By John Portch

As Kairos CEO Andrew Trimble explains, athletes often risk missing out on vital information for the most prosaic of reasons.

“There could be something in a group chat that was buried under half a dozen different birthday messages,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute.

That missing information could be the details of a pitch the team is training on, the details of a medical appointment or a sponsor engagement.

Trimble, a former rugby player with 229 caps for Ulster and 70 caps for Ireland, explains that teams across all sports struggle with communication channels. “There are teams with 10-15 WhatsApp groups or – just as bad – they have one group for every single topic and there are numerous threads being discussed; and no one can understand everything,” he continues.

It sounds confusing. “Then there’s numerous screen grabs of whiteboards, which are obviously non-live. In some instances, an athlete has to walk into the medical room, pick up a marker and book an appointment that way, which is very strange in this day and age.”

Trimble, who retired from playing in 2018, heads up the Belfast-based Kairos, who have created a unified digital planning platform that enables better communication within sports organisations, from operations and management to coaching and performance. The platform was designed to be not only sport agnostic, but has tools to support every level from first team down through academies.

Kairos – a Greek term meaning ‘the decisive moment’ – enables teams, through their app and desktop-based platform, to solve problems by eradicating the distractions caused by multi-channel approaches. Trimble and Kairos Chief Operating Officer Gareth Quinn, who developed the first iteration of their platform in the mid-2010s, soon realised there was no suitable tool on the market. “We received strong validation that this is a problem that’s really worth solving,” says Trimble, who explains that Kairos is compatible with third party calendars such as Outlook and Google. “With our platform, it’s all very clear, there’s no clutter, all the athletes know where they need to be and there’s greater levels of accountability.”

Their platform is currently used by teams in the English Premier League, United Rugby Championship, Premiership Rugby and a series of teams across North America and South East Asia. Trimble points out that these teams may not just be suffering from a problem of unclear communication. “From a staff member’s perspective, it could be getting assurance that if you send something important to an athlete that it’s going to be delivered, received and understood and engaged with correctly,” he says.

“If it’s one place, then it doesn’t take up any cognitive load for the athlete. They can spend 100 per cent of their time thinking about performance. If that’s compromised in any way, if they have to scroll through their screen grabs or pictures of a PDF, and they have to scroll through their email for something else and look through their WhatsApp group to find a thread, then all of that is a distraction and all of that impacts on performance. Equally, if multiple departments are speaking different languages then you’re asking an athlete to be a goalkeeper with ten different goals to defend.

Trimble delves further into the issues that can exist within a single team. “Even within one department you can have three or four different behaviours,” he says. “Take a medical department. One medic may create a block of availability that allows athletes to book appointments, another medic may book that same slot of availability but then allocate slots to athletes, there may then be another medic who bypasses all availability and pushes bespoke events or appointments to players.

Kairos helps to solve such problems. “Athletes and staff get the assurance that everything is on the platform and they can see it. It’s all live. Any department that wants to communicate with the athlete will use the one platform. Ultimately, they’ve got one goal to defend and, if anything changes, they can see notifications, reminders or updates on their notification channel; it’s very clear and very easy for them to know where they have to be, what they have to do, what the requirements are, and then how to get the best out of themselves.”

The platform can also be adapted to the prevailing culture at a team. “There’s ownership on one end and management on the other, and every team lies somewhere on that spectrum, but it’s important that we can support everybody, whatever that team culture is or environment or what the expectation of the players is; either to tell them where to be or what to do, or to allow them to manage all that themselves. We’ve got tools to capture both behaviours.

“There’s a number of different ways that you can use our software and it’s important that we can work with a team and find a way that works best for them and gets them the best results and, ultimately, gets their athletes performing the best.”

On that note, Trimble says that Kairos is continually reiterating its platform. “Every conversation for us is about discovery, finding where the club is at, and deciding what their unique issues are and, nine times out of ten, we will have encountered something similar before and there will be a mechanism in place to be able to provide a solution in the software,” he says. “We can take them through that, but often there can be something unique and there’s learnings in that for us too. That could even just be a coach with a new way of thinking about the game, a new way of communicating, or a new operational procedure. We have to capture that development.”

This attitude points the way forward for the next 12 months. “The next phase we’re going to be working on is the integration with third parties, be that GPS providers, sleep data, or nutrition and diet.”

The feedback from Kairos’ ever-growing client base has been positive too. “They say it is unthinkable that they’d be able to go back to the way it was before,” says Trimble. “Professional athletes require a platform that treats them like they’re a valued professional and communicate in a way that gives them back time and takes away distractions.”

By John Portch

“You say I’ve got decades of experience, whereas I’d say I’ve got decades of bias.”

Don Barrell, the Head of Regional Academies at the Rugby Football Union [RFU], is a former player who was already coaching academy players before he retired. Yet for all his years of experience working in Talent ID and development, he is still all ears when it comes to addressing performance questions.

“Diversity is a real superpower in performance,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute. “The more diverse you can make a conversation the better. You cannot work effectively unless you have independent people who can come in and challenge your thinking. If you’re having a talent ID review or selection meeting, I’d suggest you need every department in there providing their view of a player, otherwise you risk dropping into echo chambers. The broader the opinion in the room, the better it becomes. Subjectivity, done regularly, becomes objective. We need to be comfortable with that being a good thing, that’s the tension you have to hold as a system.”

Barrell, who previously shared six fundamentals to consider when establishing a talent pathway, turns his attention in the second instalment of our interview to the question of academy decision-making and the importance of diverse voices in multidisciplinary environments.

“The performance and development space should be a cross-department collaborative process,” he continues. “An oversimplification, but coaches can get upset when they do not win, which is an unavoidable reality. At that point, they shouldn’t be making decisions or giving feedback because they will not necessarily be tied to the athletes’ long-term objectives. If, as an organisation, you have a document that details what success in one year looks like and really clear, simple principles tied to multidisciplinary objectives, then better decisions can be made and feedback given in line with the long term in mind.”

“The big principle of any talent system is the end point and I’ll always talk about having the ‘end in mind’,” says Barrell. “If the end point is England Head Coach Eddie Jones using his criteria to select at that point, then we need to deliver towards that moment, understanding that the top of the game has so many influences. That’s the principle and purpose.”

Barrell oversees a gently graduated national programme that is supported by the Regional Academy club programmes across England. It is a multi-stakeholder process with each academy aligned to principles and guidance set down by the RFU.

“We want to see people really invested in their players at every stage of the programme – loving it, caring about it, and making it better. Then we need to accept that at any point in a transition in or out of a game selection, team or pathway; that a pathway coach is going to be really passionate, care about the person and may lose their objectivity – that’s fine too – and that’s why we bring in independence to provide that.”

Finding and embracing the paradoxes

What is more important: passion or objectivity? “You want both,” says Barrell, adding, “The whole talent space is full of paradoxes. Do you need to care or do you need to be standoffish and objective? Well, you need to be both. Do you want to win the game on Saturday or win the one in six years? Both. All these things, until we address them, can be roadblocks. You’ve got to find the paradoxes and then you’ve got to embrace them, the answers lie in there.”

The RFU has an essential role in ensuring England’s Regional Academy programmes are aligning in their working principles. “We constantly stay in the conversation and ensure there are clear decision-making frameworks. The reality is that some of the decisions made will be right, some of the decisions made will be wrong, but at least it’s clear.

“What can derail talent pathways is lack of clarity on decision-making; waiting to get a lot of stuff out onto the table in a room and people leaving unclear. Sometimes there isn’t an answer and you just need to commit to a direction. Then we’ll assess the decisions made. ‘Did that work? Yes’. ‘Did that work? No’. To be able to do that successfully, you need qualified practitioners, time, aligned stakeholders and a shared common understanding of a plan and direction. To achieve that at a club, your academy staff need enough autonomy to operate and enough freedom, space and independence to go and move things and enough time to implement them.”

Good intentions

“The best and the worst thing about systems is the people,” says Barrell. “Those human elements are ultimately what makes sport so exciting, so involving, and it’s why we’re all here, for all its idiosyncrasies, but they’re also the bits that can derail it.”

Nevertheless, he is certain that no one ever approaches talent pathway questions with anything other than good intentions, as he has come to learn in recent years. “Early in my career, I probably did what lots of people do, which is I thought people who worked at the top of the game were wrong in their view of developing young players, they’d only worked in one part of the game, but actually, that’s just their reality and it’s not wrong,” he says, “this is my reality and it’s not wrong. What we know is not the same.

“So how do you become very good at joining up two stories, two views of the world that are and need to be different? I’ll always try and work out what someone’s intent is and I’ve never found someone who’s not done something with good personal intent, despite the fact that I might completely disagree. Ultimately, there are not any ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ decisions.”

It comes back to clarity in principles and decision making. “At some point, someone’s got to make a decision and you have to trust that their intent is good. The conversation is probably around what were you aiming for and why. You can sabotage yourself in thinking someone has an ulterior motive and if you don’t understand people’s decisions that can be tough in this world.

“As an academy manager you have to be cognisant of that. What do I want people in service of? Where do I want them to go? Those sort of behavioural nudges are critical or you’ll lose people along the way and never be as effective.”

Leadership and people skills are essential. “If academy managers are not able to align people from all levels; boards, directors of rugby, head coaches, parents, players or, in football, your technical directors and managers and owners; if they’re not able to align those I don’t think they’d be able to make progress.

All of our new academy managers that now come on board, large amounts of their time is devoted to people management. We already know they can do all the rugby stuff and so we spend time with them, we give them business mentors and other resources because their programmes will fail off the back of them not having those skillsets – it’s more important than the sports stuff. They’ve got to be good at running multidisciplinary teams and maintaining independence. Outside, diverse views can be critical success factors for these programmes.”

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By Dan Clements

We all have that leader we respect or that coach we enjoyed playing for but have you ever taken the time to sit back and think why that might be?

I will take a bet that amongst some other things, at some point they nurtured you, recognised your strengths and made you feel valued. Strengths-based thinking has had a lift in modern times within sport as more and more people seek to learn and find an edge in their practice or their organisation as a whole.

The exploits of world class coaches have been extensively documented and have offered a small window into the potential of such an approach. World class leaders such as Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, British & Irish Lions Head Coach Warren Gatland and Richmond Tigers supremo Damian Hardwick have offered an insight into the possibilities within coaching when your starting point in a relationship with a player or a group of individuals is their strengths and what they can do, not what they can’t.

Delving deeper, October’s National Rugby League Grand Final in Australia between perennial powerhouse Melbourne Storm and 2020’s highfliers the Penrith Panthers highlighted the potential for strengths-based thinking.

The modern coach is no doubt used to the pre-game interview, they are part and parcel of the territory and give the avid viewer a sneak peek into mindset and the thrill of the occasion. It was interesting to listen to master coach Craig Bellamy of the Melbourne Storm that weekend when 20 minutes prior to kick off he was asked ‘what will your final message to your team be?’. With the watching millions no doubt expecting a small insight into a rousing Churchillian speech, it was interesting to watch the multi-championship winning coach answer simply and clearly that he would remind his team of who they are representing, what they do well and what got them there.

Now just consider that for a second, what they do well and what got them there. It might only seem small, but when you consider the narrative in performance sport in the main is about negating the opposition or working out how to solve problems you start to become intrigued about the differences between a strengths-based approach or a deficit finding lens.

Strengths-based coaching or thinking is clearly not a new thing, however what this article and lifts the lid on is the subject of strengths-based change through the medium of coach learning.

It is a topic covered in even greater detail with my colleagues Kevin Morgan and Kerry Harris in our  research paper titled Adopting an Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Propose Change within a National Talent Development System, which was published in September.

Performance leaders are acutely aware that coaches play a vital role in the change process within any organisation. Now this alone might jump out as an interesting point when you consider change. The old adage ‘the only constant is change’ may resonate, as time and time again leaders in any aspect of performance sport seek to find a way to enhance performance, but they must do it in a way that engages and collaborates with their people.

Appreciative inquiry leverages on the strengths of individuals, organisations and cultures to drive and sustain change with an ultimate aim of enhanced performance

Change and people development has traditionally been approached as a top down ‘leader knows best’ scenario that leads to mixed results and ironically sometimes leads to even more change. What this article investigates is the potential for strengths-based change within performance sport, through the process of appreciative inquiry. Appreciative inquiry is an unashamedly positive change process borne out of the work of David Cooperrider, who sought to seek an alternative approach to the traditional ideas of change management.

Appreciative inquiry leverages on the strengths of individuals, organisations and cultures to drive and sustain change with an ultimate aim of enhanced performance. When you consider this in relation to performance sport, it paints quite a compelling picture for organisations that are constantly looking to improve to stay ahead of their competition whilst working in a collaborative manner. Why is this any different to traditional change you may ask? Well, it has been suggested that society has many years of experience in problem solving and have gotten very good at it. On the flipside though, we have very little experience in looking for what works and finding new and innovative ways of doing more of the same.

What our recent research paper uncovers is that the power of positivity within appreciative inquiry could play an integral role in designing change interventions within sport. Working with 12 talent coaches, we sought to discover what they do well and what gives vitality to the group through a series of personal and collaborative tasks. Why do they coach, why here, and what gives them the most satisfaction as a group? This built into an investigation of strengths, what they do well, and what gives them pride.

Interestingly, by allowing them to start from a position of strength it encouraged the participants to be more open to change as well as the identification of areas for personal development. Positive thoughts and positive thinking led to critical dialogue that fostered collaboration. An important element of appreciative inquiry then asks the group to imagine a preferred ‘vision of the future’ or simply put, what would great look like for you? Asking participants to articulate and share this vision drove creativity and engagement, as the group were eager to share.

Finally, with a vision laid out the group designed a route map to get there. Leveraging their strengths, the coaches identified areas of practice that they could tangibly develop in a quest to achieve the identified goal. This process highlighted the capacity within strengths-based change for innovation and collaboration as coaches worked together to build a framework for development.

The positivity principle that lives at the core of the process is something that cannot be ignored. It led to a heightened state of collaboration amongst the coaches which is often seen as utopia in performance sport both on and off the pitch. Australian coaching legend Ric Charlesworth highlighted this in his book World’s Best when he shared that as a team ethos starts to become embedded within any culture it becomes infectious and redoubles itself when evident and drives team members on to ‘do more’. The results highlighted that the positivity within the process allowed the coaches to collaborate and uncover new ways of working, or quite simply, achieve the holy grail of ownership and buy in to the change process.

This process highlighted the capacity within strengths-based change for innovation and collaboration as coaches worked together to build a framework for development.

Now anyone that is responsible for people development or learning within their organisation would know that things are never that straightforward. Learning and specifically coach learning remains a complex endeavour as organisations seek methods that make it a meaningful and worthwhile process for the coach. Results here showed that this scenario was no different, with coaches getting lost in rhetoric and semantics within parts.

What appreciative inquiry and a strengths-based approach did show though, was that a positive lens within the process encouraged participants to ‘break through’ stumbling blocks that stalled the progression and identification of areas to concentrate efforts on. This positive lens asked the group to imagine ‘what next?’ and encouraged the design of a ‘route map’ for change.

More and more in high performing organisations we are seeking the next advantage or area of innovation. Could that answer lie internally, within our people? The final point to consider relates directly to strengths-based change, as we will all go through or lead a change process as some point within sport. Have you considered where your strengths may lie? Are you an expert who will lead from the front and struggle to capture learning or innovation? Or is there a way where we can collaborate with our people and innovate and learn along the way? Perhaps starting with a positive focus will encourage this.

Dan Clements is the Performance Coach Manager at Welsh Rugby Union.

Click here for access to Adopting an Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Propose Change within a National Talent Development System by Dan Clements, Kevin Morgan and Kerry Harris.