I had the pleasure of attending the launch night for EHF in Wellington, around (I think) the end of 2016. It was low key, yet with an air of anticipation. I was aware of EHF as one of our Collective Intelligence members, Anake Goodall, was the Chair. That night Anake and I chatted about the potential of EHF and Collective Intelligence working together one day. Couldn’t envisage exactly how but it felt possible.

Later Anake encouraged me to apply for Cohort 3, which I did, only to be turned down at an early stage of the process. I remember the email came through late on a Friday night saying I hadn’t made the cut, just before a long weekend (it turned out to be a very long weekend indeed). I was seriously pissed about not being accepted.

So when I was finally accepted for cohort 8, it was a very sweet feeling. Initial setbacks are great like that, eh.

Once in, you would normally have a welcome experience in person, but of course the borders closing put a stop to the international members coming into Aotearoa NZ. It is worth mentioning the ratio of International to Kiwi Fellows is around 4 to 1. So them not being able to be in the country was a big blow.

Cohort 8 did in fact have a welcome weekend of sorts, but online. It was cool to meet others from around the globe, but it’s not the real thing. I did have a giggle as we had to put where we were based on our zoom name tag such as The Hague, New York, Beijing, Sydney, and Feilding (which some hadn’t heard of apparently – even the odd Aucklander)

I let them talk too, I promise. Image courtesy of Peanut Productions Photography

To hear what other Fellows were working on was inspiring and sometimes intimidating when I considered the scale of some of their projects. Throughout those conversations, I kept thinking that to meet them in person would be epic.

And then the borders opened in August and indeed we could meet, at a retreat in Silverstream, near Wellington. This group coming together was from a mix of the three cohorts (6, 7, and 8) who had not been able to have the full induction process. Different than before but a good adaptation to get the flow underway. 

The first day we were hosted on Waiwhetū Marae in Waiwhetū (Lower Hutt), learning some of the cornerstones of Māori culture and language. It was a lovely way to start as no one was in their comfortable place, whether they were Kiwi or International. 

Gifted by Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui – our group is called Ngā Manu Titi Rere Ao – meaning The Flight of the Shining Birds of the World. Cool eh!

It’s worth noting that the Fellowship has always been deeply embedded in Māori culture and a wonderful mix of Ed Hillary’s values. One of the things I absolutely love about the EHF movement is how overt it is in honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and why that is so important. Without this intent it could very easily look like another round of colonisation.

In fact the first full day was devoted to learning about Māori and the effects of colonisation, led by Sharn Cassady and Mikaere Paki. For me there were some revisions and new learnings. It was a great reminder just what a beautiful language Māori is. It was a great reminder just how devastating colonisation was, and is. It was a great reminder how generous and patient Māori are in educating the rest of the country about wtf actually went down. Every Fellow thoroughly appreciated this full on cultural infusion and it set us up for the next three days. 

The whole experience was wonderfully organised by the EHF team led by the very gracious Rosalie Nelson, who thankfully is an extrovert. I did feel sorry for the introverts by the end of the induction weekend! 

When you are normally organising events it’s wickedly wonderful when you aren’t! 

I’m not going to give a blow by blow account, but rather my reflections of my experience and key learnings.

• Faumania F.Maria Tafuna’i led a very interesting session on Whakapapa where we all got a chance to get up on a white board at the front of the room and give a very brief account of our individual journey. I found it fascinating just how much international travel and experience Fellows had under their belts. Amazing experiences described in all of 90 seconds each. I loved listening to these global impact entrepreneurs – until it was nearly my turn. At that point I would have chosen to pass.I didn’t feel worthy. I haven’t had international travel or exposure, professionally. My journey has been just within Aotearoa. Oh the saboteurs were rampant in my head and heart. So I just did my thing and sat down. More internal work to do, bro!
• From this example I realised I was being intimidated by the International Fellows and needed to sort this within myself. It wasn’t anything they were doing – it was my old self doubt at play, and was going to spoil my experience and limit the learning opportunity. I remembered if you want to effect change in your life, you need to start with becoming conscious – oh yeah that’s right.
• There was an excellent session on the future with Web3 led by Dan Khan, and it was great to be able to sit in on a conversation with people who had experience of setting up a DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation). What I kept reflecting on is just how important infusing Māori culture into these new ventures is going to be, and what a wicked opportunity this is for our country.
• There was also a small breakout group focussed on the Tall Poppy Syndrome in New Zealand led by Jojo McEachen. Jojo has been based in the USA for some years and recently returned home to Christchurch. She noted her surprise at just how much the Tall Poppy mentality of home had increased since she was away. Or maybe she had just got used to the positivity of the US professional scene.

What I realised with this conversation was that Collective Intelligence is very much about supporting and growing Tall Poppies – and it made me realise how important this aspect of our work is. I also realise that standing up to the Tall Poppy bullshit is something I will call out more readily – because it’s just not healthy.

And all the time I’m thinking how best can Collective Intelligence serve the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and Aotearoa New Zealand?

The International Fellows outnumber the Kiwi Fellows by about 4 to 1, so how do we help really embed them into our country long term? How do we make the most of their wicked talents?

Since then I have had a number of conversations with Fellows about options. Some are already Collective Intelligence members (there are seven so far) – some aren’t.

We discussed setting up EHF-only teams – Collective Intelligence design and culture, but just Fellows in the teams. This concept got lots of air time – with no traction. The consensus was that the diversity would drop, the impact would drop, and there would be less integration into their new home country.

So the result has been clarity of my intent: I am going to invite EHF Fellows to join our Aotearoa NZ Collective Intelligence Teams, utilising the current Fellows in our teams to talk about their experience – online and in person. I feel really comfortable about this now.

If any Fellows want to know more – please make contact harv@collectiveintelligence.co.nz