NZ firm Vantaset sets sights on UK, US law enforcement agencies

RNZ News

3 days ago

Chief executive of Vantaset, Craig Steel, and former Olympic swimmer Moss Burmester.
Photo:
Supplied
What is claimed as a first-of-its-kind workplace performance service from New Zealand is gaining global attention from law enforcement and defence agencies.
Vantaset was founded by New Zealand performance strategist and former sports coach Craig Steel. Developed over seven years at a cost of $7 million, the framework has grown into a paid service model designed for government and corporate clients.
Steel said critical agencies were a focus for his business, especially those in the Five Eyes nations.
The online platform is designed to improve business strategy and increase workplace performance through a framework based on high-performance sport environments, similar to how a coach would oversee a team or athlete.
A number of trials are in discussion with police forces in North America and the United Kingdom.
They have also signed agreements with a specialist consulting firm that supports government security and law enforcement agencies throughout Europe and North America, including the FBI.
However, Steel said because of the sensitive nature of their work, he could not disclose their name.
"They work with all of the law enforcement agencies right across Canada and a very high number in the US, including the likes of the FBI.
"They're branded, but they can't disclose their brand so the FBI can't disclose the brand. But yes, they are a very legitimate agency of about 160-odd people.
"They're domiciled in Canada, but they have agents right throughout the Americas, right down into South America, up into Canada and Alaska, etc. Plus they also do work into Europe.
"You turn up to their office, and I've been there many times, and they don't even have a number over the door, it's quite interesting."
It's not Vantaset's first foray into police environments. Nine years ago they were brought on to improve performance with New Zealand Police by then-commissioner Mike Bush.
Following pilot programmes in Counties Manukau, Auckland City and Southern Districts, Bush used an early iteration of the programme to align the vision and prevention-first strategy for all 14,000 staff working out of more than 300 stations around the country.
At that time Bush had noted police were dealing with declining public confidence, poor productivity, falling retention, engagement, levels and morale. Bush wanted a single programme, rather than relying on previous performance management mechanisms that didn't have the same reach across the organisation.
Steel said an example of this was streamlining aspects of the organisation, including reducing the more than 6000 job descriptions within the police to a handful.
A New Zealand Police case study in 2017 said: "Within 18 months of deploying Vantaset's transformation programme, Bush had lifted public trust and confidence from the 56 percent as it was following the COI to 81 percent. Further to this, an impressive 90 percent of Kiwis said they were either 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with the service police was now providing; a number many times greater than those enjoyed by similar nations. What's more, he achieved this while reducing crime across New Zealand by 20 percent. "
Police said in a statement they have had a partnership with Vantaset for approximately nine years, but the contract would not continue past 30 June 2025.
Chief executive of Vantaset, Craig Steel.
Photo:
Supplied
Steel said the basis for the service came from three decades of research into the psychological breaking point of elite athletes to improve workplace performance. He said the conception was understanding why athletes collapse under pressure.
"They do that at a very precise point, so it's at a point where a person comes to believe that the challenge they're up against is greater than the vision they have of themselves.
"So what that said to me is that irrespective of the nature of the sport or the nature of the athlete, people capitulate at a very precise point.
"What I identified was what I call the layering, which is essentially the process that athletes unconsciously work through that leads to that, what I found was that that was identical in every athlete and the people that we started sharing it with started saying to us, this is a monumental breakthrough in human performance, but we needed to test it.
"So as a result of that, what I looked at was if that's what causes capitulation, what would happen if we reverse engineered it? So we take the modeling or the methodology, we invert it, so we start to look through a different lens and say, if we apply the same rationale, but in reverse, can we increase the point at which an athlete capitulates?
"In other words, extend it - and what we found is that every time we tested it, people produce personal best within two weeks."
The sports connections do not end there - former Olympic swimmers Moss Burmester and Anthony Mosse are among the team, as is former All Blacks manager Darren Shand.
Burmester used Steel's approach to performance when he was competing and said you can transfer aspects of the sports field to the workplace.
"If you look at a rugby team and you go, right, there's only 15 positions - how do we make them the very best in their position and empower them to go out there and play their best in their 80 minutes?
"Same thing - how do we make people feel like they're valued, they're critical, they matter, and they can have a real impact for the team?"
Burmester said just like in sport, it was important for staff to understand their roles and how that played a part of the "game plan" of a business or organisation.
"It seems very obvious and it's laughable, but that's exactly what we see and so we sit there and we think, well, no wonder organisations aren't getting the best out of people, unlocking the potential in people.
"They're just putting them into these boxes, they're not engaging them."
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