A Journey in GM Moving, 2021

hayleyleverblog

It’s been a while….

The last time I captured my thoughts and learning was in Summer 2020, and it’s certainly continued to be a rollercoaster of a journey since then as we’ve continued to live and work through the pandemic.

As 2021 comes to a close, we had the first signs of recovery in our children and young people Active Lives data, and had welcomed a few months of restriction-free living.

The new variant of Covid-19 is currently sweeping through the country, and we are bracing ourselves for likely new restrictions. I sincerely hope that any further disruption to life, activity and sport is short lived so that we can continue to physically, mentally and economically recover from nearly two years of heavy impact. I know that everyone working across Greater Manchester will continue to play their part in supporting GM Moving and Active Lives for All.

These are my personal reflections on the GM Moving journey and learning this year, but it’s everyone’s work- not mine.

There are thousands of people leading and supporting GM Moving and it’s growing all the time.

I have pulled out some key phases, events, and milestones to try to summarise the year. There is no way I can capture more than a fraction of it. And I will have forgotten things, I realise. So I’ll be adding and tweaking in the days ahead. Let me know what I’ve missed.

There are many, many other perspectives on what matters and where the greatest learnings have come from. What feels brilliant is that collective leadership of this movement has grown significantly this year. I could write another blog about my organisational leadership learnings, specific to my role as CEO of GreaterSport, but for this one, I’ve tried to keep my system head on (read Mindsets Matter!).

I’ve linked back to other blogs from the year in case the reader is interested in a particular aspect of the journey in more detail. We’re always happy to hear from colleagues, make connections and learn from others, so do get in touch if you want to know more, or get involved @hayleylever on twitter, or hayley@gmmoving.co.uk

Some Key Phases, Events and Milestones (2021)

January started in lockdown, which was a pretty challenging beginning to the Year.

As we fired up for a productive period, energised by our plan to refresh of the GM Moving strategy, we were equally focussed on Lockdown Wellbeing and ensuring we drew on all that we had learnt so far.

Compassionate leadership would be critical, at the same time as creating the conditions for focus, productivity and forward momentum that most people were craving. The metaphor of all being in completely different boats. albeit in the same storm, was front and centre of my mind throughout.

Some key events and reflections: Jan – June 2021

Summer 2021

As we moved into summer, things began to open up and a sense of cautious optimism grew. We could work a bit differently, get active in new ways, and start to move around with more confidence as the vaccination rollout progressed. It was clear that the road to recovery, personally, professionally and for our shared purpose, was a long one and there would be plenty of bumps in the road ahead.

Year 1 implementation of Uniting the Movement was well underway, and it felt like the national conditions were becoming more conducive to positive impact locally. The direction of travel in Sport England felt good.

ICS’s were emerging across the country, which means a better set of conditions for shared endeavour and learning about physical activity and health integration.

The Active Partnership Network started to collectively look at it’s role, ways of working and it’s future support needs to play it’s part in Uniting the Movement. Some great blogs by Graeme Sinnott here that chart this journey and his learnings.

There was a sense of a learning system growing in GM and nationally, with the emergence of communities of practice across systems and places.. and a culture of sharing openly and humbly was feeling more the norm.

In September we launched the refreshed GM Moving in Action Strategy. This was a major milestone, and one which had taken a huge amount of collective energy and commitment to look up and look ahead at the same time as continuing to lead and deliver in another challenging year.

It was a proud, yet slightly exhausted, moment for many many people.

GM Moving in Action Launch Video

Oct- Dec

A series of GM Moving in Action implementation and engagement sessions kept the momentum going and the GM Moving webs growing. Personally, I have loved the growing networks I’ve been part of as we develop shared plans, for example on our commitment to a greater inclusion of disabled people and people with long term conditions, and started a GM Moving LGBTQ+ network.

GM Moving has never been more needed, as the city-region works to recover pre pandemic activity levels across the life course. The downturn in Active Lives data hasn’t surprised us, but it is challenging still, as we work together on the challenge of building back fairer; supporting physical and mental health and wellbeing, community, economic and environmental recovery.

Implementation plans and delivery in each of the key priority areas in the strategy got underway. If felt great to move into the next phase, after a spring of engagement and a summer of sense making, writing and designing.

GreaterSport, GM Active and others started to align their business plans and strategies to articulate their unique role in GM Moving.

A personal highlight for me during this period, was 30th November when we brought together the GM Moving Executive Group and the Local Pilot Network together in person for the first time in two years. It was a day full of rich insights, learnings and visioning for the next phase, which we managed to pull off just before the call to work from home if you can.

Sport England launched the Implementation Plan for year’s 2-4 of Uniting the Movement, and the Lords published it’s select committee report on Sport, which we had submitted evidence to back in January.

To finish the year, GM Moving in Action was shared with the Greater Manchester Wider Leadership Team, and endorsed alongside the launch of the GM Strategy: Good Lives for All, at the final GMCA meeting of the year.

The New Year will begin with a round of strategic engagement sessions in each of our 10 localities, as we look at the whole system approach to Active Lives for All in bespoke ways in each place.

Some blockages, barriers and challenges

As always, there have been challenges. My personal top 3?

  1. The ever-present challenge of a societal culture of measurement that potentially holds the problem of inactivity more firmly in place. Despite progress, there is still a set of conditions around evaluation and measurement that is asking us to provide interpretations of data in ways that risk driving us back to past behaviours and ways of working. We’ve come a long way this year, and I am excited about our potential to make greater change together. I’ve written about it before and I’m on the cusp of a deeper one. First draft here.
  2. Governance and processes; legalities, attitudes to risk (and beliefs about what constitutes risk). Commissioning processes that drive the wrong behaviours and outcomes. Funding and investment approaches that keep investment further away from those that can make truly sustainable change happen. These are the things we experience and hear about all the time that seem so difficult to shift, and sometimes no one is really sure how we got to the position we’re in! There is some room for hope and optimism here, and it warrants a piece of it’s own, with some crowdsourced examples of what’s good.
  3. Alpha Culture. This is a tricky one to broach, but I will. Because it’s something people talk about privately, but we’re not very good at calling it out when we feel it, see it, experience it or are part of the culture that holds it in place. I’m definitely guilty of it. You probably are too, at times. It’s hard to put a clear definition on it, but some of it is in Mary Portas’ Work Like a Woman that I’ve written about before. This is what I hear/see/am part of the problem of more often than I’d like to be;
    • It’s in the way we occupy space.
    • The way we talk, without asking and listening first.
    • It’s the voices that shout loudest, that are assumed to be right.
    • The way we assume expert status without seeking to find out what expertise or perspective others have.
    • It’s the voices that take up all the time and space in the room.
    • It’s in the way we set up our zooms and our rooms, develop agendas, ask for questions or invite reflections… that mean the quietest people are seldom heard.
    • It’s the way we assume we’re right because that’s how we see and experience the world.
    • It’s the way we hold onto a position, because to change our mind is perceived as weak by ourselves or others.
    • It’s the way we interrupt each others’ thinking because we don’t leave time and space.
    • It’s the way we talk over each other- making assumptions about what people are going to say, or what they are thinking.
    • It’s in the way we celebrate and invite more of the views that are like ours.

I can be as guilty of this as anyone when I’m not mindful or thoughtful about my approach, and especially when I’m in the grip and not at ease.

What’s the impact? We lose energy, ideas, solutions and diverse perspectives. People assume that this behaviour (which gets explicitly and subtly rewarded and reinforced) is what ‘good leadership’ looks like, so they move towards it themselves or they assume leadership is not for them. It can create fear and intimidation. And probably more…

There are so many tools and techniques to create different kinds of spaces. It takes thought, good design and attention. Nancy Kline’s components of a Thinking Environment are a great place to start. Consider the meeting, the conversation or event you’re planning for. Can you pay attention to all of these and ensure a good quality thinking environment for all?

– Adapted from Kline's Ten Components of a Thinking Environment diagram (SOURCE: Kline, 2010, p.22)  

And then we need to reflect on our own behaviour and language. What kinds of words are most conducive to collaborative work? What kinds of behaviours? What do I need to be more like… and less like……?

A New Year gift to myself, so I don’t forget what I’ve learnt!

Here are a few things I’ve written or valued for my own learning this year, and that others have appreciated as we’ve worked together on their system leadership journeys. There’s plenty more, but here’s a few that have felt significant to me that I want to hold on to.

  1. Leadership lessons from the Garden Mind; this metaphor has shown it’s value over and over this year.
  2. There have been so many both/and scenarios in our work this year. It’s rarely, if ever a binary choice, an either/or. Conflict transformation comes in many guises, and can always be helped by a bit of Lederach thinking.
  3. The value of the Pointers for Leadership Practice and Enablers for Change; lenses I look through every day to plan, to reflect and to learn.
  4. Berkana Institute Two Loops Theory of Change
  5. The Good to Great ‘Flywheel’ thinking and the need to attend to the grit in the wheel.
  6. Spaces for Listening. One of the most powerful tools of change I’ve ever experienced.

Some favourite podcasts of the year

The Top 5 most read Blogs on this site, during 2021

  1. Creating the conditions for integration.
  2. It’s time to break the taboo; renewed interest prompted by Why Moving Matters in the Menopause workshop with GMHSCP.
  3. Illuminating Change
  4. The Power of Active Soles to Change the World
  5. Mindsets Matter

Final reflections.

And so, I’m preparing to break for Christmas. I’ve no idea what that will bring, as the government are considering the need for new guidance.

I discovered these two pieces, written this time last year, which was a good reminder that what I’m feeling just now is normal and that I’ve learnt everything I need to know about what to do!

Feeling Tired? Don’t forget to Unwind.

And if we end up under more restrictions in January, here’s some of what I’ve learnt already about going back to work, and about New Year Wellbeing in lockdown.

P.S. What’s in store for 2022?

  • Continue to share the journey and learning from GM Moving openly and widely.
  • Keep translating learnings with leaders on other agendas and outcomes and in other places.
  • Support Greater Manchester partners as we all work towards Good Lives for All, ensuring that Active Lives for All play their full part. Keep the focus on tackling inequalities.
  • Participate in the GM Reform Board and other spaces that ensure GM Moving supports and connects with wider reform priorities, building on recent focus areas of mental health, supporting those experiencing homelessness, the GM Live Well approach.
  • Keep sharing and learning with colleagues around the world. Create global thinking spaces.
  • Maintain the focus on the integration of GM Moving in health and care integration journey, and work with others around the country to ensure shared learning and collective action.
  • Keep connecting, listening to, hearing from colleagues in all kinds of places and spaces. So much to learn….

I would like to say a huge thank you to colleagues that I’ve had the privilege of leading alongside, this year. In particular, thanks to Eve for her work holding the GM Moving Strategy Refresh process together with the whole strategy group at GreaterSport with Justine, Kate and Kat. To Beth, Richard, Matt and Eve for their co-leadership of GreaterSport alongside their primary leadership roles. To the whole GreaterSport team, and to GM Moving leaders in every locality, every part of the system, every web, nook and cranny. To the GM Moving evaluation team, system leadership partners, investors and co-producers- designing and delivering GM Moving in Action every day. And finally, a personal thanks to my coaches, mentors and peers who provide a safe space to share fears (and sometimes tears); supporting each other’s leadership in a time of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.. that is sure to continue.

Thank goodness for shared purpose and mission, a set of principles, ways of working and an approach that provides stability in the midst of change.

Let’s rest, recover and Keep GM Moving together.

Leave a comment