Tāmaki Taiao Alliance Builds Shared Vision and Direction

The Tāmaki Taiao Alliance came together at Foundation North in early October for a wānanga focused on strengthening its shared vision, values and direction for te taiao across Tāmaki.

The day provided an opportunity for Alliance members to bring together their different perspectives, kaupapa and experiences, building common ground around a shared commitment to environmental wellbeing.

Defining shared values

Ana Christmas, The Forest Bridge Trust’s Board member and Strategic Advisor, supported facilitation alongside Ciara and Christina from Sustainable Business Network.

A values exercise helped participants explore what matters most to the Alliance and the principles that will guide its work. Strong themes emerged around environmental guardianship, whānau ora, generosity of knowledge, trust, integrity and kotahitanga.

Building on the previous wānanga at Mataia, Ana also helped guide a process to refine the Alliance’s shared vision and strategic pillars. This work is helping translate the group’s kōrero into a clearer, practical pathway forward.

Strengthening governance and decision-making

The wānanga also explored how the Alliance can approach governance and decision-making as a collective.

Ciara guided participants through Stephen Covey’s Control, Influence and Concern framework, using real-world scenarios to explore decisions relating to communications, partnerships, funding, impact and reporting.

Working in groups, participants considered who needed to be involved in different decisions and identified areas of agreement, uncertainty and further work. The session provided an opportunity to explore how the Alliance can make decisions that reflect its shared purpose while recognising the different roles and perspectives of those involved.

Building a clearer picture of collective impact

The next focus for the Alliance will be how to collect, bring together and communicate its collective impact and outcomes.

By developing a clearer picture of the shared mahi, the Alliance aims to better demonstrate the value of its collective efforts and identify opportunities to build on this work in the future.

Each wānanga is another step towards a stronger collective direction, grounded in relationships, shared values and a commitment to the flourishing of te taiao across Tāmaki.