By Rachel Woodland and Lottie Wright

When Emma Springham was promoted to British Triathlon’s Olympic Pathway Coach in January 2023, her appointment was seen as a no-brainer inside the organisation.

“Emma was an exceptional coach who was a perfect fit for the role she applied for,” said Matt Jefferson, who serves as British Triathlon’s Head of Performance, People, and Culture Development.

“We didn’t compromise on having the right coach with the right athletes to meet a ‘quota’ or strategic aim,” he continued. “We took her development seriously, worked with her and supported her as a person and a coach.”

Many of you will know from experience that this is not always the case for women coaches and practitioners at numerous organisations across the high performance world.

Springham and Jefferson joined the Leaders Performance Institute for the April Women’s High Performance Community call so they could share their insights into equality of opportunity at British Triathlon.

Setting the scene

Triathlon is founded on equality – men and women compete in the same activities over the same distances. It’s also a relatively young sport, which frees it of the history and shackles that hinder some other sports.

Whilst there’s wider work happening at British Triathlon around participation, for the team approaching representation within coaching, their first step is to match the athletes that they’re working with.

A strand of the recently launched High Performing Coach Strategy is ‘to build a coaching workforce that is representative of the wider triathlon community.’

British Triathlon’s female coach mentoring programme

To action this, Michelle Hayden, British Triathlon’s Head of Coaching, led the creation of a female coach mentoring programme that used existing performance team members and those known to the organisation as mentors. The programme involved a series of engagements, with some access to high performance environments and coaches. It also included giving access to high performance coach development work, specifically during British Triathlon’s annual Performance Learning Week. A WhatsApp community for the group was created, as well as one for all the female coaches who applied.

British Triathlon requested applications to be submitted in a video format with applicants explaining a bit about themselves and why they felt the programme would support their development. Over 30 people applied, generating over six hours of video. British Triathlon watched each and every video so they could give each applicant feedback.

The videos also helped Jefferson gain an understanding of perceptions of high performance coaching and barriers to female coaches progressing within the sport; and people’s previous experiences revealed that part of making performance coaching roles attractive is to make sure they are fully understood.

‘Never compromise the person for performance’

Springham, Jefferson and the wider system have become increasingly aware of the potential barriers for women entering an elite environment. For example, three athletes on their programme took time out to have children during this shortened Olympic and Paralympic cycle. For coaches, there is the question of access and opportunity.

To address the question for coaches, British Triathlon, before they assume there is something wrong with the coach as an employee or prospective employee, will consider whether their jobs were attractive to women, and, if not, how do they make them more attractive? Considerations included:

• Acknowledging that the barriers can change; and subsequently being proactive in reassessing and reflecting on how to approach these in their environment.
• Discussions around role adverts – part-time working, flexibility, being more upfront about the requirements of a role. For example, swimming at specific times isn’t negotiable, hours worked outside fixed session times are very flexible.
• British Triathlon’s philosophy continues to reaffirm no one has been hired because of compromise in the expectations placed on the person earning the role, it is always the right coach, in the right place, at the right time.

Wider questions that British Triathlon have considered in their talent pathway relate to all environments:

• Is your organisation somewhere that everyone can find their place within? Do people belong there, how do you know and why do, or don’t, they?
• What could this look like in your sport or organisation if you didn’t have to fight the barriers presented by the history of the sport?

For example, Jefferson re-emphasised that Springham’s employment serves as a testament to the organisation’s commitment to supporting female pathway development.

The power of mentors and sponsors on female talent pathways

British Triathlon recognises that female coaches often lack the advocacy and networking opportunities afforded to their male counterparts. Jefferson strongly identified a barrier to this as women feeling uneasy about seeking out a career ‘sponsor’.

Recognising Springham’s dedication, British Triathlon believed it imperative to proactively facilitate opportunities for her, championing and supporting her journey to prevent her from having to forge ahead alone. This commitment stems from the understanding that showcasing exceptional female coaches as role models is pivotal for inspiring future generations. As Jefferson highlighted, “if they don’t see it, they can’t believe they can be it.”

It’s been important to work on the perceptions around a woman asking for help, this shouldn’t be seen as a negative. Providing support is integral to keeping people in the building once they have pushed open the door.

Both British Triathlon and Springham have been aware that a pragmatic approach and willingness to compromise in suitable areas is important to making it work too. Questions often asked include ‘what do you need?’ but when it’s new ground being broken, that can be difficult to answer. However, if the culture reinforces that there is support and an appetite to help make it work, it’s easier to collaborate to work out what is needed. The stories shared during the mentoring programme agenda helped to shape expectations and provide clarity to all sides.

As such, leaders who role model behaviours, such as leaving to pick up the children or openly talking about other family tasks to be completed, help, especially at British Triathlon where there are men taking this approach too.

Helping women coaches to fight impostor syndrome 

Springham candidly shared her thoughts around dealing with impostor syndrome, which is all too common in prospective female coaches in particular. She admitted that it might never go away, but that we can use it in the right way to remind ourselves of the work and successes that have been achieved to get to where we are. She has a support network that will help to remind her of this, and she will take five minutes out to remind herself if need be.

As Springham said, we have to train ourselves to think of the positives if the negatives creep in.

An exercise to consider: “Take five minutes to remind yourself through written word or in your head, the journey you’ve taken to get where you are. This rebuilds your confidence and resilience.”

Reflections

Jefferson highlighted the importance of not letting resources and funding be a barrier to change. Much of the programme that British Triathlon introduced didn’t cost anything, or didn’t cost very much, such as the WhatsApp group, or visits to elite environments. Jefferson and Springham suggested starting tangible initiatives to help every organisation to build communities organically, such as women’s support groups, coffee mornings, group chats, or community channels.

The community had the opportunity to ask the duo some questions on this topic and engage in meaningful discussions about their experiences in their own organisations, from the likes of UKSI to Scottish Golf.

British Triathlon encouraged the community to consider the following questions for their future development:

1. Is our organisation somewhere people can find a sense of belonging?”
2. “What do we want our organisation to look like in the future? What’s the tangible step we can take in that direction?”

You can read more about Springham’s journey and her involvement with the Women’s Performance Coaching Programme here.

Final thoughts

Representation matters: cultivate coaching teams that reflect the diversity of your community.

Supportive environments: foster cultures that prioritise work-life balance and support female coaches.

Combat imposter syndrome: looking inward as an organisation, regularly celebrate achievements and the journey to help bolster confidence and resilience.

Resourceful solutions: meaningful change doesn’t always require significant financial investment; prioritise simple, effective initiatives.

Community engagement: create spaces for open dialogue and reflection to drive meaningful progress.

By John Portch

Ben Baroody’s department at the Texas Rangers is unique in Major League Baseball: it is focused on both player and staff development.

As such, his job title appears to cover every base: Director of Leadership & Staff Development, Player Enrichment Programs, & Mind Health.

“It’s a little fancier in title than in execution,” Baroody told the Leaders Performance Podcast of his role in January. “I think it comes down to a big emphasis on personal growth and development.”

Other elements of his work have been covered elsewhere. Below, we focus on staff development, which is too often neglected across MLB, although the league is not alone in that regard.

“We coined the phrase holistic human development,” Baroody continued. “Our business model as an organisation is to go out and win baseball games and I think helping the individual grow and develop translates to on-field success as well.”

The Rangers’ approach to staff development raises three questions that all teams can ask themselves.

1. Do you have the right people in the decision-making room?

Baroody’s department stands alone in several regards but it is not an island. His team collaborates with other areas of baseball ops and the Rangers front office to ensure their staff development efforts resonate. “Most of the leadership on the baseball side have been players or coaches, so they understand the pressure,” he said, adding that they work together to establish priorities and emphases. “I collaborate with them on what kind of programmes we’re developing or what type of questions we are facilitating for individuals or group discussions knowing that their perspective on being a player or a being coach is priceless.”

2. How can you help people establish the right habits and routines?

Burning the candle at both ends is a road to nowhere. Baroody suggested focusing on the habits and routines that build in balance and self-care. “Being at the ballpark 14 hours a day probably doesn’t help if you’re burnt out by mid-season,” he said. He vividly recalled a time when he skated close to burnout. “On paper I may have been successful but my wellbeing may have been suffering. I didn’t have balance, I didn’t have the security, I was compromising a lot, but when I really dedicated and focused on my wellbeing it tapped into parts of me that I never knew I had.” How balance and self-care look depends on the person. “Every individual must find and determine that for themselves is when I’m at my best. What does it look like? What helps me be the best version I can be or what detracts from me showing up consistently? It comes down to what’s most important and how to prioritise [those things] and build a system in which you can stay consistent with them.”

3. Where can you help your staff to have the biggest impact?

Baroody said it is important for staff members to know the resonant and beneficial elements of their work so that they can have an “exponential impact on the players”. This does not happen automatically. The Rangers took their staff on a week-long development retreat in the off-season. It was, as Baroody explained, “about posing different questions and helping guys understand who they are what they do well and [then] lean into those items.” Each and every staff member could probably write a long list of areas where they could improve, but Baroody told them: “‘let’s focus on the ones that are critical to the impact of your role and responsibility rather than chasing every white rabbit in every opportunity’.”

Ben Baroody also features in our Performance Special Report Human Flourishing: a Snapshot of Wellbeing in the High Performance Landscape. He is joined by the AFL, Australian Institute of Sport and Harlequins to discuss wellbeing as the centrepiece of their performance planning.

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By Rachel Woodland

With more resource and focus on women’s talent pathways than ever before, how are we using the momentum generated to ensure that the optimal environments are being created to support more women in their quest to reach elite levels of performance?

We’ll be exploring this topic throughout the year, but took time at The Leaders Sport Performance Summit in Melbourne in early February to learn from the AFL [Australian Football League] and High Performance Sport New Zealand [HPSNZ].

Helene Wilson, the Women in High Performance Lead at High Performance Sport New Zealand, took to the stage at the Glasshouse alongside Tarkyn Lockyer, National Academy Manager & Coach at the AFL. Knitting together the conversation was moderator Sonya Thompson, the Head of National Development at Cricket Australia.

The current landscape

The AFL have set their sights on supporting athletes in their pathways so that, as Lockyer said, “when they get their opportunity [in the senior game] they can step in and thrive – and change the game.”

Given their purpose, the AFL’s pathway programme is developing athletes to be adaptable and malleable so that they will be prepared for any one of the 18 different club environments into which they may be drafted.

Whilst funding levels are the same for the men’s and women’s pathways, the structure of the programmes has focused on different elements. To this point in time, for example, the women’s pathway has had to cover gaps in knowledge when it comes performance support in areas such as recovery and preparation.

At HPSNZ, as Wilson told us, they’re supporting regionally-based teams who might include aspirational, podium, or team athletes. This, combined with other factors, means that across their programmes “how we get there has to be different.”

Specifically, when it comes to supporting women’s needs in the pathway to perform their best, the focus is holistic support. The reality is that the pathways are supporting the athletes in their pursuit of developing transferable skills as they can’t guarantee their athletic career will generate enough earnings.

Staff pathways

It’s important that we don’t neglect the importance of staff roles within pathways. The AFL, as Lockyer told us, are hopeful that there’ll be more opportunities for women in coaching in the future. Women coaches provide a different perspective, and the AFL don’t underestimate the importance of a well-rounded coaching body. This is true regardless of whether it’s the women’s or men’s programme.

As well as providing the opportunities, the support around the women coaches, once they are in their roles, needs to be put in place. “We have to set them up to be successful,” said Wilson, whose experiences teach us that women coaches tend to bring more emotional intelligence to their work. The staff as a collective need to each have their points of difference, especially as a head coach can’t be everything to everyone.

Wilson also reminded us that part of this is the education of the athletes too. For example, at the moment, numerous male athletes don’t know of many women who hold coaching positions. In addition to her primary duties at HPSNZ, Wilson holds the role of the New Zealand men’s netball team Head Coach too. She firmly believes that if you can apply your coaching practices in a different setting you’ll become a better coach. In coaching the men’s team, Wilson has witnessed how the men apply and execute the same skills differently, which requires a different approach from her as their coach.

Pathway frameworks

Regardless of who the staff are we need to provide clarity to the athlete and find ways to integrate, not duplicate, the different areas of expertise within the staffing team. We need everyone pulling in one direction, and that is the direction that is best for the player.

At the AFL, a formal instrument underpins this, through their athlete management system. Within the HPSNZ network, it’s important that there’s connection down and up the pathway to the national level. They also approach the emotional space first and help athletes navigate learning, so that they have had a brilliant learning opportunity even if it transpires that they aren’t good enough to progress through the pathway. Each athlete needs someone who’s providing personal and learning support, and at each transition the learning needs to be anticipated.

The AFL’s frameworks support fundamentals and creativity within the game as well as an environment of high support and high challenge – all whilst not forgetting that creating an atmosphere that is fun shouldn’t be overlooked.

Wilson shared how important it is to get repetitions of training and execution; and to learn through others and in playing up. We can learn so much, and gain so much, by playing with those who are at different points of the pathway. It’ll support athletes in their transition moments; and casual conversations are powerful in creating lasting motivation and establishing role models.

Both Wilson and Lockyer emphasised the importance of reducing the pressure to be perfect, and making sure there are structured play sessions within the programming. How can we stretch these talented athletes through creativity? Balancing progress with deliberately forcing them to fail. All whilst creating an environment that lets each athlete be themselves.

Future-focused

For Wilson, the dream is that we won’t be talking about women in high performance coaching. We’ll have diverse staff teams and aiming for points of difference through the coaching team. We need to have ways for athletes to stay in high performance sport outside of playing. We will get to 50:50 splits in funding in those roles, but that will come through equity not equality.

For Lockyer, the language will change to ‘one game, our game’ and the women’s league will be one of the competitions, not the women’s. The more rounded we can be as a team, with the diversity of thinking across the team, a better platform will be created for everyone.

To achieve this Wilson added that women have a responsibility to know, articulate and show their value; and it’ll take mentoring to achieve that aim.

By John Portch

Champion teams often cite their pre-season work as a determining factor in their success, but Helene Wilson’s Northern Mystics adopted a novel approach.

“We were bottom of the table and we made it to the top by literally changing the way we practised and our environment,” Wilson told an audience at September’s Leaders Meet: Driving Step Change in Female High Performance.

Wilson, who currently serves as Manager of High Performance Sport New Zealand’s [HPSNZ] Women in High Performance Sport programme, was primarily at the Etihad to discuss her five years as Head Coach of the Northern Mystics, a netball team in New Zealand’s ANZ Premiership.

The Mystics won the first national championship in their franchise’s 24-year history on Wilson’s watch in 2021. They went close again in 2022, her final year, and won a second Grand Final in 2023.

Yet in 2019, as Wilson explained, they finished bottom of the ANZ Premiership. At the time, the Mystics were infamous for their disunity and underachievement.

The talent and potential was there, but Wilson knew it could not be unlocked without an environmental overhaul. She started with one simple question: “how do we create an environment where high performance comes from out-learning your opposition and people are on a journey together to get there?”

Find a suitable framework for addressing performance questions

Central to their transformation was the Mystics’ belief in the Māori concept of ‘Wānanga’. “It’s a word that means coming together and meeting to discuss, collaborate and consider,” Wilson told the Etihad audience. “It could look similar to a team meeting but it can take many forms and Wānanga happens in many ways.”

A fuller account is provided here but, in summary, a Wānanga provides a space for collective, inclusive, reflective practice (‘Rongo’ in Māori) that enables people to reengage with problems in the world beyond (‘Tū’) having formed a consensus on the best solutions.

“There is an energy about it,” said Wilson. “The process and energy is like a coming together and moving apart in a state of clarity, which is collectively built together. The process of ‘Karakia’ – transitioning from one realm to another – takes us from the worlds of Tū and Rongo.”

These Māori concepts and traditions resonated with her staff and playing group, but Wilson emphasised the relevance of the framework rather than its local aspects. Coaches, she argued, should use cultural artefacts germane to their context. “There’s stuff around us everywhere that you can apply in different ways and it’s the framework that is key.”

The players and staff bought into the idea and it meant the team could get to work on what was needed to take them from last to first place in the space of two years.

Improve the quality of your interactions

Ahead of that triumphant 2021 season, Wilson and her coaches convened to establish what it would take for the Mystics to win that season’s Grand Final. They also invited the playing group to do the same.

“We tried to define the standards that we needed to shift to win the Premiership,” she said. “I remember specifically at this time we would Wānanga in the gym and we were talking about the standard of performance that we needed to put down on the court in pre-season to ensure that we could win the Premiership.”

The players and coaches often had contrasting views. “We had all the data and the information and knew what we needed to do, but we had to hold that back and let the players lead it,” she added.

In one particular pre-season Wānanga, Wilson addressed the Mystics’ reputation for throwing away possession cheaply. The players sought a measurement for tracking their improvement but one wasn’t forthcoming. “How do we measure it? How do we know we’re doing well? We couldn’t agree, we couldn’t align, so we had to go out and learn.”

That Wānanga preceded a public pre-season game and Wilson used the opportunity to pose further questions: if you make mistakes on the court what does that look like? How many mistakes is OK? What’s your key role in your position? For example, if you’re a goal attack and your main role is to get the ball to the goal shooter as accurately as possible and you want to throw it from the first phase in the centre, how am I to determine that you will get that ball there? Tell me what you need to do. And they will tell me how they believe they will take this skill and execute it to the level we’d accept, as well as how many mistakes we were allowed. They defined what they were going to put on court and what they were going to get right.”

Each member of the team would set personal limits. “It looks like ‘I won’t make the same mistake twice in a row’. OK then, if you do, then you’re off. You’ll work with the S&C on the side line in front of the public, practising that mistake for two minutes, then you’ll go back on court and we’ll see how you go.”

The continuous Mystics substitutions made the game a strange spectacle. “You can imagine the first half the first time we tried this,” said Wilson. “It was like a yoyo. My opposition coach said to me ‘what the eff are you doing?’”

“There was a lot to unpack in our changing room after that and our psychologist was a great help.” The subsequent Wānanga went on for an hour and a half. One of the key questions was the matter of each individual’s role in the team. “Even if I’m only on the bench how do I still contribute? It was the benchies’ job to pull their teammates up when they weren’t executing the skillset they said they would more than two times in a row. That then formed a drive for individual performance.”

As Wilson said, the Mystics changed the way they practised. “It wasn’t just making an effort to say it – it wasn’t as simple as that – it was the quality of the interaction that happened.”

Increased energy and confidence

At the Etihad, Wilson shared an image of her team lining up backstage ahead of the 2021 Grand Final and noted the sense of “energy and confidence; that they each had each other’s back as they go out and do it.”

She said: “Then we joked we were doing this hard work as people so I could get to drink a piña colada on the bench while I was coaching; knowing I had done my job. I wish I had one, because they were driving the performance on that day.” The Mystics quickly established a two-goal lead over their opponents, the Mainland Tactix, that they never relinquished in a 61-59 victory.

“We made seven errors in the entire game,” Wilson continued. “And when we had that Wānanga at the start of the season, the players said they should be able to make 64 errors in a game. We [the coaches] knew they needed to make under 15 [to win the Premiership] and they made seven. It shows how they drove their own performance.”

To further underline how the Mystics transformed their environment, Wilson referred to Grace Nweke, a 21-year-old New Zealand international and one of the rising stars of the sport. She joined the Mystics in 2019 while still at school but, thanks to Wilson encouraging her players to have a voice, Nweke immediately had the platform to speak up when she felt things weren’t working for her.

“She was 16 years old and didn’t quite think her S&C programme was quite right for her and she asked how we could discuss how it might be changed – that’s powerful for an athlete to have that support [especially] when the S&C said ‘well, I’ve been doing this for 20 or 30 years’ – but then it’s also powerful for the S&C to say ‘how are we going to work together to make this better?’”

In the first part, we delved deeper into Helene Wilson’s role in creating a culture that enabled the Northern Mystics to ‘out-learn’ their opponents.

By John Portch

The UK Sports Institute [UKSI] has a well-earned reputation for offering sophisticated medicine, technology and science support to British sport’s national governing bodies.

Though the UKSI is but a small cog in the wheel, the institute’s Female Athlete Health & Performance team has been astute in dealing with the typical challenges present in a high performance system, as Richard Burden, the UKSI’s Co-Head of Female Athlete Health & Performance, told an audience at September’s Leaders Meet: Driving Step Change in Female High Performance at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium.

“We don’t have a lot of resource,” he said of his team, which he leads alongside Dr Anita Biswas. They work closely with Dr Kate Hutchings, who leads the UKSI’s female athlete clinic. It is quite an undertaking for a system that serves up to 800 athletes, numerous coaches and a wealth of different interests.

“Between the three of us,” he continued, “we have four days a week to try and do some of the things that we do. That’s a step change – that’s good compared to previous cycles – I’m not complaining. I’m just giving a little bit of context because a lot of the time when people who don’t have experience look at the system we’re in, they think that’s amazing, that you’ve got a tonne of resource, that you must be able to do some really cool stuff.

“The fact is that we don’t have [unlimited resources]. But we’ve got quite good at working with what we do have.”

Part of their success can be attributed to bringing coaches and athletes on what Burden refers to as a research and innovation journey. Too often sports scientists and practitioners fall short on that front.

In June 2023, Burden and Biswas spoke onstage at the Female Athlete Conference in Boston about the “needless tug-of-war” between female athlete sports science and applied practice. They were joined by exercise physiology and nutrition specialist Professor Anthony Hackney of the University of North Carolina. Together they asked an audience of physicians and practitioners who or what they saw as the greatest barriers to research and innovation. “Coaches” was a common response “because of the perception that they lack engagement in research and innovation”. Three months later, at the Etihad, Burden turned that idea on its head.

“Sports scientists and practitioners are really poor for this,” he said. “If a coach doesn’t want to listen to their idea it’s the coach’s fault.”

Burden suggested it could be a problem with how the idea is pitched. “If coaches are suggested as a barrier, what are we doing about that? Do people know why a coach might not engage in science, research and innovation? Are we giving them a reason to change? Are we giving them something they can use that’s actually going to make a difference?”

People often point to the limited budgets in high performance. “Yeah, funding is tight, but it’s probably not going to get any bigger. Maybe we’ll get a bigger slice of the pie but the pie is unlikely to get any bigger,” he continued. “So how can we be more resourceful?”

Time-poor coaches is another suggested issue. Again, it doesn’t wash with Burden. “How can we create more time with what we currently have? Everyone is super busy. We need to get stuff done – so how are we going to do that? And the translation: how can we improve the practicality of doing research and innovation in elite environments so we can actually give out something useful?”

The UKSI Female Athlete Health & Performance team have focused on four areas.

1. The need to bring coaches and athletes on a journey

Any potential innovation has to add value. “There is always an interesting-versus-important question that we ask ourselves,” said Burden. “We can’t just do stuff that’s interesting – we have to do things that are interesting and add value – that’s our sense-check.”

The Female Athlete Health & Performance team answer that question by spending time talking to coaches and athletes with a view to understanding their needs. In 2019, the English Institute of Sport (EIS; the former name of the UKSI) launched their SmartHER campaign to encourage female athletes to speak about their challenges and concerns in a safe setting. It led to a roadshow series where education sessions were provided for coaches and athletes across the UK. “That gave us momentum because it just started conversations,” said Burden. “It was only basic level education but it was things that people hadn’t heard before, and the conversations started to grow within sports and between sports, and back and forth between the UKSI and the sports. Better conversations would happen.”

This opening up of communication lines led to the development of the UKSI’s internal learning platform, known as the Performance Hub, with modules including ‘The Basics of the Menstrual Cycle’ and ‘Additional Considerations for the Female Athlete’. “It’s always available to practitioners in the UKSI so they can upskill themselves on their own time,” said Burden. “It is aimed at giving people more awareness and confidence in their conversations.”

He quickly learned not to assume knowledge. “A lot of this comes from the eyes of a bloke who is quite a lot of the time the only bloke in the room. It is not a given that a female coach will know about bra fit, whereas a middle-aged male coach may be comfortable discussing such issues.”

Increased athlete-coach engagement has eased another common concern from researchers: access to the athletes and coaches themselves. “You have to bring them on a journey,” said Burden. “You bring them along, you increase accessibility. Researchers and academics often complain that athletes are protected, that you can’t access them – but what have you done to try? By doing your research in a lab? They can’t relate to that. Go into their environment, see how they live, see how they train, and co-design the questions.”

2. Co-designed questions, research and innovation

As conversations about topics such as menstrual cycle tracking developed within the British high performance system, it led an increasing number of athletes, coaches and researchers to ask if there was a less invasive alternative to needle and blood sampling in hormone data collection.

In 2021, the EIS trialled Hormonix, which collects hormone data through saliva sampling. The technology was designed in collaboration with Mint Diagnostics. Later, Hormonix was trialled at Manchester City Women, where it has led to further research projects around female athlete health.

Burden also spoke of a UKSI research collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University and British Rowing, who had a question. “They called it Project Minerva,” he said. “It’s something they’ve been developing about the influence of training load and the delivery of training on female health. So how is the menstrual cycle influencing their ability to deliver training and what impact is it having on internal load, competition and performance? It’s their question – it hasn’t come from research or a university – it’s come from the sport. We’re there to provide some of the research and innovation expertise to help them formulate the question and work out a path to answer it.”

Co-designed research and innovation can accelerate the UKSI’s ability to provide support to athletes. “Get the practitioners involved, get athletes, get the teams and bring them along with it because if they’re onboard you get easier access to them and you’re going to produce something that’s more translatable, meaningful and applicable to them.”

3. Multi-centre approaches

When the UKSI Female Athlete Health & Performance team proposed a collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee [USOPC], it had never been done before.

“It’s across traditional lines,” said Burden. “When you talk about competitive advantage, why are we talking to the Aussies and why are we talking to the Americans? But that’s not how we’re looking at it. The Aussies have done some really good stuff that we haven’t. We’ve done some really good stuff that they haven’t. The same with the Americans.

“If we combine resources to stop duplicating effort, because we’ve done educational stuff, the AIS have done some brilliant educational stuff, the USOPC have done some really good educational stuff. We’ve all done the same educational work. What’s the point when we can do it all together and focus on other things?

“I thought I was going to have a really hard time when I took this to the directors. I thought there was going to be some sort of major health event for some of them when I said ‘I want to work with the AIS, I want to work with the USOPC’ but it was actually really easy and we put together a fairly compelling reason why, but it was quite easy because this isn’t about performance advantage, this is about advancing female athlete health and performance.”

4. Rethinking evidence

“What can you do with information that you already have?” asked Burden. To illustrate his point, he referred to the UKSI’s drive to centralise all blood screens across the British high performance system. It enabled that information to be used in a more informed and impactful way.

“The information was being held in UKSI silos, but there was potential if we could aggregate it all,” he continued. “That was a few years ago and it wasn’t the easiest conversation to have with the sports because they had their own suppliers. There was some politicking to convince everyone that it was going to be really beneficial.

“The vast majority of our sports now use the same supplier, which means we have a database of blood screens that is continuously being populated. Because of that, we can start to unpick some of the things that we need to understand.

“We’re starting to understand sport by sport differences, sex differences and, over time, we’re going to be able to start to individualise between sport differences, in-sport differences, individual differences. Being able to do that, we can inform our practices and inform the treatment or our understanding of the biggest health problems in a much more informed and precise way because we’re using what we already have in a much better way.”

In Burden’s view, this pooling of evidence has the potential to lead to the greater individualisation of support services. He contests the perception of case studies as low in the traditional hierarchy of evidence due to them being small in sample size. “We’re in elite sport and I don’t want to generalise – I don’t care what the mean for the whole group is – I need to know why athlete X is different from athlete Y. Case studies are really impactful for us – if you can collect case studies then you start to build an evidence base. When trying to understand things like the menstrual cycle, generalised approaches just aren’t going to cut it.”

By Luke Whitworth

In our penultimate virtual roundtable of 2023, we reflected on the frequently discussed theme of learning and development. The aim of this particular roundtable was to provide a space and platform for Leaders Performance Institute members to share best practice and experiences with one another, centred around the theme of learning.

Two questions underpinned the groups’ conversations on the day:

• What have been the most impactful learning and development strategies you have integrated in your teams?
• Reflecting on your own experiences, what have been the most effective learning experiences you have engaged in and why?

Having a clear philosophy and intent

In summarising all of the responses and suggestions from the group, it became clear that the effectiveness of your approach to learning and development starts way before the actual practicalities. A reflective question for all is whether your team or organisation has a clear philosophy and intent on learning or if it is just a tick-box exercise because you know it is something that generally needs to be done? Put simply: if you don’t have this philosophy and statement of intent clearly mapped out, it isn’t likely to be effective. We also discussed around reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement, of which clear approaches to learning form a large part of this outlook.

Firstly, start off with outlining key principles. Instilling a set of clear principles that sit behind your learning and development work allows you to find the balance between short and long-term focuses. There is a natural tendency in many high performance environments to be reactive, which can minimise long-term growth. Thoughts from the group suggested that your principles should cover both bases so there are clear expectations from the here and now, but also the future.

Be intentional, often less is more. There is a vast amount of learning and development opportunity for staff and also athletes, so much so that it can be overwhelming. So with this in mind, ensure you are intentional with what is being focused on, how much time you are dedicating to it and perhaps most importantly, how will it drive positive change. One of the comments on the call that summarised this point well was the importance of creating the need and desire for change.

Have a needs-based approach. This is a natural follow on from the point above and will support the intentionality of what you or your team engages in. The key element of the needs-based approach is making sure you are participating using the right stimulus.

With any learning and development experience you engage in, do you have a clear commitment to action post-engagement which highlights what you are actually going to do differently or to deepen the quality of that learning?

Finally, how do you think about developing an organisational system that facilitates learning and development? A reflection is that learning can often take place in silos and learning isn’t shared organisation-wide. Environments that create a true culture of learning have clear systems and strategies in place to create opportunities for the sharing of practice. Intention and organisation will also help to elevate the quality of your learning.

Peer group opportunities

When aggregating all of the responses from the group conversations, unsurprisingly the most common response when thinking about effective learning and development strategies were aligned to peer group opportunities. There were a few specific examples of this in how you are able to facilitate these opportunities for staff or your athletes.

• Creating opportunities for regular feedback that focuses on specific topics of analysis. One attendee shared that taking 45 minutes and breaking this up between 15-minute presentations and 30 minutes of conversation has been impactful.
• Having a blend of in-house learning and bringing outside expertise in. How are you leaning into the expertise that is already in the building that can sometimes be overlooked? When the time is right, what knowledge from outside of the environment can be welcomed in to provoke thought and challenge thinking? One environment shared that every Thursday an external thought leader is invited to speak to the performance team leaders. They have even created their own Sport Performance Summit, bringing together a mix of internal and external perspectives on key pain points, combining theory and practice.
• Spending more energy on focused learning versus passive. There was a reflection in the conversations around the amount of passive learning that can take place, whether that be articles, podcasts or other media. This can be valuable, but to shift a change in behaviour, we want to keep learning focused through regular scheduled sessions around key topics and challenges.
• Leveraging the power of peer mentoring every month in your environment has seen high levels of effectiveness.
• Opportunities and spaces to be creative that takes you away from the temptation of day-to-day delivery. Another environment on the call shared how they have implemented creative breakfasts to share ideas.
• Encourage cross-departmental projects. We often hear of the challenges of siloed working. The act of encouraging and facilitating cross-departmental projects or learning opportunities has been incredibly impactful in some environments, not only in helping to develop relationships but to also expand knowledge outside of specific teams and disciplines.

Other impactful strategies

Although a large number of effective strategies aligned to peer-group opportunities, there were also some excellent thoughts and considerations that sat outside of this bucket. Some of these strategies are well-known and utilised well in environments, but it was a good reminder of the impact they can have when focused on consistently and strategically.

Unsurprisingly, experiential learning was identified as a really impactful strategy for learning. To get this right, create a space for the learning experience, mixing theory and practice and then make the learning activity experiential in nature.

There was also a thread of discussion around after-action reviews and debriefing. These tend to be strategies that are not utilised as well across high performance sport, largely due to the fast-paced nature of the industry – it’s often onto the next game. However, one environment shared how much they have gained by having reviews every week on decision-making processes and having this consistent approach has yielded some really positive results. How consistent are you with reviewing?

‘Question-based leadership’ was something the group felt was an opportunity when considering effective learning and development strategies. Question-based leadership refers to the notion of communicating through open, targeted questions more often than in closed statements. In a number of recent conversations across the Leaders Performance Institute, several members have shared how quality questioning is an under-utilised skill in many environments.

Finally, the group also touched on the importance of psychological safety in the environment and celebrating a ‘beginners mind’ to help reduce fear, noise and impostor syndrome.

By Luke Whitworth

In a recent Leaders Performance Institute virtual roundtable, we explored the work of Dan Heath in his book Upstream.

Heath’s central argument is that we should be striving to intervene ‘upstream’ rather than ‘downstream’. ‘Downstream’ actions react to problems once they’ve occurred and ‘upstream’ efforts aim to prevent those problems from happening. The premise of Heath’s work fed into our conversations in taking stock of the themes that are occupying downstream thinking, as well as supporting upstream thinking in how themes within high performance sport might evolve and how we best prepare for them.

There were three questions we explored as part of the group conversations:

• What topics, themes or challenges are currently forefront of your mind based on your specific role?
• Projecting ahead, what topics and themes do you think will be forefront of your mind in 2-3 years’ time? These could be potential problems for the future or opportunities.
• How do you think we can best prepare for those ‘upstream trends’?

Where are we?

With a variety of disciplines and sports on the call, it was interesting to first of all explore what topics, themes or challenge are currently forefront of mind for those that were on the call. There were a number of commonalities despite the differences in sport and discipline.

Influence of technology

It wasn’t a huge surprise to see that a topic and challenge on people’s minds at the moment is the influence of technology on different elements of the programme. A theme outlined in the groups was around how to best integrate innovation, notably data and analytics. The key question aligned to this was around how and what to push forward, to decide which has the best opportunity to influence the organisation as a whole. The influence of technology also came to the fore around someone leading player development programmes, specifically around implementing new tracking technology as part of their player development strategy to balance old-school habits and modern thinking. Finally, the elephant in the room – the influence of artificial intelligence. What should remain ‘human’ and what can be ‘machine’ was a question occupying thoughts from those on the call.

The performance environment

There were a lot of responses from within the group that fell into the bucket of the performance environment. A sub-theme centred around team dynamics and, in particular the challenge of creating a unified language and beliefs throughout the performance team. As an extension to this, another focus shared was the driving of standards and ways of working within the team. Interdisciplinary working was highlighted as both a challenge and area of focus by one of the environments on the call. Another complexity and consideration that aligned to this section was the ongoing need to navigate a landscape where athletes have a growing agency over the design of their performance setup and how performance support staff work around this evolution. Finally, health and wellbeing as a priority for both athletes and staff was something forefront of mind for participants on the call.

Staff development

To wrap up this first section, staff development was another overarching theme forefront of people’s minds. There are ongoing considerations around upward mobility, the organisation and planning of staff development and how we best balance innovation with evidence-based practice. There was also a nod to the importance of accountability around staff development and it actually having an impact back into the programme.

What’s next?

After we took time to reflect, it was time to project forward around what topics and themes we think we could be encountering and thinking about in two to three years’ time. This question yielded some really interesting perspectives – this could be an excellent list of considerations for upstream thinking and for high performance staff to engage in conversations around when back in their environments.

Doing more with less: with the cost of living continuing to rise, budgets are becoming tighter across organisations. How can we continue to innovate and continue to move forward in a resourceful way? Similarly, do perceived innovative practices actually make us better and do we need to be more cognisant of this when there is more pressure to be efficient with resources?

Workload management: relevant to both athletes and staff as the pressure and amount of competition continues to increase across all sport. We are seeing evolutions in technology, rule changes and yearly calendars for competitions which is something we need to more and more aware of.

Player empowerment: considerations around how athlete will use and control their data and information that is tracked. How can organisations be creative and separate themselves?

Interrupted competition: with some of the challenges being faced around the world, how might this impact the competitions we engage in? How will we work to build more agile sporting systems and support athletes to deal with these challenges?

Protecting the ecosystem: aligned nicely to some of the contemporary topics and challenges we are facing, how do we find the balance between the human system within our analysis and protect the ecosystem we are creating? There is a general feeling that we must not let the ‘machine’ completely take over the human system, as it has the potential to drastically alter our performance frameworks.

Change fatigue: the consideration of wellbeing in a constantly disrupted context that is high performance sport, especially where we are witnessing increasing amounts of change which impacts the physical and mental wellbeing of our people.

Creating opportunities: as educational standards are changing, how are we creating opportunities for younger professionals to enter and develop within the industry?

Artificial intelligence: even though many sporting environments are beginning to trial and embrace artificial intelligence, its influence is likely to remain a popular topic of conversations further down the line as we become better educated around the impact it can have on what we do. What might it mean for you and your team?

Preparing for what’s next

Now we have outlined eight future considerations, we shifted the conversation to how we can best prepare for these upstream trends. The idea of this question was to share best practices leveraged in the environments on the call that may positively impact how we prepare and project for future topics.

Be proactive rather than reactive

It sounds like a simple best practice but how intentional are we in being proactive to anticipating and committing to thinking upstream and engaging in how we are going to handle the ‘oh shit moments’? One attendee on the call shared how the team seek to have quarterly ‘what’s ahead’ meetings to create an intentional space to think in the longer-term. Do you have a person or a small team who are focused on trends and studying what’s happening in the sports world? Having people accountable and feeding information back into the organisation is important for the development of the ‘upstream culture’. It’s important to also not fall into the trap of just following trends – add context to your own world or environment even if some of the trends you are coming across are from the same sport.

Get out of your own bubble

We reflected on the importance of engaging in group conversations with people from different disciplines and sports to gain fresh perspectives on what they are seeing in their contexts. A member of the group shared how much buy-in and energy is created when there is mention of learning from different organisations in the industry, especially when there are commonalities and affirmation in terms of thinking. Finally, another simple but, if done well, powerful best practice: be aware of as much as possible – listen, make notes of patterns and spend time across as many people as possible so you are collating a diversity of perspectives and insights.

Collaborate

There was a general agreement that there is a need for increased collaboration – the world is getting smaller, therefore building collaborative partnerships that save time, aggregate resources and accelerate learning are of vital importance. Secondly, how are we helping our people thrive and feel empowered to think further upstream? It starts with investing heavily in good people and trusting individuals to work with autonomy and lead others in smaller groups – this approach will allow organisations to navigate many issues with more agility than traditional fixed organisational structures. Finally, one of the future trends was around the power of the athlete – look to be much more collaborative with them and work with them and, where relevant, their support network as opposed to fighting against it.

By Luke Whitworth

What are the main barriers we are witnessing in the quest to find the balance between short and long-term strategy?

Consequently, when thinking about these barriers, what solutions, approaches and changes are we looking to implement to find that balance? These were the two questions that formed part of the group conversations as part of our Virtual Roundtable discussions.

What are the major barriers we are experiencing?

To set the tone for our conversations and to ensure we were focusing more on solutions to our challenges around this topic, attendees were encouraged to share the main barriers to finding an effective balance for short and long-term strategy. As expected, there were a number of commonalities and we acknowledged the different contexts those on the call were operating in.

The need for week to week results and return on investment

As expected, the most popular response from the group was around the pressures, desires and expectations to win and see improvement quickly. Dovetailing this challenge was also the increased anxiety that can be experienced around ‘deemed success’ within certain roles and what the implications are if results don’t fall as we’d like. For those operating within the Olympic system, it was clear that there are pressures from funding partners to be seeing quicker return on investment which can also influence longer-term thinking. Outside of the final score or outcome, it was acknowledged that losses are not limited to just the end result – injuries or a lack of objective progress deters away from the long-term vision to a shorter-term, reactive mindset.  Finally on this point, it was referenced that many environments can experience unrealistic expectations on performance outcomes that create uncertainty and misalignment from the outset.

Organisational alignment

Another common challenge outlined by the group was the lack of alignment when it comes to discussions around short and longer-term thinking. What are we witnessing on an organisational level? There is an absence of individual role clarity aligned to long-term thinking, unlike the short-term. There is a natural expertise or discipline bias that exists in environments which can impact a unified approach to both the short and long-term, thus impacting the ability to collaborate effectively. Mindset. This was an interesting reflection that arose when exploring both questions, is the organisational mindset aligned when it comes to finding this balance? Do those in the environment have confidence in the approach and that match realistic expectations?

To conclude this second major barrier, the group also suggested that communication is often a core part of this process that requires more attention – what is the interpretation of short and long, where does one stop and start? Is there consistent communication and space provided to dedicate time to both short and long-term thinking? It is also clear that there are structural challenges when it comes to alignment – are those in departmental lead roles aligned in both day-to-day performance focuses, but also the horizon scanning for the programme?

Shifting the dial and finding a better balance

As part of the group conversations, we looked to lean on one another’s experiences around how we are looking to affect the barriers in a positive way and what approaches or best practices are having the most impact.

Balancing short and long-term strategy requires ‘bravery’

Be brave and be deliberate was one of the key reflections that came from the conversations. Why did the term bravery emerge in the conversations? It was aligned to the fact that some bravery in terms of decision making is important to commit to something we believe in for the future. An environment from the Olympic world outlined that they found it more useful talking about ’12-Year Statements of Intent’. When looking at funding submissions, there was a short-term strategy set in the context of a ’12-Year Statement of Intent’ – it encouraged thinking around what 12 years ahead actually looks like and each time there is a conversation around why we’re doing something in a particular way, it gives the collective something to roll back to. Thinking that amount of time ahead does take bravery, but it provides an opportunity to ensure that the short and long-term are connected rather than having tension with one another.

Creating dedicated space and time

It was interesting to hear that many environments aren’t intentional in creating opportunities and space to talk about the long-term. Often, we are finding that the long-term thinking is morphing into the day-to-day and we aren’t moving into ‘new spaces’ to explore new thinking and how to carry information forward. We can do better at connecting the two through a methodology such as ‘plan, do, review’ which can be an effective approach. If we can get this to work, it can help to connect the short with the long-term.

The groups also felt it was important to note that creating space and time for these conversations should be a systemised approach, it shouldn’t just be a one off – integrate this into how you operate. Deliberately, every three to four months, come together and look at what we said we were going to do in the short-term and review how is that connecting to the long-term.

It was also encouraged that we are deliberate in creating space for different mindsets, there are different mental states required to think in the long-term vs the short-term. One is more creative and the other is more action-orientated. One environment from the Olympic system shared that a scenario they have had this year is preparing for Paris 2024 and submitting funding around what the strategy may be. The team did some work around futurology and brought in an external facilitator from the University of Oxford who does scenario planning and future thinking work.

As part of your organisational strategy, it was also suggested that allocating resource and reward processes related to long-term thinking and not just short-term delivery help find a healthier balance – often most of our resources are aligned to short-term delivery.

Clear vision and values

Start with the end in mind and work backwards from where the long-term strategy is targeted at was another key suggestion – what are the milestones, targets and priorities to close the gaps? It requires time and effort to continue to keep the strategy alive with the behaviours that underpin them and not just seeking short-term success.

Many environments witness frequent change where progress around long-term thinking can be stifled – look at handover and inductions with a focus on the culture and vision of the organisation to provide an element of sustainability and alignment. Creating a vision is the start, particularly bringing to life the ‘how’ we get there is vital for clarity. Have respect for all the different departments and teams within the organisation that have different priorities.

Accountability

Finding a balance between short and long-term thinking requires a level of accountability within the environment. There is an importance placed on ongoing communication, buy-in from all involved and accountability to the long-term plan. Outside of individual accountability, there is also a need for ‘programme accountability’ to reviewing (week-to-week, month-to-month, cycle-to-cycle) in a fashion that links with the long-term vision and strategy.

Changing the mindset

We have already briefly alluded to the idea of mindset or the mental spaces required for these kinds of thinking. There is an importance in being deliberate and recognising the different mindset required to think in the short and long term – an intent, purpose and real desire to affect change in a positive manner. There was a great reflection in the discussion that most of the team meetings we experience are often focused on the things we are reacting to on a daily or weekly basis. Maybe we need to make an intentional shift to ensure we don’t get caught up in the reactive mindset.

We also discussed language. Make the long term strategy as a concept more exciting to talk about – long-term strategy can often sound quite uninteresting, so how can we change the language to galvanise a group and create excitement? There is sometimes a deterrent that the ‘long-term’ is so far in the future you can’t realistically consider it, whereas it should be exciting to think about the future.

By Luke Whitworth

Our latest Performance Support Series explores the past, present, and future of talent development. This series of learning is being delivered by Dr Edd Vahid, the Head of Academy Football Operations at the English Premier League.

For the second session of the series, Vahid outlined a few aims for those in attendance, as we continue to explore the ‘5 I’s’ model first shared in session one. If you missed out on the first part of this series, you can read about the model and other key points here. The aims were as followed:

• Introduce individualised and interdisciplinary support as critical features of successful talent development models.
• Discuss the challenges, tensions and opportunities in individualising support.
• Explore the conditions that allow interdisciplinary support to thrive.

Being individualised

As part of the first session of this series, attendees were asked to rank themselves around their effectiveness of the ‘5 I’s’ model. On a ranking of 1-5, below were the responses for the two parts of the model we explored in session two:

• Individualised Support: 4.1
• Interdisciplinary Support: 3.8

These responses provided some interesting insights into where we think we are in relation to our talent development frameworks and environment. Providing individualised and interdisciplinary support, scored highest out of the five elements of the model, but with clear room for improvement.

To help us think about the importance of being truly individualised, whilst also appreciating the tensions and challenges that come along with this, Vahid brought in some of the work from author Todd Rose and renowned sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to elevate these points.

The End of Average

In Rose’s The End of Average, there was an anecdote highlighting bodies of research by the US Air Force into why there were so many incidents, despite having some of the best pilots in the world and the best technology. One of the key summaries was that the cockpit was built upon the average needs of a pilot rather than the specific needs.

Out of 4,063 pilots, not a single airman could fit in the cockpit, within the average range on all 10 dimensions. One pilot might have a longer-than-average arm length, but a shorter-than-average leg length. Another pilot might have a big chest but small hips. Even more astonishing, (Lt. Gilbert S.) Daniels discovered that if you picked out just three of the ten dimensions of size — say, neck circumference, thigh circumference and wrist circumference — less than 3.5 per cent of pilots would be average sized on all three dimensions. Daniels’s findings were clear and incontrovertible. There was no such thing as an average pilot. If you’ve designed a cockpit to fit the average pilot, you’ve actually designed it to fit no one.

This passage in The End of Average highlights that being truly individualised is crucial in allowing us to optimise the support and impact we can have on individuals. It is also worth noting that individualisation continues to be a challenge with the scales we are operating at, and the resources we have at our disposal.

Habitus, field and capital

To align to the work of Rose, we complemented this with the research of Bourdieu, whose work encourages us think more deeply about ‘the individual’ and, in our context, who we are trying to provide individualised support for.

Bourdieu talked about the concepts of habitus, field and capital.

‘Habitus’ is the ‘product of history, (that) produces individual and collective practices. It ensures the active presence of past experiences, which, deposited in each organism in the form of schemes of perception, thought and action… Bourdieu and Wacquant suggest that when an individual encounters an environment that is compatible with their established habitus, they are like ‘fish in water’. It’s important to recognise that we all have individual habituses; we’re different.

‘Field’ is the social arena, where people compete for resources and demonstrate their power.

‘Capital’ is the notion of competing in a field and enhance social position – individuals require capital. Different forms of capital might exist and potentially include physical and economic. The new environment (field) establishes the cultural, social and symbolic. An individual must adapt if they have aspirations for distinction and subsequent progression. Relevant to us, how are we creating experiences to better prepare our talent for what’s next?

The tensions in being individualised

We know that being individualised is an important element of an effective talent development model. However, we must acknowledge the tensions and challenges that can exist around this. Some of these tensions and challenges can be ironed out, some just exist and are hard to eradicate. Based on some of Vahid’s experiences, he shared a few that he often sees:

The individual and / or the team. Cohesion is an important part of a high-performing team. There could be a tension in an individual who isn’t in the higher grading from an individual performance point of view, but is a strong contributor to team cohesion or getting the best out of others. What do you do?

Performance vs potential: many environments experience the challenge of defining potential – what is it and how are we assessing it? How predictable can we be in that assessment? There are many examples of individuals who were judged to not be at a particular level, but have moved to another environment and thrived.

Club and organisational philosophy. It depends on the organisation and what the philosophy is. Is it about prioritising and getting one or two athletes in the first team environment? Therefore, you would be in your own right to focus on A-grade talent and not so much those that might support the cohesion of the group.

Interdisciplinary support

‘If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail’ – Abraham Maslow

At the heart of these conversations, the value of having multiple eyes and different perspectives that add value. An effective multidisciplinary team, working in an interdisciplinary fashion is reliant on an inclusive environment where everyone can turn up and truly express themselves and feel comfortable in contribution. How do we get an interdisciplinary function to work effectively?

The conditions

Psychological safety is an underpinning concept that supports interdisciplinarity. The work of Professor Timothy Clark at Durham University, a specialist in environmental humanities and deconstruction, suggests that the first step is about inclusion safety and how we as leaders or individuals are contributing to a team to ensure there is suitable inclusion into conversations, allowing everyone to contribute.

Author Patrick Lencioni’s work around the ‘The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team’ suggests that the heart of dysfunction is the absence of trust. Invest time to ensure that the individuals can show up to enable the multidisciplinary team to work in an interdisciplinary fashion.

Judgment criteria. When giving consideration to how disciplines or individuals are judged, these have to be aligned with the organisational vision. Each discipline can have their own detailed judgment criteria and if that is not aligned it can cause separation which undermines the ability to work in an interdisciplinary fashion. To underline this point, it’s also important to have interdisciplinary markers of success.

Role clarity. A consideration for how the various disciplines are inducted for how they contribute to the bigger picture.

How do we physically create the conditions for conversations? How are you working to create flow and connection in an organisation? In Edd’s experience in talent development environments, there’s been a strong push to get multidisciplinary teams sitting closer together to enhance interdisciplinarity but do we need to be doing more than just where people sit and creating more conditions within the environments to support this way of operating?

In partnership with

By Luke Whitworth

Leaders Meet: People Development, hosted alongside the Texas Rangers, was our second physical event of the year in North America.

Throughout the day, we engaged in case study sessions, roundtable discussions and skill-based learning centred around the overarching theme of people development for performance.

These are the key afternoon takeaways. (Morning takeaways can be found here.)

Session 3: Elevating Performance Through Psychological Health & Safety

Speaker: Rachel Lutz-Guevara, Vice President of Wellness & Resiliency, TaskUs

• Psychological health: the management of psychological health and risk; promoting wellbeing.
• Opportunity: we don’t think about psychological health and safety as we do physical health and safety. We are more susceptible to psychological injury vs. physical injury within the workplace.
• How do we develop strategies to implement this into the broader framework? Some of the risks could exist could locker room talk, media pressures, lack of cultural humility – these may not seem much of a big deal, they can degrade the skills of high performing and resilient people.
• If we make investments in this space, we can see developments in performance.
• The framework: understand the organisation and its innate risks. What are the needs and expectations of people? What is the scope and scale of the programme? Identify the leaders – it is one thing to delegate, another thing to have modelling and sponsorship from the top down. Create policies and embed them into the operational execution.
• How to do this in practice: prevention strategies.
• Prevention: primordial, primary, secondary, tertiary.
• Think about recruitment: how do you ensure the right people are joining? Integration of wellness-informed questions as part of this process creates an holistic view before someone starts. Are they going to be a good fit?
• Onboarding: in employment, how do you prepare your people? What is the fabric of the organisation?
• Resiliency muscle: the organisation are looking to grow resiliency muscle through experiential learning. TaskUs mandate paid wellness time around skills based training.
• Post employment: how are you supporting those that choose to leave?
• Be explicit: about the work – talking about the spectrum of risks that can occur. We want to be transparent. Provide opportunity to opt-out. Have a holistic approach to get the right people. Services available once they enter the company. Expectation of how employees use those services.
• Research outcomes: with this strategy, TaskUs employees who have gone through this recruitment process is resulting in the organisation retaining staff members 35% longer than counterparts who don’t have this – and they are able to adjust to work quicker.
• Impact of skill acquisition training: KPIs have improved 4% / accuracy 8%. Attrition by 50%. What could that do for the broader organisation? Operating, performing and feeling better – there is a business case to investing in wellbeing and learning.
• Flawed methodology: there is too much focus on reactive techniques. We are seeing many organisations not leaning into the proactive side of things enough.
• Thriving teams: go proactive and leave reactive behind. Are we doing this across the whole organisation and not just for athletes? Why do it – it builds confidence and relationships etc. Having provisions alone isn’t enough, embedding into the structure of a preventative angle is where dividends get paid.
• Keep people well: meet people when they are well and keep them well instead of waiting for decline and then intervening.
• Flawed methodology: many rely on company culture and motivation. We assume that if we are supplying something new and shiny, it will drive engagement. Structure, discipline, consistency and availability of resources allow us to arrive at culture and motivation.
• How to start the framework: ‘I’m willing to make myself feel uncomfortable for the good of the team. Sometimes good things come from being uncomfortable’.
• Identify and engage an executive leader: they serve as an advocate so that there are no barriers to execution.
• Build a business case: most organisations are running a business that is performance-driven and see wellness as part of the broader business wellness ecosystem. This is going to help a wellbeing programme flourish.
• Hiring an expert: ensure you have deep technical knowledge and expertise. Have evidence-based practices that are effective.
• Start with vulnerability.
• Think about how you show up, how you want to be seen.

Session 4: Translating Values into Development

Speaker: Dayton Moore, Senior Advisor, Texas Rangers

• Values in the journey: two things learnt from the journey: 1) Forgive every single day. 2) You can’t quit.
• Keeping energy and focus: human beings are motivated by praise and defeated by criticism. It’s important to have people around you who are energy givers, problem-solvers and positive by nature.
• Reflect on your youth: never stop looking at the game from the eyes of your youth.
• Being self-aware: Dayton shared that he always wanted to have ‘numbers’ people around him – there was a deficiency in knowledge so ‘layering on’ was important to help further support his decision making.
• Experiences are vital: all experiences are vital – the biggest challenge is to utilise and align together. In leadership whatever values you think are important, if you want togetherness and unity, how are you creating pathways for relationships to thrive?
• Five areas when recruiting a player: scouting evaluation / character evaluation / medical evaluation / financial evaluation / R&D evaluation. All must come together to acquire a player.
• Identifying talent: three things you can always look at and tap into – where are their playgrounds / who are their playmates / what are their ‘play toys’ (spending their money on).

Session 5: Skills Development – Building Our Personal Impact

Speaker: Tim Cox, Managing Director, Management Futures

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”​ Maya Angelou

• Status: building credibility through the confidence we convey.
• Status: low and high status.
• Low: speaking softly​. Speaking quickly and disjointedly​. Using low status language – “it’s nothing major, but…”. Cocking your head to one side​. Difficulty maintaining eye contact. Fidgeting while speaking​. Not occupying space with ease​. Tentative ‘errs’ which invite interruption​.
• High: Speaking with passion/Purpose​. Maintaining eye contact​. Adopting confident body language – still, upright, strong gestures​. Speaking slowly and clearly​. Tone conveys importance of message​. Speaking at a volume that is heard.

Effective behaviours

There are push and pull behaviours.

Responsive:

• Explorative questioning​.
• Authentic Listening​. Staying open​.
• Summarising & acknowledging.

Assertive:

• Sharing our perspective​.
• Clear on what we want​.
• Evidence-based persuasion​.
• Giving effective feedback.

Ineffective Behaviours

Passive:

• Giving in too soon​.
• Feeling ‘unworthy’​.
• Low status​.
• Not challenging.

Aggressive:

• Aggression.
• Attacking​.
• Arguing​.
• Refusing to listen.​

Questions to consider around your personal impact:

• What do people say about you?
• How does that differ from your own perception?
• What specifically can you do to bridge the gap?

The key morning takeaways are available here.