The Competitive Advantage: Approaching governance with a performance mind-set

In his latest blog Robert Tate, Governance Officer, looks at how the sport and recreation sector could approach governance with the same performance-based mind-set displayed by its elite athletes.

No athlete has ever won Olympic gold without training. Athletic performance is underpinned by the hard graft that goes on outside the spotlight. At its most basic, the training effect is summarised by the SAID principle – “Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand”. Athletes improve through practice and different practices lead to different adaptations, each one suited to different sports. Weightlifters train to improve explosive power, whilst marathon runners train to improve cardiovascular endurance. In both cases the demands of their particular application are replicated in training, and the athletes adapt accordingly, leading to improvements in performance.

A similar approach is taken to the mental aspects of sport. The best athletes perform with an element of intuition, whether that’s understanding their own performance or reacting to the actions of others. The imposed demand of repetitive practice leads to adaptation, and the athlete develops the intuition necessary to perform at the highest level. A lack of such practice was the criticism levelled at Sam Burgess following England’s early exit from the Rugby World Cup. Physically he was as well - if not better - prepared than the other contenders for his position. But, having only recently switched codes from Rugby League to Union, his critics were quick to accuse him of lacking the hard-earned intuition required of an international standard rugby union player.

As a sector, the encouragement of elite athletic performance is one important aspect of our diverse portfolio. Vast time and expense is devoted to developing and coordinating world leading training regimes to aid the development of some of the best athletes in the world. Training develops great athletes. It makes sense that we extend the same approach to our workforce, and to developing the governance of sport.

Large companies devote significant resource to employ teams of governance experts tasked with keeping their organisations on the straight and narrow. Despite this, there are still examples of such companies falling short, resulting in reputation damaging scandals (Think back to the Co-op Bank’s £1.5 billion black hole in 2013 or, more recently, Volkswagen’s emissions scandal). Just being an expert isn’t enough; staying on the top of your game requires practice regardless of what that game might be (so long as the practice is relevant to the imposed demand of the activity in question).

This is of particular relevance in the governance of sport, a sector traditionally run by volunteers and which doesn’t employ huge numbers of governance experts. As in any other role, it’s important that those tasked with ensuring good governance are given the training they need to do so. Likewise, those already knowledgeable on the topic should recognise the importance of continued training and development to keep their skills and knowledge up to date. This applies to directors and trustees, as well as company employees charged with governance related roles – Company Secretaries are a good example.

Over a relatively short period of time, the situation of National Governing Bodies has changed dramatically. Increased participation has led to increased membership. Increases in available lottery and commercial funding for sport has increased the financial responsibilities of organisations. This autumn the government is undertaking the largest review of sports policy in over a decade, which will undoubtedly lead to yet more change in the way sport is funded and managed in this country. The sector is constantly evolving and to keep up NGB’s need to be stable and ready to adapt. Good governance, at its most simplified, is the common sense process of ensuring this is the case.

As in all areas of development, it’s the people who are key. To improve and uphold standards of governance in an organisation, it’s important that the right people have the right knowledge to do the jobs they’ve been asked to do, and that they are given opportunities to practice and develop this knowledge on a regular basis.

The Alliance, in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA), are launching the Advanced Certificate in Sport Governance and Administration in London on 25 November. You can find out more about the qualification here.

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