About Northwind
We are a Wellington practice focused on the human side of organisational change — the briefings, the awkward questions, and the weeks after the announcement when habits decide whether a plan holds.
Why we exist
Too many change plans treat people as a communications channel. Northwind started because sponsors kept asking for someone who would sit in the room with managers, hear the friction early, and adjust the sequence before trust eroded. We work primarily with mid-sized New Zealand organisations — public, private, and community — where relationships matter and rumours travel quickly.
How we approach the work
We favour plain language over frameworks that need a glossary. Every engagement has a named lead, a visible sponsor on your side, and written artefacts you can reuse. We draw on established change practices (impact assessment, cascade design, readiness sensing) without turning them into theatre.
The people you will meet
Ana Whitfield — Practice lead. Fifteen years advising on restructures and service redesign across central government and health. Ana holds the sponsor relationship and designs programme structure.
Tama Raukawa — Senior facilitator. Specialises in leadership alignment sessions and manager rehearsals. Formerly an internal OD advisor in the energy sector.
Sophie Lang — Change analyst. Runs readiness interviews, synthesises themes, and keeps the milestone calendar honest when timelines slip.
Values we hold to
- Candour with care — we say when a date is unrealistic without shaming the team that set it.
- Local context — Te Tiriti considerations, union environments, and regional site differences are part of planning, not footnotes.
- Proportion — not every change needs a twenty-week programme; we will say so.
Working with clients
We prefer partnerships where your HR or people function stays central. We complement in-house capability rather than replace it. Most work begins with a scoping conversation from our Willis Street office or a video call if your team is elsewhere in New Zealand.