How to intensify and speed up the change and innovation process at your community sports organisation
Svend Elkjaer
Director, Sports Marketing Network(SMN) #growsport Help you deliver more vibrant, visible & viable sport activities
Clue: Don’t expect things to go back to the way they were pre-pandemic
#BetterFairerNormalSport
In the UK and certain other places of Europe, we are now seeing a gradual easing of the corona lockdown measures with organised outdoor sport being allowed in most places and gradually, indoor sport and physical activity opening up. So far, so good…
Many managers and volunteers are working hard to make sure their facilities comply with the regulations for sanitation and safe distancing, which can be demanding enough. But, how prepared are you for the way that people’s habits may have changed and what impact that could have on whether they are returning to your place/centre?
Many people have been running with their dogs, walking with neighbours, cycling for the first time, playing family football in the back garden or doing online fitness classes via Zoom, Peleton or Youtube. How are you going to get those people to (re)join your club/centre?
Can a football club run a family football festival? Could a leisure centre organise social cycling starting and finishing at your car park? Could a rugby club organise a charity dog walk in aid of a doggy charity using your clubhouse as a base? Could canoeing, swimming and cycling organisations, say, learn from Parkrun and set up casual social sessions?
The answer is, of course, you could! But we have to accept that there is a battle between the drive/need to step up change and the ‘way we do things around here’ brigade.
As we highlight above there are some key drivers for stepping up change and similarly some key barriers for change:
So, in short, the more the people who want to step up change have to battle with the barriers to change the more resources are wasted and the less likely the change makers are to succeed.
Get a really strong coalition behind the drive for change, and if you can, ignore the Negaholics, and most importantly don’t try and change them, because you can’t. No one can.
If you want to have a chat about change at your place get in touch.