Sport NZ - July News

Posted July 27, 2022
Sport NZ Youth Development

In sport, as in any industry, change is constant. 

As a sports administrator or leader (whether that be in a sports club, school, regional or national sport organisation, etc.), managing and leading change effectively is crucial for the success and wellbeing of the organisation/s and community/ies you oversee. 

Change might look like: 

• restructuring a competition
• redesigning an event
• shifting the focus for coaches
• changing how your organisation works with parents
• improving your trial process

…the list could go on and on. 

So, it’s not a surprise that when it comes to implementing Balance is Better, understanding and thinking about how change should be managed is super important.

In fact, in sport, one might argue there’s even more reason to think about how change should be planned and managed.

Why?

Mike Hester, Participant Development Manager at New Zealand Rugby Union, aptly summed up why sport administrators and leaders need to think about how they manage change when he presented at the 2021 Sport New Zealand Sport Development Hui:

“People often save their best and their worse behaviour and judgement for sport. They might be completely reasonable people in everything else they do in their life but because sport creates such strong emotion and stirs such strong emotion in people. For a lot of people, it’s a lot more than fun, it’s joyful. And for some people, it’s the only joy they have in their lives. These people can be very very defensive, and very engaged in preserving what’s important to them.” 

So how should change be managed?

Understandably (and predictably) we have seen many people and organisations introduce change underpinned by the Balance is Better philosophy, only to be met with resistors, detractors, and agitators. Despite good rationale and the best intent, sometimes instigating change can go awry.  

And as mentioned, we think being able to lead and manage change is an important skill for sport administrators and leaders. 

To help sports administrators & leaders think about planning and managing the process of change, we’ve found Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model helpful.

The eight steps of Kotter’s Change Model are:  

• Establish a sense of urgency  
• Form a powerful guiding coalition  
• Create a vision for change  
• Communicate the vision  
• Empower others to act on the vision  
• Create short term wins  
• Build on the momentum  
• Institutionalise the change  

Want to learn more about Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, and get practical tips on planning and managing change more effectively as a Sports Administrator or Leader? 

Take me to the complete guide now.

Have you seen the Sport NZ eGuide: Creating a positive parent culture?

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