Overcome the hierarchy by using it

This post was written by Patrick Lindsay, Senior Policy Advisor at the New Zealand government’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

• The opportunity: Our business group could do more to consistently and effectively engage with and understand the needs of Māori, New Zealand's indigenous peoples.
• Why it matters: As New Zealand public servants, we have a legal and moral responsibility to contribute to effective Crown-Māori relations.
• The solution: Establishing an action-focused, staff-led network and getting buy-in from senior leaders.

The Crown’s right to govern in New Zealand stems from the Treaty of Waitangi, first signed in 1840 between the British Crown and about 540 Māori rangatira (or chiefs). Understanding and upholding the Treaty is a key part of our role as public servants, as it is New Zealand’s founding document. The Public Service Act 2020 explicitly recognises the role of the public service to support the Crown in its relationships with Māori under the Treaty.

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Different ministries, groups and teams within the New Zealand government are at different places on their journey to understand and embrace the Treaty within their everyday work. Some are highly skilled and work with the Treaty and its implications every day. Others have more work to do to get there.

In late 2020, my colleagues and I recognised that our business group was in the latter category. We could be doing more to uphold the principles of the Treaty. There were some pockets of good practice but as many other areas with potential for improvement; for instance, we had no consistent approach to engage or consult with Māori on policy proposals. We were upholding our end of the Crown-Māori relations equation inconsistently at best — but could see many examples of good Crown-Māori relations practice across the agency from which we could draw inspiration.

We knew many of our senior leaders were aware of the group’s Treaty responsibilities and recognised the need to meet them better. The intention was there, but — given all of the other pressing priorities being discussed at the leadership table — we felt this important issue could be at risk of remaining at the bottom of the pile.

So, we decided to take it into our own hands.

Actions speak louder than words

My colleagues and I formed a multidisciplinary staff network that was dedicated to improving Crown-Māori relations in our branch and getting it firmly on the agenda. This network began relatively informally with a small coalition of the willing, but over time word spread. The network now includes staff from all parts of our business group.

Over the course of a few months, this network has undertaken work to:

• Connect with and learn from other Crown-Māori relations networks and strategies across our wider agency

• Reinforce and educate staff about our responsibilities and obligations under the Treaty

• Identify pragmatic ways to improve capability and capacity based on advice from other parts of our ministry, and from other government agencies and organisations

• Develop and communicate tools and guidance to support staff to engage with Māori and better understand the impacts of policy proposals for Māori

Eventually we recognised that leadership buy-in was an important — and unavoidable — next step to sustain change at an institutional level. We had to bring our hierarchy-busting work directly to the hierarchy.

We had to bring our hierarchy-busting work directly to the hierarchy.

Following a few pitches from the team to different senior leaders who had already indicated support for this work, we held a discussion with the leadership team about our strategy and proposals. They considered our proposals in depth and eventually agreed to endorse and fund our work, even attending a full-day Crown-Māori relations training course themselves to kickstart their own knowledge and understanding.

We are now in the process of developing a formal strategy, including targets, specific timeframes and alignment with agency-wide Crown-Māori relations work, and expect the leadership team to endorse it before the end of the year. We’re proud to know that our work, which started as a relatively small staff-led initiative, is now being adopted as a core deliverable of the branch and leadership team.

Lessons learned

We’ve come to understand several things from our experience:

Use the hierarchy to overcome the hierarchy

•   Ultimately, government hierarchies are where the big decisions are made. Escalating staff-led work up the hierarchy might make it a bit slower and less agile, but it has the potential to attract buy-in or funding from decision-makers.

•   Identifying and proactively engaging people on your senior leadership team who are supportive of what you are doing will make allies and keep your work on the agenda when you aren’t in the room.

•   Focus on articulating proposals in terms of how they will benefit the broader agency or business, your customers or clients, or how they will help you better meet agency obligations and responsibilities.

Focus effort on small, tangible changes

•   Recognise that you won’t overturn or reinvent the whole system overnight. Pushing too hard or too fast might even be counterproductive and close a window of opportunity.

•   Often, staff-led work will be over and above your usual duties — try to achieve small, feasible and pragmatic changes that move things in the right direction without dominating your whole work programme.

•   Look after yourself and look for others to ally with — chances are, if you’re passionate about making a change within the organisation, others will be too.

Look out for opportunities and capitalise on them when they arise

•   There’s never the perfect time for change — but some times are definitely better than others.

•   Staff turnover, a new leadership team or organisational strategy, the passage of new laws, or even just returning to work from a Christmas break might all be good opportunities to drive certain kinds of change.

•  Consider whether the work of other agencies or groups can create an opportunity for change. Following a trail blazed by others can provide guidance and reduce the risk of failure. __— Patrick Lindsay__

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