Reflection and learning about our mahi

At Te Hiko, one of our key functions is to support community innovators to take time out to reflect on their impact and mahi.

We use a tool we call the Impact Snapshots.

But we know that the best learning happens when we do it with others. We are facilitating hui to reflect together about our mahi and impact.

We hold regular hui with people leading eight strands of community innovation mahi. We learn some cool stuff together.

Some of our main insights across this wide range of mahi are:

• Sometimes people talk about the system as if it is devoid of people. Our experience is that change happens because the people of that place desire something better and they are making it happen.
• The busier we get and the more a project grows/develops the more clear we need to be about what our key impact moments are and how to focus on those.  
• If we don’t stop and reflect we are perpetuating the drain. We are losing all of the important stuff we have learnt by letting it drain away
• There is a strength and trap of the ‘key leader’. People say ‘our leader’ and ‘our boss’ – how do we help the group shift away from that idea. If we jump too quickly into shifting leadership onto whānau then that can be destabilising. We need to maintain the balance of finding safety and security and then also creating the space themselves and the power and uncertainty of that. We can use the model of the midwife for this – sometimes quiet and in the background, sometimes needing to be directive and involved, but always with risk and outcomes in mind.
• We have to become skilled at noticing the small nuanced but significant shifts that are happening. Not just the big powerful stories. How might we collect and share these small shifts that we see everyday?
• What is the right distinction between ‘staff’ and ‘clients’? We are learning that there is depth in being okay with blurring those lines. We struggle with things until we do it ourselves. This brings other pātai/questions including: How do we respect boundaries but allow crossover between them? How do we note and document this stuff? How do we keep ourselves safe in this space?

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We want to share our learning report here for others to dig into and see what they might learn alongside us.