Auckland needs good leadership and effective governance
High performing organisations need good leadership - Auckland Council needs better governance
I spent last week at a Company Directors Course, run by the NZ Institute of Directors. It was very intensive and covered best practice governance, including strategy, finance, risk and culture. Understanding that high performing organisations require good leadership and that starts with the Board - for council that means the councillors and mayor. These roles are responsible for setting the direction, driving performance of the CEO, building good culture and ensuring the organisation is accountable.
The course built on my commercial and community governance experience - I love being able to offer my governance skills to local groups. Earlier this month I was talking about how we can all do more to help our local community groups. Volunteering is always rewarding, especially locally. Speaking of supporting community - despite a full week, I managed to get back for the Howick Santa Parade Quiz Night and my team came 3rd-equal!
Auckland Council could do with better governance, starting with our councillors. We need change and I firmly believe that my skills in business improvement, combined with my governance experience and passion for my community is what is needed to move our city forward.
I'll do my best to keep you up to date through my monthly newsletters. In between, stay up to date via my website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. As always, if there's something you want to hear about or know more, let me know.
Warm regards,
Damian Light
Auckland's outdated election system hurts our democracy - we must modernise it!
I've been a candidate in Auckland Council elections three times now and I'm always appalled by how complicated we've made it. Bizarre rules, paper forms and limited times to hand them in make it more challenging that it needs to be in 2022. But it's not just the candidate process that's outdated - our election system is in desperate need of modernising.
We've known since before the super city that voting in local elections has been declining. We've know for over a decade that postal voting is becoming less practical. We've known for long enough that most Aucklanders don't understand council or why their vote matters.
But our councillors and mayor have sat on their hands, done nothing. Democracy isn't just voting in elections, but turnout is good indication of public's faith in the system. Will modernising our voting fix everything? No, but it would be sign to the public that their views matter.
Read more here.
Billboards have gone up!
First set of billboards have gone up - huge thank you to the many generous locals who've allowed me to use their fence.
If you or someone you know would like to host one of these on your fence, please let me know. There are big and small versions to fit all types of fences!