Are sports maximising the opportunities associated with their participation programs?

There are a range of outcomes that can be achieved throught the delivery of grassroots sports programs - yet the focus of most organisations remains on only one.... participation.

As sporting organisations evolve and the true value of a participant can be measured (in terms of consumer behavior) a significant shift in thinking is occuring. No longer is it 'best practice' to look at programs from the singular participation perspective.

To extract all opportunities from an activity a number of other queries need to be addressed:

Fan Engagement: How do we get the people involved to attend our games or watch on television?

Media: How can a media article be generated from the activity? 

Talent identification: Are there talented athletes participating? what is the process to transition them to talent pathways?

Government: Is the program an opportunity to showcase what the organisation is doing?

Commercial: Is there a revenue stream from the program (user pays or sponsorship)?

For many sports organisations this evolved philosophy requires a cross business approach with other departments supporting the outcomes (i.e. a media department assisting to develop media profile).



Mastery - Developing professional development plans for staff

The post, and associated YouTube clip on 18/7/2012, highlighted there were three components that motivated staff:

1. Autonomy
2. Developing Mastery
3. Sense of Purpose

Perhaps the most challenging component is delivering "mastery".

I recently came across a model which provides context to "professional development". It demonstrates that what most people percieve as development - training - is only a small factor in the overall enhancement of the person.

Each staff member should have a range of the items across work experiences, feedback/relationships and more formal training. Of significant importance is the opportunities you can provide to staff in their current roles - either through expanding their existing activities, being provided challenging assignments or secondments.

What motivates people?

The great clip below provides some wonderful insights into what motivates people.

I believe you may be able to simplify this concept even further - people are motivated to do work that they enjoy.

Using the key factors illustrated in the clip this can be demonstrated:
Autonomy - people enjoy directing their own work and collaborating in the decision making process
Mastery - people enjoy learning, improving and being recognised for their efforts
Purpose - people enjoy working on projects which make a difference to the community they live in

Alexander Kjerulf talks about the 10 benefits of happiness at work:

1:Happy people work better with others

Happy people are a lot more fun to be around and consequently have better relations at work. This translates into:

• Better teamwork with your colleagues
• Better employee relations if you’re a manager
• More satisfied customers if you’re in a service job
• Improved sales if you’re a sales person

2:Happy people are more creative
If your productivity depends on being able to come up with new ideas, you need to be happy at work. Check out the research of Teresa Amabile for proof. She says:

If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day.
There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.

3:Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them
When you don’t like your job, every molehill looks like a mountain. It becomes difficult to fix any problem without agonizing over it or complaining about it first. When you’re happy at work and you run into a snafu – you just fix it.


4:Happy people have more energy
Happy people have more energy and are therefore more efficient at everything they do.


5:Happy people are more optimistic
Happy people have a more positive, optimistic outlook, and as research shows (particularly Martin Seligman’s work in positive psychology), optimists are way more successful and productive. It’s the old saying “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re probably right” all over again.


6:Happy people are way more motivated
Low motivation means low productivity, and the only sustainable, reliable way to be motivated at work is to be happy and like what you do. I wrote about this in a previous post called Why “motivation by pizza” doesn’t work.


7:Happy people get sick less often
Getting sick is a productivity killer and if you don’t like your job you’re more prone to contract a long list of diseases including ulcers, cancer and diabetes. You’re also more prone to workplace stress and burnout.
One study assessed the impact of job strain on the health of 21,290 female nurses in the US and found that the women most at risk of ill health were those who didn’t like their jobs. The impact on their health was a great as that associated with smoking and sedentary lifestyles (source).


8:Happy people learn faster
When you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things at work and thereby increasing your productivity.


9:Happy people worry less about making mistakes – and consequently make fewer mistakes
When you’re happy at work the occasional mistake doesn’t bother you much. You pick yourself up, learn from it and move on. You also don’t mind admitting to others that you screwed up – you simply take responsibility, apologize and fix it. This relaxed attitude means that less mistakes are made, and that you’re more likely to learn from them.


10:Happy people make better decisions
Unhappy people operate in permanent crisis mode. Their focus narrows, they lose sight of the big picture, their survival instincts kick in and they’re more likely to make short-term, here-and-now choices. Conversely, happy people make better, more informed decisions and are better able to prioritize their work.

University Partnerships - A must for all sporting organisations

A key feature of all sporting organisations should be a partnership with a local University. Universities provide an wealth of untapped resources to support core business activities - providing a low cost model for those sports with smaller budgets.

The diagram below highlights just a few opportunities that can be accessed through a basic partnership. One of the most appealing aspects (for both parties) is that these arrangements often represent an "exchange of benefits" rather than the traditional 'commercial' deal.

"Talent" Identification and Development

The identification and development of "talent" in an organisation is one of the key functions that will determine it's success. The model below provides people managers with a system to identify and then develop staff for future elevated roles.

The most valuable assets of a 20th-century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st-century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity."
Drucker, 1999

Staff are plotted on the graph based on their performance and potential. For those that fall in the "prepare for future role" category there are three further considerations:

• Is the person ready now?
• Will the person be ready later?
• Is this person a long term project?

Once you have identified the time frame for the progression of the staff member a detailed development plan should be produced with all senior management aware of the individuals goals.

Ideal Structure of Sports Organisations

What is the ideal structure of a sports organisation?

Each sporting organisation in Australia has it's own structure (most of which have evolved organically over time) but what is the simplist and most effective way to arrange staffing? If we were starting with blank piece of paper what would our organisational structure look like?

I believe there are effectively four functional departments that make up a sporting organisation.
1. Business Support: Administration, HR, Finance etc
2. Market Development: Participation, Talent Pathway, Community Engagement, Volunteering etc
3. Consumers: Commercial Operations, Marketing, Media, PR etc
4. Performers: Coaching, Medical Support, Operations etc

Growing participation - retention is the key

A key factor in the growth of clubs, and indeed the success of any sporting organisation, is the ability to retain existing club players.

Whilst many sports are focused on the attraction of "new players" to the game it is arguably more important that their existing player group are participating in environments that encourage them to stay (a basic model is provided below).

Anecdotal evidence suggests that clubs lose between 70-80% of their players each season. In effect junior clubs are totally replacing their playing numbers every 4-5 years !

So what are the key factors affecting retention and what can be done to keep more people in the game?

Key Factors
Coaching: Do players have fun and become more skilled?
Facilities: Are the training and playing conditions of a high quality?
Attachment to the elite: Do players have a chance to connect with hero's?
Game Formats: Are there formats in place that ensure maximum participation?
Club Adminsitration: Is the club well run and organised?
Costs: Is the cost of playing appropriate?
Benefits Packs: Are the additional benefits the player recieves quality?

It is important that sports look holisitically at the factors above rather than addressing just one in isolation.

The Trust Equation - Building Trust

Building trusting and effective relationships is one of the most important component of sucess in business. I recently came across the equation David Maister has developed illustrating the key components of trust.

It provides a fantastic framework through which relationships (both positive and negative) can be viewed with the intent of looking at how trust can be increased.

 

 

 

 

Performance - Culture Matrix

The performance - culture matrix (outlined below) provides a framework to categorise staff and ensure the appropriate type of feedback is being provided.

Goal - move all staff members to Quadrant 2 (high performance - high cultural alignment)

It highlights that staff in each quadrant require different types of feedback - some focused on the execution of tasks and others with a focus on behaviors.

As an example those staff working in Quadrant 1 (high performance - low cultural alignment) should be recognised when their behaviours are congruent with those that are expected in the organisation and corrected when there is misalignment.

Change Management - Influencing the Early Adopters

In the study of marketing the categories of innovativeness (diagram below) is used to describe the speed a which new technology penetrates the marketplace - for example the introduction and proliferation of the iphone.

Another application I came across last week was in change management. It proposed that the same model applies to the introduction and adoption of organizational changes.

There are several key points to examining the model as a change management tool:

• There are two powerful influencer groups - the positive early adopters and the negative laggards
• The early majority and the late majority are more influenced by peers than by leaders - they require third party validation
• The early adopters can accelerate change whereas the laggards stifle change
• Leaders should invest their time in motivating and engaging the early adopters - they can have the greatest influence on other staff 

It is common for leaders to focus on the Laggards, trying to convince them to change, this attention on the negative will reduce the speed and which change occurs