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Finding a direction

Marking the publication of our Navigating Local Systems resource, Liverpool City Council's Nicky Yates blogs about how being part of its facilitated development of local knowledge, skills and capacity to drive change, has helped them understand where to go next.

9th March 2021

by Nicky Yates
Physical activity and sport strategy programme manager, Liverpool City Council

Ok, where do I start?! A question not only relating to navigating local systems, but also for me writing this blog.

It’s the first one I’ve ever written so please be forgiving if it’s a bit cringey (which, according to my 14-year-old daughter, would be the same as 99% of the things I say and do). Anyway, she’s not reading it, so I’ll crack on.  

When Sport England first presented the idea of Navigating Local Systems (herein and forevermore referred to as NLS), it really seemed to fit with the increasing narrative around whole systems change within the physical activity and sport sector, and several others.

It built on conversations I’d had with lots of colleagues around the country (now my role models) as part of the Local Government Association and Sport England leadership programme (sidenote - do check out these types of opportunities or equivalent in your sector, I can fully recommend them if you’re seeking enlightenment).

The NLS work is one of Sport England’s test and learn approaches aiming to drive real change within a system. There is much agreement globally that this approach is absolutely going to help us make the systemic change we really need to tackle complex societal problems – with inactivity being one of those (she says, whilst being sedentary for over an hour now so taking a five-minute break to move).

Right I’m back from my short wander around the house. Back to the blog…

At the beginning, it really helped that we embraced the unknown. The detail wasn’t neatly mapped out in a Gantt chart, we just got started and let the work take us where it wanted to.

Where did we start? We found a critical friend. We listened to him and we let him listen to our stakeholders. 

Working with Jeff and the team from Collaborate was a delight. He was everything a critical friend should be.

There is often that sense of fear when you let people in to help review stuff. It’s like when someone’s visiting your home (when we’re not in lockdown) and you start noticing that scruffy wall you meant to paint last month (year).

You live with those flaws but looking through the eyes of a visitor is so crucial in stepping back and asking, ‘are we actually making progress?’ ‘Have we taken our eye off the ball?’

Jeff listened intently. His aim was to understand and to feed back in a non-judgemental way – which he fully achieved. 

The process helped us to hold up a mirror and recognise the progress we’ve made, and some failings along the way, but also to use both these elements to push ourselves on. As well as those fundamental things we’re concerned about – audience insight, funding, which biscuit really is the best dunker, you know, the big issues!

Where did we start? We found a critical friend. We listened to him and we let him listen to our stakeholders.

We’re now asking ourselves how we enable the system to become more than the sums of its parts? What roles do stakeholders really want to play? What type of leadership can harness value within the system? Heavy questions, but crucial ones.

I think there are two types of people: those who like to reflect and border on the philosophical, and those who don’t. Wherever you position yourself, it’s crucial to keep reflecting and asking if what you think is happening, is really happening? If you’re doing systems change or if your approach is still project-based?

Don’t get me wrong, I love a project. There are so many inspiring ones, particularly those locally led, that have enabled people to improve their experiences so much.

But how do we enable all this great work to culminate in a population-level effect? That’s the million-pound question. 

That word navigating is an interesting one and you might think it’d be easy for a maritime city like Liverpool to do. It could have been called understanding, or managing, or designing local systems. But I’m not convinced you can really do any of these things.

What you can do is understand yourself, where you are as a system and get a sense of where to go next. Navigating implies there will always be something to discover and I think it’s exciting that we can be part of a different kind of search for the solutions we crave.

You might also go around in a big circle and end up where you started, but that’s OK. It’s very likely it will feel different as your open mind will have absorbed and interpreted so much along the way.

Right, better go and navigate the shed to find paint for that wall.

Find out more about the Navigating Local Systems resource and our local offer.

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