Creating the environment to do things differently

Reflections on recent conversations. Including what is going on, what might help us moving forward and what I can do. [29 November 2021] What am I hearing and seeing? The conditions needed to help people collaborate; lots of talk about working across organisation boundaries, identifying what would free people up to work in this way. Not

Being human

Reflections on recent conversations. Including what is going on, what might help us moving forward and what I can do. [22 November 2021] What am I hearing and seeing? When collaboration is good it’s rooted in being human; a range of examples being shared about stronger collaboration. The same principles keep cropping up as to why.

A reminder of how essential our job is

Reflections on recent conversations. Including what is going on, what might help us moving forward and what I can do. [15 November 2021] What am I hearing and seeing? A pandemic of inequalities that isn’t going away; the Yorkshire Cricket Club stories, the COP26 stories. Showing that the disease of racism and an unequal world continues

Working in multiple time frames

Reflections on recent conversations. Including what is going on, what might help us moving forward and what I can do. [8 November 2021] What am I hearing and seeing? The challenge of operating in multiple time frames; developing new strategies, staff restructures and planning 3-5 year investments. While responding to here and now needs. Being

Working in the grey between local and national

Over the last 3-6 months there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people and meetings talking about the interaction between ‘local’ and ‘national’. Exploring the work that is being done together and how. And what this means for us moving forward. It is no longer a conversation that is on the margins

Developing a learning culture: One step at a time

30 colleagues from Active Partnerships, Sport England and wider partners gathered for an hour on 26th May to hear about County Durham Sport’s approach to learning and what they have learnt along the way about learning. And to share and explore together how we are all approaching this area, what is going well and what

Keeping the conversations going: Principles for complexity friendly measurement

This blog has been co-authored by Graeme Sinnott (Active Partnerships), Dr Katie Shearn (Sheffield Hallam University), and Darcy Hare and Chad Oatley (Sport England). The intention is to help thinking and conversations around measurement to keep progressing, locally and nationally. To stimulate discussion between people within and across places. To encourage innovation and connections. Where

Principles of place-based working

The Development Group met on 12 May for a discussion about the increasing importance of ‘place’ and to explore what this means for us and our work. Below is a playback of the conversation, reflecting the themes and range of perspectives. What does place-based working mean to you? What does it look like in your