About the 2020 Management Challenge
The 2020 Management Challenge was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Six teams took part in the NZ Leg of the Challenge and the winning team from Hauraki District Council went on to compete in the finals that were held in October. The team from Hauraki were announced as the overall winners in December, taking out the Challenge against seven teams from Australia.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the NZ leg of the Challenge was delayed from April and took place virtually in July. Six councils took part with the winning team from Hauraki District Council representing New Zealand in the finals which also took place virtually. This presented additional challenges with the time differences between the Australian states and territories and New Zealand meaning an early start for Western Australia, and a late finish for Aotearoa!
The 2020 participants were:
- Bay of Plenty District Council
- Hutt City Council
- Napier City Council
- Hauraki District Council
- Invercargill City Council
- Tauranga City Council
The judges said:
It’s no surprise that the 2020 Management Challenge was quite different to those seen in previous years.
Covid-19 restrictions demanded a different approach, so a virtual challenge was the result, where teams would still respond to tasks and compete against other teams – but this time, from their own locations.
While it was clear that networking with other teams would be limited, the additional benefits of maximising the effectiveness of teams – sometimes in a distributed environment, learning to manage new technologies and having the opportunity to put their new skills into practice – made the virtual challenge still very valuable for competing teams, something that was very much borne out by the positive feedback received.
In terms of the teams themselves, it was a very competitive challenge, with all teams embracing the new virtual concept very well. The overall standard was exceptional.
Responding to the Pre-Challenge task, teams revealed a wide range of outstanding ideas to leverage volunteering into new arenas, yielding higher value for both council and the volunteer workforce. It’s hoped that many of these innovative ideas will come to fruition.
The range of tasks on Challenge Day stretched teams to manage their time and resources across some new media too – such as developing videos, conducting zoom interviews and presentations – even creating a radio ad.
The standard of responses to all tasks was very high, and the responses were largely comprehensive and well though-out.
Congratulations to all teams that participated, as every team excelled in a number of tasks.