Army reform was championed by the Chief of Army and driven by a proactive and determined leadership team. The army understood that leadership was critical in generating change but recognised that enduring success required buy-in from across the service. While there are numerous individuals staking their claim as the 'saviours' of Army and Defence, the truth is that reform was owned, driven and delivered primarily by the women and men across Defence in partnership with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Support from the commission was invaluable in shaping change for two primary reasons. Firstly, the provision of moral and social justice was their key motivator which placed people not profit at the heart of reform efforts. In addition, the Commission offered a breadth and depth of expertise that complemented existing army strengths. Working together resulted in a robust, transparent and successful change agenda.

One of the most important decisions the army made early was to implement a dual approach to develop both an organisational culture with zero tolerance towards unacceptable behaviour, as well as an individual approach to equip army personnel with requisite knowledge and skills to support cultural change. This combination of organisational and individual responsibility provided a solid cultural foundation and was encapsulated in David Morrison's famous YouTube speech.

While changing or influencing the mindset of individuals was seen as a relentless and perhaps impossible task it was approached with vigour from a person's arrival at army training facilities, through to annual induction programs and professional development. Cultural understanding was seen as an iterative process to be reinforced throughout a person's career, not just a singular module in mandatory training. The impact of such efforts will be seen over time but regardless it set the tone for what was considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the army.

A great distraction and impediment to change were the numerous profit driven organisations that promised 'world leading' cultural reform. Overwhelmingly most were preoccupied with reputational​ gain through alignment with a high profile national program. Rarely did they exhibit or take the time to understand the Defence environment and outputs reaped little, if any, value. There was very little currency in the ability of an illustrative flow chart housing five key words, a 'word map', fifty photos sourced from the Defence Image Library, and a narrative made up of trendy catch phrases and sentences copied from Defence reports to revolutionise Defence culture!