By Luke Whitworth with additional reporting by John Portch

Over the last two years in particular, it has become more and more apparent that there are a number of challenges practitioners are facing around the utilisation of their respective athlete management systems. Data collation has increased, performance teams have grown or introduced more expertise, and there is the continued conversation as to whether vendors and service providers are able to create platforms that cater for the needs and address the challenges that teams are facing as part of this process.

From the conversations on the call, it has become abundantly clear that multiple challenges remain, there is still a gap around how to actually maximise the systems to their fullest potential, but on the flip side, there are some effective solutions taking place across the industry to shift the dial. For the first segment of the call, we laid out on the table the key challenges everyone is facing.

Barriers to effective utilisation

1. General data and system challenges

The speed and functionality of the system continues to provide nagging daily challenges that can slow down work streams – ‘we are reverting back to pencil and paper pretty quickly’.

2. Data literacy

Within organisations there are different levels of knowledge and competency around data processes and the utilisation of the AMS. The lack of knowledge alignment is creating challenges to the efficiency of processes and communication across departments. This will feed into the solutions section as well, but there isn’t often orientation around what actually needs be collated and why – there are many different viewpoints so too much data is being collated which is making it hard to connect effectively with the athletes.

3. Data hygiene & discipline

This point links closely to the one prior. There is a lot of inputting of inaccurate data or missing data. As one of the participants on the call summed up ‘if you are putting garbage in you will get garbage out’.

4. Poor integration

One of the most popular challenges shared in the groups was the lack of integration between different platforms which are utilised by different performance departments. It is creating more work, data overload and not a clear picture for athlete development. Many environments are also finding that certain systems are very rigid and are instead looking to develop their own internal systems which are tailored to their specific needs – one member of the group shared that service providers and vendors are trying to provide solutions we don’t need.

5. Player buy-in

As we know, one of the main reasons for data collation and analysis is to improve performance outcomes for athletes. Some of the organisations on the call shared that there still remains a gap in the athlete’s literacy and general buy-in about the systems. If we are unable to get the athletes onboard, it makes it incredibly challenging to initiate any kind of changes in behaviour.

Solutions and considerations to elevate effectiveness

1. Do the basics well

Considering the complexity and ‘rabbit holes’ we can find ourselves heading down with athlete management systems, the conversation was a gentle reminder to ensure you continue to do the basics right. Capture the data effectively, consistently and accurately. There are important questions to regroup on around what’s important to capture, how is the information shared, how is it visualised and what does it mean? Start at a place of simplicity and importance.

2. Work on understanding users’ needs

We are witnessing an increase in different stakeholder involvement around performance: players, parents, other departments, executives etc. Be intentional in figuring out how to connect with them around the data. Ensure it is user-friendly, digestible, colourful if it needs to be – we should be striving to tell stories and create emotion around this so it elevates the engagement with the information.

3. Education

Education is perhaps one of the most crucial elements in elevating the effectiveness of your systems. We need to strive to get everyone on the same page and focus time and effort on the ‘human elements’ of working with data to elevate understanding.

From an athlete perspective, educate them on ‘the why’ and work on engaging them so there is no secrecy, no fear, but complete transparency. Recruitment: one organisation on the call who have recently transitioned AMS provider shared the success they had around being intent on hiring people who were incredibly proficient with the new system and who could help the team build it out to maximise its effectiveness, as opposed to trying to uptrain existing staff which would prove to be incredibly time consuming. When athletes believe that something will support their performance, they start to take ownership of the conversation and it leads to those casual collisions we desire.

4. Organisational alignment

Another simple solution that has witnessed some impactful results has been a shared message from senior leadership to outline expectations when it comes to the utilisation of the AMS – ‘we are doing this. We’re investing a lot of money and everybody will be using it, it’s not an option’. A top-down message to bring everyone to a level playing field of understanding is a simple step to creating clarity and alignment.

5. Avoid a one-size-fits-all approach

It’s fair to say that everyone on the call is craving a one-size-fits-all system that integrates everything that all departments and stakeholders want – the reality is that it is going to be incredibly challenging to do this. Not trying to have a one-size-fits-all will take away a lot of stress. Instead, try focusing on building a database that can house what’s critical and then having your individual platforms that are specific to the day-to-day tasks.

6. Be disciplined

Linking to point four above, a clear expectation from everyone to maintain high standards around data hygiene. It’s a simple solution but how many organisations can safely say their data hygiene is perfect?

Group reflections and insights

• Exploring how to use the AMS to drive buy-in from athletes.
• AMS should function to serve the communication and support of the players and staff as opposed to being the communication to players and staff. Staff should be supported with the proper information in the optimal format to maximise their connection with the players and staff they serve.
• Is an AMS a tool to manage data or a tool to manage athletes?
• Data literacy: it’s important to bring everyone up to speed but you must meet staff where they’re at. Training whilst also listening to their wants and needs is vital.
• Educating players on the idea that the AMS is simply another tool to help them optimise their on-field performance.
• Be clear on what data you want to collect and why before you start, so that you have the appropriate system.
• Education is key for athlete engagement.
• Use a sandbox model to test graphs and insights using your desired platform before implementing into an AMS.
• The AMS can have different functions: player-facing format or being used by coaches, analysts and scientists. Does an AMS need to be a one-size-fits-all?
• Spend more time looking backwards from the athlete to the distribution of data to how it’s collected and finally why it’s collected.

Would you like to join the community, and attend the next calls? Discover more here.

By Rachel Woodland

In our first two Women’s High Performance Sport Community Group calls, we explored environmental factors that enable women – practitioners and athletes – to flourish within a sports organisation. 

To begin each call, we’ve asked several individuals from a range of sports, including Major League Baseball, Australian rules football, as well as several Olympic sports in the United Kingdom, to share how they have helped their female staff to thrive. 

The Leaders Performance Institute has picked out a series of thinking points and initiatives – some from beyond the realms of sport – highlighted during the two calls. 

Focus on recruitment 

People are integral to an environment. We know women are less like to apply for roles. Thus, we must take time to encourage talented and capable women through our doors. Some methods of reducing the barriers to women applying for roles in high performance include deliberately not expecting them to have experience playing the sport, being mindful of the wording of the job description, tailoring the interview experience itself, and facilitating job shares. However, we must then consider what support will be needed to enable female staff members to thrive once in situ. This includes making sure there’s the capacity to provide the necessary training to compensate for any experience gaps.  

Encourage a sense of belonging 

There’s many layers to ‘belonging’, and we were reminded of the hormonal soup described by Owen Eastwood in his book Belonging, as well as the perceived heightened importance of this in women’s sport. Across the calls we discussed a handful of specific ideas. Firstly, removing cliques. Where individuals have a genuine, mutual interest in one another, there’ll be connection and appreciation of everyone’s individuality. With such thinking in mind, the Brisbane Lions’ women’s team, for example, aim for every player to enter and leave the playing group having not wavered from being their one true self. The collective also works purposefully to ensure that every player knows their value to the team. All of this can be enhanced by helping others be true to themselves, as explained in the next consideration. 

Know who you are beyond your role 

From a performance lifestyle perspective, this can come back to creating space for athletes to explore, embrace, celebrate, and share their identity beyond being an athlete. We can help our staff and athletes bring their whole selves to work, the ‘bells and whistles’ versions of themselves, and help them to achieve their biggest dreams. 

Get women to the table and let them support others once they’re there 

One group described the process of bringing more women to the table of the decision makers as a journey. They broke it into six steps for an individual woman: 

Step 1: Find a route to the table; ‘get in the door’.  

Step 2: Build up the courage to speak at the table.  

Step 3: Build a community of support through conversations with those at the table, and by inviting others to the table. 

Step 4: Take on a leadership role, volunteer to be responsible when opportunities arise.  

Step 5: Dare to lead the group to places they haven’t been before. This might include adding new roles at the table, or the discussion of new topics.  

Step 6: Encourage those at the table to think in new ways that ensures the topics and challenges and, therefore, work that needs doing, is done by everyone at the table, not just you. 

Make sure everyone helps to create the environment 

Where many won’t be at the table, it’s important to enable women to have a voice, asking for their opinions and experiences, not merely assuming they will come. We can also provide space for people to talk; and listening and responding to what we hear will generate additional buy-in. We should challenge ourselves to also consider how we still enable athletes to learn life skills when we’re removing some of the challenges that taught lessons as women’s sport progresses.  

Have the difficult conversations 

If we’re asking for and creating spaces for voices, we need to make hard conversations easy to start. Organisations are striving to be fearless about hard conversations, which normalises being bold and starting a conversation. Beyond having a conversation, there is now an expectation about the level of support needed once a conversation has been had. This means that people in these organisations a) have allies and it’s not only women bringing contributions to the table; and b) can have open conversations that focus on what’s not been done rather than barriers; breaking big challenges down to what they can do next. Ultimately, we can see that progress is being made when these types of conversation are started by allies for us, potentially before we’ve even recognised a need for them ourselves. 

Help people through the change 

Potentially the point that has resonated most with the Leaders Performance Institute in recent weeks is the need to ensure change happens. When we are having difficult conversations, for example, we need to educate those involved on the challenges brought forward so that they can be fully understood. We shouldn’t expect those who haven’t experienced something to understand the impact and gravitas the first time. There has been consensus in the calls that further educational resources, socialising, and normalising are needed, especially around female health. This needs to be for staff, including coaches, as well as athletes. 

Furthermore, understanding will support the pursuit of justice, which gives strong foundations to equity over equality, and in theory sustainable change.  

Know what still needs to change 

At the same time as the above, we need to map and continuously challenge ourselves to identify where changes are still needed. If that’s where there isn’t diversity in a specific job role, it’s understanding why there’s a lack of diversity in the first place. We need to ask ourselves ‘do we show people what’s possible? Is it how we’re recruiting? Is it how we’re developing?’ as a method of understanding how to best implement further development.

By John Portch

Ireland’s women stunned field hockey observers in reaching the 2018 World Cup final in London, England.

The team went into the tournament ranked 16 in the world and few observers expected them to put together a run that saw them oust India, whom they also beat in the pool phase, and Spain via penalty shootouts.

Ireland lost the final 6-0 to the Netherlands but in claiming silver earned their first-ever World Cup medal.

Lisa Jacob, who currently serves as High Performance Director across the women’s and men’s programmes at Hockey Ireland, a role into which she stepped in September 2022, watched that success from afar and reflects on its impact in the second part of her interview with the Leaders Performance Institute.

“The impact it had is kind of two sides to the same coin,” says Jacob, who previously spoke to the Leaders Performance Institute about her own career path.

“On one side, you’ve had success and you have realised your potential to mix it with the best when it matters most. Then, on the other side of it, that implicitly created an expectation that when it comes to another major tournament or the next one, they would be in the mix for medals again.

“In reality, the team have been in that ranking zone between eighth to fourteenth; and eighth is probably a jump when they won the medal based on the points, but in reality, Ireland’s current ranking of 13 is probably accurate enough. You’re fighting in that 10-14 space,” she continues.

At the 2022 World Cup, co-hosted by Spain and the Netherlands, Ireland were unable to progress beyond the pool phase. “In some ways, it’s illogical to think that you win the silver medal and all of a sudden you’re in the top two nations in the world, but I think some part of that created an expectation in the player group that they should be doing X, Y or Z afterwards and I’m not sure that it supported them to be their best,” says Jacob in reflection.

“It’s taken quite a few years to work through that; and part of that has been realising consistently ten games out of ten where they actually sit in the world rankings. But what I think is great is the combination of some really experienced old heads who were at the World Cup and have achieved that success. They know it’s possible and how they did it in terms of replicating it, but you also have people who were coming in and haven’t got that so they just have to work hard to mix it with these other nations when they’re playing them.”

Jacob explains that a sense of enjoyment has been essential. “The majority of the girls know that if everything gets too serious and too intense that it doesn’t facilitate their best performance. The group is probably 70% new so what might have worked for those guys who won the medal and what now works for the overall balance of the current group might be different.”

The power of people

Jacob, who contributed to the Leaders Performance Institute’s recent Special Report, Navigating Your Way Through Major Competitions, describes the importance of the work done at home in Ireland, particularly given the programme’s tight budgets.

“It might not be as glamourous as going away to play Argentina, but it’s really about making the home-based activity really count, being clear about what you want to get out of your training blocks,” she says.

Home-based work also provides the players and staff with opportunities for team-building through constructive engagement and feedback. “It’s something that Ireland have always been excellent at,” adds Jacob. “It’s making sure that you have really good people involved and not just good professionals. And we’ll find a way to go the extra mile. There’s always a bit of good humour despite whatever adversity or situation you end up in. The programme is in a good place now and what I would say is that the athletes and staff, when they travel, it’s not that they’re in five-star hotels, but they’re in very good places. It’s a far cry from having no money.

“What’s really good is that you end up in a position where things aren’t perfect and nearly every time you travel or go to a competition, you have situations where a bus doesn’t turn up or the food they planned it for that time but, actually that’s Irish time, not Spanish time or whatever. I think the power of people to deal with those things in a really good way is something we’ve been good at in Hockey Ireland.”

The programme’s work in the field of performance psychology has also been instrumental in fostering an open team culture. Says Jacob: “The group that are there now, the team is much younger. There’s been quite a lot of transition since that 2018 World Cup and, thankfully, there are still some of the players who are there; so you have some connection to the possibility of succeeding at that level but you also have a lot of people who aren’t connected to it and in some ways have no baggage either because as much as the lows come with baggage the highs also shift expectations, it does a lot of things to you. What’s good now is the people and the culture, the psychology, the directness of dealing with the things that really impact performance that are not really the first ten things that go on the page but are things that make the biggest difference to the players and staff.”

Jacob admits that providing a smooth integration for younger players is a work in progress. “One of the things I’m taking a look at is how we’re aligned from pathway to senior and how we actually support people to transition; and that’s in lots of different spaces but obviously that development squad to senior transition is key.

“What works really well in the women’s programme is that there’s normally like a squad of 30 and, every year, between five and eight of those would be development squad athletes. So they would do the majority of their training with the seniors but they wouldn’t have any expectations around selection or whatever but they’d still have access to all the team’s support staff. They’re in a lot of the team meetings, they’re in all of the databases. There is real integration, but the next step for us, even though they’re embedded in the team, is to be more personalised about how we push them individually to transition really well.”

Cohesion and connection

Jacob explains that physical preparation no longer provides the performance edge it might once have, as the world-leading teams are all so finely-tuned. However, “Ireland has always been a nation where that kind of passion comes out in physicality. The first thing is making sure that that box is ticked because I think it underpins a lot.”

Beyond conditioning, Ireland’s focus for 2023 – a year in which there are a series of qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paris Olympics, including the EuroHockey Championships in August – is set pieces, particularly penalty corners.

“There’d be a huge amount of opportunity that comes from penalty corners,” says Jacob. “Reflecting on the last two years in the women’s programme, they’ve had a lot of opportunity but the conversion rate hasn’t been high enough in those key games to get over the line. I think it’s the smallest thing that will make the biggest difference; if you do nothing else, this is what we’re looking at.

“The last thing for me is the cohesion and the connection within the squad. It’s not necessarily a gender thing, it’s not specific to women, but that feel factor within the group and that belief of possibility and being on-track, seeing progress, and, I suppose, confidence in a sense. They’re going in the right direction. You can be ticking all the boxes but if that one is missing then there’s probably a bit of an empty shell ready to perform.

“That doesn’t just come from being positive about everything; I think really reflecting upon things genuinely and authentically, and having hard conversations about what we’re going to do about it and all that kind of stuff, breeds a sense of confidence that we’re doing the right things, we’re having the right conversations and this will bring us to where we’re trying to get to.”

That place may not be the podium in Paris. “Bearing in mind that the profile of the team is younger and in transition, you’ve probably got a large cohort of that group peaking more closely to 2028 than 2024,” says Jacob.

If Ireland’s women or men are to reach the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, they will have to navigate a path through field hockey’s most competitive continent.

“Part of what’s so great about being in Europe, even though it’s arguably the toughest continent to be playing hockey in, is that you have a very good measure of where you stand. If you look at the world rankings and the European rankings at the same time, you’ll always have four Europeans in the top six in the world; so how are you mixing it with those groups? Are you getting close to them? Are you breaking into that top four in Europe?

“We’re playing those nations all the way through the pathway from under-16s. So in Ireland, although we’re planning for our peak to be at senior level rather than the Germans who win everything at under-18s or whatever, how are we making those gains relatively speaking from where we were four or six years ago? It’s also important just as a signpost to go ‘yeah, we’re on track or we’re doing really well or whatever’ but, yeah, it’s mission critical to get into that top six.”

Lisa Jacob is a contributor to our latest Special Report, titled Navigating Your Way Through Major Competitions: a snapshot from Olympic, Paralympic and elite team sports. In addition to Hockey Ireland, it features insights from Swimming Australia, the Lawn Tennis Association, Athletics Australia and Welsh Rugby Union. Each has teams competing in major tournaments this year, and all are bound to give you something to think about in your future projects.

Download Report

By Luke Whitworth with additional reporting from John Portch

The question of measuring the impact of performance programmes has continually arisen in conversations across the Performance Institute membership during the last 18 months.

The time was ripe to explore the topic in a virtual roundtable where Leaders Performance Institute members could ask others how they measure impact as well as any other considerations that emerge as part of the process.

No one feels that they have cracked it but four key themes emerged that you may wish to consider – some before we even begin to measure.

1. Remember: quality questions underpin quality conversations

Are you creating opportunities for quality questioning? One environment within the discussions shared that the organisation is pushing everyone within it to ask candid questions. Quality questions underpin quality conversations. How are you driving this as a skill?

Asking good questions is also a powerful place to start to inform core areas for measuring impact, notably building to or working backwards from the end goal. Many organisations in the industry work off a ‘what it takes to win’ or ‘the demands of the event’ model. As a further thought for provocation, part of one discussion challenged the notion of ‘what even is impact for us in our context’? The key set of learnings from this theme is that before we begin jumping into measurement, are we clear on what it is we want to measure, why and does it align to the outcome we are seeking? Use great questions to help you get there.

2. Build a relationship map for your team

The notion of relationship mapping – charting the relationships of individuals and organisations – featured strongly within the conversations and was a takeaway that a number of those in the discussion were keen to explore further within their own environments. One organisation shared that they have trialled relationship mapping amongst the performance support team, specifically looking at groups who have been working together for an extended period of time, with embedded systems and processes to better understand how they are collaborating, approach problem-solving and, occasionally, compromise with one another. The purpose of this concept is to enable them to interrogate the contextual relationship that exists between the people within the team on a personal and professional level.

As an extension to the point above, another organisation on the call had shared that they have begun to measure the performance support team outside of results – measuring the team as a team. The feeling amongst the group was that effective collaboration is a key ingredient of the athlete’s development and thus, the end result. Focus on the process of how we operate as a staffing group. A final thought on this point is that often executives can place the emphasis on formal appraisals and quantitative insight, but the sweet spot lies in the working relationships between support team members.

3. Seek clarity and consistency

In the key takeaways at the end of the call, a popular response from the group was the insight of ‘consistency and efficiency over quantity of measurables.’ The objective of measuring impact is to track progress, benchmark and better understand fit to context. Aligning to the previous point around understanding what it is we need to measure, clarity around ‘what it takes to win’.

With clarity on measurements driven by the model, true interdisciplinary conversations can occur and alignment is present. These conversations need to be living, breathing and driving development every day, and include key ingredients such as outcome goals, performance goals, deliverables, adaptations and tactics (for getting there), as well as individual development plans of the athletes.

How intentional are your organisation in providing updates and debriefing opportunities around key measurements? One organisation shared the best practice they adapted from Pixar which was created to aid conversation and action points – departments are asked to present back, not only to validate ideas but to create a thinktank environment.

4. Make the most out of your surveys

Throughout the set of conversations, most organisations engage in surveying and appraisals to measure the impact of delivery, something which is standard practice in most environments. Around the table, the group looked to take thinking around surveying to another layer, in particularly highlighting how to make the most out of them as a tool.

Surveys, whether shared with athletes or staff are typically very quantitative rather than being more qualitative and asking of open questions. With the notion that quality questions underpin quality conversations, can we develop our use of surveying to provide more detail than just metrics? A great example of this from the athlete perspective is ‘did they achieve what they wanted to achieve?’ as a qualitative measurement.

Finally, the discussed that we are in the business of developing people as well as athletes. We should look to be proactive in measuring impact of wellbeing within the environment and taking accountability to make this a main stay of any programme impact.

The group takeaways and questions

At the end of the call, attendees were asked to share a reflection for future consideration:

• Relationship mapping within performance teams.
• How do we systematise our assessment of quality practice?
• Asking good questions – start with ‘what does it take to win in this sport’. Build from there.
• Consistency over quantity of measurements. Decide what aspects have the most impact and stick with measuring those rather than chasing new ones.
• Consistency and efficiency over quantity of measurables.
• Considering staff behaviours in measuring effectiveness.
• Consider an external ‘expert’ panel to cross-check and reference what we are doing.
• Whole programme performance planning with key deliverables given to all staff. Interdisciplinary meetings with clear discussion points related back to performance.
• Quality of questions in annual surveys, especially in relation to qualitative questions (we are too focused on quantitative data in surveys).
• How are we measuring the progress of the athlete along their individual development plan? Leaning into the intermediate versus expert research.
• How are we measuring staff performance or development in staff?

In partnership with

By Luke Whitworth

Leaders Meet: Building Winning Organisations, hosted alongside the Toronto Maple Leafs, was our first physical North American event of the year. Throughout the course of the day, we engaged in case study sessions, an observation experience, roundtable discussions and skills-based learning centred around some key ingredients that contribute to building a winning or high performing organisation.

These are the highlights from the afternoon programme, which featured Dr Cheri Bradish, the Director of the Future of Sport Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University; Glenn Zujew, Chief People Officer at the world’s largest independent commercialisation partner for life science, Klick Health; John Bull, the Director & Lead for High Performance at leadership and organisation consultancy Management Futures.

[Already up-to-date with the afternoon? The morning takeaways are available here.]

Session 4: Designing the Environment & Innovating at Pace

Speaker: Dr Cheri Bradish, Director of the Future of Sport Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University

Innovation + Culture

• Innovation: the action or process of innovating. Innovation is crucial to the continued success of any organisation. Includes new methods, ideas, products, etc. Linked to technological innovation(s).
• Innovation economy: supports that knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, and collaboration are the key drivers of economic growth. Companies can increase their value by creating new ideas which can be developed into products, services, and business models that bring us collectively into the future.
• Does innovation culture work: “we found a significant correlation between the ideation rate at these companies and success (growth in profit or net income): The more ideation, the faster they grew.”
• Sport innovation: proactive and intentional processes that involve the generation and practical adoption of new and creative ideas, which aim to produce a qualitative change in a sport context.
• Key growth areas: fan experience and player performance.
• Global sport innovation ecosystem: there has been increasing trends in innovation and additional technology.
• Designing a winning innovation environment: what do good organisations do who innovate effectively? “What gets measured, gets managed!”
• Open innovation: internal and external innovation. Resourcing and Collaboration.
• Decentralised innovation: internal labs, ventures, M&A, partnerships.
• Product development: design labs and studios.
• Project time commitments: 10-25% of time in the organisation dedicated to time to intentionally innovate and foster an innovation mindset.
• Maintaining a culture of sport innovation: it’s an extraordinary time for innovation. Technological change and industry disruption seem to be accelerating. And digital information networks are linking individuals, organisations, and nations as never before. Five themes have emerged in maintaining this culture:

1. Be comfortable being uncomfortable: both leaders and staff.
2. Be connected, build a strong network: what are other people doing in their space?
3. Prioritise good, committed and collaborative people.
4. Diversity of thought and team.
5. Stay curious.

• In those that do it well, there is a clear culture of innovation across the organisation.
• What’s holding sport back: we know that sport is an early adopter industry. A lot also depends on the culture of the organisation.
• Leading innovation: where is the support and leaders perspective in all of this? How open is your leader to being innovative and supporting your team in its development?
• Assessing cultures of innovation: do you have an innovation or growth mindset in the organisation?
• A lot of rich innovation is looking outside of the box.

Session 5: The People & Culture

Speaker: Glenn Zujew, Chief People Officer, Klick Health

• People that are good at culture pay a lot of attention to it.
• The culture: an extreme focus of Klick when it started 25 years ago was culture. Core principles were designed and then the organisation identified the people who were needed to achieve that. What type of person would be successful in our organisation? Culture starts at recruiting level and how you promote yourself in the marketplace. Even after 25 years, the organisation still considers themselves in ‘beta’.
• Recognise innovation in a company: the organisation likes to shine a light on those that have tried and failed. The organisation has ‘Breakfast Meetings’ that are designed to give positive recognition to those that have tried to innovate and failed – the organisation want to promote that behaviour. A lot of people experiment in the environment and the organisation even intentionally allocates hours to innovation.
• People-first #1: this can often be misconstrued as ‘me first’. Realigning on the goal you are trying to achieve is something that you need to keep an eye on. We don’t want to slip into ‘me first’.
• Cultural principles: in recent times, creativity and candour have come into the existing principles.
• Listening: the organisation has also prioritised listening in a big way. Not everyone communicates in the same way so the organisation has used a variety of communication tools to collate insight and feedback to cater for different styles.
• Feedback: aligned to the above, create different styles and numerous opportunities for feedback: bi-weekly calls with the Chief People Officer and President, fire-side chats, weekly one-on-ones, yearly polls – some people want to communicate verbally, others through technological tools. The Chief People Officer is basically a Chief Learning Officer, and the data that is collated has informed what the organisation does next.
• Collaboration: have you been intentional in asking your teams how they interact and what is working?
• Induct & onboard to culture: it starts with how you position yourself in the marketplace. At a recruiting level, there is clarity on what the organisation wants: there is a list that is stress-tested; identify individuals that will add something to the culture.
• Fit & add: Glenn shared that the organisation had almost too strong of a culture. There was a laser focus on looking for someone that would fit the existing culture seamlessly. This focus actually ended with the organisation having too many similar people. The organisation engaged in one small change: ‘fit to add’. The organisation wanted people to add to the culture, which in turn witnesses an increase in innovation and diverse thinking.
• New vs existing: we often see challenges in trying to combine existing versus new. In terms of culture, a large part is creating a safe place for existing individuals. Listen, talk and alleviate what’s on people’s minds. People want to be heard. Every environment has stewards who have a key role in connecting to what is important.
• Cultural champions: who are your cultural champions? Look to recognise where things are working well and make people aware of what that is.
• People-first #2: in trying to be a people-first organisation, you can get sucked into trying to be everything to everyone. In reviews and feedback opportunities, the organisation asks employees honestly about how things are going; is it what you want it to be?

Session 6: Debriefing Skills

Speaker: John Bull, Director & Lead for High Performance, Management Futures

“The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organisation’s ability to learn faster than the competition” – Peter Senge

STOP: for live debriefs during the event:

• Stand Back: take a helicopter view.
• Take Stock: analyse what is happening.
• Options: explore options around what you can do differently.
• Proceed: step back in and take action. Assessing what impact your new approach has.

• Aviation principles: there is a lot we can learn from aviation. They don’t look at human error, instead system first.
• People and organisations who are good at debriefing are really curious.

How Debriefs Help Create a Winning Culture

• Coaches only recall between 16.8% and 52.9% of events.
• Involvement in discussions builds self-awareness and ownership of learning.
• Fosters an openness to feedback.
• Builds relationships and team cohesion.
• Helps decrease negative emotional effects and remove emotional baggage.

Features of a great debrief

• Psychological safety: create a calm, positive and supportive space. Set people up to focus on learning, not to be defensive; and model your belief in their potential to create great performance. Do everything you can to reduce power differentials.
• Questions: use open, non-judgemental questions and a lot of follow up questioning. Focusing on learning more than results and allow time for reflection.
• Strike a good balance between focus on the positives and areas for improvement. Key insight: we learn quickest by reinforcing what works. Consider ‘appreciative inquiry’.
• Pay attention to group dynamics to get the best possible contribution from all individuals. Write the thinking down before the debrief. Who is well placed to provide feedback that isn’t in the current group?

Broad structure of debrief questions

• Reviewing where we are against our goals.
• Drawing out the learning around what has gone well.
• Exploring areas for improvement, and insights around what’s not gone well? Focusing on learning, not blame. Using root cause analysis.
• Getting clear on key insights, and how we are going to act on this learning.

Further reading:

Check out the takeaways from the morning here.

In partnership with

By Luke Whitworth

Leaders Meet: Building Winning Organisations, hosted alongside the Toronto Maple Leafs, was our first physical North American event of the year. Throughout the course of the day, we engaged in case study sessions, an observation experience, roundtable discussions and skills-based learning centred around some key ingredients that contribute to building a winning or high performing organisation.

These are the highlights from a morning programme that featured Simon Timson, the Performance Director at reigning Premier League champions Manchester City and a Leafs’ training session followed by a session with their General Manager Kyle Dubas.

[Already up-to-date with the morning? The afternoon takeaways are available here.]

Session 1: Insights from a Winning Environment

Speaker: Simon Timson, Performance Director, Manchester City

• It’s important to remember that there is no silver bullet or magic formula in creating winning environments.
• A considered formula: any formula related to winning requires great people. Complementing this is creating the right environment, having a clear plan, knowing the plan and being disciplined in sticking to that plan.
• Starting point: understand the environment and situation you are coming into, both the internal and external dynamics. What can you control and what levers can you pull to create the right environment?
• Confront the brutal facts: where is the programme in its life-cycle? In Simon’s experiences from the different sports he came into, he encountered a range of phases, including start-up (skeleton) / turnaround (tennis) / accelerated growth (UK Sport) / sustaining success (Man City).
• Evidence-based situation analysis: we often here the quote ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ – something from Simon’s experiences he doesn’t particularly agree with. You can’t deliver success or sustain it without a strong evidence-based strategy and a strong culture.
• Psychological safety: do people in your environment feel psychologically safe and open to be vulnerable where people can express what they are thinking and feeling?
• People work hard & together in good cultures: something that Simon has experienced is the power of a transformational approach = engaged, motivated and valued people.
• Good environments: Simon’s belief is that he doesn’t think you can succeed with just a good environment where people feel psychologically safe – if you don’t have the right strategy and tactics, it will be difficult to execute against.
• Good strategy provides clear direction: evidence-based strategy = right direction and tactics.
• Strategy delivered transformationally: evidence-based + transformational approach = high performance culture.
• Evidence-based strategy: this concept is about gathering the facts and not collecting the perceived wisdoms. There might be clues from those perceived wisdoms, but also red herrings woven in.
• Assumption is the enemy of excellence: do we know the things where the evidence tell us how to win? Having a What it Takes to Win model that is complemented by key concepts and underpinning principles. This alone isn’t the solution but it points you in the right direction and how to most effectively allocate resource.
• What it Takes to Win in practice: an example of this is live coding every game against those factors in the What it Takes to Win model.
• World-leading environment (British Skeleton): Simon’s arrival in the British Skeleton environment, with a clean slate, provided an opportunity to build a strategy from scratch.
• British Skeleton performance formula: Athletic Potential x Maximum Ice Time x World-Class Coaching x Cutting-Edge Equipment.
• Contributing factors behind formula: Clear vision / empowering / nature and nurture / role efficacy / equal expertise / individual support / rewarding excellence / being reflective / demanding / process-driven / high support / high expectations / process vision / integrated services / fierce internal competition.
• Beware the implementation dip: this concept comes from business strategy. ‘No plan survives first contact’.
• Stick to the formula and constantly evolve the plan: have a clear defined formula and game model with clarity to execute. At Manchester City in particular, the coaching team have a clear plan, are prepared to listened to the evidence and prepare to adjust as required.
• Transformational delivery: rigorously recruit and develop great people. Role model behaviours you want from your staff and players. Invest in the long-term development of coaches and practitioners in the same way you do players or athletes to help to retain your best people, make them feel valued, and get more out of them.
• The leader’s behaviours impact on performance: two theories – support and challenge. Challenge is far better received when followed by support.
• Research: a colleague of Simon’s looked at the relationship between leaders challenge and support behaviours – it is predictive of performance. High Support & High Challenge – outperformed. When walking into the facility everyday, ask your people how they are doing, feeling; then provide support.
• Zero tolerance of precious professional boundaries: cross boundaries, don’t stay in your lane. Value everyone’s opinions. Debate, discuss and ask good questions.

Summary:

• Confront brutal facts: understand the dynamics of your organisation’s situation by gathering and confronting the facts.
• Establish an evidence-based strategy: relentlessly focus resources and effort on what the evidence says it will take to win.
• Stick to the formula and continually evolve the plan: prepare everyone for the possibility of an implementation dip and logically adjust your plans.
• Role model the behaviours you want to see: challenge is better received when it’s preceded by support.

Session 2: Toronto Maple Leafs – Training Observation

Transitioning from the insight shared in session one, we switched our attention to an immersive session, watching a light training session for some of the Toronto Maple Leafs players. The purpose behind the session was to observe a live environment, in particular a team building towards success.

The group were posed three questions to consider when observing:

• What stood out?
• What impressed you?
• Room for improvement?

What stood out:

1. There was pace and fluidity in the session which allowed it to be short, sharp and efficient.
2. It was clear that the session was player-led. The coaches were not overcoaching, there were purely there to support and fine-tune.
3. There was a high coach-to-player ratio.
4. Lots of changes in the drills to keep the session fresh and energetic.
5. Every drill that took place was done so with a clear purpose that sat behind it.

What impressed you:

1. The group were very impressed and surprised by the coach-to-player ratio on the ice. This notion fed into something that followed in session three, where there is a clear culture of development within the organisation, and this was a good example of how that is being lived in the daily training environment.
2. Players leading the session and being focused on what works for them. Not much coach interference as well, only small pieces of feedback to provide input.
3. In some sporting environments, the Head Coach wants to be involved in every session that takes place, but the head coach wasn’t present at this light session. It was a good sign of empowerment and trust in both the players and the coaches to do what needs to be done and to not overcoach within the group.
4. Impressed with the appetite of those players involved to hone their craft, even on the morning of a game where the tendency can be to rest and not engage in too much pre-game priming.

Session 3: Building Towards Success

Speaker: Kyle Dubas, General Manager, Toronto Maple Leafs

• Mission: upon taking the General Manager role in 2018, a key part of that mission was creating an environment for younger players to move into the next phase of the development of the team and complementing them with new talent.
• Convention: it’s often safest to stay close to convention vs. going against it. In the sport of hockey, there is a lot of tradition, so the organisation has tried to challenge established conventions. Be okay when things don’t quite go to plan when you have tried to innovate thinking and, instead, use those lessons to inform what happens next.
• Player development: an opportunity Kyle saw was that in a number of hockey environments there was lack of operational plan around player development. Traditionally, players are lectured on how to become a pro, so when shifting into a leadership role at the Leafs, the creation of individual plans and imparting those on the player became a key focus. There was an emphasis on measurement, particularly technical and tactical aptitude. The organisation have backed this up with a higher ratio of staff per player, who are responsible for the specific development plan.
• Scouting operation: combining the scouting and analytics lexicon was another big focus, particularly working with scouts to embrace technological tools and imparting their wisdom back into the system.
• Silos: first several years, departments weren’t collaborating and focused on separate opinions. Now there are more robust conversations. Credit is really centred around those who have been around a long time and have embraced this new way of working.
• Getting commonality: providing time and space where groups saw how they benefit one another is a simple but effective way of breaking down silos.
• Alignment: being steadfast in the philosophy that we will get the scouting and analysis departments working together – the reality is that data and objective information is going to be missing some contextual information. Don’t try and outsmart other departments and instead look at it as a source of competitive advantage.
• Player personnel and scouting: what do all of those in the process think are their weaknesses? Tried to shift language towards ‘our picks’ versus different departments taking credit for someone who is brought in.
• Learnings: in coaching and scouting, one of the things Kyle would go back and try to do differently is if you have this feeling of someone not quite working out in a role, there is a little bit of arrogance in trying to continue to make it work. Make a decision sooner when someone isn’t going to be a fit, as often they feel it as well. Being more definitive and helping people out by others having to go through that difficult stretch. Vice versa, be patient and show confidence in those you think are a good fit.
• Today vs tomorrow: you have to have the long range in mind. With every decision you make or consider as General Manager, coaches and others are only thinking about the game today versus you. Have conversations and generate clarity.
• Small things, big impact: taking feedback from players that have retired. Their opinions were that if you have a more direct interest in their individual development as a player versus just tactical coaching, it means a lot to them as you are investing in them more holistically. Looking at them as the person and not just someone on the ice.
• Characteristics: in staff, empathy is a key characteristic. We have players from different cultures, so being empathetic to who they are as a person and their culture in order to understand what they need.

Further reading:

Check out the takeaways from the afternoon here.

By John Portch

Where does the balance sit between the vision of an incoming leader and the needs of the people whom they lead?

“There’s factors in every culture that pre-exists the leader’s vision – that’s the thing that most people don’t want to admit,” says Jack Easterby.

The performance specialist, who most recently served as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations at the Houston Texans, is referring to the limitations that face a leader. “Sometimes that’s weather, sometimes that’s facilities and sometimes that’s the finances of the club,” he continues.

“If you set your vision based on ideal circumstances and you don’t consider major footprint factors, issues that have held things back in the past, then your vision will never find traction. The balance is: are you receiving from your people the risk factors or the inhibitors of the past and why they haven’t gotten to where they want to be? Are you receiving those and reincorporating them in your new vision? If you don’t do that then even the best vision is doomed to fail.”

This is the second part of the Leaders Performance Institute’s recent interview with Easterby. The first instalment focused on the questions a leader must ask their people. This one hones in on conflict management.

‘People are more attached to motives than ideas’

Easterby argues that a leader must move away from focusing on the origin of an idea to the process of implementation in as little time as possible. “You really don’t want to be stuck to one person’s idea ever. It may be a good idea that someone comes to you with, but you want to be able to create consensus,” he says.

“Everybody is going to have ideas, some are better than others, some will be more original than others like you can take it and put it in place and roll; some things you’ve got to change in a bunch in order for it to work.”

What approach does he take when two people come to him with conflicting ideas? “My first reaction is to ask myself: ‘can we jump into the “why” of both of those versus affirming one or the other?’ because if I can get to the why of those; ‘why do you think we should do B?’ And ‘why do you think we should do A?’ Then what I may be able to do is come up with idea C that incorporates the ‘why’ from both of them and we may actually be doing a different idea in the end.

“People are more attached to motives than they are to ideas. For example, if someone says ‘I want to do expense reports differently because I believe that it costs me too much time to do it this way’, the motive for me is to save time. They don’t really care if they have a debit card or they’re paying online or whatever; they’re really just saying ‘this costs me a lot of time’. You don’t just want to say that idea A is better than idea B, you want to get the motive from idea A, the motive from idea B, and then you want to say ‘how do we consider all of the motives behind these ideas before we implement it?’ ‘They might be saying idea A but they’re not saying that, what they mean is this’. You can then build consensus with idea C.

“You want to know the ‘why’ behind the idea because there’s a lot of time people make great suggestions and you listen to it and think the why behind it is right and pure, ‘let’s go with it’. There’s other times that people make suggestions and these people are tired and frustrated right now, they’re upset with their co-workers, they’ve got some things going on personally. I’ve got to make sure I filter that and ask more questions about the motive to see if that’s really where we should be going with this initiative or not.”

Always have a backup

What about those times when systems simply fail? “The number one thing when moving on from systems failure – this is something I wish I would have done better in Houston – is to recognise that system failure can’t be deflating for the entire team,” says Easterby, reflecting on the time he spent at the Texans between 2019 and 2022.

“No matter what the system is that’s not working, you need to be able to insulate yourself from operating poorly because that system didn’t work. So if something is going wrong in athletic training, if something is going wrong in operations, if something is going wrong with salary cap administration, all of those things have to be done in a way that if something goes wrong there’s another system that you can run temporarily or a backup philosophy that you can operate so that everybody is not looking and going ‘oh my goodness, we’ve failed’ because you can’t let the confidence of the entire group be attached to one system.

“I would say that one of the greatest things I experienced in New England, which was really cool, is that Coach Belichick often had multiple systems in play but the same initiative. So if it were an athletic training situation, he had a couple of different trainers who could do the same job just in case we needed to replace one or something happened. If it was a situation when we were travelling, he had multiple contingencies so that there wasn’t just one thing that threw us off and everyone felt deflated and the confidence of the team was lost because we didn’t execute.

“You never want any particular system to carry the entire confidence of the group. You want to have a lot of layers in there because a lot of things can go wrong in athletics and you’re naturally going to be on your heels some. So if you can create systems, lily pads that you need in case you need to jump from one to the other, that’s the way to do it.

“If the system does fail, the leader has got to be willing to say ‘hey, I didn’t do this right, I missed this, this factor I didn’t consider’; whatever it is, just confess that, because it’s going to open the gate. If you get into blame it’s going to disenfranchise people and they may turn their backs on you, you’re not going to have a chance to build the system back right.

“I like the idea of putting a few people in a committee and potentially starting a meeting structure to talk about why that system failed immediately. ‘Hey, these three people, you guys were really a part of that system. Let’s come to my office, let’s share, let’s get on the white board, let’s talk about why this didn’t work, because your “whys” are going to go right into your new system.’

“You’re going to be learning a lot about why something potentially didn’t work and that’s going to give you the keys to the new system when you’re building it. I like committees or actions that can give you some good feedback; ‘this is potentially where the tension point was and why we didn’t do a good job’ and then you begin to edit. Then I like sharing the results of those meetings publicly within the team. ‘This didn’t work, this is what we found, and here’s how we’ve been addressing those needs, and we’ll meet and implement this new system when it’s ready’.”

By John Portch

What is the best way to define and resolve a performance problem?

It is a topic that comes up with regularity at the Leaders Performance Institute and, here, we present the approach of British bobsledder Montell Douglas; Swimming Australia’s Head Coach Rohan Taylor, Wales women’s rugby union team Head Coach Ioan Cunningham; Jayne Ellis, currently a performance advisor with UK Sport; and actor Dom Simpson, who delivers a view from the world of the performing arts.

We distil their responses into five essential considerations.

1. How do your athletes approach goal-setting?

“I address my performance gaps through real, basic goal-setting. In the sense that there’s always a process,” says Montell Douglas, who competed for Great Britain in the two-person bobsleigh at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Previously, she competed for her nation in the 100m and 4x100m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics, also in Beijing. In completing the switch she made British history. It was something she was aware of in the build-up to the Games and here she gives the Leaders Performance Institute an insight into the continuous conversation she had with herself.

“What does British history mean?” she continues. “I reverse-engineered the goal, looked back and said ‘this means I have to do X’. ‘But where am I now? Well, I’m right here and that means I have to do this’.

“One of the things was ‘what does my sport need? What do you require? Am I reflective of a history-making athlete?’ If not, then I’m making those little adjustments; ‘I need to gain four kilos by this date’, for example.”

Douglas interrogated herself constantly. “It enabled me to make clear targets and goals, with deadlines for all that was needed, because you have to be ready on 20 February 2022 [in the case of the Olympic bobsleigh]. You can’t be ready on 21 February 2022 – it’s too late.”

2. Engage your athletes in two-way conversations

The coaches have a role to play too. “It’s having a two-way conversation,” says Ioan Cunningham. “Footage is huge and we have individual development plans for players. So if our number nine [scrum half] needs to work on her pass off the base so that it’s quicker  and she needs to get the ball off the deck, that’ll be a performance plan for her.

“How does she get better? Link it to footage and then have constant catch-ups every week or two where you go ‘look, this is better – you can see it’s better. The ball is in the ten’s hands [fly half] much quicker’.

“The ten could then give her feedback as well and say ‘yes, the passing is much better, it’s faster and more accurate’; and then breaking that down to the drills she needs to do to make sure that it gets her passing better.”

Actor Dom Simpson, who stars as Elder Price in the West End production of The Book of Mormon in London, also prefers a two-way discussion in his work. “My agent always describes it as a ‘dance’,” he tells the Leaders Performance Institute. “I can do one thing for a dance but the partners have to be working together to make that work.

“An issue, for example, could be my director coming to me and saying ‘this scene is not quite reading right. Maybe we can try this?’ and a lot of the time that works best when it’s a collaborative discussion – I don’t think anyone works best when it’s ‘do this and it’ll be better’ because unless I have an understanding of why that is it won’t feel like the best way to do it.”

3. Enable guided discovery to mutually desired outcomes

Simpson also explains that the best directors facilitate the actor’s path to the best agreed outcome. He says: “The best creatives that I’ve ever worked with, they allow that conversation to happen and they facilitate you finding the answer. They ask questions that make you find the answer that they just want to tell you anyway so that there’s a feeling of ‘we both got to it’, whereas the director might be saying ‘I knew that’s where we wanted to get to but I had to allow you to find that for it to feel real’. When we talk about the ‘truth’ in a scene, a lot of the time that’s how we get to the bottom of an issue.”

4. Where does your multidisciplinary team fit in?

Cunningham tells the Leaders Performance Institute of a hypothetical scenario involving an athlete. “A player may need more power in her lower legs, so that becomes a three-way conversation with the S&C coach,” he says. “[The player will say] ‘OK, if I do this, it’ll make me a better rugby player, it’ll make me more powerful, and it’ll get me picked’.”

The multidisciplinary approach was taken by Jayne Ellis and British Wheelchair Basketball during her time serving as the organisation’s Performance Director. Much like at Wales Rugby, performance questions were generally raised in an athlete’s individual development plan between the athlete themselves and the coach. “They determine what the objectives are and the rest of the staff will work around and towards those objectives,” she told the Leaders Performance Institute in 2021.

Progress was tracked at fortnightly meetings for both the men’s and women’s teams. “That’s when we look at how everybody’s work programme is feeding into that athlete achieving that objective,” she continued. “Then there are different bits and pieces that we do with each practitioner in order to assess where they are with things and where they want to go. That all gets captured so that the player can see their development. Sometimes when you’re an athlete and you’re in the grind, you’re like ‘this is so difficult, I don’t feel like I’m progressing’ but then you’ve got this whole piece here, which helps you see that you are progressing and that’s why it’s important.”

5. Call upon your network and collective knowledge

At Swimming Australia, coaches and practitioners attend monthly meetings specific to their event or discipline in order to ensure everyone is on track. Head Coach Rohan Taylor will drop into those meetings and is always on hand to discuss performance issues with athletes and their coaches as he travels to the state hubs located across Australia.

“I’ll ask questions; [for example] ‘So you’re having trouble here? Have you spoken to somebody else?’ because I get to see everybody around the country. I might see a solution in Western Australia, in Perth, and I can say ‘have you connected with this person?’ I’m kind of guiding and advising them where to go.

“If I think they’re at a road block, I’d hope that they’ve already done that. That’s the system that’s set up. If not, I’d be saying ‘have you done that? Have you done this?’ I saw a good example this morning [concerning] an athlete who is struggling to absorb feedback around the communication on their skill development; the tasks. I just watched and I observed and I just said to the coach and the biomechanist ‘have you guys tried just letting him watch what it looks like when it’s done correctly by someone else and just letting him go and explore rather than giving him too much detail?’ ‘No, actually we haven’t’. ‘So maybe that’s their learning style?’

“It’s just me bringing what I see out there and asking them the questions.”

By Sarah Evans & Luke Whitworth

Recommended reading:

Leaders Performance Journal Building For Success

What Defines a Good Practice Facility?

‘”Training Facilities Are a Feeling” – you Can’t Say that to an Architect!’

Framing the topic

We often talk about environments within the Leaders Performance Institute, however within this topic-led virtual roundtable, we looked to extend these conversations into the physical space. We asked our members how their facilities were shaped and how they have evolved in order to contribute to the culture and environment they are trying to create.

We picked out four key points from our discussions:

1. Future-proofing the facility

• • Many sporting organisations have evolved and grown to include a women’s team, academy, first team and the corporate team. One of our members spoke about asking the question ‘how do we prepare for the building of the future’ and have thought about what the next 10 years could look like, thinking about what they can do now to support that future.
  • “We want to be the trend setters” – for many of our member teams, this is very important and so teams are spending lots of time in different spaces to get as many ideas as possible. The designs are often drawn, it takes a few years before the building is actually completed and so, by the time you move in, the building could be 3-4 years old and if you spend a decade in it, then the building is 10-15 years old and so that means they have to stay ahead of the curve.
  • Two of the key questions our members have been asking themselves is: ‘what’s true now that won’t change in 10 years? What needs to be consistent?’
  • Another way of future-proofing the facility, is thinking about what outcomes the team are seeking from the environment. Is it to enhance athletic performance? Is it to encourage more collaboration between staff? Are they hoping staff stay later at work? Identifying these outcomes can help the facility be more intentional and serve its purpose long term.

2. Make the space inclusive

• • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work is becoming more engrained into high performance organisations, and making sure the facility is inclusive to everyone is something many of our teams are prioritising.
  • One of our members explained: “I’ve been working with the team for nine years. Back then, I was one of two women; now I’m one of 10 or 12 in the organisation.” Modifying the facilities in order to accommodate more female staff has been something many of our teams have had to adapt to.
  • Are the facilities inclusive for visually impaired athletes? Transgender athletes? Are they fully accessible for para-sports, as well as staff and visitors with accessibility needs? Some of these considerations are much easier to integrate into new builds, but how can they adapt current spaces to become more inclusive?
  • Are there places for new mothers to nurse? Is there childcare for parents?
  • For teams which have academies, the younger age groups are heavily influenced by parents, so how can the facilities be designed so that they’re more family-friendly, as parents are spending time around the space?

3. How does it make people feel?

• • Many people will forget things about a place or an environment, but people don’t forget how something makes them feel.
  • Everything in the facility has to have an intention, and the physical space has an opportunity to be a reflection of the club culture.
  • What’s the experience of being within that environment? How often are the questions asked to the athletes and how are they being asked? For the newest, youngest recruits versus the experience of the more veteran athlete who is perhaps at a different stage in their career; how are those questions integrated into the design of the physical space?
  • Are there any spaces where the athletes aren’t being watched? It becomes normalised as part of their workplace dynamic, but if they’re always being watched then they can never let their guard down to be themselves. So is there a possibility to create spaces in high performance environments where they have freedom to be themselves, or do they have to leave the facility to let go?
  • What are the performance outcomes of certain areas, and how can you impact this through the feel? For example within the dining area, if the outcome is to keep athletes there longer and increase engagement with nutrition, how can you create a relaxing space where they want to stay, rather than it feeling like a school canteen? The impact of plants and lighting, and making it feel more like a restaurant can have a big difference.

4. The flow of the facility

• • Understand the flow of the facility from a physical and psychological perspective. What’s the first thing you want them to do? Is a trophy cabinet the first thing you want to see every day? Actually, making a training ground feel like home and not have increased pressure all the time can have performance benefit.
  • Have the stadium be somewhere you intimidate the opposition, make them feel in awe, and provide as many home advantages for your team as possible. What is the entrance route for away teams at the stadium? Is it through a walkway filled with trophies and success or a bland hallway that doesn’t have an impact?