Feathers to Soar - Working as One

“Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu” - “Adorn the bird with feathers so it may soar”

This whakatauki reminds us that with the right tools, support, and encouragement people bloom. It speaks to potential. It speaks to empowerment. It speaks to building capability rather than forcing people into systems that do not fit the way they naturally work.

This lesson appears every day across the digital landscape. After many years in this industry I see senior development teams constantly working around blockers that should never exist. Most of the time these barriers fall into two areas. Access is controlled by teams who focus solely on security and operate far away from the everyday kaimahi delivering the mahi for and change/frontline delivery. Licences are controlled by finance teams who do not always understand the frontline impact that a simple permission change or missing tool can have.

These two gatekeepers have genuine responsibilities. Security and cost containment both matter. But when they remain disconnected from delivery teams they unintentionally restrict the very people who keep the business moving. Over time this creates tension between digital delivery and IT. In many organisations digital is responsible for platforms and user experience while IT is responsible for hardware, networks, and protecting the environment. If these functions are separated, then that separation becomes the root of unnecessary friction.

What should be happening instead is simple. Digital and IT should be embedded together. A security or infrastructure specialist should sit within the development team. Their goal should be to enable delivery, not slow it down. Every person across the team should be focused on creating smoother, easier ways for frontline kaimahi to do their work. Our kaimahi should not be spending hours writing support tickets or hunting through outdated documentation just to complete standard tasks.

So what is the answer?

It starts with communication and zero ego team memebers focused on shared outcomes.
It continues with every team member owning clear updated documentation as a core part of each deliverable.
And it succeeds as all knowledge as been shared with no single point of failure sitting with one person.

In an ideal model IT is involved at the very beginning of any change request. They attend CAB discussions. They provide early input on effort, risk, and what they need to support the change. Nothing arrives as a surprise. All mahi flows naturally into user stories and tasks. These enter the sprint board for prioritisation by the product owner or decision maker.

I have seen this working, even in complex enterprises with multiple pillars and multiple executive groups. In those environments prioritisation becomes political. One pillar may own the business benefit while another owns the security controls. Reaching agreement can take time. But when relationships are strong and communication is consistent the model does work.

Now imagine a smaller organisation, without the layers of governance or competing executive groups. The same approach can be even more successful. When your digital, IT, security, and operational teams learn to operate as one combined unit the improvement is immediate and measurable.

If your organisation is feeling these tensions or you want support to redesign this way of working, ask us how. Nepata Digital can set the model, lift your capability, and walk alongside your team until they are ready to soar on their own.