Extreme Team Waitakere

Waitakere’s Extreme Team brought home the bronze plaque as second runner-up of the Australasian Local Government Management Challenge, held on the Gold Coast in July.

As New Zealand’s representative in the finals, the six-member team did a fine job, especially considering 131 teams from all over New Zealand and Australia had originally entered the competition.

The Challenge began with a briefing on the Saturday night. This set the scene for the competition and gave each team the opportunity to introduce themselves in a five-minute presentation. The approaches were varied and of high quality. “Waitakere’s Got Talent”, was compered by team mentor Bronwyn Allerby and set off by “Canute the Commando’s” magic display.

After the next day’s competition, completing nine tasks covering report preparation, presentations and briefings, and creating a poster on governance, the team was exhausted, reasonably happy with its performance, but aware of areas in which it would like to have done better. Waitakere was well prepared in terms of clearly defined roles and responsibilities, team dynamics and approach to tasks.

Promotes team work that recognises individual strengths

“The Management Challenge final was definitely a step up on the heats and the preparation and approach of the Australian teams, which included branded merchandise and stationery, was quite impressive,” says Extreme Team Waitakere member Andrew Crann.

“Those who have participated in challenges in the past will know that it is a very intense few hours of effort and concentration, and that you don’t control the agenda. “Our team’s success in this year’s challenge demonstrated that with good team processes and a good team dynamic that recognises individual strengths, you can get through a phenomenal amount of work while harnessing a contribution from everyone to improve the quality of the outputs. It is a good opportunity for participants to grapple with the bigger issues of local government and to apply skills that may not always be part of your day job.

“In the final, the core issues were those of governance and local government amalgamation, while key skills that were tested included political management, financial management, negotiation, presentation and proposal development.”

Waitakere Chief Executive Vijaya Vaidyanath says the challenge provides effective staff development through participative learning.

“We were very proud to be representing New Zealand in the Australasian finals,” she says. “Our achievement is an endorsement of our organisation’s skills and also celebrates the fact Waitakere City Council has a real team culture.”

Recommended for council staff

Team member Glenda Lock says the Challenge was an opportunity to work with a team of people who she would not work with closely as part of her everyday job.

“It also exposed me to working in areas way outside my expertise and comfort zone. It was a great learning experience, not only in terms of team dynamics and areas of work, but also personally.

“I recommend that council staff (and organisations) take the opportunity to be involved – for organisations it provides excellent learnings, particularly around working collaboratively, time management and prioritisation of work.

“As an individual you also benefit enormously. The Management Challenge pushes you outside of your comfort zone and provides critique (both external and self) within a learning environment. While hard work, the set-up enabled a fun, productive day.

“Our team has chosen to continue to work together and we are currently scoping project options to work on within the council. We’ve been lucky to be well supported by senior management and our Human Resources Department, both in terms of debriefing of learnings and experiences and carrying these forward into our everyday council work.“

Waitakere won the competition in 2006.

Extreme Team Waitakere members were:

• Senior EnvironmentalMonitoring Officer Dean Allen
• Principal Transport Engineer: Operations Canute Chandrakumaran
• Senior Projects and Programme Manager Andrew Crann
• Team Leader: Resource Consents Jeannette Ibrahim
• Project Manager: LTCCP Glenda Lock
• Issues Resolution Manager Roger Wilson
• Manager: Resource Consents Bronwyn Allerby (mentor).