The Collective Impact of Community Working 'Better Together'

The Nelson Tasman Innovation Neighbourhood (NTIN) is a group of local organisations who have come together in collaboration, to tackle common business challenges and identify common opportunities, by working better together. NTIN was founded in February 2018, led by Datacom and supported by the Nelson Regional Development Agency (NRDA).

NTIN is a cross-sector collaboration of non-competing organisations. Its members include a range of businesses (who combined contribute 30-40% of the region’s GDP), education and the regional economic development agency. The founding members are; New Zealand King Salmon, Sealord Group Ltd, Interpeople, Nelson Regional Development Agency (NRDA), Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT), Wakatū Incorporation, Datacom, Pic's Peanut Butter & Cawthron Institute.

Through sharing knowledge, connections and fresh ideas, the group’s focus is on improving outcomes for the individual organisations while also contributing to the greater good of the Nelson Tasman community and region. The ultimate aim is regional development through uplifting prosperity, wellbeing and capability individually, collectively and for Nelson Tasman. NTIN seeks to be world-recognised as a uniquely human systems of innovation & regeneration, powered by trust and collaboration.

This sort of collaboration is particularly relevant in a smaller region and provides an amplification of the time and effort put in. The Nelson Tasman region is primarily made up of small and medium businesses who have less resource and capacity to address challenges alone. But what it does have is a strong sense of community and passion for the region, so the idea of “better together” resonates strongly with all member organisations and provides focus to drive success.

“Being a member of NTIN has allowed us to develop excellent connections with a diverse group of proactive Nelson/Tasman businesses. Through this we have realised that many of the businesses have the same challenges we do and the best way to address these challenges is together with scale." - Dave Thompson | General Manager IT | Sealord | NTIN Chair

Collective Impact

The collective impact that NTIN has unlocked to date, includes:

• Developing a shared Summer Intern and Graduate Programme. Early on, NTIN identified talent attraction and retention as a key challenge for their businesses and the region so worked to develop initiatives that addressed this. Getting some practical runs on the board and having some shared wins was key to NTIN’s success by building trust quickly and being able to see the value of collaborating.
• The shared Summer Intern and Graduate Programmes position Nelson Tasman as an extraordinary place to live and work, with the objective of creating ambassadors for the region. Individually, Nelson Tasman businesses find it difficult to compete with larger national employers but by working together NTIN have been able to create programmes which provides significant benefits (such as joint social and development programmes) as well as a point of difference in that interns and grads are exposed to a range of businesses and get to work on joint projects. The first Interns programme in 2018/19 was a huge success with interns rating their experience on average as 9.43/10. The second intern programme is planned for 2019/20 and Graduates for 2020, with a wider scope of organisations taking part (those beyond NTIN members).
• Having the key businesses in the region (through NTIN) being very clear and focussed on talent attraction and retention as their key business challenge has created a mandated focus for the NRDA and has provided support to drive activity with a higher level of impact much faster than otherwise possible.
• NTIN enabled baseline research to really understand the talent challenge from both an employer and talent perspective. The results provided direction for the development of an employer-owned regional talent attraction and retention programme which the NRDA will implement over the next year, with further support both in-kind and financial from NTIN.
• NTIN has also aligned with the Nelson Tasman regional identity, the development of which was led by the NRDA. It is an authentic representation of the region and what it wants to continue to be, and includes a range of tools for people to engage, share and spread the story of Nelson Tasman more readily and easily. With a strong identity, NTIN have a strong foundation to work from which provides focus to uplift the regional competitive advantages of the ocean economy and value-added Food & Beverage. NTIN’s support of the identity has also allowed it to be strengthened, anchored and amplified within the larger business community.

While NTIN’s focus for year one has been around building innovation collaboration capability and creating a strong foundation for the members to work together, this is only the beginning of a journey for NTIN. Ongoing efforts will focus on amplifying community value through sharing learnings and insights with the wider business community, including the large number of small and medium sized businesses in the region. NTIN is strongly focused on ensuring this is achieved over the next year and based on the pace of progress so far there is no doubt that is possible.

 “NTIN is made up of local businesses, who want to grow the value of Nelson/Tasman. Our role is to support the NRDA vision and identity pillars by telling the story and setting up shared programmes to embed this. Our group has established a high level of trust with each other, which has enabled us to collaborate on common business issues in a productive way. Rather than go it alone on issues like talent acquisition and retention, we are finding “better together” really can achieve results." - Dave Thompson | General Manager IT | Sealord | NTIN Chair

Central to NTIN’s success is the adoption of the concept of ‘Better Together’. Traditionally businesses look to gain prosperity by just focussing on themselves and their challenges alone. The NTIN approach has moved the companies involved to think about neighbourhoods and the value of working together to solve together on their innovation journey, based on a common set of shared values.

By working better together, each member organisation benefits from deeper shared insights, the ability to grow innovation ‘muscle’, to reach out beyond its walls working with new and diverse partners, and to accelerate opportunities for growth. 

True collaboration is not easy. It requires high levels of trust and commitment to the longer term, which NTIN has been able to achieve in a relatively quick time period.

 "While I had expected results on specific programmes like talent, I have been pleasantly surprised that the relationships developed have enabled dialogue on a wider set of business challenges. It has also strengthened our relationship with NRDA, NMIT and the Chamber.” - Dave Thompson | General Manager IT | Sealord | NTIN Chair

Shared goals and a common purpose, defined by values-driven guiding principles, were identified early on, contributing to this high level of trust and allowing the group to progress rapidly. The goals are:

• Connect and Collaborate: to work together on shared problems to create common solutions
• Amplify and Accelerate: to make Nelson Tasman better and, thereby, benefit our organisations
• Attract and Develop: to grow and nurture innovation talent and our organisational environments
• Inspire and Encourage: to leverage the value of information sharing through high-trust relationships
• Inform and Influence: influence and change policy and government initiatives to foster innovation for all parties

NTIN plays a vital role in the Nelson Tasman ecosystem by providing a platform from which we can scale to succeed and for other businesses within the region to work off.” - Tim Saunders | Commercialisation Manager | Wakatu | Kono

The people and businesses involved have largely remained the same since inception, also supporting the development of trust and rapid progress. The group meets monthly and executes initiatives through shared working groups.

As mentioned in the summary, the focus for year one has been around building innovation collaboration capability and creating a strong foundation for the members to work together. This has primarily had a focus on initiatives to address the number one challenge of talent attraction and retention, however some other workstreams have been developed and are gaining momentum. This includes collaborating on common R&D opportunities, working to uplift skills and capability for the future of work, strengthening the Nelson Tasman provenance story and developing an international speaker series for the region.

The focus for the next year will be on building on all the workstreams as well as on amplifying community value through sharing learnings and insights with the wider business community.

The Value Creation

The value that has been realised through a ‘better together’ approach includes:

• Meeting frequently and just having the opportunity to talk has allowed the group to realise that they are experiencing similar challenges and see the opportunity which collaboration can provide.
• The group consists of non-competing businesses, giving them the ability to share more openly, building a high level of trust and the platform for greater collaboration.
• Sharing has created greater cut through, reach, leverage, influence and accelerated delivery – meaning the group has been able to achieve results more efficiently and effectively than alone.
• By working as a group, there is greater ability to influence and provide thought leadership amongst peers and players in the wider innovation ecosystem.
• The neighbourhood platform has brought together senior staff from across the region, providing an environment to foster fresh ideas and new ways of thinking.
• The value that will be added to the Nelson Tasman region is always at the heart of everything the group does, minimising any “what’s in it for me” mindsets.
• As a group there is the ability to have first mover advantage in local and global markets; and to attract direct investment.

Key Challenges, Learnings & Insights 

Some of the challenges and learnings from the first year include:

• It is important to have the right people in the room including those responsible for both strategy and delivery. They must have both menace ($) and mandate (authority/accountability). Without this there is risk that there is a lot of talk but not much action.
• In addition, wider buy-in across each organisation is critical, including Board and C-Suite. NTIN addressed this by holding an update event for their wider organisations and to inform other key decision-makers.
• Each member organisation must be willing to put equal skin in the game – in terms of time, resource and money. Without this, trust cannot be built across the neighbourhood.
• Shared responsibility is key – if too much falls on one or two people they can get overwhelmed and may become disengaged with the group. Some of the ways we have addressed this is through establishing smaller working groups and a rotating chair.
•  Establish achievable goals. It is better to work on less and focus on achieving a real, measurable shift.
• Ensure there is alignment of the shared goals/KPIs with the member organisation’s goals/KPIs.

“NTIN has provided a great opportunity to share common problems and discuss opportunities to make our region more productive. A lot of us have very similar challenges or problems that we would traditionally try to resolve ourselves. Through collaboration we have seen that we can collectively resolve the underlying challenge then individually tailor it to our own application." - Shaun Young | General Manager Supply Chain | New Zealand King Salmon

NTIN demonstrates how collaboration between business, education and economic development agencies can greatly improve outcomes for individual businesses while also contributing to regional development for the greater good of the community and region.

This is a different style of collaboration than we traditionally see and is the first time we have seen it in the Nelson Tasman region. There is not one person leading and others contributing, or a group cooperating. Instead, there is genuine collaboration and equal skin in the game. Each member is committed to strategic doing – getting to relevant, purpose-led action, quickly with evidenced results.

NTIN is genuinely business-led and driven, with the NRDA being an equal member and facilitator from behind rather than leader (as is usually the case with business collaboration).

NTIN have lifted the level of strategic conversation across multiple organisations and as a diverse sector-led group, offer a different voice for business and the local economy. Often bigger or differing businesses don’t work together, but NTIN continues to show that real collaboration is highly effective.

From an NRDA perspective, this united voice has allowed a clear focus of strategy which can be advocated back to our many stakeholders. A common challenge for EDA’s is the multitude of stakeholders all driving differing agendas but through NTIN we have been able to create a mandated focus, enabling us to get to a higher level of impact much faster than otherwise possible.

"There were some initial concerns around whether the participating companies would actually ‘open up and discuss freely’ about the problems and opportunities they see as an organisation. The experience has been surprisingly very open and collaborative.” - Shaun Young | General Manager Supply Chain | New Zealand King Salmon

Conversations and the broader strategic approach have been aligned with the Nelson Tasman regional identity and what the region needs to prosper. In effect, NTIN have aligned a common vision and strategy not just for their own neighbourhood but for the region. Through this process they have gone straight to the heart of addressing one of the biggest issues for our businesses and our community – talent attraction and retention and have proven that through collaboration results can be delivered fast.

NTIN has shown that through high trust the relationship endures, and people come back to the table each time. There is no contract or Terms of Engagement. NTIN operates solely by Chatham House rules. Given the diversity of businesses and sectors represented across NTIN, this is quite an achievement.

"Collaboration can be frustrating and painful at times but by having clear intent and purpose from the start, NTIN has overcome this and kept things moving at a rapid pace." - Tim Saunders | Commercialisation Manager | Wakatu | Kono

This is not an initiative which has initially involved a large amount of financial investment but instead has been rich in time investment and proves that getting the right people together can provide just as valuable results. The people involved, all senior members of their organisations, have largely remained the same since inception. They all continue to regularly attend meetings and contribute towards common goals.

To date, there has been an incredible response from people who hear about NTIN with a high demand of new businesses wanting to become involved.

We can't wait to see what the next 12-24 months of being #BetterTogether brings. If you are interested to hear more about how to make complex collaborations work, then feel free to reach out to Taryn Ellis or Kerry Topp, we'd be happy to share our lessons, learnings and insights with you.

Kei runga noa atu | onwards & upwards.