11/02/2026
“If we want to deliver autonomy and self-determination to people we support, then autonomy and self-determination have to be true for us as an organisation.” - David Oldershaw, Chief Executive
At Community Living, our vision is built on the core belief that disabled people should be thriving in the community. The driving force behind this is Nou Te Mana- “the power is within you”. This concept commits the organisation to ensuring people we support live the life they choose, directed by their own choices and priorities.
Nou Te Mana is not just a philosophy; it is how we operate. It aligns perfectly with the Enabling Good Lives (EGL) principles, a framework developed by the disability community to guide positive change. Our services are therefore fundamentally person directed, meaning people should be able to choose what, where, and with whom they live, work, and play.
This often hasn’t been true in our sector.
The Mandate for Distributed Leadership
The commitment to self-determination was strongly reinforced by feedback gathered during the Future Focus sessions in 2023 and 2024, where people we support, their whaanau, and staff consistently asked for more choice and control.
There are many aspects of Nou Te Mana, but several were worth getting underway early.
First, we began experimenting with different service delivery methods in the Nou Te Mana pilots. The shift is towards a model of distributed leadership, where the people doing the work - our frontline staff - are given more authority and space to make decisions about how that work is done. The theory is simple: if we want to empower people we support, we must first empower our staff. This mechanism is crucial for being truly responsive to the people we support and improving people’s satisfaction and sense of fulfilment in their job. A workforce that can’t make decisions will be unable to quickly and competently act on the decisions and choices of the people they support.
Real-World Impact on Teams and Consistency
The move towards distributed leadership, often discussed in the context of “autonomous teams”, aims to enhance the employee experience. Staff participating in this experimental approach have reported immediate benefits, particularly in communication and service consistency.
“It’s easier to communicate with one another because we’ve built that platform. The benefits are seeing more consistent service, and that flowing on to the person we support, their family, ourselves as a team. And yeah, it’s
really positive.”
- Douglas Stubbs, Service Manager
The impact of tightly bonded and effective teams is equally felt by the families of the people we support. The recent team and family meetings have proved pivotal in helping teams coordinate their understanding and efforts. Francie, a family member, noted that this brought back a shared, collective working approach that massively improves the quality of service.
“The autonomy meetings have blown our mind... it just bonded us together.”
- Francie, Family Member
Francie appreciated that the autonomy framework provided a path back to “common sense” working practices.
A Journey of Continuous Improvement
The shift to embed Nou Te Mana involves continuous improvement and a strong commitment to experimentation, trying things, and utilizing feedback loops. When experiments or pilot programmes do not work, the commitment is to stop them and try something different. This intentional change process is designed to test the courageous theories that deliver Nou Te Mana. That way, the practice framework remains consistent, driven by the core principles of EGL, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the UN Convention on Rights for Persons with Disabilities.
