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Making change happen in sports organisations

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The need for change is apparent in all industries. With new technologies being introduced, new products on the market, and changing consumer behaviours, all organisations offering a product or service need to adapt and improve, which in the end means they need to make changes.

Sports organisations have a particularly hard time making changes because, simply put, they are busy. Sports organisations, unlike other organisations, are structured around a seasonal schedule, which is becoming increasingly busier every year. Each year the number of sports events grows with the introduction of new World Cups, qualifier rounds, friendly competitions, and test events.

Sports organisations, due to this busy schedule, need to focus on doing things right to ensure that their schedules do not get interrupted, basically on being efficient. This means that they do not have the time to step back and get a wider view of how things are being done. It is difficult for them to take the time to question if they are doing the right things (being effective) or if serious changes are needed within their organisation and sport.

So as sports organisations work to plan and evaluate their continuous string of events, how can they at the same time work to improve the effectiveness of their organisations and make changes? There needs to be a change management project created within the organisation, which runs besides the usual daily business, but is independent in nature.

Consider change as a project

Change simply cannot happen within the basic structure of sports organisations because the focus on daily activities is too high, and although commissions and committees may try to focus on making improvements, they simply have no choice but to focus on the daily issues and activities that arise. If change is going to take place within sports organisations, it then needs to be developed and considered as an independent project that runs beside the daily activities of the sport. Within the project, new ideas can be identified, researched, tested and implemented and then streamed back into the daily activities of the organisation.

This method of making change has been successfully demonstrated with the International Association of Athletics Federation, IAAF, who implemented a ten-year plan starting in 2003 and has already made significant changes to their sport. The plan runs outside of the daily activities of the federation, and after things have been researched, discussed, and tested they can then be implemented into the daily activities or events. The International Archery Federation, FITA, is also working to prepare such a project to make crucial changes in their sport - a five year project which would run from 2007 until the 2012 Olympic Games focusing on making changes in identified areas.

Once the project has been created, the next step is to involve the right people.

Involve the right people

For a project to be successful, it is important that the top people, preferably the President, are both involved and supporting the project. Within the political field of the organisation there needs to be a strong coalition supporting the project. Once the top people are involved, the need to include many representatives of the different influencing bodies within the organisation becomes key to the success of the project.

Everyone who is going to be affected by the changes that take place should be represented in the team leading the project. For example, if the project is going to look at changes to the sports events, not only should the event commission be involved, but athletes, coaches, sponsors, host cities etc. should be involved as well.

People who are originally asked to be involved as a representative for a particular group will start by being very loyal to their group and may not be convinced of the need for such a project. With time, however, they will start to feel more loyal to the change project than to the group they are meant to be representing, and will then become great ambassadors for the project within the organisation. For example, a coach could be asked to take part in the group leading the project. At first he may be thinking solely in terms of what these changes could mean for himself, other coaches and the athletes and may be against the idea of any sort of changes taking place. Through the involvement on the project, however, the understanding of why change is necessary will start to be more meaningful and understood, and his support for the project will grow. In turn, when discussing the project with his colleagues and athletes, he will demonstrate support and understanding of the project which should then transfer to all those people he was representing in the first place.

Finally, the change project made up of the right people needs to be communicated clearly to the entire organisation.

Communicate clearly

As a general rule, people don't like the word change. Often they don't understand it and they do not know what it will mean for them. First of all, the word change should be replaced with the word 'improvements'. If there is a need for change, it is because there is a need for improvement. The people in an organisation, or in the case of international sports organisations - the members, need to understand right from the start what having a change project means. The launch of such a project needs to be serious and communicated properly. The project should have a name that is easy to remember and is also easy to understand. The communication of the project should be like 'connect the dots' - the game children play where they try to connect all of the same coloured dots to make it a logical row or column. Similarly, all of the different aspects of the project, or all of the things that are going to be changed, should be connected in a logical way. People in the sport need to see the bigger picture of what the project represents for the sport. Rather than listing a multitude of changes that are going to take place, the dots needs to be connected to give an overall picture of what these changes mean, how it is going to work, and what needs to be developed. It is easier to sell one logical idea or concept to a group of people than it is to sell a large group of isolated ideas and so grouping the changes under one project that has a name people can remember will make the idea of change more easily accepted.

Making change happen

Organisations need to change in order to survive and improve. Due to the busy schedule of sports organisations, making significant changes is difficult - but, change is possible if it is done in the right way. Despite the organisations natural focus of making sure things just get done, a focus needs to be created at the same time on improving what is getting done. By creating an independent project, which can act as a change function to run alongside the daily activities, and, by involving the right people and clearly communicating the overall picture of the project, sports organisations will be able to make significant changes without interrupting their daily activities.

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