Local bodies on the line in tough test

By ALICE SHOPLAND

Tavish, population 75,000, was one of the best-run cities in Australia recently as more than 600 local body employees from both sides of the Tasman turned their attention to solving its problems.

Not that Tavish cannot manage its own affairs - the city does not exist. It was a fiction created especially for the 2002 Local Government Managers Australia Management Challenge, the local body equivalent of the arduous Coast to Coast race.

Reading, discussing, analysing and decision-making take the place of cycling, running or kayaking.

And New Zealand councils do very well: when Manukau City took the top prize this year, it was the fourth New Zealand council to do so in the event's nine years.

Second and third respectively this year were South Australia's City of Playford and Marrickville Council in New South Wales. A record 110 teams entered, involving 650 staff.

New Zealand is treated as a state of Australia, with heats held in both Auckland and Wellington. The top Kiwi team go to Australia to compete against state winners.

While all of those the Herald spoke to made it sound like exhilarating fun, it would not have been the right day to be in cruise mode.

Tasks are thrown at the team constantly, with background information to assimilate, decisions to be made, and reports to be produced by strict deadlines.

At 9.30am during the finals, for example, the teams were given a complex task called The New Deal, to be delivered by noon.

The New Deal was a Tavish Council policy responding to community demand for transparency in decision-making.

According to a community survey, Tavish residents had high expectations concerning resource allocation, and competitors were asked to prepare a report analysing the survey results and trends, offer potential strategies; address a councillor's proposal to link price levels to service levels; and propose a structure for customer research and consultation generally.

Every task was to be completed in accordance with the issues facing Tavish, including employment creation, responding to changing economic trends, and examining alternative models of good governance.

Later in the day, a reporter from the fictional Tavish Times conducted an interview on the report's findings.

Chris Smith, Manukau's team leader, said that although the finals were a significant step up from the heats, discussions with Manukau's team from the previous year, who came third, had prepared them.

Mentor Chris Oaks, from the council's HR department, gave "essential" help in formalising processes and suggesting approaches.

Another of the team's strengths was a willingness to look outside the square or, in this case, the round table in the hotel venue. Members normally work in pairs on smaller tables, so had them brought in.

Far from considering it time-wasting and petty, judges were impressed by how the team had looked outside their situation and changed it.

Smith, aged 30, an environmental policy planner and one of the youngest team leaders, said the contest made him realise he had been underestimating his capabilities, "and it showed me what you can get out of a team with the right approach".

Team-member Wendy Geus, a writer from the council's communications unit, said she was in it for the chance to work with and learn from people from other departments.

From the council's point of view, the competition is good training.

Kapiti Coast District Council came second in the national competition this year.

Chief executive Mark Dacombe said it had entered teams several times, "and each time we've reviewed our involvement it has confirmed that we as an organisation are getting quite a bit out of it, and so are the individuals".

Having a team made up of staff from across the council enhanced organisational spirit, he said.

"From an individual's point of view, it's a great exercise that doesn't cost us a lot. From the organisation's point of view, we get people back who are keen to apply what they've learned in the workplace, and have built new relationships within the organisation, which they tend to keep up when they return.

"They also tend to have thought about how we currently operate and how we can improve it. The team ... have become an internal reference group for us, which is really useful."

Gary Allis, community assets group manager for the Waikato District Council, has led its team for the last two years and found the "full one-day role play" valuable.

"I could see how staff performed under pressure and worked together as a team, even though they were from different departments and wouldn't normally work together. I definitely observed them with a view to future development.

"We had a lot of mid-level managers, and exposing them to senior management helped some of them make decisions about whether they would want to progress that way.

"Everybody got a better understanding of what others in the organisation do and can do.

"All councils have limited training dollars, and this is a bit different and gives some real-life training ... You certainly see who can handle multi-tasking."

Join the challenge

To find out more about entering the LGMA Management Challenge, email info@solgm.org.nz with your authority's name, postal address, contact details and the name of an initial contact person.

Get in touch by December 13 to attract the lowest fee of A$2900 ($3300) a team.

The fee for a team entered after then is A$3200 ($3770). Australasian finalists pay nothing extra.

The New Zealand regional challenges will be held next March 18 and/or 20, with the Australasian final in Adelaide on May 24-25.

Local Government Managers Australia