Reflections from the Scale Deep Tour: Aotearoa (New Zealand) & Australia

From Daylesford to Christchurch: A Journey of Connection, Practice, and Deep Change 🌏

This May, we travelled to Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand) to explore Scaling Deep in practice—on the ground, in community, and in conversation.

We were warmly welcomed to Aotearoa for three special events hosted by the Systems Change Advocacy, Support & Solidarity (SASS) group and Leadership Lab Aotearoa, generously supported by Clare Foundation, Auckland Council, and the Centre for Social Impact New Zealand

✨ In Auckland and Christchurch, we gathered for Scaling Deep Wānanga—spaces for systems leaders, changemakers, and community practitioners to explore how slow, relational, and culturally grounded transformation can seed durable systemic change. These gatherings wove global insights from the Scaling Deep inquiry with powerful local practices and perspectives.

🌀 We also hosted a Scaling Deep Masterclass in Auckland—a full-day immersion for community practitioners into systems practice and the Scaling Deep framework. Through hands-on learning, frameworks, and peer exchange, we explored how to deepen our impact in complex, real-world contexts.

🤝 Earlier that same week in Naarm (Melbourne), we hosted our inaugural Scaling Deep Evaluation Workshop, in partnership with the Dusseldorp Forum, Community Foundations of Australia, and Monash University. We were also warmly welcomed by Woor-Dungin to their Cultivating Connections Forum, where I had the honour of joining Yoorrook Commissioner Travis Lovett in conversation. Together, we explored the importance of slow, steady, and contextually rooted work—deepening relationships, truth-telling, and healing.

🌿 Before our Scaling Deep Aotearoa tour began, we gathered for the first-ever Sanctuary Retreat in Daylesford, Australia—with alumni from across the years.

As I return home from this journey, I find myself full—of gratitude, of inspiration, of questions, and renewed conviction. Here are a few reflections that have been moving through me:

1. Joy and Love Sustain Us

One of the most powerful truths I’m holding is that joy and love are not extras or luxuries—they are what sustain us. During this tour, I had the immense privilege of meeting and spending time with people doing courageous, thoughtful, transformative work. It was in the small, often quiet moments—listening to life stories over lunch, deepening into a conversation while walking, sharing a laugh after a long day—that I felt most energized. These moments of connection are not separate from the work; they are the work. They’re where new possibilities are born, where new worlds begin to take root.

2. We Need Our People

Over the past few years, I’ve been discerning more clearly where I want to place my energy in the work we do. The more I follow that thread, the more I know: I need my people.

What does that mean? It’s a visceral thing—a feeling of sitting in a room with others who get it. There’s a kind of ease, a softening. Breath deepens. Tension drops. Hearts open. In those spaces, we’re not jockeying for position or trying to perform dominant codes of power. We’re just present. I believe these spaces are not just personally nourishing—they’re structurally important. They are more than fields of coherence. They are new centres of gravity, decentred from dominant power. We need to nurture these, and we need more of them.

3. Staying with the Trouble

This work is not easy. It brings edges, friction, discomfort—and with those, learning. We spoke often during the tour of Donna Haraway’s invitation to “stay with the trouble.” That phrase feels especially resonant. Staying doesn’t mean burning out or accepting harm. It means being willing to be with the complexity, to not turn away. And we do this with grace, with boundaries, with fierce compassion—and with love. That’s how we keep going.

We also shared in several reflections how this practice extends into our personal lives—that staying with the trouble in our close relationships is also practice ground. These intimate spaces are often our greatest teachers. They invite us to deepen compassion, to walk through difficult moments with presence, and, as my teacher and mentor says, to keep "leaning into the darkness."

4. There Is So Much Good Work Happening

Sometimes, especially in systems change spaces, we can become focused on the problems. But I want to name this clearly: there is so much good work happening. So many generous, humble, brilliant people are doing beautiful, meaningful things in their communities. We must hold this up, protect it, and learn from it. 

Stay tuned for our case studies showcasing examples of Scaling Deep in Aotearoa (New Zealand). These stories will highlight the slow, relational, and culturally rooted practices that are seeding real, durable transformation.

5. Preparing to Work Across Difference

One moment that particularly stayed with me was my visit to Ōtautahi Christchurch and a conversation with the Leadership Lab team. They shared their framework, and the concept of pōwhiri—the traditional process of meeting and preparation before coming together. It reminded me that working across difference requires more than goodwill—it requires preparation, intention, humility.

This experience helped me put language to something I’ve long been searching for: how do we ready ourselves—individually and collectively—to show up in shared space, across difference? What does it mean to visit, to receive, to host well? The SASS team modeled this beautifully. We had months of intentional preparation: Zoom calls with partners, storytelling, collaborative planning, early conversations with panelists to co-create the case study sessions. This wasn’t just a gathering of key players convened by those with the most power. It was relationship-building. It mattered.

6. Scale Deep as Catalyst and Mirror

Perhaps the deepest gift of the tour was seeing how the Scaling Deep framework shows up in the world. Again and again, I heard that the framework offers relief. It gives language to the things people have felt but struggled to express. It validates their frustrations, affirms the depth of their work, and helps them share it with others.

We also learned that it catalyzes conversations—both among those already walking this path and those just beginning to explore it. It becomes a tool, not just for sensemaking, but for invitation.

In some conversations—particularly with Māori practitioners—there was a clear sense that the language of Scaling Deep wasn’t needed, because their own concepts, stories, and ways of understanding already hold this wisdom. And that, too, is a gift. The value of the framework is not always in it being adopted, but in how it can affirm and reinforce people’s own language and conceptual frameworks. It can offer clarity or resonance—not as a replacement, but as a mirror.

In this way, Scaling Deep can also act as a bridge—a shared reference point that enables dialogue between different ways of languaging transformation. It helps create pathways for people to connect across cultural and conceptual difference, without flattening or erasing the richness of their own lineages and traditions.

And maybe most powerfully, it centres the invitation from outside dominant power. It invites us to start from the margins. That, to me, is where real transformation lives.

Gratitude

I want to offer deep thanks to the SASS team for your leadership, care, and vision in spearheading this journey. Your preparation, presence, and partnership made this experience what it was.

To our collaborators and local partners—Leadership Lab Aotearoa, Clare Foundation, Auckland Council, the Centre for Social Impact New Zealand, the Dusseldorp Forum, Community Foundations of Australia, Monash University, and Woor-Dungin—thank you for your generosity, partnership, and belief in this work.

And to everyone who joined us along the way—who showed up with curiosity, courage, and heart—thank you. It was a privilege to be with you.

What’s Next

As we settle back home, we’re carrying the momentum and insight from this journey forward. Here’s what’s next from our side:

• Storytelling from Aotearoa – In the spirit of amplifying Scaling Deep and the powerful work we witnessed, we’ll be sharing a series of case studies and stories from the incredible practitioners we met in New Zealand. Stay tuned!

• Systems Change Masterclass – July 2025 – We’re offering a special Masterclass for NZ-based systems leaders, with generous support from the Clare Foundation. Learn more and apply here.

• Stay Connected – Want to stay in the loop with new reflections, events, and offerings?

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