INTERVIEW
impressive: 33 per cent of participants reported a decrease in weight and blood pressure, 75 per cent reported more activity, and 90 per cent said they would recommend the programme to a friend. Most important of all, they all felt
more aware of their activity levels and more confident about taking responsibility for their own activity and weight in the future. Indeed, around three-quarters of participants went on to take up membership at Avondale. “When we felt they were at the threshold where a bit more physical activity would benefit them, we invited them into the centre to see what we could do – what classes might appeal to them, for example,” says McPhail. Life Leisure is now looking to mirror
the success of actiLife in a new pilot, actiSport, which takes the same walking- based approach but as a re-entry point into sport rather than gym-based activity. Supported with new funding from Sport England, it’s currently also offered through Avondale, which has introduced sessions such as walking football as a way to bridge the gap between inactivity and full-blown sport. Going forward, the aim is for the full
package – actiLife and actiSport, new software being developed to support them, and advice on the physical offering – to be made available at other Life Leisure sites, as well as to new contracts beyond Stockport. The decision is yet to be made if this will be offered on a franchise basis or as a commissionable package.
PREFERRED BEHAVIOURS But Avondale is just one example of how Life Leisure is doing things differently. One interesting new initiative
is the organisation’s scrapping of job descriptions in the belief that people generally know what their job involves; what makes the difference is how they behave while carrying out their job. “We’re moving towards what we call
preferred behaviour models, whereby people don’t have a job description but instead are given a model of behaviour we expect them to follow,” explains McPhail. “There’s a different model for each department, and that’s what we’ll measure and reward people against. “Meanwhile, at a company level, the
preferred behaviour is ‘personal best’. We want our staff to strive to achieve personal best days every day. “Within all that, I have a strategic group called ‘sentinels’ who help guide the
Walking programmes can help bring people out of inactivity
company in the right direction. There are about 25 of them at the moment – cleaners, PTs, junior managers, general managers – and hopefully that will grow, but they all have one thing in common: the correct behaviour and attitude. “I believe this will help ensure we have
a strong internal brand. Everybody talks about having a strong external brand, but you have nothing unless your own people believe in what you’re doing. Nike employs hundreds of people to look after its internal brand, and I firmly believe our size is irrelevant in that respect. We should be acting like the big blue chip companies, delivering our vision and mission with a much higher level of sophistication. “Everything I do in Stockport, I do as if I’m in charge of Adidas or Nike.”
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST But the external brand is also important, and the rebrand to Life Leisure last year
– besides lifting the geographical limitations imposed by having
‘Stockport’ as part of the organisation’s name – also allowed the trust to bring in “a complete culture change” that
36 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
consolidated its links with the local community, further developing its partnerships and building on its already strong outreach foundations. “By about 2018, there won’t be any
local authority funding for leisure facilities.” says McPhail. “Whether we like it or not we’re non-statutory, so we have to come up with ways to deliver our own funding. That might be by becoming more commercial – going after new contracts
– or by expanding our horizons beyond public health, delivering interventions to tackle all the other strategic issues local authorities face, from dysfunctional families to disabled people to NEETs. “Either way, I think we’ll start to see a
move away from the trust as we know it towards a hybrid trust model that’s more commercial. Either that or trusts will develop separate brands, one delivering a commercial offering in a competitive market and the other delivering the social net value-type approach. “Whatever happens though, the budget
clubs have changed the market for good. Everybody’s had to sharpen their sword and only the most creative will survive.” ●
August 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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