Le Tautua Alumni

This year, Le Va decided to invest in its current Emerging Leaders instead of recruiting a new cohort. So it was our pleasure to welcome the Le Tautua Evolving Leaders Alumni whanau/aiga back to Auckland on 12 and 13 November.

The 28 who were able to attend were from our inaugural Le Tautua Emerging Leaders class of 2008 and class of 2009. They came from as far South as Christchurch all the way up to Whangarei. My own team of Manase, Shana and Andy also participated as Alumni members.

Our use of the term “Evolving Leaders” for the Le Tautua alumni is deliberate. Leadership is something that is often difficult to define let alone show. The concept of “evolving” breathes life into it and is in line with our chosen maxim: “O le ala i le Pule le tautua – the path to leadership/authority is through service”.

Our Le Tautua Alumni had indicated in a survey that decision making was something that they wanted to explore further – which makes sense given that at the moment our health sector leaders are faced with making important decisions on how to get our services performing better, sooner and more convenient that are closer to home for Pacific families. We took it another level by introducing decision making in complex situations.

I approached two leading experts in the field of executive management and business from the Auckland University Business School. Le Va is very grateful and privileged to have hosted Dr Ron McDowall and Peter Withers. They generously volunteered their time for Le Va as their contribution to a sector they value and to help our alumni in this journey. We were also very fortunate to gain the wisdom and guidance of Fa’amatuainu Tino Pereira as our cultural advisor. His cultural and professional guidance and advice has always been invaluable for Le Va — See their professional profiles below.

The tone of the workshop was set in the preface of the workbooks, by issuing a broad challenge to our Alumni. The challenge cited key Pacific figures both from our distant past and present. This was to stimulate and balance the ensuing discussions from a Pacific perspective. This alluded to the enduring echo or legacy that is often left behind when critical decisions are made.

Ron and Peter had kindly provided our Alumni with workshop readings of some of the most up-to-date and cutting edge thinking and information on areas relating to decision making. This covered how leaders used “gut feel” or intuition and concepts such as “integrated thinking” and “naturalistic decision making”. A key resource was Roger Martin’s insightful book: “The opposable mind: how successful leaders win through integrative thinking” (Harvard Business School, 2007).

The book shows how brilliant leaders are skilled at integrated thinking i.e. “the ability to hold two opposing ideas in their minds at once, and then reach a synthesis that contains elements of both but improves on each.” This ability is arguably innate to Maori and Pacific cultures already. Through the practical application of our case scenarios, our Alumni were able to experience and validate their naturalistic decision making and integrative thinking skills. Thought processes were stretched, paradigms were shifted and a variety of options were presented. Fa’amatuainu added cutting and lucid cultural perspectives and analysis into the mix to draw further understanding and perspectives. 

We were particularly honoured to host our special guest dinner speaker Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, National MP for Maungakiekie. He shared some of his insights and experiences as an MP and also took questions from the floor. Le Va would like to thank Peseta and his lovely wife Jules, for giving up their valuable family time to attend our dinner function. Le Va also thanks Peseta on behalf of our Alumni, for providing them with very valuable insights and advice.

The evaluation feedback was overwhelming in its praise of the facilitator’s teaching style, and relevance of the workshop content to everyday work at the front-line. Here are some of those comments:

“Excellent facilitators. Related well to the group collectively and to individuals. Thank you all of you.”

“Having a framework for decision making – I believe that it will help me to articulate/argue for decisions that are made, for clients, for our team and using the framework to challenge status quo.

“Thank you so much. This workshop has made me look at things differently – you challenged me. But I have learnt many new skills.”

“Dr Ron McDowall was FANTASTIC Funny. Awesome man! Peter Withers – Awesome person – knowledgeable. Both facilitators were awesome.”

Le Va wishes to thank all our wonderful facilitators for their wisdom, generosity and support. To all of our Alumni, thank you for making the effort to attend despite your hectic work schedules. I know that some of you had to sacrifice valuable time away from your families and work commitments. To all the organisations that you work for, we congratulate and thank you all for allowing your valued workers time to attend. We are sure that the investment of time in developing leadership in your staff will reap rewards many times over. They are already, great assets or koloa (treasure) for the sector and community we all serve.

Other photos from the workshop are available in the photo gallery.

Faka’apa’apa atu
Dr Monique Faleafa

The facilitators for the Alumni workshop for November 2009 were:

Fa’amatuainu Tino Pereira
Fa'amatuainu Tino Pereira is a prominent and experienced Pacific consultant on public sector issues, community leader and highly skilled facilitator. He is Managing Director of Niu Vision Group, a specialist consultancy firm based in Wellington, and an experienced governance practitioner with membership of many government Boards, Committees and NGOs. Fa'amatuainu is a key advisor to many government departments. For more than 15 years he was involved in New Zealand's broadcasting sector as a journalist, broadcaster, and commentator on Pacific issues. He has had significant community involvement for more than two decades including community leadership responsibilities. He holds the Orator Chief title of Fa’amatuainu from Lufilufi in Samoa. Fa'amatuainu Tino Pereira has been a primary facilitator throughout the Le Tautua programme.

   
Peter Withers
Peter Withers is the Director of Academic Programmes in the Graduate School of Enterprise at the University of Auckland Business School. Peter’s 30 years of international experience includes diplomacy, business consulting, and executive education in North America, Latin America, China, South East Asia, Eastern Europe, Greece, Turkey, and New Zealand. He served as Chargé d’Affaires in Greece and Turkey, then as New Zealand’s first regional trade director in North & South America. Peter has taught executives at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management, the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, La Verne University and programs in Singapore and Mexico. He was Assistant Dean at the Pepperdine University Graziadio Graduate School of Business & Management in Los Angeles prior to joining The University of Auckland Business School in 2007. As well as consulting internationally, he has presented global business seminars in Finland, Mexico, Chile, New Zealand and the United States.

Dr Ron McDowall
Dr Ron McDowall joined the University of Auckland in 1997 as the Director of the International Centre for Sustainability Engineering and Research located in the Faculty of Engineering. He has a conjoint BBS/BSc in Physics, Business management and marketing from Massey University and a PhD in Economics from the Graduate School of Management Waikato University. Dr McDowall is a Chartered Professional engineer with CPEng and a member of the International Professional Engineers register. He is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management (F.NZIM), a Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (F.IPENZ) and a professional member of the Royal Society. He is a UN specialist scientist/engineer working in the area of sustainable development in developing countries and travels the world on UNEP missions. Dr McDowall’s teaching focuses on; sustainability and society’s expectations of businesses, construction and project management. He is a world expert in toxic chemical waste management.

Dr Monique Faleafa
Monique Faleafa is a proud mother of two children under 5yrs and is National Manager of Le Va. With a background in Clinical Psychology and research, Monique has worked with Pacific children and young people in the social services, youth justice and mental health sectors in both an NGO and DHB for ten years. More recently she held a position at The University of Auckland as a Pacific Clinical Consultant for child and adolescent mental health workforce development. While her surname adopted from her husband is of Tongan descent (Faleafā from Kolomotu'a, Tongatapu), Monique is of Samoan descent (Niumata) from Lano village on Savaii and Fusi village at Safata on Upolu.  Monique is passionate about improving the health and well being of Pacific people and their families.

Page last updated: 27 November 2009