Engaging Hard to Reach Clients & Service Users in 2025

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 📅 Date: Thursday, 27 February 2025
⏰ Time: 2 pm - 3 pm
🎓 Audience: Health Leaders and Health Professionals

Key Takeaways:

  • Focus: Understand challenges in reaching hard to reach clients and consumers in New Zealand in 2025.

  • Actionable Strategies: Gain tools to create inclusive communications strategies and tactics.

  • Expert Insights: Learn from Iulia Leilua (Ngāti Hāua, Ngāti Hekeāwai, Samoan), an experienced communications and media practitioner dedicated to enhancing outcomes for all New Zealanders.

Why Attend?

  • Deepen understanding of hard-to-reach communities facing the greatest healthcare barriers in 2025.

  • Connect with like-minded professionals through shared experiences and practical advice.

Speaker:

  • Host & Topic Expert: Iulia Leilua, CEO of The Culture and Design Lab.

🔗 Request Your Invitation to join this exclusive event and make a difference in your organisation’s efforts to communicate with hard to reach clients and service users. 

Iulia Leilua
The Culture and Design Lab

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Tackle Māori Recruitment & Retention Challenges in 2025

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 📅 Date: Thursday, 21 November
⏰ Time: 2 pm - 3 pm
🎓 Audience: HR Leaders & DEI Practitioners

Key Takeaways:

  • Focus: Address challenges in recruiting and retaining Māori talent with a strengths-based approach in 2025.

  • Actionable Strategies: Gain tools to create inclusive pathways and engage Māori professionals by honouring cultural values.

  • Expert Insights: Learn from Eve Steenson (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Mahuta), an experienced HR practitioner dedicated to enhancing outcomes for Māori.

Why Attend?

  • Deepen cultural understanding and transform your approach to Māori inclusion.

  • Connect with like-minded professionals through shared experiences and practical advice.

Speakers:

  • Guest Speaker: Eve Steenson from HR Kete, committed to supporting Māori and Pacific businesses.

  • Host & Topic Expert: Iulia Leilua, CEO of The Culture and Design Lab.

🔗 Request Your Invitation to join this exclusive event and make a difference in your organisation’s HR and DEI efforts by completing the form. 

Eve Steenson
HR Kete

Iulia Leilua
The Culture and Design Lab

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Request an invite to our August Executive Forum

This Executive Forum is designed for DEI, HR and Training and Development leaders who want to integrate Māori cultural competency into their organisations and navigate through our turbulent socio-political times more effectively.

Recent debates in Parliament, particularly concerning the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act and the role of Māori cultural perspectives in legislative processes, underscore the need to understand and value Māori culture and principles in leadership roles.

Rather than being divisive, Māori cultural competency can lead to more inclusive, innovative and effective leadership, benefiting not just individuals but the entire organisation and our communities.

Leaders who want to set themselves apart know that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. It can lead to failed engagements with Iwi and hapū, wasted resources when a wrong approach is taken or missed deadlines when misunderstandings or poor communications cause delays. Understanding and fixing complex social problems through an indigenous lens can save time and money if there is a genuine willingness to engage.

The Culture and Design Lab's Executive Forum continues the ongoing dialogue about cultural inclusivity, revealing strategic knowledge essential for leaders in New Zealand's evolving sociopolitical landscape.

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Request an invite to our June Executive Forum

Is Your Māori or Pacific engagement just a cost or a strategic investment?  How can you unlock the hidden financial potential of cultural competency?

On Thursday 20 June 2024 at 3 pm, The Culture and Design Lab will host a private, invitation-only Executive Forum online for CEOs, CFOs, Business Leaders, HR Directors, and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Managers in Aotearoa.

Our topic is Measuring What Matters: The ROI of a Māori or Pacific Cultural Engagement Strategy.  In our one-hour session we'll share tips on:

  • Identifying and eliminating hidden costs associated with cultural misunderstandings and low employee morale.

  • Developing a cost-benefit analysis framework to evaluate your current strategies and future investments.

Request an invite to find out how you can make informed decisions about your Māori or Pacific engagement strategies.

 

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Request an invite to our Executive Forum

On 13 March 2024 at 3 pm, The Culture and Design Lab will host our first private, invitation-only Executive Forum online for leaders who have a mandate to grow diversity, equity and inclusion and Māori engagement in their organisations.

We’ll be sharing insights from 57 interviews we did with corporate and public sector leaders on their Māori and Pacific cultural competency challenges. We’ll also download our hot tips from the Whiria Ngā Kaha Workplace Inclusion Aotearoa Conference 2024.  

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Schedule a call with us

Unlock the full potential of your organisation with our Māori and Pacific solutions for Human Resource, Diversity and Inclusion and Training and Development teams. The Culture and Design Lab is here to empower your workforce, drive innovation, and foster a culture of inclusion and growth. We understand the unique challenges you face, and we're ready to tailor a strategy that suits your specific needs. Schedule a call with us today to explore how we can make a meaningful impact together.
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with cultural inclusivity.

Find out how to maximise corporate and public sector engagements with Māori and Pacific peoples.

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Five reasons clients call us....

  1. Your government-run initiative requires engaging with Māori or Pacific communities and attempts to communicate effectively have fallen flat.

  2. You’ve recently had 10% or more turnover of Māori or Pacific employees leading to critical gaps in your hiring requirements. 

  3. Your leadership has been accused of racism, your Board is demanding a new cultural capability strategy, and you don’t know where to start.

  4. Your communications and marketing efforts to engage with hard to reach members of the community have been unsuccessful and your funders are demanding a return on investment.

  5. Your HR Department is so afraid to “get it wrong” that your investment in a DEI strategy is at risk of being wasted.

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"How do I start a conversation on racism?" 

We hear that a lot.  Systemic racism is not a label that any organisation is proud to display. Yet, it’s a reality that many organisations need to acknowledge and disrupt to transform into an organisation that thrives.  With The Culture and Design Lab, you can fail fast, ask the hard questions and create your own solutions without feeling judged.

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How would you rate your social cohesion?

Your organisation or business continually seeks to improve its strategic communications plan with clients and stakeholders, but how do you improve your engagement with Māori or Pacific peoples?

Our mini cultural audit can help you assess your organisation’s engagement with Māori or Pacific clients and stakeholders in sixteen simple questions.

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Ready to foster indigenous diversity and social cohesion in the workplace?

With expert knowledge in Māori and Pacific cultural intelligence, we offer tailored strategies that bring cultural sensitivity and inclusion front and centre in the workplace. Let's work together to challenge systemic racism and foster belonging and inclusion in the workplace.

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Learning

Find out how our digital platform can help raise cultural awareness amongst your employees

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Create more inclusive and culturally sensitive workplaces through indigenous design.

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Learn how to overturn cultural communications barriers and engage with impact.

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Identify your existing cultural competency and learn how to improve your cultural sensitivity.

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Learn how indigenous story telling can facilitate social change and social impact inside and outside of your organisation.

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Let us help you assess your cultural landscape and develop a strategic communications plan that builds social cohesion.

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“Iulia was an excellent facilitator who made potentially challenging material easy to access and navigate.  She helped the ServiceIQ executive to start a journey of better understanding in terms of Te Ao Māori and how our organisation can begin making positive progress in our culture and diversity journey.”

CEO

ServiceIQ

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The Culture and Design Lab Blog

UX DESIGN

Designing for Connection: Why Combating Loneliness at Work (and Beyond) Matters

22/4/2025

At The Culture and Design Lab, we believe great design starts with empathy - and sometimes, that means tackling deeply human challenges, like loneliness. We’re incredibly proud to support our Design...

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CULTURE

Client Video: Ngāti Haua Iwi Trust Deed of Settlement Ratification Campaign

19/2/2025

This video highlights the importance of voting in the ratification process for Te Pua o Te Riri Kore and the establishment of Te Whiringa Kākaho o Ngāti Hāua Trust. Through...
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TECH, CULTURE, AI

The New Zealand Public Service AI Framework: Implications for Māori and Pacific Peoples

03/2/2025

The New Zealand Public Service AI Framework: Implications for Māori and Pacific Peoples Public Service through its new Public Service AI Framework. This framework guides government agencies on how to develop,...
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