2008 LGMA Management Challenge - New Zealand Leg

Waitakere City Council Team Two has won the New Zealand leg of the 2008 LGMA Management Challenge and also brought home the Bronze plaque as second runner up of the Australasian LGMA Management Challenge.

The members of the winning Waitakere 'Extreme Team' were:

• Canute Chandrakumara
• Andrew Crann
• Jeannette Ibrahim
• Dan Allen
• Glenda Locke
• Roger Wilson
• Mentor - Brownyn Allenby

In second place was the team from Hamilton City, while the Dunedin City team came third.

Fourteen teams participated in the Challenge which was held at three venues over the week to 11 April 2008. Local authorities represented were:

• Auckland City Council
• Hamilton City Council
• Gore District Council
• New Plymouth District Council
• Waitakere City Council (2 teams)
• Dunedin City Council
• Wellington City Council
• Southland District Council
• Environment Waikato
• Queenstown Lakes District Council
• Gisborne District Council
• Kaipara District Council
• Waipa District Council

Auckland Team in action

Joint presentations during the challenge day

Over the course of the day teams were required to complete nine separate tasks which included managing the resources and timetabling of work to meet the specified deadlines. Teams completed written and “live” performance tasks including a joint presentation, an interview by a journalist and oral briefi ngs for the Mayor and Chief Executive and a concerned councillor.

Teams were assessed on both their work processes and the quality of the output they produced. While it is inevitably the competitive nature of the challenge that attracts most attention, the challenge is designed first and foremost as a learning and development experience for participating local authority staff. Evaluations by participants indicate high level of satisfaction with the quality of the challenge experience.

Members of 3 teams preparing for their presentation

Waipa Team at work

Feedback from Participants

"I learnt how to adjust my style quite quickly based on who was I working with at the time, and how they operate.  I learnt that it is possible to be part of a very highly motivated cross-council team, that can produce some good results, even though normally our work would not bring us all into contact with each other."

"I stretched myself on a personal level in that I found I could work in less than ideal environments (i.e noisy, cramped etc). I also found my confidence grew over the course of the challenge, and i was able to put my hand up to undertake tasks that I may have been reluctant to do previoulsy. "

"Any team challenge provides opportunities to learn about working with others.  My role depends primarily on influencing others to work together collaboratively, often in situations where there has been little ownership - so the challenge was beneficial in gaining new insight into how to engage others and get the best results."