Sirocco the kākāpō — New Zealand’s official spokesbird for conservation — has garnered legions of fans around the world, his profile boosted when he attempted to mate with a zoologist during filming of a BBC television services.
Dunedin woman Sarah Cross’ own "delightful encounter" with the charismatic parrot was to have a lasting impact, albeit not for amorous reasons as she was safely behind glass.
Sirocco was on tour at the time, as part of his spokesbird duties, and she found kākāpō to be fun, personable, colourful and vibrant, attributes which fitted her own personality.
That was very much what she wanted her own business to be like when she launched Kākāpō Consulting nearly five years ago, and so it seemed the perfect name.
Kākāpō Consulting has taken flight and Ms Cross is now keen to regularly give back to the community to share that success.
Yesterday, her team had morning tea at the Wildlife Hospital, where Kākāpō Consulting has signed on as a new sponsor. It was one of the organisations she chose because of the work done to save native birds, including kākāpō, Ms Cross said.
Kākāpō Consulting had already been donating to Kākāpō Recovery and she had always followed the wildlife hospital and "absolutely loved" what it did, donating on an ad hoc basis.
But after a couple of particularly good years, including the best financial year this past year, she decided to make it more permanent, she said.
Ms Cross is a facilitator, communicator and coach and the role of the Kākāpō team was simply to "make work better", she said.
Kākāpō Consulting develops and delivers programmes in emotional intelligence, communication, resilience and wellbeing, performance, culture and leadership.
A teacher by training, she spent a decade as a secondary school teacher before transferring her skills to the world of business. Five years later, she launched her own boutique consultancy three months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
She admitted she was terrified but the support from good friends gave her the confidence to take that leap, she said.
Kākāpō had worked with a diverse range of organisations including heavy industries, retail, local government, technology, health and the not-for-profit sector, she said.
She attributed its success to the quality of the training programmes and the fact the team "just really care about people and making work better".
"I truly believe people deserve to have a workplace that is a good place to be."
That shift had happened over the past 10 to 15 years — it was already happening pre-Covid 19 — as research and data became too hard to ignore, she said.
It was about having higher-performing businesses that did what they needed to do while also having happy, health staff.
Ms Cross has a team of contractors who help her deliver the programmes and do the coaching, based not just in Dunedin but as far afield as Connecticut in the United States from where it is delivered remotely.
In 2021, she took some time out after the birth of her youngest child and was fortunate to have some great people continue to run the programmes while she focused on her daughter, she said.
Asked how Kākāpō had been affected by the economic downturn, Ms Cross said it worked with larger organisations which tended to have a bit more of a buffer.
But she described it as a "chicken and egg scenario"; in tough times, when budgets were being cut, businesses needed to get more out of their staff.
Increasing motivation, a sense of purpose and commitment and creating a great workplace were some of the most-cost effective things to do, she said.
Kākāpō could not keep coming into an organisation "forever"; the idea was to come in, train people and give them a boost and then they kept it going with an internal coaching mode.
Her dream was for every organisation to have a strong internal coaching model where every leader was a coach and that was all about improving people’s performance and enjoying their work, she said.
"We see ourselves as the spark. We come in and give people these insights and tools, knowledge and awareness."
The work was incredibly rewarding and purposeful and it felt like she was having a positive impact on the world, Ms Cross said.
"It’s like when I was teaching and you see the penny drop ... I’ve been able to help that person".
As a person who loved connecting with people, being in a workshop was her happy place, Ms Cross said.
And often there was a ripple effect from their work, which spread into whanau.
The two main sectors Kākāpō worked with were council and public sector, and trades/infrastructure and industry with a sprinkling of not-for-profits. She was very keen to reach more small to medium businesses.
Her ultimate goal was to be the No 1 training provider in the South Island for leadership, communication and team building, Ms Cross said.
She did not want to get too big; she just wanted to have a team of committed, passionate people so Kākāpō could reach more organisations.
Over the next five years, it was about growing that team so it could have a bigger impact and be available to more small to medium-sized businesses, along with signing up for more sponsorship.
She was very grateful for the good fortunes she had and believed it was important to share that success and have a bigger, positive impact.
Last year, she had a "full circle" moment when she had the opportunity to meet some teenage kākāpō — an encounter she described as one of the best times of her life.
