The Roots: What Good Looks Like

What this means

Just as roots nourish and anchor a plant, a shared vision of success keeps your work strong and steady. What Good Looks Like isn’t just about KPIs—it’s about outcomes that matter to the people and places you work with.

This means defining success in ways that are culturally grounded, community-shaped, and values-aligned.

Why it matters

• It gives you a shared direction with partners and community
• It protects your mahi from being reduced to tick-box targets
• It ensures you’re working towards outcomes that reflect lived experience and local aspirations

Key questions to reflect on

• What does success look like—for us, and for our community?
• How will we know if we’re making progress toward this vision?
• Are our measures of success shaped with, not just for, those impacted?
• How do we balance short-term wins with long-term change?

Practical tips

• Use mixed methods: data, stories, visuals, and relationships
• Let community aspirations drive how success is defined
• Include cultural and relational outcomes—not just outputs
• When defining what success looks like, look around your ecosystem. Are others in your rohe already doing work you can build on, learn from, or support?

Resource

Check out the Toolshed for more practical tools

Links to examples

🔗 FibreFale’s Impact Report Fibre Fale share their Hibiscus Impact Model

🔗 Great examples of social impact – The Edge of Possible’s top examples of Social Impact

🔗 Katoa Ltd Kaupapa Māori Evaluation Resources

Defining “good” together leads to stronger roots and shared direction.