The Wall Walk
021 250 2653 simone@thewallwalk.co.nz

Here’s how the timing typically works:

0815
  • Wall Walker arrives at venue and gets set up. If there are no venue staff, then a helper or two from your organisation would be much appreciated
0845
  • Participants start gathering at venue – if desired, you ensure venue have tea, coffee, water available on arrival
0900
  • Open workshop – ideally a senior staff member from your organisation says karakia, welcomes everyone (including your Wall Walker) and sets the strategic context, explaining why everyone is doing The Wall Walk®
0910
  • The Wall Walk® begins
1045
  • Break for morning tea… your organisation arranges this and someone to bless the food beforehand
1100
  • Workshop continues
1300
  • Workshop closed by a senior staff member from your organisation (possibly offering people the opportunity to debrief in 1-2 weeks and start talking about how to translate new ideas into action), and someone else says karakia
OPTIONAL (on the day)

We assume that staff from the same organisation already know each other, unless they’re new. But if you want to do some whakawhanaungatanga (relationship building) before your Wall Walk, we can adjust the timing to allow for that. Just talk to us beforehand.

It’s hard to predict how people will react to a Wall Walk. You know your staff better than we do. If you think it’s likely to take more of an emotional toll, you may want to organise some post-workshop activities to help people process how they’re feeling. Alternatively, you may want to seize the moment to start planning. Staff from within your organisation may want to lead this part of the day, or you may wish to bring in someone independent. It’s not a service we offer – the workshop takes a toll on us too. But here are some of the things we’ve seen other agencies do:

  • Lunch for 30 minutes
  • Debrief: this is a chance to talk about the impact the workshop has had on them
  • Visit: ask tangata whenua to take you all to a historical site that is important to them and explain the significance of it
  • Logistics: here's where staff starting plotting HOW to bring about change, personally and professionally
  • Rongoa Māori: An opportunity to relax and unwind using traditional Māori techniques
Optional (weeks later)

To help keep your Wall Walk learning alive in the days and weeks that follow, you may wish to break up into your Wall Walk groups again and work through the following resources together:

Audience Size & Participation

Audience participation is a vital component of every Wall Walk. In order for the audience to help the story along, they are given pre-work a couple of weeks beforehand. They are split into 10 groups and each group is assigned a topic to research and then prepare a 6 minute presentation on.

The Wall Walk® is optimised for an audience of 60. With small groups you don’t get the same energy in the room on the day, especially when people pull out at the last minute. Nor do you get workplace debates going before and after each workshop. Groups larger than 60 carry passengers – they’re the people who want to attend but don’t want to participate. Having a handful of these people is fine, especially if they’re family members. But more than a handful can be counter-productive.

The cost is the same regardless. If you want to invite people from other parts of your organisation or even outside of your organisation (including spouses and offspring) to make up the numbers that’s fine. Please let us know beforehand. It’s best to invite people from external agencies in multiples of 6 (each group of 6 people gets assigned a topic in advance).

We recommend that you ‘over-subscribe’ Wall Walk participants. If you want 60 people to show up on the day, invite 66.

Venue capacity can sometimes be the deciding factor in audience size.

Venue

The Wall Walk can be run on-site at your business, or off-site at a location of your choosing. If in doubt, send us a picture/schematic of the venue for approval before booking or invite us along to a site inspection. At the venue we need:

  • A blank 6m long wall for me to put up five 2A0-sized wall charts. I’ll be using 3M strips to hold the posters up.
  • Chairs arranged, theatre-style, in rows facing the wall that the posters will go up on (either 3 rows of 20 seats or 4 rows of 15 seats works best).
  • 1 or 2 long narrow table(s) at the side or back of the room for any refreshments you supply/order.
  • PPT facilities (projecting onto a different wall to the one the posters go on) and audio. Many projectors have speakers but the audio quality and volume is usually awful.

When booking a venue please allow at least 5 hours:

  • 45 minutes set up time before participants arrive – for us to put up posters and banners, adjust the seating where necessary, test technology. If you want a Wall Walk to start at 0800 and it’s at your own site, setting up the night before can be a good idea.
  • 4 hours workshop running time (including welcome and opening remarks from one of your senior leaders and 20 minutes for morning tea supplied/organised by you – to arrive 1.75 hours after the workshop starts)
  • 15 minutes take down time
  1. The Whitiora Room at the Novotel Tainui on 7 Alma Street can comfortably accommodate a Wall Walk audience of 50 people and help with catering.
  2. Function rooms at FMG Stadium, 128 Seddon Rd, Hamilton
  3. Ruakura Conference Centre at Waikato Innovation Park, SkyPoint Building, 3 Melody Lane, Hamilton East, 3216
  4. The Verandah,Hamilton Lake Domain, Rotoroa Drive, Hamilton, 3204
  5. The Link Community Centre, 4 Te Aroha Street, Hamilton East, 3216
  1. The Alexandra Room at TSB Showplace at 92-100 Devon Street West, New Plymouth
  2. The Hobson Room at The Devon Hotel, 390 Devon St East, New Plymouth;
  1. The Small Exhibition Hall on Marine Parade in Napier can comfortably accommodate a Wall Walk audience of 60 people or more and help with catering.
  2. Gwen Malden Concert Chambers at the Waipawa Municipal Theatre, 18 Kenilworth St, Waipawa
  3. Totara Conference Room at Kennedy Park Resort, Storkey St, Napier.
  4. Clubs Hastings, 308 Victoria St, Hastings 4122. They can comfortably accommodate a Wall Walk audience of up to 80 people seated at round tables in their “Dining Room”. They also provide in-house catering. Get hold of them on info@clubshastings.co.nz or (06) 878 8808.
  1. Corporate Suites at Manfield off 59 South St, Fielding