Rethinking the Future of Sport and Physical Activity through Strategic Innovation

Several organizations have shared the difficulty in interpreting or operationalizing the extensive (some more than 300 pages long) strategic plans for sport and physical activity that have been proposed to them, revealing that they have been kept in a drawer and many of them have not even been consulted since they were handed over.

But why are strategic plans not being put into practice?

There are several reasons that have been shared with us, such as:

1. The plans were drawn up without awareness of the operational capacity of the municipality’s sports human resources
2. Inability of some human resources to interpret the proposals
3. Lack of a participatory process with the municipality’s technical staff
4. Lack of consultation with the community and stakeholders
5. Misunderstanding of the municipal sports management model
6. Little awareness of the slowness of administrative and decision-making processes
7. Among others that made us realize that: change is urgent!

We are constantly undergoing cultural, technological, environmental, economic and social changes, and sport and its organization based on the European Sport Model have undergone metamorphoses to which we cannot remain indifferent because of the impact on organizations and the way they are managed. This assumption leads us to urgently change the approach to planning, requiring an innovative and transformative mindset to face the emerging challenges.

1. A bottom-up approach, i.e. a participatory process, identifying and creating moments for brainstorming, focus groups and idea generation with all stakeholders: athletes, coaches, sports organizations, academic institutions, public bodies, experts, companies and the community in general.
2. Aligning the plan with a funding strategy, considering national and European funding programs to leverage projects that would otherwise not be implemented
3. Alignment with sustainable development goals and the European Union’s priorities for sport, such as digitalization, sustainability, inclusion, increasing participation, among others.
4. A team with knowledge of national and international market trends.
5. A team with knowledge of the current context of sport and physical activity.
6. A team that identifies emerging opportunities and challenges, linking them to actions to be developed under the strategic plan.
7. Adopt a holistic approach to health and well-being, linking sport and physical activity with other areas of municipal intervention such as health (namely mental health and preventive medical care), education, events, tourism and the environment.
8. Among other things.

This methodology combines elements of traditional strategic thinking with innovative approaches, such as design thinking and rapid prototyping, in order to create a dynamic and adaptable strategic plan that promotes the development of sport and physical activity in an effective and sustainable way.

And after planning?

Many of the strategic plans drawn up are not put into practice, and in some cases they are not even consulted and are left in the lurch. We believe it is important for these plans to be implemented and for change to take place:

1. Develop rapid prototypes or pilots of the initiatives, quickly testing their effectiveness and acceptance by the community. Use feedback from the tests to improve ideas before large-scale implementation.
2. Even if it was a participatory process, there are always people who didn’t contribute or who weren’t listened to, so it’s important to communicate the plan to the whole community in a light-hearted way, over time, and using different information channels.
3. Create an agile, easy-to-read action plan that, with the support of digital tools, guides the actions of those responsible for each activity to be carried out.
4. People should be assigned or services outsourced to create mechanisms for monitoring and supporting compliance with the activities to be implemented.

These are just a few considerations and contributions so that you can improve your strategic plans for sport and physical activity, but there are many more.

For more innovative, digital and sustainable organizations!

#Inquietosporinovar