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