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Ideas to action

In 2021 we partnered with Design Council to deliver our Ideas to Action programme to find new ways to overcome the inequalities in physical activity that persisted, or worsened, through the pandemic.

As part of our wider Covid-19 response package we launched our Ideas to Action programme, in partnership with Design Council in 2021.  

Using the Design Council’s Framework for Innovation and the Double Diamond approach, Ideas to Action supported a variety of organisations to further explore the needs and wants of the audiences they supported to get active.

The aim was to place them at the heart of the decisions they made and the service, products and places they designed.  

The programme also provided organisations with expert support to develop key skills and capabilities to embed new ways of working in order to discover new ways to tackle inequalities in physical activity, particularly for those people most impacted by the pandemic.

Who were our main audiences?

A girl on chair with big wheels is pushed by her mother, while a boy wearing a helmet cycles ahead of them.

Based on our insight from before and during the pandemic on people’s activity levels, we invited organisations to apply to join the programme who had ideas on how to support the following audiences: 

  • People living on low incomes. 
  • Girls and women. 
  • People from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. 
  • Disabled people. 
  • People experiencing long-term health conditions. 

Key challenge areas

Four key challenge areas were identified for organisations to respond to with their ideas. 

Making changes with communities

Working alongside key involved groups in order to design safer places and spaces in their neighbourhoods to encourage people, especially those who are less likely to be active, to become more active. 

Making social connections

Creating opportunities for those are less likely to participate in physical activities to meet (physically or virtually) with others and become more active.

Getting active in the digital world

Working with people who found it hard to be active so they felt enabled to access digital resources and book online activities. 

Inclusive design

Working with people to design accessible, relevant and meaningful information, products or services that helped them become more active. 

The support we provided

Through the programme we engaged with 60 organisations and over 400 individuals to help them learn how to develop user-centred responses to inequalities.  

We were proud that 100% of the organisations we supported felt confident and clear on their next steps after completing the programme.  

The Ideas to Action offer consisted of three parts:  

  • Community innovation programme

    We selected 13 organisations to take part in a six-month programme to enable them to develop ideas that aligned with the audiences and challenges we were focusing on. 

    Participants became part of a community of innovators, sharing their learning with each other along the way.

    Through a series of masterclasses, campfires and one-to-one coaching sessions facilitated by Design Council experts, teams were supported to apply design principles and methods to live projects, bringing a range of ideas to action.

    Projects included increasing opportunities for blind and partially sighted people to use gym equipment, exploring how combining physiotherapy and dance could support people living with dementia, and redesigning recreation areas which weren't meeting the needs of the community in Sutton Hill.  

     

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  • Sector innovation programme

    Six larger organisations in the sport and physical activity sector took part in this four-month programme to learn and apply design skills and mindsets. 

    In a similar way to the community innovation programme, teams were supported to apply design principles and methods to live projects and new ideas, through a series of workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions facilitated by Design Council experts.

    The key difference on this occasion was the way we approached teams to be part of the programme and the focus on developing a challenge or idea to use it as a starting point to be more innovative.

    This covered the ways they could innovate within the structure of their organisation, and with the idea itself. 

    Challenges included how to better engage with men, Asian and Black communities living with arthritis to help them find appropriate opportunities to get active, how to address inconsistent offers of physical activity across Nottingham, and how to tackle inequalities for young people in Birmingham to improve their wellbeing.   

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  • Resource hub

    Key resources were made available to the sector to highlight the value of design thinking including webinars, blogs, a podcast series and 60 free-coaching calls for sector organisations.  

    The feedback was extremely positive and one programme participant described the experience as  “Nourishing. Rewarding. Mind-blowing. Reaffirming.” 

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What we learnt

Throughout the work it was clear that there were common threads and themes that led the teams to have their ‘aha!' moments, which helped them to dig deeper and more meaningfully into the challenges they wanted to help solve.

In their final report, Design Council pulled together seven guiding principles to practice when addressing complex challenges and ideas to reduce inequalities in physical activity.  

The seven guiding principles

  • Don’t jump to solutions too fast.
    Spending time truly exploring perspectives is essential if you're to find a solution that works and lasts. Organisations need to allow for this time to be spent upfront and to reduce the pressure for jumping to a solution.  
     
  • Frame and reframe the challenge.  
    A number of teams realised that focusing on a part of their challenge, rather than trying to tackle it whole, gave them more focused energy and the feeling of achieving some impact or insight faster. This garners stakeholder support and build momentum and energy for the topic more easily.
     
  • Focus on the ‘extreme user’ and 'other groups with complex challenges.  
    Focusing on these two groups, provided the teams with critical perspectives on their challenges. 'Extreme users' are people who are at the periphery, but you tend to learn more from them because they've a more acute relationship with the challenge.  
     
  • Start with something small.  
    Showing small progress during a project leads to greater buy-in, more support and it helps to justify bigger goals and the funding and time spent needed to addressing a challenge. It also helps to develop a more focused, richer and deeper understanding of the challenge at hand.  
     
  • New methods of research and engagement.  
    It’s important to adapt approaches to research to gain a clearer understanding of barriers and to the end user too, especially when working with less heard-from audiences. Real reasons why people aren't active can be hidden or hard to clarify, and new methods of research and engagement can provide a better environment to find this out. Often, introducing new methods of research and engagement in a workshop setting helps to bring a matter 'to life’ and makes it easier for people to feel encouraged to try or test an idea.  
     
  • Uncover the power of working visually to collaborate  
    By making things visual, teams can work collaboratively and informally, sharing ideas in new ways and also providing new perspectives when communicating ideas to wider teams and stakeholders. These insights usually point towards new solutions.
      
  • Embedding design methods in organisations’ wider teams.  
    Teams can enable and inspire the wider organisation to do things differently and embed these ways of working into their organisations after going through a programme, increasing the impact of their learnings.  

Read the full report

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