English Institute of Sport
We helped the high performance coaching agency the English Institute of Sport (EIS) to develop its complex problem solving capabilities.
2016 RIO OLYMPICS FINAL MEDAL TABLE
The challenge
In early 2016, the EIS Strength and Conditioning (S&C) leadership team sat in the Rio room at Sport England's National Sports Centre, Bisham Abbey, to discuss how to best debrief, capture the learnings and keep moving forward following the extraordinary performance of Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The EIS wanted it to be different from the usual reviews that had gone before. As one coach noted:
‘The word “review” reminds me of so many bad experiences – experiences where I have felt judged. I can’t describe the feeling as anything other than fear. Fear of judgement!’
– EIS Coach
The new reviews needed to be opportunistic, future-focused and allow each sport and team member to talk about what was most important to them.
How we made a difference
2016 Games reviews
The EIS S&C team approached Perspectiv in 2016 and, while it was an elite performance development agency with many capabilities, we helped to make these reviews feel different and take them to the next level.
To get to the next level required the EIS to create favourable conditions (or more technically, a ‘psychological climate’) for organised surprises to arise. Over 40 post-Games debriefing workshops centred around the individual and their sport were organised by the S&C team using an approach we provided called Facilitating Complex Problem Solving (FL-CPS).
The coaches’ feedback was extraordinary, with everyone saying what a unique, fulfilling and importantly ‘meaningful’ experience it was, which helped them plan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The power of FL-CPS was evident and Perspectiv’s relationship with the EIS grew.
‘All of a sudden I am getting all this information back and people are genuinely trying to help me. I did not expect that. I was at the centre of it, I have never felt like that before.’
– EIS Coach
Shifting the language
The opportunity arose to spread this approach to leadership throughout the organisation when the Head of S&C, Alex Wolf, was promoted to the EIS’s Head of Learning. Working closely with Alex, Perspectiv identified that the language needed to subtly shift in three areas:
From a language of ‘perform and prove’ to a language of ‘learn and develop’
From a ‘defensive’ language to an ‘active’ language
From a language of ‘invulnerability and certainty’ to a language of ‘vulnerability and curiosity’.
33 people were trained and skilled in using FL-CPS, with all but one team having at least one person trained.
The results
The overall feedback score for the FL-CPS training programme was 4.6/5 and it slowly became more ‘normal’ to have facilitated sessions – allowing teams to tackle complex problems at speed. The language changed around the organisation and people started to understand their roles in helping solve some of the organisation’s most complex challenges.
What started out as a method to help debrief the Rio Olympic Games for a small number of staff resulted in systematic changes using FL-CPS to plan ahead for the next two Olympic cycles. This included designing the initiation of a process for all sports for their preparation beyond Tokyo 2020.
‘Like a Trojan horse, Perspectiv’s unassuming idea of Facilitative Leadership spread quickly, to a point where it is now a normal part of the organisation’s fabric.’
– Alex Wolf, former Head of Learning, EIS
Perspectiv’s work developed the EIS’s understanding, appreciation and capabilities in an approach to leadership and working with others that releases the collective genius of the group. We introduced the EIS to the dimensions of a high performance climate and their connection with leadership behaviours – powerful tools and a language of possibilities that make up the principles and practices of Facilitative Leadership and complex problem solving.