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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 morning takeaways. (Afternoon takeaways can be found here.)

Women’s Sport Breakfast: Development Experiences

Speakers:

Hannah Huesman, Mental Performance Coordinator, Texas Rangers

Shelby Baron, Coordinator of Player & Coach Services, United States Tennis Association

Michaelene Courtis, Senior Director of Baseball Operations, Texas Rangers

• Life is a people game. When you prioritise others and yourself with respect, you are going to continue to grow.
• Find ways to connect with people who are not like you. With all walks of life, we tend to look for and find commonalities with people. Have an appreciation that we can learn from everyone.
• In order to lead, you have to go and do it. Going out and doing the work is the best development you can have.
• Reciprocal mentorship: Shelby shared the power of the concept of reciprocal mentorship. It elevates collaboration between two people and provides more opportunity for quality learning.
• Dealing with an athlete – sport psych experiences. Red light vs. green light.
• Don’t take responsibility lightly as someone responsible for developing others. We want to be there based on the experiences we have engaged in.
• For women working in elite sport environments, your mentor or mentors don’t just need to just be women. Who are those that are going to help you grow, develop and challenge your thinking? Encouragement to seek out allies. Understanding you don’t have to have someone who looks like you.
• Developing others: in a player context, look to be proactive in developing relationships through mental skills. Look to equip them with skills they need before things can turn. In all development, it’s important to focus on performance strengths before performance weaknesses.
• Person before performer: this is an important sentiment to withhold. Have vulnerability in knowing them as a person through showing genuine interest in them as a person.
• Growth: Hannah shared that one of the most valuable growth opportunities was being the middle person. It challenges you to think about how to connect with people, collate information and deliver it to others.
• Engage in relationship mapping: everyone in the discussion shared the importance of relationship mapping. Building these relationships creates an impact in the environment that makes a difference to performance.

Session 1: Developing a Learning Culture

Speakers:

Chris Young, General Manager, Texas Rangers

Nico Harrison, General Manager, Dallas Mavericks

• Instilling a learning culture: it’s a simple set of thought processes – if you are not learning you are not advancing and innovating. Nico shared that when he joined the Mavs, he was super intentional in not bringing in close colleagues who had already been part of his journey, as to not create a gap between his personal philosophy and where the team was at with the talent already in the environment. There was a feeling of wanting to feel uncomfortable and to learn on the job at a faster rate.
• What can you hear & see in a learning culture: it always starts around people who ask questions and listen. Chris shared that he looks at this when evaluating – how open are you? How much time do you spend talking or listening? Are they curious?
• Be willing to fail: thinking about fail can be a difficult notion when working with athletes at the highest level. Look at this more from a recalibration point of view to help you move forward. Being empowered to not be scared to fail.
• Retain focus when pressure comes on: the idea of an environment with a learning culture is that it is open and results don’t matter – the reality is that there is an expectation to win. It’s good to say that we are open-minded. It leads to improvement, but if we are not succeeding with that mindset, we need to recalibrate and shift. One of the core values of the Texas Rangers is to dominate the fundamentals, whilst having an appreciation that we can’t be great at everything, but what are the most important aspects to be as successful as possible? These may evolve and shift which are part of a true learning culture.
• Servant leader: Nico shared that the development of the team is a focus. We want an environment where everyone can develop, but it’s important to invest in the high potential talent in the environment and help to accelerate their potential – if you don’t do that, it is hard to maintain.
• Philosophy: every decision made or interaction made, think about the players and how they will react or think – what the impact could that be on them as a human being? Everything can carry weight and value for them. Operate from a place of care and show them that their best interests are at the heart of your process, but accompanied by high standards that we want to hold them to. Asking people ‘what do you want to achieve for yourself?’ is a great starting point.
• Growing trust: Nico shared that he is still building trust, which can take longer than a couple of years. Turnover has been at a sensible pace, as in his experiences it can only metabolise at a certain rate. Lots of change can stifle growth.
• What does success look like: The Texas Rangers as an organisation has two goals, the second being that every employee has the opportunity to achieve their dreams in the organisation, sport or industry. These correlate to the first goal of seeking to win a championship. The biggest goal set at the start of the season, was being an organisation that overachieves – it is a signal or a sign of a healthy culture as it is bringing the best out of everybody and functioning as a whole. Are we in the conversation? How do you develop the team? How do they feel? Are your people excited driving into work? Do they have a voice? Do they reach their goals? Does what they say matters?
• Assess the project of learning: depends on individual circumstances but ensure you are reviewing whether we are making progress and moving forward. What do we need to amend or alter or do to fill in the blanks? Empower departmental heads to evaluate against the fundamental aspects of what we want to be good at and review against those.
• Five factors critical for developing a learning culture: humble people that are open-minded / curiosity / drive / empowerment / collaboration – people that trust each other.

Session 2: Developing Healthier and Stronger Minds – Unlocking Human Potential Through Improved Brain Health & Performance

Speaker: Jennifer Zientz, Center for BrainHealth, The University of Texas at Dallas

• Brain health: it is an emerging field – ‘neck up check ups’. Without brain health, we really don’t have health as it regulates everything we do; 50% of what we do is toxic to our brain health.
• Fast-paced environments: with fast-paced environments, it is critical to have good brain health. We are living far longer, but we don’t know how to keep our brains healthy for the remainder of our lives – the peak is 42-45 years old.
• Neuroplasticity: science is showing the power of neuroplasticity. Your brain is constantly wiring and re-wiring. It is driven by experience and being a passive attendee doesn’t impact it as positively. We need to engage in deeper level thinking to develop neuroplasticity.
• Performance: if we can have improved focus / clarity / change readiness we can influence performance. Our ability to be prepared, adaptable and positioned for change readiness can support success. How we use our brain everyday can influence these factors.
• Information overload: a basic skill that we engage in all the time. It increases cortisol and decreases performance – this is what’s known as maladaptive neuroplasticity.
• Less is more: the less that you are able to have in your environments, the better. With simultaneous inputs, we are not getting at front networks the way we should. These front networks are the CEO of your brain: judgement, reasoning and decision-making.
• The environment: the environment can impact your memory. Every single day in our roles, there are hard conversations and decisions – can you do it without extra and alternate inputs (less is more)? Knowing what you need to pay attention to and focusing on that, not trying to take everything in at one time. This is significant for brain health.
• You will get more done if you do less.
• Superficial learning: how deeply so we think about information? How much time do you spend in superficial learning environments? This type of learning is highly familiar to us, where not a huge amount of brain power is needed to solve problems. We don’t have to put as much elbow grease into brain power.
• Front networks: when we spend too much time in superficial thinking, we are not engaging our front networks. We are relying on overused and overlearned information. We need efficiencies, but you have to be putting some elbow grease into it. Your brain is like your body – like anything, you start somewhere and then have to up your ante.
• Curiosity & motivation: these are the biggest drivers of brain health. Curiosity are the new ways to explore and the motivation is the drive to succeed.
• Deeper level thinking: deep dives into information and issues. How much of your time do you spend in service level thinking – where can you change that? How intentional are you at stopping and thinking how and where can we do things differently? Be prudent to jump in and don’t solely rely on expertise all the time. It will increase dopamine and agility.
• Yourself as an athlete: do you treat yourself as well as the athletes? When in an industry of winning, the greatest asset is the brain. How we are going to get there depends on brain power.
• Possibility thinking: thinking outside the box and having open-mindedness. We have lots of ideas, ultimately it comes down to the possibilities we see for ourselves, team and organisation. We operate in a mindset of just doing better than last time – better doesn’t equate to more. It’s about trying things and a culture of possibility through exploration.
• Changing environments: just because we tried things last year and it failed, doesn’t mean it will fail again. How can we be change ready? What are the possibilities that could exist?
• Be possibility thinkers on behalf of others – in leadership, having the ability to forecast with each individual we work with. Putting in seeds of ideas – possibility thinking increases flexibility in our thinking, provides perspectives and reframes failure.
• How are you calibrating your mental resources? Deploy you greatest thinking skillset where you need it and not expending excess brain power on low level things that impact mental energy.
• The workplace: this is one of the most important places where we shape our brain.
• Seek to do 10% less multitasking.
• Identify the things that you can improve and want to improve – don’t be surface level thinkers. Get to the root of the issue and why it matters. Engage your thinking and get a better level of neuroplasticity.
• What are you doing with the information is what will change your brain. Improve synchronicity of those front networks.
• Do you think about your brain? Usually people don’t unless something happens to it. Your brain is your favourite organ. If you put your brain health into the game it can change so much.
• We each need every ounce of mental advantage to maintain and improve the world around us – it starts with us at an individual level.

The key afternoon takeaways are available here.

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

There is a common perception in football that if you finish lower in the table than you did the previous season then you have failed.

The truth is not always so simple. Women’s Super League [WSL] side Brighton & Hove Albion finished sixth in 2020-21 and followed that with a seventh-place finish in 2021-22. Last season was their fourth as a WSL team, having received a top-tier licence in 2017, and the first where they were unable to match or better their previous position.

It is a source of frustration for Manager Hope Powell, who shares the view that outcomes are not everything. She says: “We were really disappointed because we should have finished sixth, but it was still a really successful season because of some of the performances we had. The way the team performed, the way the staff performed – we put things in place and we delivered in lots of areas. It’s been a successful season for us and, for me, success is defined in so many different ways on and off the pitch.”

Powell, who also admits that she “cannot ignore the league table”, describes the challenge of taking on the WSL’s wealthier clubs as Brighton’s “greatest opportunity”. “From a football perspective, challenging those bigger, more established clubs that have been in the high end of the game for so many more years than we have is a daily challenge for Brighton, in a good way,” she continues.

The Seagulls are looking to meet that challenge both on and off the field, with Powell discussing player development in the second part of her interview with the Leaders Performance Institute. In the third and final instalment, she reflects on the culture at Brighton and the steps she and her team are taking to develop a high performance environment conducive to challenging for the top four in the WSL. “That’s where we want to be and we have to strive to be better than they are [the clubs who make up the current top four], to shift our club from where we are now to where we want to be.”

A nimble approach

Powell explains that at the end of the WSL season, the team generally holds a review, which is a process led by her psychologist [Beth Yeoman was appointed as Senior Psychologist for Women and Girls in May 2022]. “It’s standard stuff,” says Powell. “What went well, what we want to keep doing, what we want to let go and what new things we want to introduce.”

The most important thing, she continues, is the weekly conversations between Powell and her staff about the environment and the culture. “Is it working? What do we need to do now? What’s important? What isn’t important? I find that to be a weekly conversation so that we don’t just say ‘all the way through the season we’re going to do this’ and then at the end of the season decide if it’s been good or bad. I think it’s just about conversations and setting the tone of where you’d like the environment of the people you’re working with to be. I don’t think it’s too onerous.”

The Leaders Performance Institute suggests to Powell that it sounds like cultural mapping. “You can call it that,” she replies, “I think it’s just about having open and honest conversations. Certainly for me and my team. How does the environment feel? How are the players? What do we need to change? How do we need to engage them more? What about their voices? Is it too much? Too little? If that’s called ‘cultural mapping’ I don’t know, but that’s what we do on a regular basis.”

Powell has learned, during the course of her coaching career, to trust her gut. It served her well in the 15 years she spent as Manager of the England women’s senior team between 1998 and 2013 and so far during her five years at Brighton.

“I really believe that coaches have a gut feeling,” she says. “‘How does this feel today?’ Or during the week I’ll ask myself ‘how is training?’ Maybe it didn’t feel or look right. ‘What’s going on?’ Or, ‘this feels good – what happened? The players seem happy’. It’s those conversations and I get those feelings and so I like to challenge those feelings. ‘Am I missing something? It doesn’t feel right’. Generally my gut tells me ‘stick to it, Hope’ and every time I don’t, it doesn’t quite work out.”

Adding value

Powell speaks fondly of her coaching staff. “I believe I have the right people,” she says. “The most important thing is providing the opportunity for the team to say ‘this is what I think we should do next’. I am not precious about what we do as long as it adds value. If we think that it will work and we try it, that’s where the constant conversation is important. ‘It doesn’t [work]? Well we’ve tried it. I want the staff and, more importantly, the players to own it, be engaged, to have some pride in what they do and add value.

“It’s a chance for the multidisciplinary team to go, ‘this was really good, I didn’t think this worked, I think we need to change it, I don’t think it’s right, Hope.’ ‘What do you think then?’ I’m very much ‘what do you think?’ because even though I’m the leader, I’m not – we’re all leading it, they’re all experts. I manage it and I make the overall decision because if it doesn’t work, I lose my job. I get the input of everybody. My favourite words are ‘what do you think? What are your thoughts?’ That’s how I work. If you can’t trust your team or the people you’re working with then they’re not the right people.”

There is occasional turnover of staff and Powell will pay more attention to the work of new staff. “And then those conversations become less and less,” she says. “‘Just tell me what you are doing so I know’. ‘Is this OK?’ ‘ Yeah, go for it. Let me know when it’s done.’

She also senses when new staff members are keen to make a good impression. “They come in, and try to make an impression, as people do, and I have to say to them ‘don’t just say something because you feel that you have to. You’re not going to be judged because you don’t say something – say something only when you can add value. If there’s nothing to say then you don’t need to say anything’, but people want to make an impression. You make impressions in other ways, don’t you, it’s not all about having the last word. It’s not always copying in everyone in an email, which absolutely drives me crazy. Why do people do that? Because they’re trying to look good. That’s really sad, actually. That’s the world in which we live. I’m just not like that.”

CPD and mentorship

Powell is a big believer in keeping herself fresh and current through presentations, seminars, podcasts and conversations with other coaches. “When you have been on a journey as I have been, everyone thinks that you stop learning,” says Powell, who also serves as a coaching mentor with Fifa, Uefa, the Premier League and the Football Association. “The younger coaches come through and they want to absorb all of the information and quite often forget that you are still on a journey and you are still learning yourself. I think it’s really important as older coaches that we have that capacity and we have the will to do that.”

Of her own mentors, Powell recalls a former coach who, in his day job, was a senior manager at BT. “A lot of people reported into him and that really helped me when I went into management,” she continues. “It wasn’t about football, it was about managing groups of people, having a strategy, having a plan, how you communicate to groups of people, how you share your vision with your team and all of those sorts of things. I think if you can get a mentor outside of your sport, that is really powerful.” What about mentors within football? “I also value the people I talk to and the mentors I had in the sport because they understand it from the sporting context. If you can get a balance of both it’s really helpful.”

Brighton will provide and finance regular CPD opportunities both internally and externally for staff members. “The staff, or ‘coaches’ as we call everybody, have a responsibility to deliver CPD so that it enhances their knowledge, their learning and their development. I think it’s really important,” says Powell. “So all my staff have to deliver whether they’re a junior therapist or a senior practitioner. It’s very important that everyone gets the opportunity to deliver and to lead. It’s not just about the most experienced person in the room giving all the information.”

Diversity as a competitive edge

Powell is a pioneer in English football. She was the youngest-ever Manager of England when she was appointed, aged 31, in 1998. She was also the first woman and first black person to take the position.

Her role at Brighton affords her the opportunity to directly impact the diversity of her staff. “I guess I’m in a good position as I have the responsibility of recruiting and hiring staff,” she says. “You try to get the best players and the best staff possible. I quite like an equal split of male and female.” She points to the fact that she has a female assistant manager [Amy Merricks] and a male goalkeeping coach [Alex Penny].

“I think it’s important to have a diverse group. We have people who are from abroad as well, not just English. We’re down by the south coast and the demographic is very white and middle-class. I’m very happy to recruit from closer to London – I live in London – and I’m quite aware and mindful of that, to make sure the group is diverse, because then you get diverse thought. Otherwise you get everything that’s exactly the same and that just doesn’t work.”

Powell actively tries to provide employment opportunities for women because they are all too often lacking in English football. “I want the best person but I’m also mindful of the diversity in the group and, if I’m honest, I’m a bit biased because of opportunities for women in the game. If there’s a good female, I look at the female first if I think they’re good enough. They’re more likely to get the job simply because the opportunities for women aren’t afforded as much as they are for men, especially in football.”

She prides herself in her honesty but also in her support for her staff. “I think if you were to ask any member of staff if they feel supported they’d all say ‘yes’,” she says, reflecting on  Brighton’s progress on her watch. “Everyone believes in what you’re trying to achieve and everyone is prepared to work together.”

A podcast brought to you by our Partners Elite Performance Partners

“Folks coming into the organisation, whatever their career aspirations may be or their vision of leadership, we want to help them find that, whatever is genuine and authentic to them.”

Ben Baroody, the Director of Leadership Development & Mental Performance at the Texas Rangers of Major League baseball, is discussing career and leadership development opportunities at the club in this latest edition of the Elite Performance Partners Industry [EPP] Insight Series.

EPP are a performance consultancy and search firm highly regarded across sport and, for this episode, EPP’s Founding Partner Dave Slemen and Managing Partner Anna Edwards posed the questions to Ben, who spoke of the Rangers’ processes and practices that enable the advancement of players and staff alike.

Also on the agenda were:

• How Ben and the Rangers make time for those leadership and career development opportunities [8:30];
• The club’s efforts to set people up to succeed by creating a development space [10:30];
• ‘Soft’ skills and the Rangers’ ability to track the development of players and staff [23:00];
• The renewed emphasis on the mental side of performance in the training environment [29:20].

Dave Slemen Twitter | LinkedIn

Anna Edwards LinkedIn

By Luke Whitworth

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How NASA Share Knowledge and Learn Faster

Framing the topic

Applying new learning or ideas continues to be a fascinating theme of discussion across the world of high performance sport, yet it remains a challenge. In this virtual roundtable which was led by Leaders Performance Advisor Bobby Scales II, we explored six points around this theme and then opened up discussions around key considerations and approaches of those on the call.

How to lift ideas off the page

1. Learning with intent: we read articles, listen to podcasts and attend conferences. Curious people acquire tons of information but are we learning for enhancement or are we learning for entertainment? When preparing to engage in a learning opportunity, what is it that you want to learn? It’s extremely important to learn in a purposeful and pragmatic fashion – follow up and make it impactful.
2. Focus: leaving the learning environment (speech, conference etc.) with several pieces that made significant impact. Focus on one or two that you can apply to your organisation. Utilise the flight or train home – that can be a vital period in reviewing what made an impact on you.
3. Process: quickly create a process by which you plan to implement those ideas. Formulating an actionable plan is key to making the knowledge that you acquired ‘sticky’. How can you dig deeper on what stood out to you?
4. Board of directors: share what you have learned and how you plan to implement your ideas with your ‘board of directors’, these are people close to you either in or outside of the organisation. People on your board of directors will hold you accountable because they care about you and your success on a personal level. This is a powerful way to debrief ideas and build them out further.
5. Be aggressive: this is where a lot of the learnings can get lost. Move quickly and decisively with applying the learning in your environment. The more time between information ingestion and action the more likely you will end up seeing the conference as a social gathering.
6. Keep lifting: it’s exceedingly easy for the learning and ideas to never leave the notebooks we write them in. The true test of lifting any idea off the page is to make it real. What you are really seeking is behaviour change, as such you must model the behaviour that you want.

 Discussion points

• Aggression vs. intent: there can be a perception of being too proactive, whereas if you are in the right environment you can just be intentional with the idea or learning.
• External groups: this is hugely beneficial and powerful in their ability to hold you to account. Sometimes there isn’t a ‘bookshelf built for that book’ so how do you tell the story to build the shelf to brew the evolution of the idea into integration or implementation?
• How you are creating connection: when working with other athletes or staff, what are you doing to get on their level? Quality learning amongst peers of people is more impactful with an underlying foundation of connection.
• Desire to action: in high performance sport we have a huge action bias – we have all this information so how do we do this in our organisation? The real question becomes at what point does action become useless or a negative return on investment?
• What is your or our curriculum: how do we teach, learn and guide? What are the metrics that guide that curriculum that let us know there is progress in certain areas? For bigger ideas, create that ‘pilot’ space where we can figure out if it does or doesn’t work. Where is your ‘failure’ location to explore whether we decide to go deeper or not?
• Culture: do you have a clear culture around learning from the tip of the spear? There is only going to be so much you can do if the buy-in is only from a mid-management level. If you have a culture when rubber meets the road that there is fear to try anything or a ‘no safety culture’ where ideas are dismissed by management with the excuse of funds or time – you need an open culture to allow these things to work.
• Context is crucial: we like new and shiny things, there is a recency-effect. Often there can this notion of applying a similar idea into your context but the reality is that it can’t be lifted from one context to another, there are nuances. How do we mitigate the new and shiny? The real learning usually takes place when you bring an idea back and begin throwing it around in a smaller group setting – it begins to be shaped into something that has meaning.
• Power of reflection: don’t rush into things too quickly, give the idea or learning time to ‘marinade’ – a good idea is still a good idea a week down the line. Find the sweet spot between not leaving the idea too long, but giving enough time for you to get back into the environment and review how it might work in practice. Then ask yourself: would this still be impactful? Is it still relevant? Straight after a learning experience you are emotionally positive, so the power of reflection is important as you look to articulate it a more holistic way.
• Learning is a process not an event: this has strong alignment to the discussion point around culture – we want to strive for a sustainable learning journey.
• Individualisation: what is your personal way and process for learning and subsequently putting things into action?
• Create depth to the learning: what can you do to get further down the levels in terms of the idea, topic or theme? Sometimes when seeing some present or share a dynamic idea, it can be hard to replicate without the environmental buy-in as much as it is with the idea itself.
• Multiple processes to implementing ideas: it may be the case that there are multiple processes to implementing ideas as opposed to just one. If there is something that is perhaps more conceptual or theoretical, this process for implementation may look very different to something more structured or content-driven.
• Maximise impact: do your peers present back their learnings and findings after engaging in learning experiences? It creates discussion, room to create more depth and the ability to make learning contextual to your environment. Based on these ideas, notes or takeaways, what do others see, feel or hear? Not just read, see and heard around those ideas. A question you can focus on is ‘what are we going to notice that is different as oppose to what is it that you are going to commit to?’
• Teach & preach: the best way to learn ideas is to teach them. What has a member of the team learnt and, subsequently, how are they teaching and preaching that learning to others? What has been ingrained in the practice?

By Dr Meg Popovic

Being: “Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” William Butler Yeats

Doing: “The hen cannot lay eggs of crocodiles, and the crocodiles cannot lay eggs of hens.” African Proverb

A new competitive edge for world-class sport clubs is the ideation and integration of meaningful professional development for staff. This can be approached via organization, team-of-teams, and individual levels. Through conversations with many members of Leaders in sports around the globe, it seems as though the meso-level – team-of-teams – is the most challenging to do well within a professional or elite sports club.

This article is Step One: The What. It is a creative, pragmatic study of subcultural idiosyncrasies unique to four important staff departments. From this understanding, staff department leaders and management can design impactful professional development programs that are both customized for the department and align with the broader vision of the organization.

There are two categories of analysis below that require a pre-game warm-up. The first is coined ‘Shadow.’ Stemming from Jungian psychology, the shadow of every group holds ways of being and doing that are repressed or unacknowledged. That which lies in the shadows of a group could be from past history or manifested in the present, be negative or positive, and acted upon, latent, or omnipresent. The sole objective of naming what is within the shadow of each staff team is to move the group forward; thus, in bringing that which remains in the dark to light, growth will ensue. The next concept comes in a pair: ‘Conflict’ and ‘Dream Behind the Complaint.’ In a highly competitive, fast-paced environment, it is inevitable that staff teams rub up against other departments. Oftentimes these conflicts are not addressed or avoided; however, finding the essence of yearning that exists within the staff members who feel the conflict can bring healing and growth to the larger group if both spoken with, acknowledged, and received with respect and understanding.

Professor Popovic Teaching Tip:  As you read along, consider about what, how, and why these departmental subcultures are similar and different in your sports organization.

Medical / Performance Department

WHO:

Titles within organization: Athletic Therapist, Massage Therapist, Strength and Conditioning, Physiotherapist, Sport Scientist, Nutritionist, Team Chef, Mental Performance

SKILLS:

Capacities required to be great at tasks in these roles: an abundance of physical energy and mental endurance to foster positivity and healing for players every day. High level of discernment needed to take in all information, hold the emotions that come with being in a highly pressurized sport container, and make short- and long-term decisions for players entrusted within their care.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Professional training and education to obtain roles in department; undergraduate to Master’s degree, with continued education (courses, trainings, certifications) in individual areas of specialization.

TIME:

Hectic? Most free? Stressful? Busiest time is, well, the entire season. From the time players arrive before Training Camp, it feels like “3,2,1 GO!” and the workload doesn’t let up until the team is done with playoffs. The most relaxed time is off-season. The most stressful times are when injuries and return-to-play (RTP) players begin to add-up, and when major franchise players are injured.

COLLECTIVE HISTORY:

Describe the department 10 years ago: significantly smaller staff, such as 1 AT, 1 Assistant AT, and one part-time massage therapist for the entire team. A player-specific, reactive provision of medical/athlete services, versus the current holistic approach to high performance of both overall department structure and individualized care for players.

PASSION:

What lights up their collective fire? Being of service to players’ success, such as having a role in a player’s injury rehabilitation process, helping a player make huge S&C gains in off-season, educating and supporting a player commit to healthier sleep and daily nutrition habits.

CREATIVE:

If you could give this department a song, what would it be?

‘Fix you’ by Coldplay

When you try your best, but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone, but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

WISDOM:

What is the key knowledge this group holds for the club? They are the Healers with the how-to knowing that brings athletes back to life from injury and pain, and builds players’ inner and outer strength to help them compete in the battles before them.

SHADOW:

What are some unresolved or unspoken qualities within this staff group’s collective shadow?

Sometimes staff members vie for players’ affection. This could be for various reasons, including wanting to be popular with star players, job security, a desire to be liked, or an innate personal competitiveness that goes a bit sideways in a group.

CONFLICT: What is the DREAM BEHIND THE COMPLAINT within the broader club environment?

The need to win can create a pressurized conundrum with player availability and injury-recovery timelines for athletes. The ways in which others (e.g.) some coaches react to hearing that a player is not ready rejoin the line-up for another day/week/month/unclear timeline, and this reaction brings undue (and unwarranted) stress to this department. The dream would be there is a respectful, clean line of trusted communication for all involved in player care, coaching, and in-game performance.

Scouting Department

WHO:

Titles within organization: Amateur Scout, Professional Scout, International or Global Scout, Area or Regional Scout, Player Personnel

SKILLS:

Capacities required to be great at tasks in these roles: ability to make high-quality inferences on players – now and their potential within the Club and sport in general. The word infer means to “carry forward.” Good scouts make inferences in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences by using observations and their background knowledge of the game to reach a pragmatic conclusion on a player. A secondary capacity for the role is personal autonomy, as the demands of this job require large amounts of time away from home, living in hotels, arranging your travel to align with games of potential prospects, and independence.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Professional training and education to obtain roles in department: traditionally, these roles were held by men with a love of the game who scouted in lower ranks and moved up over time through connections within the sport. Now the catchment for scouting is more expansive, including former professional or NCAA alumni, coaches or skill specialists, and those with knowledge of talent evaluation from other sports.

TIME:

Hectic? Most free? Stressful?

The busiest time of the year would be in the months leading up to the Draft when scouts are traveling to ensure they watch as many games as possible on the talent pool within their remit. Most free time would be when the leagues are in off-season and there are no games to watch. The most stressful could be the pinnacle moments when one’s scouting observations are brought to the light and connected to management decision making, including player trades and acquisitions and the Draft.

COLLECTIVE HISTORY:

Describe the department 10 years ago: More on-the-ground. No video. Reporting was less formal, including data management systems, writing of reports, communication with decision makers such as GM or head scouts. It was a phone call way of being, not a formal report and email culture. No challenges of opinion from analytics as R&D did not exist. Greater feeling of appreciation for the scout’s opinion and experience.

PASSION:

What lights up their collective fire?

Being part of the team’s success, such as finding a diamond in the rough from their region or a player they watched for years as a youth evolve into greatness at the highest level.

CREATIVE:

If you could give this department a song, what would it be?

‘A Long December’ by Counting Crows

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her

And it’s been a long December and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass

And it’s one more day up in the canyon
And it’s one more night in Hollywood
It’s been so long since I’ve seen the ocean I guess I should

WISDOM:

What is the key knowledge this group holds for the club?

They have an awareness and understanding of the sport beyond the team (players, teams, gossip, idiosyncrasies, trends). Scouts talk, they see, they travel, they extend to all parts of the world to do their jobs well. This knowledge may be buried within the scouts as even they may take granted what they glean from being out in the field, but with a few curiosity-infused questions, this can be unearthed to bring forth new insights and a competitive advantage.

SHADOW:

What are some unresolved or unspoken qualities within this staff group’s collective shadow?

Sometimes scouts take it personally when players from their regions are or are not drafted or acquired by the team. This leads to inner fears around job security and status within the group, which may consciously or unconsciously drive them to overzealously “fight for their players” against other scouts and a foster scarcity mindset within the staff team culture.

CONFLICT: What is the DREAM BEHIND THE COMPLAINT within the broader club environment?

Due to the nature of their work that requires them to be scanning the external landscapes, they may feel disconnected from and forgotten by the club that they are so proud to be affiliated with. They wear the logo on their chests when scouting, but their physical presence may be 1000km away from the stadium where the players play and day-to-day operations occur. The dream is to feel part of the team, even though they live and work far away.

Research & Development Department

WHO:

Titles within organization: Data Analyst, Developer, Software Engineer, {Sport} Systems, Video Analyst, Major/Minor League Operations, Player Personnel Analyst

SKILLS:

Capacities required to be great at tasks in roles

A problem-solving temperament with curiosity and excitement to find answers to complex challenges. They can connect facts to big ideas, dream of what’s possible, discern the changes to be made, and figure out ways to have systems and teams work more efficiently.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Professional training and education to obtain roles in department: university degree, typically in sport analytics or management, engineering, economics, or game theory.

TIME:

Hectic? Most free? Stressful?

Their workload ebbs and flow over a season depending upon trends in the game or managerial, strategic planning. Something more unique about this staff group is that they work together projects, distinct from the arc of the season cycle, either as a whole team or in smaller research groups. The most pressurized, times of the year would be the Draft, Trade Deadline, or Free Agency as their opinions will be asked and presented to the larger group to help make decisions for the team.

COLLECTIVE HISTORY:

Describe the department 10 years ago: this department typically did not exist within a major franchise a decade ago. There may have been a handful of staff who were fascinated and on the cutting edge of integrating this way ideation for team strategy and contract negotiations, however it was more ad hoc verses a department with an aim and a plan.

PASSION:

What lights up their collective fire?

Thinking. Nerding-out by jamming and jiving over problems that make them think. “Problems” are not seen as “a problem;” they are welcomed as opportunities to get better. This staff group has a limitless hunger to learn and will work tirelessly, together or individually, on any project they set their mind to.

CREATIVE:

If you could give this department a song, what would it be?

‘Mr. Roboto’ by Styx

You’re wondering who I am (secret secret I’ve got a secret)
Machine or mannequin (secret secret I’ve got a secret)
With parts made in Japan (secret secret I’ve got a secret)
I am the modern man

I’ve got a secret I’ve been hiding under my skin
My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.
So if you see me acting strangely, don’t be surprised
I’m just a man who needed someone, and somewhere to hide…

I’m not a robot without emotions, I’m not what you see
I’ve come to help you with your problems, so we can be free

WISDOM:

What is the key knowledge this group holds for the club?

They always believe in possibilities through solution-focused thinking for players and the team. They are willing to listen and learn from anyone who has something useful to teach them, disregarding authority and customary procedures that waste time and resources. Their drive to discover is grounded with a realist’s understanding of statistics, blending the x’s and o’s with a humanized who, why, and when answer for management to make important decisions.

SHADOW:

What are some unresolved or unspoken qualities within this staff group’s collective shadow?

Intelligence is a measure of success and status within the staff team itself. When challenged from the more traditional ways of doing and being, this group can slide into “superior-mind” when engaging with others from various departments outside of their own.

CONFLICT: What is the DREAM BEHIND THE COMPLAINT within the broader club environment?

As their modus operandi is to solve problems using innovative and alternative ways of thinking, they may see customary procedures and “the way it’s done” as unproductive, useless, or archaic. The conflict comes when their logical and fiercely independent thinking rubs up against staid sport cultural norms, leaving other staff members feeling threatened and defensive when opinions and expertise (and perceived job security) are challenged. These team members were often the brainy outcastes who loved sports but never participated in “jock culture.” They dream of being seen and respected for their knowledge of the game as they take pride in the ingenuity they bring to their work in sport, and deep down want to have a feeling of belonging within the team.

Equipment staff

WHO:

Titles within organization: Equipment Manager, Equipment Coordinator

SKILLS:

Capacities required to be great at tasks in roles: elite organization skills for such duties as individualization of player equipment, inventory management, shipping and receiving, packing for travel, player trades and acquisitions, and proficient relationships with brand representatives. On a more metaphysical level, this staff group embodies the essence of Servant Leadership. With the goal always being to serve the players and the organization, they tend to the details of others first to help them perform as highly as possible. They listen, stay attuned to that which they see and infer players need, show empathy, hold firm boundaries to keep the equipment room organized and tidy, and use foresight to plan ahead.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Professional training and education to obtain roles in department: they evolve in this role by working in the sport for decades. Often starting their careers as teenagers at amateur levels or in a sporting goods store, these staff members gain expertise and know-how through hands-on work, sweat, time, and commitment to their craft.

TIME:

Hectic? Most free? Stressful?

Game days are especially busy when games are bookended by plane or bus travel. Incredibly long hours with little sleep or rest. Something that also creates stress is when orders for products need to be made and they’re waiting for superiors to sign-off, or the third-party providers are late with their shipping and receiving. These delays clog the flow of the department and ability to serve the players, which they care deeply about.

COLLECTIVE HISTORY:

Describe the department 10 years ago: half the size, way less gear for the athletes, stronger bonds with individual players as more time was spent casually talking and bonding in the kit room during practice and game days.

PASSION:

What lights up their collective fire?

The Gear. These staff team members know the make, model, year, brand, variability, and functionality of every piece of equipment a player uses or wish to try out. They understand the engineering, while finding delight in the new trends in the market that have the potential to improve performance and evolve the sport. They are applied-historians of the industry and the trusted mechanics whom players rely on to tune up, repair, and remodel themselves as living, breathing, sporting machines.

CREATIVE:

If you could give this department a song, what would it be?

‘I Am a Real American’, the Hulk Hogan theme song

When it comes crashing down and it hurts inside
You gotta take a stand, it don’t help to hide
If you hurt my friends then you hurt my pride
I gotta lend a hand, it don’t help to hide

I am a real American
I fight for the rights of every man
I am a real American
And fight for what’s right
Fight for your life

Well, I stand strong about right and wrong
And I don’t take trouble for very long
‘Cause I got something deep inside of me
A courage is the thing that keeps us free

WISDOM:

What is the key knowledge this group holds for the club?

They’re always connected to the pulse of the players.

SHADOW:

What are some unresolved or unspoken qualities within this staff group’s collective shadow?

Lifting, packing, unpacking, emailing, washing, folding, hustling, bustling…. They meticulously prepare, present, then clean and pack-up-to-do-again-tomorrow, all the while responding to random player requests, changes in team schedule, and coordinating with myriad facility requirements when traveling to other teams’ facilities.  Sometimes like ghosts in the periphery, this staff groups’ diligence and commitment to detail is of utmost importance for the seamless, daily functioning of the players and the team as a whole. They’re the first ones in the building and the last staff to leave. Sometimes, their pride in long hours caring for athletes paired with a feeling that there’s always something else to cross off the To Do List, can lead to a neglect of self-care over time, especially for the physical toll this work takes on their bodies.

CONFLICT: What is the DREAM BEHIND THE COMPLAINT within the broader club environment?

This group wants to be (and should be) acknowledged personally for their long hours and often difficult, unseen efforts. A thank you, a coffee, or helping hand could quickly relieve resentment and amplify the energy flowing in this very important staff group.  Also, as they are of the giving-type, asking equipment staff how they’re doing could go a long way as their innate way of relationship is to be in the service of everyone else’s needs, requests, and demands.

By John Portch

Though sport is full of technically accomplished practitioners, the industry, from a performance standpoint, has been relatively poor at developing the leadership skills of its people.

The Leaders Performance Institute sat down with Jon Bartlett, the Elite Basketball Performance & Program Operations Advisor at the NBA, to discuss this enduring trend. “Formal training and degree programmes are all technical in content, it’s all about delivery and performance – there is little content related to leadership development,” he says, in the second part of our interview.

While these may be difficult to change, Bartlett believes that sporting organisations can promote leadership development through better people development and management, a theme he also touched upon in the first part of our interview.

“People management does not always have an emphasis on people learning within their current role,” he continues. “If you shape this in the right way, with the right processes, you can learn and develop in specific areas every day, not just thinking ‘I need to do a course, conference, seminar or webinar to learn – I can learn every single day if I have the right process set up for reflection, review and evaluation.’”

He cites the popular ‘70:20:10’ model, which suggests that 70 percent of learning is done from experience, experiment and reflection; 20 percent is learning from working with others; and 10 percent is learning from formal interventions and planned learning solutions. “Most focus on the 10 percent and organisations support the 10s and the 20s, but how many processes are set up effectively to support the 70 percent?”

Bartlett argues that sport can be better at career planning for staff, including succession planning for departments. “If you’re employed in a role, it’s a given that your time and effort goes into maximising results within your role,” he says, “but how can you impact and influence further without authority and status?

“If you think of it as impact and influence without having the role of ‘leader’, now you’re working on things such as giving direction, accountability, how to support, being empathetic, being a good listener, how to build trust, how to solve problems. Eventually, when you move into a leadership position, all those skills and traits are well developed. You know exactly the different themes and bits and pieces you need to manage people and processes effectively.

“It is a surprise to me that succession planning in sport is not catered for more, especially when change is inevitable. You know there’s going to be change and you can probably guess which roles will change and turnover when things don’t go right.

“If certain staff members demonstrate some leadership traits, you can put these staff members on a career and learning development plan. When the opportunity arises, they’ll be in a great position to step into a leadership role versus those that have no training and have to learn on the job. I think that learning on the job is where other industries are different because they do have development plans for people who say ‘I want to go and spend time in this area or that area.’”

Bartlett readily admits that the concept of self-development, learning and leadership is a passion of his. “This is a piece missing in sport,” he says. “Is there a shared understanding within your organisation of what learning and development is? It sounds like a simple question but it’s actually quite complex when you break it down. The initial thing to recognise is that it’s a shared responsibility between the organisation and the individual staff member. It’s not just the responsibility of the staff member or the responsibility of the organisation. We are responsible for engaging in our own development, but organisations have to take responsibility for investing time and resource into their staff.”

That investment can be budget related and it can also be embedded into performance reviews and management. “Organisations can consistently provide opportunities, tailored towards each staff member, and you can visit progress on a frequent cadence. It could be monthly, quarterly or biannually. Often, performance reviews in sport are done on an annual basis. Now, if you’re just going annually, and you’re on a three-year contract, you basically only have two touchpoints on your development. Some contracts only operate on a 12-month cycle. So how can an organisation focused on the development of their people make it more tangible? Bake the whole process into your system on a daily basis. For example, something as simple as after-action reviews. They have a massive part to play in learning and development. They can be as simple as: ‘what were the intended outcomes? What actually happened? What’s the gap between those two? And how can we bridge that?’ You might have one or two outcomes. We’ve learnt what worked well, we learnt what didn’t, and so we can apply those outcomes next time. We know from adult learning pedagogy that learning takes place through reflection and making meaning of experiences, whether that’s individual or shared. The final hurdle is achieving a critical mass of people who are bought into that process of driving the learning and culture of ‘I want to learn more. How can we have done this better next time?’

“Quite a lot of organisations have someone employed in a people and culture role. However, they’re often more involved in recruitment and HR of the wider organisation, therefore sitting outside the sporting department/front office. And so how can there be alignment throughout the organisation of the philosophies, the ideas that come from a people, and a shared understanding of culture? And how can you have champions within each department within a sporting organisation that drive this daily?

“It’s no good if it just comes from one person and you’ve got 250 people in your organisation because it’s difficult for them to align all the different verticals. Leaders have got to promote this mindset of curiosity and asking questions without feeling threatened because what we want to do is learn together.”

“All in all, that cycle of where we first started, looking at people, process and people management. We circle back and it all starts with that focus on vision, strategy, plan, skills, experiences, mindset; you set up those processes from a leadership point of view and then over time they shape the culture and how things are done thus feeding themselves over and over.”