Show Notes
How do you build People & Culture capability when you're supporting more than 150 organisations, all with different structures, resources, challenges, and communities? In this episode of HR Unlocked, Lisa Oakley sits down with Claire George, Acting Business Capability Manager at Sport New Zealand, to explore what it takes to strengthen leadership and people capability across the sports sector. Rather than supporting one internal workforce, Claire and her team work across Sport New Zealand's partner organisations, helping lift capability in areas including governance, technology, change management, commercial capability, and People & Culture. For Claire, relationships are fundamental. Sport New Zealand is also a funder of many of the organisations it supports, which means creating enough trust for leaders to openly share when things aren't going well is critical. When those relationships exist, Claire says there is an opportunity to do some powerful work. The conversation explores the realities facing sporting organisations that don't have dedicated HR teams. In many cases, people responsibilities sit with a CEO, finance professional, or another leader alongside their existing role. Claire shares why the answer isn't adding more complexity, but making good people practices simple, practical, and easier to apply. Lisa and Claire also unpack the unusual dynamic created when people care deeply about the organisation they work for. In sport, work can be closely connected to someone's identity, community, recreation, and personal relationships. That passion can create extraordinary engagement and commitment, but it can also make change more emotionally charged and make it harder for people to switch off. Wellbeing and burnout are therefore important parts of the conversation, alongside the responsibility organisations and individuals have to create sustainable ways of working. Claire also shares lessons from Sport New Zealand's leadership development programmes, including the importance of embedding te ao Māori rather than treating it as an add-on, creating genuinely diverse cohorts, and giving leaders opportunities to learn from one another. Ultimately, this episode is a practical conversation about keeping People & Culture grounded in what organisations and people actually need: trusted relationships, good conversations, strong leadership, simple processes, and capability that prepares the sector for what's next. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN How Sport New Zealand supports People & Culture capability across more than 150 partner organisations
Why trusted relationships are essential when influencing without direct authority
How to decide when a sector-wide solution works and when an organisation needs tailored support
Why People & Culture needs to connect with organisational strategy
The realities of managing people without a dedicated HR function
Why HR should make doing the right thing easier, not more complicated
How good questions help diagnose the real people issue
Why relationships can be considered a synonym for leadership
Which fundamental HR processes smaller organisations need to get right
Why performance conversations matter for both high and lower performers
How People & Culture expertise can add value to senior leadership conversations
Why passion can be both a strength and a challenge in sporting organisations
How someone's work, identity, community, and personal life can become intertwined in sport
Why organisational change can become particularly emotionally charged in purpose-led environments
How boards can think more deliberately about CEO capability and recruitment
Why organisations shouldn't expect to find a leadership "unicorn"
How scaffolding capability around a leader can be more effective than expecting one person to do everything
Why collaboration between sporting organisations is a strength of the sector
How passion can contribute to burnout when people struggle to switch
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