If you ever want examples of the collision of Business as Usual with Project Management, you can find plenty in the world of sports. Appropriately, this article is a game of two halves.
The first half is a look at some Business-as-Usual sports with a few challenges. The second half takes a look at some innovations that have achieved positive outcomes.
Sports is seen by many as the epitome of excellence - mainly due to T.V. broadcasting (statuesque athletes, augmented reality technology, brand advocacy and so on) - however, when you look outside of the professional playing arena the story is somewhat different.
NFL football has a global strategy linked to viewership. World Rugby has a global strategy linked to education, engagement and player welfare. Both want more eyes on their crown jewels, respectively, the Super Bowl and the Rugby World Cup. And why not? Revenue opportunities for sports organizations are eye-watering:
At the ground level, if you take time to read the Aspen Institute Project Play report, the picture of sports growth by participation is not rosy. The decline in Football is approximately 31% over 10 years, (imagine if you got declining performance like that from your investments or your business). Football is expected to decline by a further 40% roughly by the end of 2021.
Rather than innovate, the NFL is insulating through global viewership and a robust pipeline drawing the majority of players from just a handful of states.
Golf, a sport synonymous with status, is also in decline. There were 6.8 million fewer golfers in 2018 compared to 2003 — a loss of 22 percent...a function of the high cost of playing, difficulty of courses, and the game’s incompatibility with contemporary lifestyles.
In 2018, only 38% of kids ages 6 to 12 played team sports on a regular basis, down from 45% in 2008.
Both Football and Rugby face similar challenges linked to athlete welfare; over the years though other sports have faced off challenges with declining participation,
through innovations born out of projects to keep people playing.
Tennis ball: I was introduced to the tennis ball phenomenon by Conrad Singh, CEO at the Centercourt Tennis Academy in New York. Very simply, adjust the court size, adjust the racquet size, and reduce the ball speed so players get more time on ball (rallies) - more fun, more activity, more engagement, better game intelligence. QED.
Coaching with small-sided games was introduced to me by John Dyke, an Academy Director for the Manchester City brand and reinforced by Mads Davidsen a UEFA Soccer coach with a rich pedigree. Adjust the field size, reduce the number of players, keep it simple and the players get more time on ball - more fun, more activity, more engagement, better game intelligence. QED.
This excitement extended to rugby and time I spent with the Canterbury Crusaders fueled my own coaching pedagogy; this was soon to be followed by an appointment to World Rugby as a coach educator.
These innovations seemed so obvious and worked; as a peer group we enjoyed a 4 year "unicorn state of innovation" in Shanghai which yielded significant outcomes in my case, when the Sport for All Charity I worked with grew to a peak of 15 coaches serving 3000 children a week across Tennis, Soccer, Rugby and Baseball. Sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover, Coca-Cola, ANZ Bank, Thermo Fisher, Fuchs Lubricants and Adidas the program thrived, with the sponsoring companies gaining significant recognition from the endeavor.
Ironically 3 of us now reside in the U.S. Conrad landed in New York, John in L.A. and me in Denver with Rugby Colorado, the governing body for youth and high school rugby. Whilst we all have gained some ground, pandemic issues notwithstanding, rugby seems to remain firm in Business as Usual which collided in unequivocal fashion with my own confidence and competence in innovation and development.
Over 4 years, beyond daily duties, we had to implement concussion protocols, SafeSport protocols, education strategies and be accountable to a bankrupted National Governing Body; this same organization 5 years previously had taken away the very subsidy they gave us to support growth and development
.
After five years, the list of achievements makes for rewarding reflections even though the gratification is less visceral than that of the "unicorn state of innovation."
One achievement stands tall above all the others.
By 2019, against all of the odds, we had increased the number of teams in High School Girls rugby by 23%. (You can read more on this here). With an underlying mantra of "more playing time for more players" we recalibrated tournaments, adjusted parameters and eligibility requirements and basically removed barriers to entry (whilst maintaining the highest standards on player safety).
I got a phone call this week, from the incumbent Executive at Rugby Colorado, asking for a consultation.
Why?
Well, the outcomes of the innovations created a new "Business-as-Usual" and in one area in one sport in one small part of the U.S. we reversed a national trend through the real application of processes taught at the Basic Course level.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an illustration of the power of Project Management.
QED.
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