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Responding and adapting to change
In May 2019, Sport NZ began looking into the future of play, active recreation, and sport in Aotearoa New Zealand.

In today’s world of accelerating change, we need to be well positioned to respond and adapt to changes, and to think and act longer-term. Influences such as climate change, advances in technology, changes in society, are shaping the future of our sector. The COVID-19 global pandemic is the most recent, and wide-reaching, influence that we are having to deal with. 

Through our futures work, we are gaining a better understanding about the drivers of change and the possible implications of change. We’re assessing our assumptions about the future and using the opportunity to explore what the future could look like for the sector. Ultimately, we want this work to help us think about a range of possible futures, especially what we call the “preferred future” – and what we can do to prepare for it.

Progress to date  

In the second half of 2020, we facilitated and funded a process that allowed sector stakeholders to collaborate and focus our thinking on the future. Involving over 100 individuals from sector organisations, this work involved two working streams – Te Tuarā Futures Group and the Futures Working Group – providing a Māori specific view and a general view. 

The two working groups were guided by a set of environmental scans, which identified the drivers of change and possible implications for play, active recreation and sport. The working groups used these scans to develop their perspectives and produce progress reports, which lets us look at the futures material in more depth. 

We have consulted with a wide range of sector stakeholders to ensure we consider all perspectives. This has included broad sector consultation, via a five-question survey, and external participant group workshops and webinars.

The survey, run by the market research company Kantar, was open throughout October 2020 and had 439 responses. Read the key findings from this survey. 

The feedback from the external participant groups was considered by the Te Tuarā Futures Group and the Futures Working Group, alongside inputs from broader membership groups.

The workshops with these groups were held between August and December 2021. Find out more about the learnings and key themes in the following reports.

Te Tuarā and Working Group progress reports

First Te Tuarā Report

Reflections on the challenges of current approaches and the aspirations for the future of physical activity and wellbeing from a Māori perspective.

First Te Tuarā Report
Second Te Tuarā Report

Examines what the future might look and feel like for Māori and how that future might be realised.

Second Te Tuarā Report
First Working Group Report

Highlights current concerns, signs of change, and how we can challenge our assumptions about the future. Identifies what we value in a preferred future.  

First Working Group Report
Second Working Group Report

Further understanding on the causes, barriers and implications of change, and a preferred future for physical activity in New Zealand.  

Second Working Group Report

Further thinking

Further reports draw together the key themes and provide prompts for further thinking. 

Futures Summary Report

Summaries all the reports connected to the futures work. Outlines key observations made through the working group discussions. 

Futures Summary Report
Papa Noho Report

Explores the critical dimensions of partnership. Provides a challenging, but immensely positive perspective, on how the work of partnership can be undertaken to ensure the preferred future can become a reality for all, not just some.  

Papa Noho Report
Scenarios Report

Written in parallel with the Papa Noho Report, focuses on exploring possible futures. Some aspects may be unwelcome but lets us test how particular strategies may play out in different futures.

Scenarios Report
Assumptions we hold about the future

Identifies and challenges the assumptions we might hold about the future of play, active recreation.

The assumptions we hold about the future
Preferred Future 5 Characteristics

Five characteristics (pou) that underpin the preferred future state have been drawn out from the published Futures Reports, along with a series of statements that describe what success looks like for each of these themes.

Preferred Future 5 Characteristics
Responsibility of Tomorrow

Sport NZ’s Head of Strategic Foresight Dave Adams challenges the sector to think about, and make sense of the future differently.

Watch the conference
Evolution of Govt Agency for Sport and Recreation

Understanding where we have come from helps us think about the future.

Evolution Report
COVID-19 and implications on mental health

Experts have expressed concern about the effects of COVID-19 on people's mental health.

COVID-19 and Mental Health
Man and boy running on beach with a model aeroplane
The preferred future

Through our collaborative process, we have identified a preferred future where:  

  • physical activity is part of a much larger wellbeing agenda 
  • culture and identity are important 
  • communities are empowered to find local solutions within a high-trust model 
  • there is high collaboration between system agents (including central, regional and local government) to achieve shared goals for the wellbeing of all New Zealanders 
  • boundaries and silos are broken down.

The value in a preferred future 

 Having a preferred future is hugely important for the sector, so we can shape the future of play, active recreation and sport in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through developing a preferred future, we have: 

  • achieved consensus on what matters most to New Zealanders and a shared view about a way forward 
  • been able to be explicit about the things we value and should not take for granted 
  • put ethics at the core of our problem solving. The challenges we face today are profoundly ethical, which means we need to address universal ethical principles such as, human dignity, social justice freedom, equality, the common good and shared wellbeing. 
  • learned from the past and identified what we want to restore and protect for future generations 
  • brought new people and voices together to explore intersecting interests and found common ground 
  • listened to, learned from, and incorporated diverse cultural perspectives and a strong Māori voice 
  • considered the rights of future generations and the intergenerational fairness of current policies through the youth voice 
  • opened a conversation about multiple possibilities, and stretched people to think beyond short-term pressures and current concerns and interests 
  • questioned environmental, social, and economic assumptions about the future and gave people the confidence to challenge the present state. 

Find out more about the significance of the futures work and preferred future: 

Summary of the value of the preferred futures work

Where to from here? 

Now that we have arrived at an agreed preferred future, Sport NZ will work with sector organisations to assist them to make sense of that future from their perspective and take actions to bring it to life.  

To help organisations understand and respond to the preferred future, we will add new resources and examples of the preferred future to our website over the coming months.  

We will continue to monitor the key drivers of change and assumptions, and where required, carry out further environmental scans. 

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