We help teams grow their innovation muscles.
Innovation capability grows differently in every team, every context, every relationship with complexity.
This site documents doctoral research into what that could look like in practice. The artefact at the centre of that research is a toolkit built around Hautū Waka, a design process for wayfinding in complexity. It gives teams a shared narrative for the work — not a linear framework, but a set of stages and states that move forward, around, and back as the work demands.
How it works – TL;DR
1: Enter the narrative
The narrative we work with is that of Hautū Waka, as described by Roimata Taniwha-Paoo and Ayla Hoeta, working with Matua Rereata Makiha. This acts as the shared mythic container of experience, language and meaning.
2: Use the tools
Each of the 6 stages/states of Hautū Waka has tools associated with it, that help teams ground the narrative, turning metaphor and story into practical, pragmatic decisions. This makes the narrative real and meaningful for individuals and teams.
3: Grow the muscles
Using the tools, within the narrative, helps teams grow the collective muscles – cognitive, conceptual, emotional – to find their way in unpredictable and complex change. This is how we grow our capability to innovate.
The Reflexiv crew
Baruk Jacob
Chief Conspirator
He tangata tiriti ahau, nō Inia ahau. E noho ana ahau ki Kaipātiki ki Tāmaki Makaurau. Ko Baruk Jacob toku ingoa.
I work as Director – Relational Design at CounterFactual Studio, a behaviour change studio working at the intersections of Sustainability, Resilience and Engagement. I am particularly inspired to learn from oral cultures, and believe that orality has much to teach us about living and thriving in an increasingly post-literate world.
My whakapapa (ancestral layers and connections to land) is to the Kumbanad family of Kerala and the Hmar tribe of Mizoram, both in modern-day India, and I am tangata tiriti in Aotearoa New Zealand. I am currently doing a PhD, exploring approaches to growing innovation capability in teams.
Koda Laldogpuia
Dogface Poobum
I neba beg for food five minutes after a meal. I neba has poisonously stinky farts when Baruk is on an important call. I is head of security. I is very good at protecting the neighbours house from demselves. Dey lub dat I always tell dem when dey come home to dey house.
Sometimes I show Baruk's friends & colleagues my sharp teeth and loud barks because otherwise how dey know? I also head of motivation for Baruk. If he don work and make money to buy me food, I eats his books. Sometimes I eats his books anyway as a friendly reminder.