Reflecting on 10 years of Leadership Lab mahi

Leadership Lab emerged as a personal response from a few colleagues and I in the aftermath of the Christchurch Earthquakes from 2012 onwards. We felt compelled to support the rebuilding of our city of Ōtautahi, and we were particularly aware of significant needs within our education, health and social service sectors. We realised that the greatest contribution we could make would be in creating a collective platform to allow us to engage with government initiatives that would have a systemic and multi-year impact across the city. So, Leadership Lab emerged…

It’s been a very exciting and unexpected journey over the subsequent 10 years. We are now involved in collective leadership mahi across Aotearoa and have over 50 passionate and diverse consultants contributing to the Leadership Lab collective. We are all focussed on growing equitable and thriving communities and organisations in Aotearoa. We believe that collective approaches provide the key to addressing the complex challenges facing Aotearoa and we support this through co-designing collective impact projects with communities and agencies.

Over the last decade we have allowed our practice and approaches to develop organically and it’s been fascinating to see how the many team wānanga and noho marae conversations have enabled us to be more and more focussed on the impact we want to have. As part of our review of 2022 we have produced this Leadership Lab Annual impact report which articulates in a succinct way what we are committed to, the impact we are making and the approach we take across our organisation. Throughout this period we have been inspired by these words from Margaret Wheatley, “Is it possible to use our influence and power to create islands of sanity in the midst of a raging destructive sea”.  We have seen our role as working alongside communities and organisations to,  firstly create these islands of sanity and secondly, to connect the network of passionate and competent humans on these islands to enable wider systems and societal change.

Perhaps the most significant outcome of this ten year kōrero has been resolving that, as an Aotearoa New Zealand based organisation, we 100% committed to giving effect to the articles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This has involved exploring, reflecting on and addressing the impacts of colonization in our country Aotearoa.  We believe that the frameworks, assumptions and beliefs that have largely dominated Aotearoa in the last 180+ years need to be challenged, deconstructed and guided by mātauranga Māori. We want to contribute to the reimagination of a more informed, connected and equitable Aotearoa and to a process of decolonization and re-indigenisation. Our values of mana ōrite, kotahitanga and manaakitanga are guiding us on this journey.

Over subsequent pānui this year we will share more about this journey with you and invite you to get involved and provide your feedback and wisdom to contribute as many of you have already. Some of these exciting conversations will include;

• Pou Herenga – our guiding vision and practice which guides the mahi of all team members in Leadership Lab
• The current process of applying to become a B-corp (purpose-led business) and the learnings that are emerging from this process
• Why we are setting up a Charitable Trust to complement what we do in Leadership Lab
• Our own internal leadership development processes and succession planning
• The ‘Leaders’ Buffet’ – a self-managing curated Leadership development video series

You can also connect with stories of impact from across our Leadership Lab ecosystem by signing up for this monthly pānui (see bottom of www.leadershiplab.co.nz ), joining our Leadership Lab LinkedIn page and browsing our website. Thanks heaps for your interest.

Ngā mihi,
Chris Jansen – Leadership Lab co-director