Innovation and digital

The video begins with a trio of logos displayed on a purple screen. The Leading the Movement logo appears in the centre of the screen followed by The National Lottery and Sport England logos beneath. White circular graphics spiral in the top left, and bottom right, corners.

Background music starts and continues throughout the video. Subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen and accompany the voiceover. 

The frame transitions to show Chris Boardman CBE. He’s sat facing the camera in a white shirt in front of a white background. This scene remains for the entirety of the video. A lower third banner appears in the bottom left corner, it’s a white box with a purple shadow and reads Chris Boardman CBE followed by Chair, Sport England.

Chris Boardman’s voice, and the accompanying subtitle, begin: “Hello, I’m Chris Boardman, Chair of Sport England and welcome to this innovation video.

So, Uniting the Movement is all about innovation. That is the point of it. It is stopping doing things the same way that haven’t been getting the results that we wanted and started to explore doing different.

In the case of United Movement, it’s actually, it started to define success more people active, less people inactive, and then started to follow the pathway all the way back to find out what is really in the way. And incredibly, it’s found that the barriers are often a long way from the playing field. But if those are the things that must be true to get change, then that’s where the focus must be. And that attitude has got to go all the way through everything that we do, and innovation is at the heart of it. Focusing on the outcome, not the activity, and daring to think differently, bringing new voices into the conversation.”

A flash of white appears across the screen cutting to the next segment. No changes appear in the subsequent scene.

Chris continues: “So leaders throughout the system, wherever you are right at the top or embedded in the works, you have a massive role to play in how things work because you set the scene your attitude to how we do things to attitude to failure. All of these things enable or disable other people from taking risks, from exploring and doing things differently.

I certainly want to work, and I imagine people watching this do, with people who want to create the change. So first of all we have to define the success and if what we’re doing now doesn’t get us there, then we have to find a way to be okay with changing it.”

A flash of white appears across the screen again to transition into next segment.

He continues: “To develop or innovate is essentially change and with it change brings fear of failure. So the key to be able to innovate is for the individual to be fascinated by change. Having an idea that can bring a positive change, going and doing it, measuring that difference, looking at the difference, and that’s the bit that should hold the tension and seeing what can be learned, and then applying it.

And if that’s done with a group, that attitude and that approach to looking at the results, whether it went in the direction you wanted or it didn’t, that fascination with the change, what caused it, what do we need to do differently now, is a really positive way to do things and it could create an innovation culture.

The best leaders are curious and they are fascinated by how things work and that enables other people, it enables them to hear, but it enables other people to be involved in what comes next and that creates a culture of innovation and change.”

A flash of white appears across the screen again and the video continues.

Chris says: “I think the other thing that top leaders do is they look outside. They don’t necessarily look inwards they look outwards. They ask people who have nothing to do with this topic, what their opinion is, because it’s often ignorance that unlocks change. I found it leading the research and development team for British Cycling. We had, very quick cameo of a story. I worked, on all of the equipment and clothing and everything else for British Cycling, we spent a lot of time in wind tunnels.

We had a woman called Sally Cowan from the underwear industry because she knew about textiles. We had a guy called Demetrius Katsanis who designed bulletproof seats for helicopters because he knew about composites. We had a guy called Rob Lewis from Formula One because he knew all about aerodynamics, our biggest resisting force in the sport of cycling. All of those people knew nothing about cycling, but they asked the best questions, all about how to make people go faster that were relevant to them. They weren’t constrained by history, as we often are in organisations, this is how it’s always been done. They were looking at the demands of the event rather than the history of it and that really gets change.”

The video breaks briefly with a white screen.

Chris continues: “Top tips for me, for leaders are, first of all, be curious, be fascinated first, give yourself permission to not have to come up with the answer because then other people around you can speak and you’ll find out things that you didn’t know. Second, and related to that, is to own the question, not the answer. So you engage all of those imaginations that you’re involved with, rather than everything having to depend on whether you can think of an answer or not.

So, be the owner of the best question, be comfortable leaving the big pause and asking follow ups to probe to get more. So, the best question is what defines the best leader. And lastly, enjoy it, because attitude is a choice and if people can see that you’re fascinated by change and difference rather than focused on failure or success, then they feel they have permission to innovate, to try different, to take a bit of risk.”

The video breaks and returns to Chris who concludes by saying: “So a final thank you to any leaders out there who are really focused in on tackling inequalities, something that I’m very, very passionate about. I hope the things that you’ve heard are useful and go out there, be curious and don’t be afraid to do different.”

The shot of Chris fades out and is replaced with a purple frame. A series of Leading the Movement icons appear at the top of the screen. These include the inequalities icon (a circle of people around a justice scale), the leadership community icon (a circle of connected hands ), the partnerships and networking icon (a circle of connected people), the learning and resources graphic (a computer screen with videos, microphones and paperwork attached), the mentoring icon (two people in conversation), the place-based working icon (a collection of people around a location pin) and the ‘Your stories’ icon (a person with a speech bubble).

The icons bleed into a white marks before transitioning into the words Leading the Movement, this then covers the whole screen. The title shrinks to the top of the screen allowing space for The National Lottery and Sport England logos to appear beneath. At the bottom leadingthemovement.org is shown in white text.

The background music ends. The video ends.