From my experience of seeding initiatives over the past 20 years, here are what I think are key to creating a solid foundation to a new entity or strategy:

• A clear vision, mission and aim – what change in society is envisioned and how will that be achieved?
• Clear delineation between governance and management – who are the stewards of the vision and how will they ensure the direction is held during implementation?
• Specific outcomes – these may change over time, but it is useful to document them along with the vision at the beginning, to remember what the original intention was.

The NZ Government's new flagship welfare initiative, Whanau Ora, like many other similar programmes, lacks – or at least has not been clear in articulating – these things.

Being modern, and thinking that Whanau Ora is modern, I headed over to @WhanauOra on Twitter, to try and find these essential elements. Their latest tweet was a link to a recent post on Facebook – a slide presentation from a recent hui.

By the second slide I had my assumption confirmed - Whanau Ora is modern – so modern in fact that it is described as a "brand". And, it seems, part of the brand is an image of an unfurled fern frond which, unfortunately (or perhaps purposefully) looks like a marijuana bud, particularly when it's horizontally squashed by whomever put the graphics together on the PowerPoint.

Not only is Whanau Ora a brand, but it's also a health goal, a method of practice, an outcome goal and a policy.

I always thought an outcome was something you got when you reached a goal...

The next slide, "Whanau Ora as a Brand", listed a number of strategies, awards, programmes, aspirational statements, funds and initiatives from the last eight years. They featured the words "whanau", "ora", or both in the titles.

Ok, so that's what branding is. I'm not sure what the next slide meant.

Then were the Implementation section of the presentation but strangely the first thing listed were the people in the Governance Group. Apparently this group of six community leaders and senior government executives (one of whom has resigned his post, just in case the others hadn't noticed) are responsible for facilitating implementation as well as giving advice, leadership and direction.

They're going to be busy, but maybe this is the modern approach.

Then the presentation announced there will be ten regional leadership groups. They will provide advice and recommendations back to the Governance Group while leading strategic change and fostering communications (sic) and relationships.

Methinks too many chiefs, perhaps?

Next in the presentation, the obligatory diagram! It was blue and green (which should never be seen, my parents said) on the copy I saw, with a square box in the middle labelled "whanau", surrounded by a circle between two oblong boxes connected by two double-ended arrows. Green, it would seem, represented initiatives and blue, services. The initiatives comprise supporting capacity and capability building; the services will be provided by up to 20 providers, contracts will be streamlined and training and development will be provided.

Self-explanatory.

But if not, whanau initiatives are "investment in Whanau engagement and leadership", funded by Te Puni Kokiri and proposals will be invited from August.

The next slide about services said nothing about what the services are going to be, so I won't waste your time. Similarly, the following slide did not give any inkling into what outcomes are expected or even hoped for – it just asks, "Whose outcomes?"

Indeed. But rest assured, they will be based on action research, evaluation, monitoring and administrative and other data sources.

Ok, it was only a powerpoint (and I've been informed it is being updated) but the risk of having to rebrand Whanau Ora "Whanau Poorer" is high if the Government does not clearly define its vision and intention.

If you are embarking on a new initiative, do the big thinking first, be clear about distinctions between leadership and implementation, and be clear about your best-hoped-for outcomes – the detail will come easier if you do.