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TEN months spent testing the notion that communities can offer the expertise, experience and ideas to tackle infrastructure issues innovatively and effectively has been a passion and a privilege, the woman who led the project says. 

Kick-started in mid-2022, Thriving Infrastructure is now wrapping up.

“Working in this space has had its highs and lows,” project lead Charlene Donald reflects.

“But we’ve tested a diverse and decentralised community approach, mission-oriented innovation, in which everyone has an equal voice, and it’s been successful.

“Leading it has been a passion and a privilege.”

The founding idea of Thriving Infrastructure was to see if mission-orientated innovation could deliver solutions to some of the systemic challenges in the sector and deliver better health and safety outcomes for kaimaihi. Well-recognised, issues include fragmentation, a lack of collaboration, low profitability, cyclical boom-bust performance and poor procurement and risk management practices.

The project saw groups of changemakers, influencers and doers from different parts of the sector identify specific challenges which fitted the project’s key focus areas of procurement, contracts/relationships, and good jobs. Ambitious but achievable goals to address these became their missions, and they tested possible solutions in experiments. 

As comfort with the approach grew, so did confidence. Since August those involved have been directing and growing the community. 

“Setting up, supporting and bringing together up to 80-plus people who co-designed six missions and contributed to seven experiments has been a huge learning experience, not only for them but for our delivery team,” Charlene says.

Her background is in health and safety, with a recent emphasis on the infrastructure sector. “I’m passionate about it. I’ve seen how it’s struggling and failing, our kaimahi are broken, dollars and resources are wasted, we don’t learn from our mistakes and don’t share what is working well. Things could be a whole lot better.”

With approximately 10 percent of New Zealand’s 2.8 million workers employed in the construction industry, the benefits of positive change are obvious.

Mission-oriented innovation was new to everyone. The pilot was designed and delivered by a small Worksafe-convened team with diverse backgrounds - infrastructure sector experts, system and service design, agile methodology, innovation coaching and project management and coordination. They were supported by a steering group drawn from the infrastructure industry and experienced in system transformation, so able to advise and challenge thinking along the way. 

One of those involved was Graeme Burke, Construction Sector Acord Transformation Lead (People) at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

He endorses the effectiveness of the approach, saying the pilot showed “how the mission oriented innovation model can be used very effectively to support change in an industry.“

“An added benefit was the powerful engagement mechanism created by the self-directed community, which provided natural and effective communication lines to all levels of the sector.”

For Charlene and the team, success came down to relationships – recognising and engaging talent, and supporting those in the groups testing the concept. Ways of doing so included four workshops – often incorporating site visits, online discussions, lots of visits, phonecalls and emails, podcasts, and showcasing success via a website and social media sharing of challenges, successes, and stories. Getting the right mix – of talent, background, seniority, and diversity – was critical.

The workshops were undoubtedly a highlight. “You could feel the energy in the room,” she says. “Seeing people connecting, sharing information and enabling others to move forward was inspirational.”

She also rates very highly one group’s development of an app which enables easy compliance with Health and Safety, Environmental and/or Quality requirements without tedious paperwork or the difficult logistics imposed by remote or distributed worksites. Ten small to medium businesses have been approached to trial it further, nine have agreed. “This has potential to benefit other small to medium size businesses. It’s not only about compliance, it can add value by improving communication or by providing evidence of training for example.“

Overall, she says, New Zealand is a small country, with a small economy in international terms. "This has been an amazing opportunity to come up with a blueprint for the future. It’s been a privilege to be part of the community initiating change.”

She hopes the Thriving Infrastructure project approach will be picked up and taken further by an appropriate agency. And she believes mission orientated innovation can be applied to other sectors.

“It’s been a successful proof-of-concept which could be looked at by any organization wanting to engage meaningfully and successfully implement change.”