ABOUT ROB HILLS
My name is Rob Hills, it’s nice to e-meet you! My career in learning and development started in 2001, when the Royal Australian Air Force put me through my first instructor course. I’d joined the RAAF instead of taking up a university place (Accounting, of all things), and I spent ten years as a communications analyst working in highly secure areas. Somewhere along the way I discovered the part of the job I loved most was teaching it to others. I picked up my Cert IV in Training and Assessment a couple of years after that first course, and I’ve been designing and delivering learning ever since.
From the RAAF I moved to the Australian Federal Police, where I spent thirteen years as an intelligence and leadership trainer. It gave me the chance to travel the world teaching intelligence and leadership to our foreign law enforcement partners, but nothing was quite as rewarding as teaching leadership, wellbeing and mindfulness to Federal Agents, Police Officers and the unsworn members of the AFP. I’ve also worked in not-for-profit, with private training organisations, in local government and in my own consultancy, and I’ve been fortunate to train tens of thousands of people around the world, from heads of organisations and senior government officials to leaders just starting their own journey.
THE PAPERWORK TO BACK IT UP
Twenty-five years of doing the job comes first, but I’ve got the paperwork too: a Diploma of Training Design and Development, a Diploma of Vocational Education and Training, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration. That last one might seem like the odd one out, but it keeps my training honest about the things your executive cares about: outcomes, budgets, and why the program exists in the first place.
HOW I WORK
Most of my design work follows ADDIE, the framework learning professionals have trusted for decades. This is what it looks like when I’m in the room.
Analysis
We start with a conversation and a proper training needs analysis. What's the gap, who has it, and is training actually the fix?
Design
Clear outcomes, the right format for your people, and how we'll measure success, agreed before anything gets built.
Development
The build itself. eLearning, workshop materials, scribblers, animations, facilitator guides, whatever the design calls for.
Implementation
Delivery, whether that's me at the front of the room, a module on your LMS, or your own facilitators equipped to run it.
Evaluation
Did anything actually change? We check against the measures we set in design. Not just happy sheets.
I am the author of The Mindful Leadership Blueprint, based on my own experience of applying mindfulness in my leadership. Mental health and wellbeing is so important to me and I want to help other leaders embrace a more self aware and holistic way of leading.
I live in Canberra with my wife and two sons. When I don’t have my head in a book you’ll find me on my mountain bike, in the gym, gardening, or just hanging out with my family.