Sport Governance Principles - The Defence

This is a Sport Australia podcast production.

Kate Corkery Hello and welcome to the Sport Governance Podcast series. My name is Kate Corkery and I am the Director of Sport Governance and Strategy at Sport Australia. Over this series we will take a deep dive into the sport governance principles and how they come to life in practice. Each podcast will focus on an individual principle with a special guest joining me to share their experiences and practical advice with respect to that principle.

Kate Corkery In today's episode, we are focusing on Principle seven, the Defence, a system which protects the organisation. To proactively protect the organisation from harm the board ensures the organisation has and maintains robust and systematic processes for managing risk. To discuss principle seven the Defence, I'm joined by Jaquie Scammell.

Kate Corkery Jaquie is a renowned people expert for internal and external relations. Helping organisations remember the great service is not always about the systems and processes, but about the simple everyday interactions you have with real people. Her techniques and tools for engaging and motivating large service teams have evolved from her experience working in organisations such as McDonald's, Wembley National Stadium and Melbourne and Olympic Parks. Jaquie has been serving on the Sport Inclusion Australia Board since 2019 and brings a service mindset to her role within the organisation. Jaquie is a published author of "Service Mindset", which made the top 50 business books for 2018 and "Service Habits", which was published in 2020. Welcome, Jaquie and thank you for joining me to discuss the Defence.

Jaquie Scammell Thank you, Kate. Great to be here.

Kate Corkery The technical definition of risk under the ISO 31,000 is the effect of uncertainty on objectives. How would you define risk in practice though?

Jaquie Scammell Well, in practice, risk is really about weighing up anything that's going to prevent us from meeting our strategic plans or goals, but more importantly, our promises to our stakeholders. Being our members, our customers and so we're continually keeping an eye on that and looking at weighing up the different measures of risk, the different levels of risk and determining what needs to be our core focus more than other parts of running an organisation or a business.

Kate Corkery So when we are looking at those strategic goals and those promises to our stakeholders, risk is usually referred to as negative. Is risk always a bad thing or can be a positive?

Jaquie Scammell Well, I think like everything, there's a really good balance and weighing up, you know, looking at things like the data and what evidence is providing us, but also bringing emotional filters when we make decisions, you know, we've got to make balanced decisions. So risk can bring a balanced, weighted view of how well we're performing as an organisation. And I think in many ways that can be very positive. It encourages us to be open minded. It encourages us to ask questions. The more we do that, the more we're able to eliminate arriving at decisions, thinking we know all the answers and actually keeping an open mind to really what is our reality and what is the reality of our key stakeholders. And I think, you know, if we do a full circle back to risk, that's a healthy way of leading any organisation. So I see it as really positive Kate.

Kate Corkery And if you're a director and you're sitting around a sport board table, how does the board know what its key risks know, what its key challenges and emerging issues are?

Jaquie Scammell Well, you know, we at Sport Inclusion Australia have supported on some brilliant external experts like you good selves at Sport Australia to create independent reviews and help us understand what is our criteria. So I think it's important to start there. Know what your criteria is, what sort of forms your risk assessment, if you like and then the consequences of that. So the scale of each of those key criteria is whether it be your technology, whether it be your governance, whether it be your financial risk, and then understanding the different levels of consequences. So start there and have it really well documented. That's something that I've been extremely impressed with Sport Inclusion Australia, not only good documentation but maintaining that documentation and keeping it up to date.

Kate Corkery That's right. I mean, one of the challenges we have is that you can write really good documentation but then it sits in someone's inbox or on someone's PC. Does the Sport Inclusion Australia board regularly consider some of the risks that you've spoken about - their financial risk, strategic risk, reputational risk, technology risk regularly as a part of its board discussions?

Jaquie Scammell Yeah, we do. And one thing that I think's been really important on our journey is getting close to our stakeholders so as a consequence of that, what we formed was working groups with different stakeholders. And those working groups have all got their terms of reference. But in essence, what we're doing is exactly that. We're continually reviewing the key areas or the key focus areas that we need to focus on as an organisation and staying close to our stakeholders and continually reviewing the relevance, the changing landscape of these risks and getting real time feedback and relevant stories and examples from our stakeholders. Those that are out in the field, playing the sport, working with the athletes, working with the parents in the schools, and we're keeping a much closer eye on the dial. So I thoroughly recommend that process and it's been a brilliant way of inadvertently managing risk. It feels like we're managing performance but actually what we're doing is we're also being extremely mindful of the changes that come up with different parts of risk.

Kate Corkery It's a really fabulous process and a really sort of engaged live process that that Sport Inclusion Australia has gone through. What are the key documents that now sit within the risk management framework?

Jaquie Scammell So we have a risk policy which, given the year we've had 2020, has been recently updated. And it's quite a comprehensive risk policy document. We also, off the back of the Global Games that INAS Global Games last year, that also asked us to step up and make sure all our documentation was very thorough, which is of great benefit. So when there's a risk policy document place, it's kind of like the foundation, if you like of our documentation. And then all of the other regular meetings, like our governance committee meetings, which we put in place a few years ago, our board meetings. And then these working group conversations or meetings, if you like, are all well documented. But I think the key point here is that it's fluid and it refers back to an overarching framework. It refers back to an overarching SWOT that we did a few years ago. We're continually looking at how we're progressing. So the documentation is almost like a progress report in a way to see how well we're performing against those risks that we've identified.

Kate Corkery And so having regard to the framework and those documents and the working groups and process, does the board have confidence that the current systems give them sufficient oversight of risk in order to support its decision making?

Jaquie Scammell Absolutely. And I think it's great again to surround yourself with some fabulous external advisors like your legal counsel and other people that can validate and acknowledge that what we think is real is a true indicator of managing risk. I think it's key to note as well that we've got a really good mix of board members Kate, that come from different backgrounds, different experiences, past, present and emerging in the field of NSOs. And so we bring a whole heap of different lenses and views on risk. And I think that's extremely healthy as a board. The other point that I wanted to make to that gives us an indication that we're tracking well and gives me confidence in our decisions are around risk is that we've recently explored a lot of collaborations. And collaborating with Australian Sporting Alliance and other fantastic cohorts like Blind and Deaf Sports Australia has again raised our efforts and our awareness on how well we're tracking and what progress we're making. And it's sort of strengthened other cohorts around us as well. So, yeah, I feel quite confident that we're managing and measuring risk well.

Kate Corkery Well, now, you've just mentioned there the recently formed Australian Sporting Alliance for People with a Disability and Sport Inclusion Australia is one of nine national sporting organisations for people with a disability who have formed this alliance. And the vision of this alliance is about all Australians having an opportunity to engage in sport and physical activity in a welcoming and inclusive environment. It's an innovative collaboration. It's an exciting collaboration. What is the risk of organisations not looking to collaborate and work together either within a sport or across sport organisations in the current world?

Jaquie Scammell Well, we've gained a lot from the collaborations in the past 12, 18 months particularly this year, when everyone had to innovate and think quite differently about the communication models and the way we were getting out to the people, our key stakeholders, those at the front line. And so the collaboration has been incredibly beneficial. You know, it's shown us a few things. So early on it shows us where we've got strengths and opportunities. And so when we collaborate, we can actually, again raise each other and leverage off each other's strengths and raise each other with the areas of opportunity. And I think there's a huge risk if we don't do that, because we can't always get the key skills and capabilities from people around the table. Sometimes when we need to look out outside our boardroom as such. The other thing that's been extremely effective is the way we we bring our different delivery practices to our key stakeholders. So the way we actually deliver sport and lots of different practices that we can do that with the minimal resources that we have.So when we collaborate we get access to greater resources and access to a greater pond of of funding, so to speak, because when we collaborate, we're stronger and we've got more to offer. So I think the risks of not collaborating is that you potentially limiting the way your delivery model, with the way you deliver the sport. You're potentially limiting your access to certain funding and I also think potentially limiting your strengths and capabilities around a table.

Kate Corkery Absolutely and the advocacy impact of the Australian Sporting Alliance for People with a Disability has already been well felt even in the first couple of months. I guess the other thing that comes to mind here is when you look at Sport Inclusion Australia and their inclusion of people with an intellectual disability into the mainstream community using sport as the medium, why is inclusion in sport so important and what is the risk of not working to make sport more inclusive? And when I talk about risk there risk to society generally, risk to the individual's risk to organisations. Inclusion in sport is just such a critical issue.

Jaquie Scammell It really is. You know, the Australian Government reported last year that more than four million Australians have some form of disability, which is an around 18 per cent of the population. 22% of that is mental or behavioural disorder. So we really are talking about a large component of our population who need and benefit from access to sport. One of our philosophies is Sport Inclusion Australia is that we want to make sure no one is left behind. So the impact of the work that Sport Inclusion Australia does really does impact a large percentage of society as to their friends, their family, their carers. It gives all of these people access to community, to mainstream sport competitions and all of what comes with that. The risk of not having access to these sporting communities and competitions, treating the person as a person and all of their entourage, their family, friends and community that come with that. There's a few things they're customers just like everyone else. So there's a financial risk and the share of wallet, we're all looking for some sort of contribution from society. So I think that there's a financial risk if we don't involve and consider inclusion across all aspects of disability. There's also the mental health that has been a huge element this year, physical health, emotional wellbeing. When people are connected to community and feel like they're not separate and they're not different and they're just like just like you and me when it comes to sport. And sport has the most incredible way of bringing people together and I guess dissolving differences in people. And this is what has a huge impact on making people feel connected. And hasn't it been the year where we've really noticed the importance of social connection?

Kate Corkery Absolutely. Look it's really important that we continue to understand is more risk of not making sport inclusive and that there is lots of support out there for boards to ensure that they understand and can manage some of the practical risks of increasing and diversifying their participation programs in favour of inclusivity. I guess my final question today is around the cultural tone of managing risk. And we know that the role of the board is to set and monitor the culture of the organisation. But the way in which a board deals with culture and risk is important. So what's your view of managing risk, being a part of 'business as usual' and not something that should be separate from operations?

Jaquie Scammell Yeah, I think it's good business. It's good practice to bring risk into your day to day vernacular, your day to day awareness. It's part of the conversation, right. It's not like, let's sit down and have a risk discussion. I think that if you bring risk into a conversation that is proactive, it's putting the person first in the conversation, the needs of the business in the centre of the conversation or the sporting organisation then it helps people rise above thinking about it as risk and actually seeing it as this is good business, it's good practice, and it's actually going to make us better then tomorrow. And don't we all want that in anywhere that we're professionals and we're striving towards a common goal or vision so  sometimes I just say maybe don't talk about the word 'change' if people don't like change and if people find the word 'risk' a little bit off putting, don't use the word risk replace it with something else because it's everywhere. And it's an incredibly important part of doing good business.

Kate Corkery Thank you for those insights, Jaquie hugely valuable. And thank you for joining me to talk about principle seven - the Defence.

Jaquie Scammell Absolute pleasure. Thank you, Kate.

Kate Corkery If you'd like to access a copy of the Sport Governance Principles, you will find them at the SportAUS website, sportaus.gov.au/governance. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us at sportgovernance@sportaus.gov.au. My name is Kate Corkery and I look forward to you joining me for the next podcast in the Sport Governance Series.