Systemic Change Requires Empowering the People Who Can Drive It
In industries such as construction, utilities, transport and resources, men hold the overwhelming majority of senior leadership positions. Decisions about who is hired, who is developed, who is trusted with work that carries visibility, and what behaviour is tolerated, are made largely by men.
This is usually presented as the problem. It is more useful understood as the leverage.
Because the same authority that has held these cultures in place is the key component capable of shifting them at pace. Leaders do not simply model behaviour, they determine what is permitted. Change the boundary of what a man in a position of influence understands, accepts and advocates for, and you change what is possible for everyone working around him.
Critically, that shift is felt across:Â
The experience of women at work
A leader who understands the barriers women navigate at every level can shape the conditions in which their full participation becomes possible, and safe.
The men who move with him
Much of the culture is held in place by men who do not believe in it. A leader moving first releases them.
The organisation he is accountable for
And the leaders responsible for culture become genuinely equipped to hold it -in the moments that matter, not just in the annual statement.
Layered over all of this are decades of embedded conditioning, and a real, usually unspoken apprehension about getting it wrong.
Standardised, tactic-led training does not reach that. It tells leaders what to do without touching the beliefs and assumptions that shape judgement - and judgement, not instruction, decides what a leader does when the situation is unclear.
Depth, Peer Accountability, and Commitments That Hold
Counterweight brings a defined group of 8 - 12 men in leadership, from a variety of organisations, into a room they rarely get: closed, small, and built for the conversations these roles don't otherwise allow. Four facilitated in-person half-day sessions, plus individual coaching, over approximately four months.
Rather than reinforcing awareness participants already have, it starts with their own conditioning, beliefs and blind spots, builds genuine understanding of the concepts most leaders think they've covered, then moves them into specific, accountable commitments - for their own behaviour, their team, and the culture they're responsible for.Â
CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
It was clear to me that men in our industries should be actively finding ways to make environments better for female employees - not expecting women to adjust. Tanya has worked with me and our Executive team to address the underlying causes of our inherent biases and provided the framework for a more productive and healthier work environment for all.
Struan Wilson, CEO, Investructure Australia
PERSONALISED INSIGHTS
Throughout the program, 1:1 and small group discussions are facilitated to capture insights, shape learning needs and maximise effective implementation of tools being adopted.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
A 45-minute individual interview establishes where each participant is starting from their experience, their assumptions, and where their own resistance sits. It shapes how the cohort is run, and gives each person a clear read on themself before the room forms.
MIDWAY, ONE TO ONE
Between Sessions 2 and 3, a private 60-minute coaching conversation to keep momentum where it counts. It's a chance to test thinking, work through a specific dynamic in the participant's team, and clear whatever obstacle is standing between intent and action.
FOCUS IS KEY
Between Sessions 3 and 4, a virtual group session regroups participants to check progress against what was committed. It surfaces where participants are getting stuck before Session 4, and keeps peer-group accountability active in the gap between committing and delivering.
AT THE CLOSE
A final individual 45-minute interview measures the distance travelled against the starting point, and confirms what has actually changed. Each participant receives a written summary of where they began, what they committed to, and what they did.
Over four months, participants build:
MEASUREMENT
Counterweight measures change across three dimensions drawn from Australian prevention research:
- willingness to act
- capability to act well
- and confidence to sustain it.
The framework is published by Respect Victoria and adopted here as the structure for each individual interview. The exit interview revisits the same ground four months later, alongside the commitments made and delivered in Session 4 the only measure of behaviour change that cannot be self-reported.
What organisations gain:
A precise read on their own leadership
Clarity about where assumptions, instincts and defaults sit, how they shape decisions never considered to be about gender, and what that means for everyday judgement
Evidence of action, not intent
Documented commitments and measured change, of the kind boards, regulators and gender equality reporting increasingly require.
Leaders who hold the standard
Culture is set by what senior people permit. Participants return able to name the line and hold it.
Conditions worth staying for
Environments where women can contribute fully, be heard on the work that matters, and see a future in the business.
A clearer view of the organisation
Participants surface where inequity is actually produced: in hiring, allocation and progression decisions.
A stronger internal case
Senior men who can advocate for gender equity credibly with peers who dismiss it, because they have done the work.
BEYOND THE POLICY
Australian workplace law has shifted from having policies to demonstrating action. Counterweight builds the leadership capability those obligations assume, but rarely fund.
- Positive Duty: the structured, ongoing work the AHRC expects
- Respect@Work: bystander capability and the culture leaders set
- WGEA reporting: setting culture to retain women long enough to reach the levels where representation is counted
- Psychosocial safety (WHS): the capacity to recognise, and the confidence to act
2026 Cohort Key Timings
Closed-group cohorts are capped at 8-12 participants, and registrations for both 2026 cohorts close Friday 28th August, 2026.
Engaging men for exponential shifts in culture.
Tanya Andrews is a Gender Equality Strategist and Communication Consultant with over a decade of experience working with leadership and HR teams across male-dominated industries including construction, infrastructure, resources and engineering.
As founder of Trellis Collective, Tanya has consulted to and trained employees at organisations including Multiplex, Glencore Resources, BMD, Acciona and Systra - working across all levels of leadership on the behaviours, systems and cultural norms that drive or undermine gender equity in practice. Her earlier ventures, Girl Shaped Flames and UNIQ You, worked with young women at the outset of their careers. Counterweight is the conclusion drawn from that decade: the barriers women encounter are overwhelmingly produced by decisions made by men several levels above them.
Her programs move participants beyond surface-level awareness into accountable action, with measurable outcomes in retention, inclusion and leadership capability.
Counterweight is built on a conviction Tanya has tested repeatedly in the field: the fastest path to cultural change runs through the men already positioned to make it happen.
ABOUT TRELLIS COLLECTIVE
Tanya Andrews, Lead Facilitator & Gender Equality Specialist
Founder of Trellis Collective, Girl Shaped Flames, and UNIQ You
Trellis Collective acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
