Systems thinking critical to transforming the Australian Leisure industry post COVID-19

The time for systems leadership is now. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic I urge the leisure sector not to follow our Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s direction last month, that was to simply ‘snap back’ to our previous existing arrangements.

It is easy to be critical of leaders and I could not imagine the pressures of making political decisions that affect millions of people. Leaders of countries around the world have the dilemma between making people stay at home thus taking a wrecking ball to the economy, or risking hundreds if not thousands more deaths by lifting isolation.

However, the term ‘snap back’ by the Prime Minister concerns me. As someone who advocates for the most vulnerable, I believe we can’t afford to just restore the leisure industry to what it was pre COVID-19, it was simply not effective. As a sector we can’t continue to do what we’ve always done, even working harder is not going to produce the different outcomes that society needs.

As Albert Einstein famously said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

As a sector we profess to be all about equity, but who are we really reaching. Within our wonderful leisure industry there are some great Councils and leisure providers, achieving effective outcomes in communities. But if we’re honest, there was generally inequality pre COVID-19. With the majority of health and fitness programs in venues, mainly targeting already active people. With those who most need to be active often being overlooked. Hence, we’re failing to make any significant contribution in reducing inequality.

The time for change is now… Here’s why.

Statistics pre COVID-19 from the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW - Impact 2020

Health

11.4 million people, almost 50%, have a lifestyle-related chronic disease. With most deaths occurring in low and middle-income communities.
1 in 2 (55%) adults do not meet the physical activity guidelines.
2 in 3 (70%) children do not meet the physical activity guidelines.

Money

1 in 10 (2.1 million) people are in severe or high financial stress.
Almost 1 in 2 (44%) people do not have 3 months of savings.
13.6% are living below the poverty line (50% median income), including 774,000 children (17.7%) and 428,880 young people.

Mental health

1 in 5 people experience a mental health disorder in any year.

Disability

1 in 5 people have disability.

The statistics are sobering and are predicted to get a lot worse post COVID-19. As the ABC News recently reported “unemployment rate is predicted to reach 10% amid coronavirus pandemic, pushing Australia into recession”. They report the unemployment rate will rise from 5.1% to 10% in the June quarter, according to Treasury figures. More unemployment means less disposable income and a squeeze on consumer spending, resulting in people having less money for leisure activities.

The future of our sector after COVID-19 is difficult to predict today. Values and beliefs of some customers will have changed for good. One thing I think we can all agree, it’s not going to be business as usual.

Given the increased financial pressures for Councils and leisure providers. There will be an even greater push for operational efficiencies and generation of revenue within leisure facilities. This has the potential to widen the inequity gap, and ultimately impact the health of Australians. Resulting in more people having chronic conditions and an increased financial burden on the health system.

We can’t afford to focus on the short-term reactive problem and ‘snap back’, restoring the old way of working. We have a unique opportunity to balance short term priorities with long-term value creation and social impact.

Organisations self-interest must be re-engineered, with success being aligned to creating outcomes that impact the larger public health eco-system, which we’re all a part of.

We may never get this opportunity again.

Historically, the leisure sector has worked in silos, so why not capitalise on this opportunity to step forward differently. What we need is cross-sector pollination, with people working across public health, education, not-for profit, for-profit and government, to bang down the door of the issues we’re facing together. 

Wouldn’t it be great if cross sector organisations were pulling in the same direction, tackling global priorities at a local level?

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all members of the United Nations, sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are an urgent call for action by all countries in a global partnership. In the context of our leisure industry the 3 SDGs of good health and well-being, quality education and reducing inequality are most applicable.

The wider health and social benefits of our leisure industry need to be the main drivers for investment, collaboration and collective strategy. We must move to a “well-being without boundaries” model, as we have a civic duty not to leave people behind.  

How will we do this?

The changes needed to counteract the widening of inequity post COVID-19, require systems leaders. That is, people who drive collective leadership by taking into account the whole of the system and its complexity.

Senge, Hamilton and Kania in ‘The Dawn of Systems Leaders’ capture three essential capabilities that systems leaders must develop, in order to foster collective leadership.

1.     Ability to see the larger system

In any complex setting, people typically focus their attention on the parts of the system most visible from their own perspective. Helping people see the larger system is essential to building a shared understanding of complex problems.

This understanding enables organisations to jointly develop solutions not evident to any of them individually. To work together for the health of the whole system rather than just pursue symptomatic fixes to individual pieces.

2.     Fostering reflection and more generative conversations

Reflection means thinking about our thinking. Holding up the mirror to see the taken-for-granted assumptions we carry into any conversation and appreciating how our mental models may limit us. Deep, shared reflection is a critical step in enabling groups of organisations and individuals to ‘hear’ a point of view different from their own and to appreciate emotionally as well as cognitively each other’s reality. This is an essential doorway for building trust where distrust had prevailed and for fostering collective creativity.

3.     Shifting the collective focus from reactive problem solving to co-creating the future

Change often starts with conditions that are undesirable, but systems leaders help people move beyond just reacting to these problems, to building positive visions for the future. This typically happens gradually as leaders help people articulate their deeper aspirations and build confidence based on tangible accomplishments achieved together. This shift involves not just building inspiring visions, but facing difficult truths about the present reality and learning how to use the tension between vision and reality to inspire new approaches.

Australia Leisure context

We must do the work and learn about the whole system. We can’t just continue delivering the usual services and programs to mainly already active people.

We must create multidisciplinary partnerships across sectors and not focus on individual short-term priorities. Instead, focus on how we can collectively attract the hard to reach groups. Continuously, challenging our assumptions and behaviours, listening to different perspectives and reflecting.

Seanna Davidson (The Systems School) describes systems practice beautifully. As an ongoing journey of learning, there is no end point. Doing systems is a process, not an outcome. We layer multiple methods and practices through iterative cycles of learning. Our own personal practice becomes the strongest influence in how we understand and see a system.

History tells us, the world is always different after a pandemic. With crises comes opportunity, therefore we must seize this once in a lifetime chance to drive social change. We must step away from the ‘snap back’ mentality and instead collaboratively experiment with new ideas for the betterment of all communities.

We don’t know what the impact of COVID-19 will have on physical activity behaviour. From my observations during this time, there are more people active in parks and more people are doing home classes digitally. With the value of physical activity becoming more prominent.

I believe post COVID-19 there is going to be a thirst for social connection and physical activity in the physical form, not just the virtual world. Although social distancing may be with us for some time.

The pandemic has certainly affected many people, organisations and industries. I am optimistic that the ‘new normal’ will be a better one for all in the end. 

But we need a paradigm shift, led by systems leaders to restart and transform the industry. Working across sectors with the courage to find new solutions. We must cast the net wide and ensure that those most disadvantaged have the opportunities to be a well-being.

As published on Linkedin