Blog

High performance is a term that is thrown around sport with a relentless drive towards achieving results. Many believe that this requires resources, the latest technology and supplements and fancy training equipment. Whilst this is true in elite sport, it is nothing without purpose. ​If you were to build the world’s best sports club, what would it look like? Where would you start in terms of building that club? I would start by building a talented team that had the attitude to match the values of the club.

We have all heard the saying ‘planning prevents a piss poor performance’. We demand that our coaches have an annual plan for their teams. We want our teams to best prepare for each game given the amount of time and resources each club puts into getting them onto the field each week. So why is it, that many clubs and sporting organisations don’t have a strategic plan that is regularly reviewed and constantly used? I actually don’t have a good answer to that question, because I think that it should be a priority.

The current era of All Blacks domination started in a hole, a deep hole, in 2003. They lost to Australia in the Semi Finals of the World Cup, 22-10, despite going into the tournament as favourites. Then in 2004 lost to South Africa with a dangerous alcoholic aftermath that bought to the surface the toxic culture and poor leadership principles being employed. Something had to change. Under Graham Henry and following a three-day meeting in the NZRU headquarters in Wellington, a conversation began about how to fix the issues. And so began the organisational change required to bring the All Blacks into the Professional era.

Creating consumers of your product is the goal of every business. Whether you have a physical store with products you are selling or a service that customers need, you need to provide a compelling reason or a value proposition for them to engage with you. This is no different in sport.

I am currently working with a couple of State Sporting Organisations to develop firstly their Strategic Plan and then their Participation Strategy. It has been an interesting process to date to change the organisational thinking from a ‘build it and they will come’ approach