wellbeing issue.

It strengthens retention, engagement, and organisational capability - and reflects thoughtful leadership.

05/03/2026

How do you build a workplace that thrives in the face of vicarious trauma?

And importantly…

How do you shift culture without exhausting the very people you’re trying to support?

Last week in Perth, at the Family Safety Summit, I co-presented with the CEO of a remote Northern Territory NGO about a two-year culture change initiative we designed and implemented together.

When we began, there was high turnover, leadership instability and significant burnout.

This wasn’t about individual resilience.

It was about the conditions of work.

So we stopped asking how to help people cope, and started designing work that supports wellbeing.

We focused on four conditions:

🌱 Voice
🌱 Recognition
🌱 Work design
🌱 Psychological safety

And strengthened them through leadership coaching, structured communication rhythms, and reflective practice.

Our key messages were clear:

1. Resilience in the workplace is collective, not individual.

2. Resilience grows when people are heard, supported and not carrying the work alone.

3. It’s essential to co-design workplace practices with staff.

4. Data can be used as a wellbeing tool (measurement matters).

5. Reflective and reflexive practice are core work, and need to be scheduled, embedded and protected.

Over 18 months, the data showed meaningful improvement, particularly in people feeling heard and recognised.

📈 When people feel heard, resilience grows.

Thriving at work is collective.

I support leaders who want to create conditions in which their people thrive.

03/03/2026

Last week I delivered a Standard Mental Health First Aid workshop at the Sunrise Centre here in the Northern Territory.

It was a thoughtful, engaged group - and as always, I’m reminded why this training matters.

It’s an evidence-informed starting point that gives leaders and teams the skills to recognise mental health concerns and respond with confidence rather than hesitation.

For many workplaces, it’s the first time people feel equipped to have open, supportive conversations. It builds awareness, shared language, and early intervention capability.

More broadly, however, I often see organisations treat training as the end point. In reality, it’s the beginning.

MHFA is a foundation.
It is not a complete organisational strategy.

Organisations that are committed to creating psychologically safe workplaces know that training is the first layer.

Sustained change comes from what follows: leadership coaching, supervision, clear systems, and regular, honest conversations.

Mental health literacy absolutely opens the door.

Leadership practice is what keeps it open.

I’m proud to deliver MHFA - and equally committed to helping organisations build the structures that turn awareness into lasting cultural change.

Awareness is powerful.
But psychological safety is built over time.

(Can you spot ALGEE the 🐨?)

24/02/2026

Post-pandemic, flexible working opened new possibilities...

but it also surfaced new problems.

When flexibility is introduced without structure, support, or clarity, it can amplify the very issues it aimed to solve:

- disconnection
- fatigue
- blurred boundaries.

In the Northern Territory, where teams are often dispersed and roles are diverse, flexible work needs to be more than a shift in location.

It needs to be a redesign of how people stay connected, supported, and clear on what matters.

We urge leaders to design flexible working systems that hold both wellbeing and performance, without relying on one-size-fits-all fixes.

21/02/2026

I’ve delivered Mental Health First Aid to hundreds of professionals.

A common misconception is that this will ‘fix’ workplace culture on its own.

As an Organisational Psychologist with over 20 years experience delivering MHFA, I absolutely believe in its value.

It’s a strong, evidence-informed foundation - and in many workplaces, it’s the first time people feel equipped to talk openly about mental health.

That matters.

But over the years, I’ve seen how easily training gets mistaken for transformation.

A team completes a course.

Leadership feels they’ve done the right thing.
And for a little while, things feel different.

But without ongoing support (supervision, coaching, one on ones, regular feedback and honest reflection) things often return to how they were.

That’s not because people didn’t care.
It’s usually because they didn’t know what to do next.

Psychological safety doesn’t take root in a single session.

It builds over time - through relationships, leadership practice, and systems that support follow-through.

Especially in regional and remote workplaces, where people are often carrying far more than their job description shows - we need to go deeper than awareness.

MHFA is part of the solution.
But it’s not the whole solution.

If your team still feels stretched, flat or fatigued after training - you’re not necessarily doing anything wrong.

It may just be time to build the next layer of support around them.

And that’s the part I love most: helping leaders create the kind of culture people feel safe to stay in.

19/02/2026

I’ve worked with leaders who value their people, but don’t always know how to protect them.

I’ve heard stories from employees who loved their jobs, but experienced psychological injury because no one recognised the psychosocial risks they were facing.

Psychological injury is more common than many realise...and it’s costly.

Businesses are left to backfill roles, manage compensation claims, and hold the impact on morale.

Some employees don’t return - not out of choice, but because they no longer trust the environment.

Since 1 July 2023, NT employers must eliminate or (where not reasonably practicable) minimise psychosocial risks by addressing how work is designed, organised and managed.

The Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice outlines 14 hazards to help employers meet national WHS laws, with fines exceeding $2 million for serious breaches.

But here’s the good news:

Many of these hazards can be addressed with simple, practical changes - especially when leaders are supported to understand how.

That’s where I come in.

As an Organisational Psychologist specialising in psychosocial health and safety, I work with leaders to translate this Code into evidence-informed, preventative action.

It makes legal and economic sense.

But more importantly, it protects the people who keep your organisation going.

If you’re not sure where to begin, I’d be glad to help.

13/01/2026

Neurodiversity isn’t a challenge to manage - it’s a strategic advantage many workplaces are underutilising.

Here’s what I’ve observed working with organisations across the NT:

The same traits that make neurodivergent employees ‘difficult to manage’ in traditional systems are often the exact traits that drive innovation, safety, and operational excellence.

🧠 Pattern recognition

Autistic and ADHD team members often notice inefficiencies, safety risks and process gaps that others miss.

🎯 Hyperfocus that delivers

When supported by the environment, neurodivergent employees can produce exceptional outcomes through deep, sustained attention. The key is reducing sensory overload and providing clarity.

🗣 Direct communication

In industries where precision matters - like mining, healthcare and emergency services - neurodivergent employees often bring clarity, cutting through noise and ambiguity.

But here’s the catch:

These strengths only emerge in environments that are designed with cognitive diversity in mind.

If your systems only support neurotypical brains, you may be unintentionally suppressing the capability of 15–20% of your workforce.

Neuro-inclusion isn’t about special treatment.
It’s about redesigning the system so more people can succeed.

What looks like ‘underperformance’ is often a completely reasonable response to a poorly designed environment.

And under today’s psychosocial safety laws, this isn’t just good leadership, it’s your legal obligation.

Is your workplace designed to unlock neurodivergent strengths, or suppress them?

08/01/2026

Over the past few years, I’ve worked with regional teams across the NT - from construction and logistics to government and health.

Turnover is a common concern.

Exit interviews often say: “better opportunity elsewhere.”

But when we take the time to listen more deeply, something else comes through.

In confidential coaching and consulting conversations, these are the patterns I hear:

🗣 “I’ve raised the same safety concern more than once… nothing changes.”

🗣 “My supervisor checks in, but I don’t think he really wants the answer.”

🗣 “By the time we’re consulted, the decisions are already made.”

🗣 “I feel like a number, not a person.”

What drives people out isn’t always the pay or the work conditions.

It’s the quiet erosion of trust.
It’s the sense that their voice doesn’t matter.

In the workplaces that manage to turn this around, I’ve seen a few consistent changes:

✔ Supervisors who are coached in how to really listen
✔ Feedback loops that close, not vanish
✔ Conversations that happen before burnout, not after
✔ Leadership KPIs that reflect culture, not just output

And over time, the impact shows up - not just in retention, but in safety, engagement, and morale.

People choose to stay not because they have to -
but because they feel seen, respected, and included.

Not perfectly.
But meaningfully.

06/01/2026

The most expensive problem on your site isn’t equipment failure.

It’s unsupported leadership under pressure.

In many operations, leaders are holding things together with sheer will.

No space to reflect or safe sounding board.

And over time, that shows up in the data:

→ High turnover
→ Unspoken conflict
→ Safety incidents that don’t make sense
→ Teams that feel worn down, not lifted up

But when leadership is supported (not just trained, but truly coached) something shifts.

Leaders think more clearly.
They communicate more intentionally.
They make space for others to lead, too.

Workforces become more stable.
Culture becomes safer.
And performance becomes easier, not harder.

This is what executive coaching can unlock - especially in remote, high-stakes environments like mining.

02/01/2026

When physical safety and psychological safety work together, workplaces don't just comply - they thrive.

Meet Digby, our Health Safety Environment and Quality (HSEQ) specialist who brings both lenses to every intervention.

With extensive experience across NT mining, oil and gas, construction, tourism, public transport, and sports and recreation, Digby understands that true workplace safety isn't just about hard hats and protocols - it's about creating environments where people feel safe to speak up, challenge the status quo, and bring their whole selves to work.

He's led trade delegations, refereed sports at a national level, and now applies that same rigour and fairness to helping Northern Australian organisations build psychosocially safe cultures.

Because when you integrate physical and psychosocial risk management, you're not just ticking boxes - you're building resilience from the ground up.

🌏 Proudly locally owned and operated, deeply NT-informed.

29/12/2025

As the year draws to a close, I want to take a moment to celebrate someone who brought our vision to life in 2025...

When we started exploring the idea of a new 90percent Consulting website, I knew we needed a skilled provider who could translate complex ideas into a website which was clear, accessible, and genuinely 'us'.

Enter Ash from By Ash Brand Studio - another brilliant local Darwin business.

From the outset, Ash just got it.

She understood what we wanted to say, took initiative, and brought a design eye that elevated the site beyond anything we had anticipated.

She didn't just build a website. She created a digital space that reflects who we are and what we stand for.

I'm extremely proud of her fabulous work, and so grateful for the care and skill she brought to this project.

I also want to acknowledge the NT Government's Business Growth Program, which made this wonderful collaboration possible.

The program provides funding to reimburse up to 50% of the costs of eligible services from approved providers - and it's been a game-changer for us.

If you're a Territory business looking to invest in your growth, I can't recommend it enough.

And if you're looking for someone who can bring your brand to life with creativity, professionalism, and genuine understanding...

Talk to Ash.

Thank you, Ash.
This has been a fantastic partnership.

- Margi

90percent Consulting

12/03/2026

09/03/2026

05/03/2026

03/03/2026

24/02/2026

21/02/2026

19/02/2026

13/01/2026

08/01/2026

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02/01/2026

29/12/2025

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