'Ko te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau'
We envision the systems we work within as thriving ecosystems, akin to flourishing Ngahere or forests. Our Systemic Action Framework (SAF) guides strategic action, mindful of the ebbs and flows of everyday reality, much as a forest adapts to constant change yet thrives by adjusting as those changes occur.
Complex change does not have to be complicated and the SAF is designed as a way to guide the journey in a simplified way.
Through co-creation, connection and collaboration we walk alongside you, through three canopies—The Gathering Canopy, The Exploration Canopy, and The Immersive Canopy—each representing a distinct phase as you grow your eco-system towards your desired future state.
EMBARK ON A JOURNEY THROUGH THE NGAHERE APPROACH — AN ECOSYSTEM-INSPIRED WAY TO THINK ABOUT SYSTEMIC CHANGE.
Phase 1: Pre-Readiness
Description: The gathering canopy represents everything needed for conditions and relationships to thrive within the ecosystem. It corresponds to the underneath root systems, and understands intuitively what is needed for it to thrive.
Requirements for Thriving:
- Focus on Relationships: Establishing relationships for connecting and collaborating.
- Establishing Conditions: Thinking about what is needed for things to thrive.
- Conditions for Working Together: Agree on the conditions for working together.
- Being Clear: Understanding roles and the desired outcome.
- Connecting & Collaborating : Connecting and collaborating core elements in the Gathering canopy.
Phase 2: Readiness + Phase 3: Planning
Description: The exploration - middle canopy symbolises setting the conditions for new ways to come through over a medium-term horizon. It involves a planning and implementation through Learning by Doing, aligning with the growth and development of mid-sized trees in the forest and related to strategy.
Requirements for Thriving:
- Preparedness: Working through the exploration or middle canopy focuses on planning and strategic action towards the longer-term horizon while balancing between day-to-day needs.
- Cultural Shift: Thriving in the middle canopy often means cultural shifts can occur as people move through. This involves being flexible among differing worldviews, mindsets, behaviours, and learning to value that which is different.
- Building Critical Mass: Work together to build momentum at a pace that keeps everyone involved.
- Continuous Monitoring and Responding: Ensure adaptability, by monitoring what is happening and responding and adjusting as you go.
- Relationship Deepening: As you move along the journey you are deepening relationships with all involved.
- Working in Mutual Agreement: Setting agreeable actions all along the way.
Phase 4: Implementation + Phase 5: Embedment
Description: The immersive or upper canopy represents the long-term vision for systemic and transformational change, encompassing organisational development as a crucial component. It parallels the tallest and most mature trees in the forest. This tier involves holistic collaborative reshaping or rethinking different parts within the system, for example the culture, structure, skillsets and in the way people communicate and share information.
Requirements for Thriving:
- Innovation and Adaptability: Thriving at the upper canopy level requires a commitment to new ways or innovations by and through agreement, collaboration and negotiation.
- Collaborative Systems Thinking: The upper canopy thrives when there is a holistic understanding of how various components of what you're working on and the decisions made, interact and interconnect.
- Shared Responsibility: Participants take shared ownership and shared responsibility.
- Sustaining Relationships: Sustain relationships and prioritised cultural responsiveness.
Next steps, book a Campfire Discovery and Mapping session, which can typically lasts up to one hour.
Bring along your favourite cuppa and take some time to contemplate what changes you envision if you were embarking on a Walk Together journey. Let's Yarn.