Sport Canterbury, Lead Provider for Healthy Families Ōtautahi, are emarking on a Women & Girls Strategy – the end goal is that women and girls are involved, valued and visible at ALL levels in sport and active recreaction, with three priority areas identified - Leadership, Workforce Delivery and Participation. Each of these areas have their own subgroup within the wider group, with kaimahi from Healthy Families Ōtautahi forming part of the Leadership subgroup.

Backboned by a working group that meet regularly, a strategy was developed and action plans were created for the subgroups which focus on a priority area each. In light of the complex nature and recognizing the importance of a holistic perspective in order to achieve optimal outcomes, the group opted to adopt a systems approach to guiding the development of the strategy and action plans.

Being immersed in the field already, Healthy Families Ōtautahi helped lead a series of Systems Change workshops with each subgroup to help develop their action plans.

The first workshop started with a Rich Picture exercise to help build a picture of what people knew of the system they are working in, as well as identify key issues that need to be addressed.

Then, using the Six Conditions of System Change as a framework, the groups identified the gaps bertween the current state and the desired state. From there, they built the action plan needed to bridge these gaps and therefore shift the system to the desired outcome.

The groups found using the Six Conditions of System Change highly beneficial - “by providing us with a framework to follow, this process gave us a guide that helped us identify priorities and understand the interrelation between different conditions. As a result, we were able to address all the issues in our action plans without feeling overwhelmed, thanks to the structure it provided." - Participation team.

Nikki Wortelboer, General Manager – Systems and Priority Population for Sport Canterbury, strongly believes that the implementation of systems thinking through the workshops has been a significant achievement for the Women & Girls Group. “The workshop's structure has effectively demystified systems thinking for many, making it accessible and applicable to all, which leads to the cross-pollination of systems thinking into various teams and work, resulting in upskilling individuals and improved problem-solving abilities. The fact that people can identify the root causes rather than band aid solutions is a major step forward. This new understanding will not only impact the workplace, but also extend into people's personal lives. As a result, I feel like we will create change in the Women & Girls structure because we have applied systems thinking”, says Nikki.

Work continues for the Women & Girls Group, however every action taken helps with the end goal of helping women and girls having a much stronger presence in all aspects of sport and recreation.

Article added: Thursday 13 April 2023