Monty's Wire

The Problem with Sports Funding (& The Possible Solution!!)

It has been a while since I have posted on here, but today seemed like as good a day as any and I shall explain why at the end.

Today I came across a really interesting article on the BBC Sport website. The article, combined with a video interview with Liz Nicholl the Chief Executive of UK Sport outlined the recent decisions to cut funding from certain Sports based on their ability to return a medal at Tokyo 2020. She justified the investment decisions by saying that they are, “Focused on an outcome, which is delivering more medals and medalists to make the nation proud.”

OK, hold on: “To make the nation proud”. To me this is a pretty one-dimensional perspective. The fact that individual’s from seven sports including wheelchair rugby, table tennis and weightlifting will not receive any funding based on their ability to deliver medals is so narrow. Let me pose this question; is the story of a Rugby player from the wheelchair team, who lost his leg in Iraq and has worked tirelessly since then to get back to fitness and compete in the Olympic games, medal or no medal, more or less inspiring than an athlete who wins a bronze medal in the triple jump whose family came from a deep history of long jump champions and although has worked equally hard, has been tipped for greatness from a young age? Indeed, a fictional example, but one that helps articulate a deeper issue with this approach to funding as it relates to national pride.

I have referenced before that London 2012 was the games to ‘Inspire a Generation’. What’s interesting is that sports participation (once a week) has decreased in the UK between, 2012 – 2015 from 15.9m to 15.2m. One of the most successful Games in Team GB’s history in terms of medals hasn’t actually inspired the nation to move more themselves.

So, I hear you ask, what are we making the nation proud for, if it isn’t to participate in sport? Any ‘feel good factor’ to me is a plaster, a quick hit or solve which is covering far deeper societal issues.

We all know that sport, movement & any level of physical activity can help individuals and communities and I would love to see government and company strategies shift gears to have a wider impact than simply investing in Gold, Silver and Bronze.

To bring this back to my opening, I promised to explain why I haven’t updated this blog for a while. The truth is, I have been thinking deeply about how to get more people and communities active again and how to break down the barriers to getting people moving.

What I uncovered is that there are few products or funding models that address the issues of cost, confidence and the other barriers that were identified in my previous research (see article below). This had led me to develop a community based project, which I believe will help break down those barriers and hopefully attract a wider audience to move more and be active! Today is the start of the journey where I’ll  bring regular updates on this mission to get more people moving and more people ACTIVE !

Understanding the Power of Nature.

I didn’t catch any Pokémon tonight but this was my view and I felt inspired to write.

How many times have you got to the end of a long day and just wanted to eat some food, watch something mindless on television and just basically do nothing? Rhetorical question, and I think I know the answer for most people. Tonight I got inspired to touch on an interesting theory that I learned about last week for the first time and one that I wanted to share with the world as I think it can be of positive benefit to us all.

Much has been written in the past few weeks about how Pokémon Go has got people out of their seats and out to the streets and parks looking for the rarest Pokémon. (That’s a sentence I never thought I’d write). I absolutely commend the clever people behind this idea as it encourages people to get up and move. However, what I find challenging in this is that people are still head down in their screen, not taking in the beautiful world we live in whether that be in a park, forest, lake or ocean..

Here’s where the science comes in. Attention Restoration Theory (ART) suggests that your ability to concentrate can increase spending more time in nature. Put simply, nature can rejuvenate your mind. Marc Berman studied how a 50-minute walk in a park can have a 20% improvement in short term memory tests taken shortly afterwards. Conversely walking in an urban environment showed very little improvement in memory capacity & concentration.

Professor Stephen Kaplan pioneered this work in back the 70’s, but in a world of increased urbanization & mobile phone / laptop consumption this work seems so important today. Science is somehow telling us that natural environments slowly, subtly asks for our attention, maybe better described as ‘fascination’, giving the part of our brain required for direct focus and attention time to recover. Interestingly, Kaplan also argued that people’s overall mood improved and quality of life became better as a result of time in nature.

So to summarize, it’s a great thing to get off your ‘backside’ and go for a walk in the park. The benefits may be wider than you realized. If you are out there catching Pokémon, I won’t knock you, for sure that’s a good start. But, try to lift up your head and take in the beautiful nature around you, it might help as it did with me this evening to write this article.

As always, let me know your thoughts & comments!

#movenow

For more information on ART;

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marc-berman/attention-restoration-theory-nature_b_1242261.html

What is preventing us from being more physically active? The findings:

Before we get started, I wanted to acknowledge that it was the first time I’d put a question out there for feedback and was overwhelmed with the positive responses. So I wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who shared their valuable thoughts and insights on this topic. Below is a compilation of the key themes that were shared in order to capture the insights in order for us to some way get closer to understanding the opportunity.

1. Trust & Safety, a belief that adult sensitivity around letting kids out of their site is only increasing as we hear more and more awful stories in the media.
2. Importance of pro-active parents. Kids model what they see from such an early age, so if the parents are not providing an active environment or backdrop, then children are less likely to adopt this in to their life. Many parents go to the gym during lunch break at work, of course children don’t have visibility to this.
3. Having a motivator. We all see empty courts and playgrounds all around us. Facilities are there, but where is the external or internal motivation to get out and use these spaces?
4. Structure and quality around children’s sport doesn’t exist for everyone, and low pay for coaches at this level is a reality. In turn, this doesn’t attract the best coaches or mentors and therefore create the best positive experience of sport and physical activity at a young age.
5. Putting people in groups early in their life. You’re either sporty or not. This is a huge mistake! It discourages such a large group of people from feeling confident or feeling like they ever could be good at a sport.
6. Huge opportunity to nurture and reward the action of getting active. This seems to happen within formal sports clubs, but not broadly.
7. Trend towards ‘convenient’ fitness. 5 a side, or quick fix workouts. Don’t get me wrong, in this instance it is great that people are moving at all, but I’m wondering if it is like putting a plaster on a cut rather than going to the issue.
8. People’s consumption of sport is happening through watching on TV more and more as opposed to participating themselves. The role of sport in their lives is essentially through sitting and watching versus participation.

One interesting analogy to think about to try and make sense of this, is that idea of when you learn to drive a car for the first time. It feels uncomfortable; you need someone (the driving instructor) there to help give you the confidence to get started and coach you through those first steps. You’re not even sure where the key goes and you start to worry about what comes next. Eventually, through some coaching, you get the car up and running and you sit in neutral for a minute to calm the nerves. Then you go. Once you’re up and running you’re confidence builds, and despite some speed bumps and emergency stops on the way you’re all but good. Once you pass the test, you get a pat on the back and give everyone a high five. Your reward is freedom and independence in the world!

Based on what I’ve learned so far, it seems to me that you can draw many comparisons between learning to drive and with the barriers to sport and being physically active. Having someone there modeling, coaching you from the start is key. Giving you that confidence to start something new. Getting started is the toughest part, but you need someone there to keep you going, helping and guiding you through new challenges. At the end of countless tough sessions, but numerous obstacles, having a reward, someone to tell you well done, that the effort was worth it is a huge motivator for us all. Without internal or external reinforcement or positive feedback after we succeed, I think it is tough for most people to justify the struggle.

Please share your thoughts on this, we can all make positive change and can impact the world we live from tomorrow!

#movenow

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What is preventing us from enabling our youth from becoming a more physically active generation?

 

Following my most recent article, I have spent the past few weeks reading numerous Government policy reports, researching community outreach programs and investigating the various commercial platforms which the world of health, fitness & physical activity are built around.

What became quickly apparent to me was that in the UK anyway, where participation of sport for people over the age of 16 has actually decreased since London 2012 is that the current strategy is not working. This is quite shocking really when you think of the money, time and effort that have been put in to various programs in the past few years and  furthermore when you consider that the UK had the most iconic and influential global sporting event in their back yard just 4 years ago.  What’s clear then is that there must be an underlying issue. There has to be something at the root of this challenge, which needs to be addressed before we are able to get our kids off their screens and back out there moving again!

Before I start to share my thoughts, I would love to hear from you on one simple question.

What is it that is preventing us from enabling our youth to becoming a more physically active generation?

Please leave comments on here directly or on Facebook / Twitter / Linked In or Instagram.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Why Sport & Physical Activity could Change the World

The London Olympics in 2012 was billed as the Games that would ‘Inspire a Generation’. A positive and optimistic sentiment and a nice sound bite for officials, but I sincerely believe that Sport & activity can play a much bigger role in the progress of society than simply having a ‘feel good factor’. I think there is an deeper more fundamental role, which I believe can help to solve some of the biggest challenges we face in the world today. Interestingly, a recent report from Sport England explains how there has actually been a 0.4% drop in participation in England since the London Olympics which proves to me that the challenge lies deeper than simply inspiring people.

From my own personal experience, Sport has given me everything; and I can hand on heart say that I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today without my grounding specifically in Football & the other sports I took part in as a kid. I started researching & thinking about the multiple benefits that sport can actually bring to society, more than simply inspire people for a few weeks. Some initial findings;

Physical & Mental Health: Possibly the most obvious, but being physically active on a regular basis can provide vast benefits for your overall health & reduce your chances of many physical issues such as heart disease, but interestingly, regular activity has also been proven to reduce the likelihood of stress, depression & low motivation.

Key Values: Participating in sport and activity from a young age, helps embed values & benefits such as discipline, teamwork, hard-work, trust & overall provide kids with experiences that are proven to build self-esteem which helps lead to deep friendships & relationships.

Crime & Community: A recent article in The Telegraph talked about how a UK Charity ‘Box Cleva’ set up 11 local boxing gyms to teach kids non contact boxing skills, fitness, healthy eating & substance awareness. In the areas with these clubs there was a 40% reduction in anti social behaviour. Another aspect is that due to the rapid advancements in technology, I think there is a strong trend to people making connections online & spending a disproportionate time of their life on their screens.  I believe this could hinder us from building meaningful relationships & prevent the development of meaningful communities in the future. The true effects of this haven’t been measured yet, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the impact not having prosperous communities could have on society as a whole.

Fundamental Skills: There are of course the physical ‘motor’ skills, which are developed through activity, which gives us all the ability to complete day to day tasks. This is often overlooked & is incredibly important due to the amount of jobs still relying on physical attributes. In addition, a lot has been written about the ‘Millenial Generation’ where we all have access to endless information, all the time. Could this create a generation of generalists, of people who aren’t focused or skilled in one particular area, a generation of ‘jack of all trades, masters of none’? Could that lead in a slow down in innovation, progression & development of the human race? Those are big questions for sure but this is an area that needs to be researched.

A few closing thoughts to wrap this one up: For whatever reason, we as human’s like to put things in to buckets, frameworks and furthermore to put people in to types or groups. A recent Sport England Report talked about how kids are either ‘Sporty’ or not. I would challenge this thought at its core and ask, what if we didn’t bucket our children in to groups? What if we all had a deep understanding of the benefits of sport & activity, and provided our children with opportunities whether it be joining a boxing club, local athletics club, or even if we took our children for long walks twice a week or put them in scenarios to be active with other children? I recently read a couple of articles, which ranked the ‘healthiest & happiest’ nations in the world. The majority of healthy, happy nations such as Australia, Switzerland, were based by mountains or by sea & there was a culture of activity deeply engrained in their lifestyle. On the flip side, the unhealthy nations were quite often where technology was advanced, things are automated, commercialized & commoditized.

My research and musings will continue on this topic but to summarize this first piece, I can safely say that there is nothing like power of sport and activity to make you, your friends and family feel good & help to create a world that will prosper for years to come...

Why Diversity & Mash-Up's Count.

How many times in business have you heard someone make the point, ‘it’s important to build a diverse team’ or in team sports, ‘a diverse, yet well balanced team will be critical to a successful campaign.’ This doesn’t sound like rocket science and if you spend some time thinking about it you can clearly see why of course both of these approaches would be beneficial to success. However unless you have truly lived through many projects amongst differing teams, you don’t always have an appreciation as to why, let alone building one skillfully. It’s not easy.

After a recent trip, I stumbled across two examples of why mashing together ideologies, philosophies and diversity are of huge benefit & have helped me think differently about how to approach things…

Up first - I was at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. There was a special exhibit about two of the most well known country stars, Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan. What became apparent was that by the nature of simply working together, they moved music forward to a place it simply may never have reached. “They worked together seamlessly, and were open and enthusiastic about trying new musical ideas”.   This was just the start, the exhibit went on to say “Rock Bands and musicians from LA, San Francisco & London, including members of The Beatles – came to Nashville for the same reasons as Dylan & other non-country acts. The resulting musical & cultural cross-pollination pointed popular music in a new direction”. The fact that these artists came together & were open minded enough to listen & learn from one another for the greater good of music versus their own personal gain to me is incredibly inspiring & can easily be related to business & sport alike.

The second relates to one of the greatest Sportsmen of all time – Muhammad Ali, previously known as Cassius Clay. I found myself in the Ali museum in Louisville to learn about the great man himself. Interestingly the exhibit spoke much more about his achievements as a man & his efforts with human rights and less about his success in the ring. But that’s for another day…I digress. There was an amazing quote from his trainer Angelo Dundee which read – “If you take the endurance of a tennis player, the courage of a racing driver, the sensibility of an actor, the continued discipline of a long distance running and mix those ingredients, you are on the way to knowing what it takes to be a professional Boxer”. Some great lessons about dedication to your craft as an individual, but take a parallel from this in that if you want to move things forward in the world, to change something for the better, you need inputs and thinking from outside of your world & you can only do this by having diversity & most importantly inputs from people who can offer different perspectives & insights.

To finish, I will leave you with a quote from a close from a friend of mine who specializes in health, fitness & nutrition who has said “There are many ways to get fitter, stronger & leaner. You shouldn’t discriminate against any or favor one. As soon as you do, you close your mind and limit your potential”. Follow @RossEdgley or visit his page at Rossedgley.com.

Hope you enjoyed reading this; don’t forget to let me know what you think.

Until next time J

Peak Performance – The Difference in Elite Sport & Business

I recently watched an old documentary of the pain and hardship a world Championship Boxer goes through to prepare for a fight. Normally around 12 weeks of training, clean food, massages, intensive training, all conducive to being at the peak of their performance levels come fight night.

What dawned on me was the emphasis in business around socializing with clients such as networking over dinners, which sometimes involves huge gluttonous dinners, copious amounts of alcohol and late nights. How many times have you seen someone present knowing they were hitting some big moves on the dance floor at 2am the night before?!

The differences are clear, so why do elite business-men and women not follow the regime for a healthy mind & body? One argument could be the need for periodization. The boxing analogy isn’t totally comparable, as an elite athlete needs to be at their peak once, maybe twice a year. Business people on the other hand need to be ‘on their game’ making smart decisions 365 days a year. Hold on a second; in theory would it not be more important for business people to take care of their living?

One thought that springs to mind is the idea of being a one-dimensional asset to a company. The thought of simply going to bed at 9, waking up at 6 to hit the gym followed by a protein shake and kale salad every day would seemingly be a great contribution to a healthy mind and body. However you could argue that a routine this rigidity could lead to lack of inspiration or ideas from the person. A CEO recently suggested to me that 90% of innovation within companies comes from outside experiences. This shows the need to keep the mind busy, meet new people, network & simply experience different things.

Another interesting shift I’ve recently seen is the incorporation of many Eastern principles in to the Western business world, things such as meditation or mindfulness for example. A calmness of the mind & a centering of ones self again seem to be a good thing to do in order to achieve peak performance at the work place.  This started to make me think about whether or not there might be a formula for success in the business world & to always be at your peak performance in the same way an athlete structures his or her training regimen. What I have learned is the following work well for me.

• Sleep: Lots of it.
• Meditation, Mindfulness & Deep Breathing: Regularly.
• Fitness: 3-4 times a week.
• Socialising: With others outside of your workplace brings new ideas. A few beers also helps along the way.
• Exploring new places: Always makes you think differently.
• Reading: Papers & Books.
• Good food: Eat a McDonalds, see how you feel to prove this one out!

I'm not saying these things work for everyone but I'm often at my best when these things have been key elements of my week. If you try and build a formula from this & plan out every day of every year however, I do think you would run the risk of putting too much pressure on yourself. I think the key is to identify what works for you & get a balance of these things regularly.  If you do, I think you’ll be giving yourself a fair shot of getting to your peak performance in the world of business.

Dealing with Power in Business

Power by definition is ‘The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.’ Over the years I’ve read many articles, books & witnessed many types of power plays in various business meetings & situations. What I know is that not one story is the same and that each situation involving power or influence is complex and deeply interesting.

Some leaders exercise their power through their position or by right. I’ve seen how this can be incredibly effective as it can mean things move very quickly without being reviewed by committee. This approach can also be very limiting as decisions often originate from a narrower perspective and are not always well thought through. On the other hand, some exercise power through genuine influence. On the surface this can be riskier as the original path can be de-railed and progress can slow down dramatically. Conversely the outcome has the potential to be a much more rounded, well thought through approach with a buy in of others who can help drive the vision forwards.

Both types can be morally good or bad, both can be in your face loud or deafly silent, but what’s important is to appreciate & understand their existence in order to help step closer to your ultimate goal.

With all of this background, here are Monty’s ‘5 rules to Building Power & Influence.’  Enjoy!

1. Have a clear ‘Ultimate goal or end vision’ in mind. Win the war, not every battle.
2. When entering a meeting, negotiation or discussion, always have a plan in your mind of how to articulate your point of view. Have a plan A, B & C.
3. Stay open minded to being wrong, corrected or meeting a compromise, but always make sure you can see a path to your ultimate goal or vision. If not, you lose the power. Game over.
4. Be empathetic & understand the other side of the coin. Understand as much background as possible, both the hard facts & softer dynamics.
5. Understand where your leverage can come from & be thoughtful & systematic when to play each card.

Power and influence is definitely not an exact science, but in my experience having an appreciation for it's importance in the world will put you and your organization on the front foot for the future!

Sport & The International Opportunity

On Sunday afternoon, I was lucky enough to be stood next to the coach of one of the Men’s 1500m finalists at the IAAF World Indoor Championship. What I witnessed was a grown man’s emotions switch from extreme hope to extreme despair back to hope to raw anger to exultation, in the space of 3.44 mins as his protégé Robby Andrews came from last place with 300m remaining to steam into 4^th in a dramatic finish to the line.

Sport has the ability to excite, inspire, bring people together & change lives.

With that said the statistics show that in many cases grass roots participation fluctuates between steady growth to stagnation and in some cases slow decline.  It can depend on general interest in sport but also on wider economic factors such as public policy, government spending etc. For this reason Leagues, Federations & International Sports Brands have no choice but to look at growing interest in their ‘brand’ and therefore demand in their game or sport globally to increase their revenues.

Look at the NBA & NFL, who in recent years have hosted regular season matches in London, both of which sold out. Conversely, some of Europe’s top Football (Soccer) teams will jet off this summer with their Clubs to the U.S, Australia & China in the International Champions Cup. Not to have a holiday, but to help build the brand of their employer in under-penetrated markets.

As the world becomes more homogenized, and international business in theory becomes easier, how will this shape up in future years?  Will we see a ‘European Champions League’ night hosted in Africa, India or South America? How will global Sports Brands change their business models to adjust to the changing tides?  One of the reasons the UFC has been so successful is that it governs itself & is able to move quick and nimbly in to new markets, collaborating with TV networks and other local businesses on their terms.  They created their product, they inspired not only their own athletes but also  the fans, & they were able to promote their core product to an international audience with ease.

No doubt, growing internationally is hugely complex, and not everything is controllable. What is undeniable though is that the opportunity for 'The Business of Sport' around the world feels infinite due to its ability to excite, inspire, & bring people, companies & even countries together.

 

Why Innovation Matters

Many companies across multiple industries claim to be global leaders in innovation. In Fast Company’s 2015 list of ‘Most Innovative Companies', there were brands included such as Apple, Warby Parker, Instagram, Alibaba, HBO amongst others.  Why such a diverse list & why do businesses position themselves around this idea of innovation.

Being first is a huge competitive advantage. Simply put, constantly re-inventing your product to be cutting edge can put you first in the race. If you get it right, you literally could change the world. Steve Jobs was famous for never doing any consumer research because ‘people don’t know what they want until you show them’. The purest expression of innovation I’ve heard.

Another reason is that it’s exciting for your employees. No year is ever the same; you live in a constant churn of newness & challenges, that need solving for, which by definition is the opposite of stale or boring.

Why do some industries focus on innovation more than others? Look at Technology companies, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Uber, Samsung are all looking for the next product to stay ahead & wow consumers. Innovation is built in to the culture of the entire industry. In sport; Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, all constantly looking for the latest innovation in athletic footwear and apparel to make athletes run faster, jump higher, perform longer. The Airline ‘Indigo’ created step-less ramps to speed up the time it takes to board & took learning’s from Formula 1 to create a pit-stop style turn around between flights. Tesla & Gogoro are two leading examples who dared to think differently about the motor industry by creating electrically powered vehicles. What do these companies have in common? The consumer is central to the success of their business & as a result, these markets become fiercely competitive, the expectations get astronomically higher, customers will simply go elsewhere.

The truth is, when you look at the companies listed above innovation matters in business in 2016. Innovation can manifest itself in many ways, it could be the speed and volume at which you make a product, it could be the product itself, or it could be revolutionizing a process to make things cheaper to make. That list is endless. Whichever way you look at it, there is clear value for all companies to explore what innovation means for them.

That is if they want to get out front & stay there.