Growing the future:
The Tipu Ake Lifecycle: An organic leadership model
for innovative organisations.
Strong Communities have an innate sense of leadership
and teamwork. Karen Laugesen and Rut Wynyard describe
how natural gifts have been captured in a radical leadership
framework.
Do you seek the security of seamless leadership
changes?
Does flexibility elude your management style?
Is innovation from employees and management actively
encouraged?
A New Zealand management model that integrates culturally
diverse perspectives with a flexible approach to decision-making
and change management has been developed based on the
values and collective wisdom of the people of Te Whaiti.
Gifts of the land:
 Te
Whaiti is a small, mainly Maori community that lies
between Whirinaki
Forest Park and Te Urewera. It has been without
employment for a generation since rainforest milling
was stopped.
The natural beauty of the Whirinaki Forest area is
world-renowned. However, the natural gifts of Te Whaiti
extend beyond the realms of native forest to the people
themselves. The strong values and leadership that hold
the community firm have been put to good use for the
sake of the children of Te Whaiti.
The result is a school that has transformed itself
through the use of ancient values and knowledge. The
school of Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi has drawn on this knowledge
to move from the brink of closure seven years ago to
a point today where success has become a constant.
Collective wisdom:
The values and beliefs are drawn from Toi - the historical
leader of the original people of Te Whaiti. As a great
discoverer and leader, Toi established advanced and
peaceful communities that shared their art, knowledge,
collective wisdom and technology.
The success of the school is attributed to the sharing
of leadership and a collective wisdom that guides all
decisions and the overall direction of the group.
The starting point for this success was in the staging
of a ‘live-in’. The school Board members
:
- Gathered and performed an introspective analysis
- Grew an awareness of their own strengths and
weaknesses before looking outwards.
“It provided a catalyst from which our team truly
started to function. No one wore their [leadership]
hats,” said Genevieve Doherty, school principal.
Ideas to outcomes:
This collective, inclusive wisdom has now been translated
into a forward-thinking management model and is ready
to be shared with innovative organisations that are
serious about:
- Capitalising on the skills of their people
- Transforming ideas into successful outcomes.
A hui / workshop held during the third weekend of November
2001 was the launch pad from which the school and local
community shared their vision and wisdom with organisations
eager to adopt a more holistic approach to organisational
success.
Transferable concepts:
For the people of Te Whaiti the road to this success
has been an unlabelled collective battle. However, when
translated into a business model, their approach has
been systematic, focused and is easily transferable
to other organisations.
These actions and wisdom have been translated into
the Tipu Ake Lifecycle with the help of volunteers,
including ex pupil Peter Goldsbury, Auckland University
of Technology (AUT)
Project Management Consultant, who acknowledges: “I
feel immensely privileged to have these people [of Te
Whaiti] share such powerful wisdom with me. We have
been testing the model on "Leading
project and Innovation in your Organisation" workshops
at AUT and it has amazed me to see how readily participants
from many of NZ's top organisations embrace it”
Natural framework:
Tipu Ake, meaning ‘Growing (from within) upwards
(ever towards wellness)’, is based on an analogy
with nature and provides a framework that concisely
encapsulates current management wisdom on innovation,
leadership, management, teamwork, and change.
The model is described and illustrated through pictures,
diagrams, comparison with other management models, Maori
concepts, organisation application examples, and a self
assessment questionnaire. The aim is to satisfy many
learning styles and differing applications. (The full
model is downloadable at www.tipuake.org.nz)
re-germination cycle:
The differences between the Tipu Ake Lifecycle and
other business models are considerable: Most contemporary
business models take a linear process based path towards
the achievement of objectives. Tipu Ake is cyclic and
focuses on behaviours. It acknowledges the significance
of returning to the ‘undercurrents’ - negative
resistance that can be channeled into a re-germination
process that ultimately strengthens the organisation.
The Tipu Ake path starts with leadership, the collective
courage that takes the seed of a new idea forward and
gathers the commitment of a team to support its growth
by a common vision of wellness. This groundswell happens
below the surface. “Project hero egos” or
“tall poppies” are not helpful here. These
germination and rooting stages are too often ignored
in organisations where the focus is on structures, analytical
processes and measurement.
Measurement at the process level is facilitated and
tempered by the ‘sensing’ level of the model.
Sensing is a wisdom-based gathering of information that
focuses on building a collective view from all individual
perceptions and experiences. It is this teamwork and
the sharing of leadership and knowledge that grows the
collective wisdom of the group.
Risk Management is the process of avoiding the destructive
effect of “pests” that jeopardise upward
growth. Tipu Ake goes well beyond this; its entrepreneurs
- the “birds” cycle seeds back to the undercurrents
to grow innovation and exploit new opportunities. If
we are not proactive birds and instead we allow pests
to continually drive us back to the undercurrents to
stunt our growth, they turn into drip feed "poisons",
like anger, aggression, apathy, fear and disrespect
for diversity that stop the germination of anything
new. The antidote to this is "sunlight", that
external energy, information and support from our networks
that encourages and challenges us to try again.
In a global world needing cultural understanding and
with our environment under extreme pressure, the Maori
influence and values make the model more applicable
and understandable. Their concept of ORA drives the
seventh level called ‘wellbeing’ which encapsulates
the overall outcomes desired by the group. It is the
reason why the whole cycle is initiated.
Wisdom of 'we'
 During
the weekend hui a comment was made that Bill Gates at
Microsoft could do well to adopt the Tipu Ake Lifecycle,
and may want to pay a lot to get hold of it. Chris Eketone,
chairman of the school board, replied: “Tell him
we don’t want his money, just ask him to give
his technology for [all] our kids.”
These words illustrate the power of a collective vision
that steps beyond the output-focused bottom line and
is all about outcomes that lead to wellbeing, i.e. giving
the children choices for their future.
The sharing of this knowledge is not about the money.
It’s about the values that have led this community
to such a position – of sharing, of collective
wisdom, of ‘we’.
Sweet for the sweet:
There is no place for the ‘Matapiko gatekeepers’
(knowledge with-holders) within this management system.
Leadership is project-based and their success relies
on the degree to which people are capable of acknowledging
the power of the team.
The Te Whaiti School team are humble in the face of
intense organisational interest, they say:
“We have a Maori proverb: ‘A kumara
never calls itself sweet - that’s for the
eaters to say.”
The people of Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi
share the model and invite you to taste it to help grow
your own forest. They will also offer team retreats
for innovative organisations wanting to learn from nature,
share Tipu Ake wisdom and experiences, and sample their
renowned hospitality.
In the knowledge sharing tradition
of Toi, the Tipu Ake Lifecycle is in the public domain.
© 2001 Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi. The full model is downloadable
at www.tipuake.org.nz. In return a koha (donation) to
help further voluntary education and community development
in the valley is appreciated please.
The writer Karen Laugesen is a
2001 Public Relations graduate from AUT. She volunteered
her time on the Tipu Ake Communications team and attended
the launch Hui at Te Whaiti on 17 Nov 2001. She was
supported in this by Ruth Wynyard AUT Journalism graduate
and David Somerfield, Photographer.
A version of this story was first
published in "Employment Today" Jan/Feb 2002.
It was revised in 2005 to include poisons and sunlight,
new elements since added to the model.
For further technical or publication information: Peter
Goldsbury 64 9 4454454 pgoldsbury@stratex.co.nz
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