Surfacing vision: Waka Leadership Innovation Lab
Ever feel like your team is stuck? Not in the sense that they aren’t working hard—if anything, they’re working harder than ever. But something’s missing. That spark. That flow.
Maybe they’re feeling the pressure to manage cashflow in a volatile market. Or just struggling to adapt as everything seems to change at once. Perhaps AI is knocking their confidence?
Regardless, you can see it in their body language. They’re tense. Tired. Sometimes hesitant. Despite your efforts to spur the team on, they can’t quite get there.
Ever feel like your team is stuck? Not in the sense that they aren’t working hard—if anything, they’re working harder than ever. But something’s missing. That spark. That flow.
Maybe they’re feeling the pressure to manage cashflow in a volatile market. Or just struggling to adapt as everything seems to change at once. Perhaps AI is knocking their confidence?
Regardless, you can see it in their body language. They’re tense. Tired. Sometimes hesitant. Despite your efforts to spur the team on, they can’t quite get there.
Building resilience starts with teaching adaptability
Funnily enough, that’s what we had in mind when we designed this particular Leadership Innovation Lab in collaboration with Ferg’s Kayaks on Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour. Unlike your standard off-site our labs are designed to rewire the groupthink. Shifting teams out of their routines and teaching the science of adaptation, the aim is to help people recentre and reconnect. Above all, it’s about giving them new tools to stay cool while tackling a changing terrain.
Ferg’s Kayaks – Waka Leadership lab partnership with Auckland’s top adventure team
When you’re setting the stage for a leadership event, where you do it matters. And Ferg’s Kayaks couldn’t have been a better fit for our Waka Leadership lab. Evolving with a new owner, Ed Hines, Ferg’s is becoming more than a kayak rental business. Adventure at it’s core, Ed is infusing it with grit, vision, and innovation.
Furthermore, Ed has a unique background that spans both New Zealand and the UK. From Scotland to the deep south, he’s honed his skills as a safety and adventure leader. He understands what it means to bring people together in the outdoors—not just for fun, but to foster teamwork and resilience. Taking over a business like Ferg’s is no small task. Ambitiously seeing the potential to expand this iconic Auckland destination takes sangfroid, determination, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty. Exactly the partner we needed.
Inside Ferg’s revamped waterfront space, you can feel that energy. It’s light, open, and inviting—a perfect backdrop for what we had planned. The space itself felt like a metaphor for the day: stepping into something new, with endless possibilities just outside the door.
Starting with Balance: centring ourselves to stabilise our work
The morning began by exploring a question every leader wrestles with: how do you find balance when it feels like life is tipping in all directions?
Participants from across industries—graduates, bankers, consultants—gathered to reflect on the areas of their lives that felt stable, and those that didn’t. Family, finances, health, career—when one is out of alignment, it impacts the rest.
Using the OPEN Method and Polyvagal-informed techniques, Liz Pinfold Reed grounded the group. These tools help calm the nervous system and ease the reactive state of stress. Why does this matter? Because stress narrows our vision, literally. It locks us into survival mode and shuts down our ability to think strategically or collaborate effectively.
The shift in the room was immediate. The group moved from being “in their heads” to being fully present. That’s when we knew it was time to hit the water.
Balancing the Waka on the water and in the Boardroom
Out on the shore, with rain threatening overhead, giant stand-up paddleboards waited for us. The task: balance the waka (canoe – or in this case, GSUP) as a team and navigate through the changing conditions of Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour. Waka (canoe) Leadership emphasises teamwork, shared responsibility, and a deep connection to the environment and community.
Taking the helm, Ed Hines led the safety briefing, embodying the quiet confidence of someone who’s spent years guiding teams through the unpredictable. Unsurprisingly, as an adventure leader, he knows exactly how to create an environment where people feel supported yet challenged. Safety first, he emphasised the importance of pace in the group, working as a team, and respecting the elements.
Recalibrating and finding flow: Waka Leadership unfolding
Once on the water, the teams quickly realized this was no ordinary exercise. The boards wobbled as they paddled. Coordination took a few tries. But then something incredible happened.
One by one, leaders began stepping up. Intern, Oliver Holdworth stepped into his strength, calling out commands he recalled from school days to create a tempo of strokes. Event lead, Chloe Hobbs focused on looking ahead, plotting the course. Even two non-swimmers in the group, initially nervous about being on the water, found their butterflies suddenly flying in formation with the team’s support.
Bringing huge expertise in Field leadership, Tane Dunlop, who guided much of the on-water learning, used trusted military land navigation principles to help us frame our approach. Firstly, he explained the importance of using anchor points—landmarks and patterns—to guide direction is critical in the field as well as in business. Similarly, on the giant paddleboards, we needed to find our own team anchors: consistent paddling rhythm, trust in our peers, and clarity on the end goal.
Understanding the journey: Anchoring, navigating and reconnecting
At one point, Ed encouraged the group to take a moment, pause, and look around: to appreciate the environment, to feel the rhythm of the water. And to reconnect with the big picture. Naturally, it reminded us that leadership isn’t about rushing toward the next task. Ultimately, it’s about seeing the whole journey and understanding when to push, when to pause, and when to trust your team. Then he reminded us we were drifting. We’d need to make a new plan as the storm rolled towards us.
Motivated and engaged, we changed tack and on swift return to shore, there was a clear shift in mood. Right on cue, fear had given way to focus. There was laughter, a sense of accomplishment, and even pride from crew who had stepped outside their comfort zones. The rain poured down just as we pulled into shore.
From the Water to the Workshop: insights into action
Back on dry land, the team carried the energy from the water straight into the afternoon’s workshop sessions with support of mentors to unpack challenges they faced in their work: from culture and organisational alignment to the impact of AI on employment futures, roles and workflows.
Jane Grainger brought a “bird’s-eye view” approach, helping participants map out the big picture of their structures and teams. Meanwhile, Craig Manning focused on surfacing deeper insights—those hidden factors that sit just below the surface of day-to-day business decisions.
What stood out was more than just the ideas generated. It was the honesty in the room. By tackling fears on the water, the group came into these conversations transformed, open and ready to engage. They weren’t holding back. Nervous energy from the morning had to be harnessed physically, because our bodies are built to move away from threat. Gentle opening of peripheral vision and encouragement of playful movement gave way trust and connection.
How is a Good CX Innovation Leadership Lab different?
Let’s be clear. Off-sites and team days are nothing new. But what we do at Good CX is different. Our core belief is that the state of your nervous system dictates how you see the world.
Our Innovation Labs are grounded in neuroscience. As behavioural scientists, we understand that when fear dominates, decision-making suffers. Creativity shuts down. Peripheral vision disappears. Above all, our hearing tunes out of conversation to search for a threat. Good decisions are literally a pipedream in this state. That’s why we design our labs to clearly define a problem and then reset your nervous system before you try to solve it. Through movement, insights, connection, and thoughtful facilitation, we help your team move from a state of stress to one of flow.
When you combine that with a backdrop like Ferg’s Kayaks—steeped in grit, innovation, and the great New Zealand outdoors—you get a leadership day that’s truly transformative.
So, here’s the question: What’s holding your team back right now? And more importantly, what would it take to unlock their potential?
Reach out to us to find out how a GoodCX Innovation Lab could help your team navigate the challenges ahead. Yes, we run leadership days in other settings like theatres and golf courses, to encourage things like AI Adoption and innovation– but Ferg’s Kayaks is top draw!
Because when fear fades and flow begins, there’s no limit to what your people can achieve.
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