Changes to the Characteristics of High Performing Cricket Boards 4

1 Contents Introduction 3 Changes to the Characteristics of High Performing Cricket Boards 4

Suggestions on how to conduct your self-assessment 5 Note on using this tool 7 Guide to scoring your self-assessment 8 Characteristic One – Strong Leadership 9 Characteristic Two – Strong Corporate Governance 10 Characteristic Three – Working in Partnership 11 Characteristic Four – Effective Decision Making Processes 12 Characteristic Five – Focus on Meeting Customer Need 13 Characteristic Six – Focus on Delivery of Desired and Key Results 14 Characteristic Seven – Managing the Future 15 Characteristic Eight – Skilled Workforce 16

2 Introduction Welcome to ‘You are the Umpire’ a specially designed tool support continuous improvement in the management of the recreational game. This self –assessment tool has been shaped and developed with input and contributions from county cricket boards, leagues and staff from across the ECB Cricket Partnerships team. We hope you find it relevant, timely and useful. The self-assessment tool has been developed following a rapid review of the Nine Characteristics of High Performing Cricket Boards. We have all been working to these characteristics for some time now and we felt that the time was right to review the progress. Work was carried out by Sheffield Hallam University to assess the progress that was being made across the network. It was found that across the board solid progress was being made, but that boards were finding some areas challenging, most notably around creating the future and meeting customer need. This reworking of the self-assessment framework follows on from that review and aims to provide help, support and a challenge around these and other areas and should help you to better capture the progress that you are making, and hopefully inspire you to push on with the support of your network and the Cricket Partnerships Team. The early feedback we have had on this self-assessment model has been very positive but we would love to hear what you think and how it can be improved in future versions. Game on. The ECB Network Support and Improvement Team July 2013 Click here to return to contents page

Continue reading or Click here to skip to tool

3 Changes to the Characteristics of High Performing Cricket Boards The original Nine Characteristics of High Performing Cricket Boards were agreed in consultation with the cricket boards. They stated that High Performing Boards should demonstrate  Focus on the Delivery of desired & key results  Focus on meeting customer need  Strong Leadership  Creating the future  Effective decision making processes  Strong corporate governance  Skilled Workforce  Continual improvement  Working in partnership Each of the characteristics was broken down into key priority areas of focus. In April 2013 a group of County board staff and directors met with representatives from a league and members of the Network Support and Improvement Team from the ECB. The remit was to look closely at the characteristics and to ask the following questions  Is the meaning clear?  Is it relevant to across the cricket network?  Is it clear how might success be evidenced?  Is it fully attainable by 2017 by all partners within the cricket network with existing resources? The answers to these questions led to this document, which we hope is a useful contribution to your continued improvement. You will note that we now have eight characteristics as we felt that ‘Continual Improvement’ cut across all the characteristics. We have also changed the order but hopefully you will recognise this as an improvement to an existing process rather than a new initiative. Consequently, if you have a tried and tested self-assessment in place that is working for you feel free to stick with it. Your Business Support Manager will be able to advise you what if any changes you might need to make to ensure you can demonstrate that you are Ready to Invest. Good luck! Click here to return to contents page Suggestions on how to conduct your self-assessment There is no single proven way to conduct self-assessment to ensure that it will generate the results you want. So it is important that before you start, you are clear about what you want to

4 achieve. This is an improvement tool that has been designed to support your improvement between 2013 and 2017, so you do not need to focus on every area in year one. Consider whether you want to look at the whole of the organisation, the customer focusing elements or just at how well the board operates. The latter might be a good place to start, but whatever you want to the focus to be, you will need to be clear about this from the outset. This will help you choose the right approach for carrying out the self-assessment and who to involve. It will also help you to identify the key questions from the bank of 64 questions supplied. For example if you decide in year one you wish to focus on assessing and developing the way the board operates, you should expect to focus much of your time and resources on Characteristic One ‘Strong Leadership’, Characteristic Two ‘Strong Corporate Governance’, Characteristic Four ‘Effective Decision Making Processes’ and Characteristic Six ‘Focus on Delivery of Desired and Key Results’. Once you have worked out the focus of your self-assessment, the next stage is to consider who to involve in the assessment. Obviously it should include the whole board and senior staff but don’t automatically limit it to your managers. Think about involving all levels of staff and even external partners and contacts to get a broader view. You will also need to decide what resources you’re able to put into the assessment and any resulting actions. This is likely to include direct costs such as hiring venues and providing refreshments but also indirect, and often harder to measure, costs such as staff time on the process and the resulting action planning and activity. You will also need to think about board capacity. Be realistic, how many improvement activities can directors be actively involved with at any one time? If time is limited, you will want to ensure that the directors are contributing to the most important areas that will drive improvement and have the biggest impact. If you plan to involve external partners in your improvement activity, will they view your priorities as their priorities? If not, you might want to limit their involvement at this stage. Above all think about what success will look like, and who stands to gain from this improvement. Those that stand to gain the most have a strong incentive to help and support you through your improvement process. A typical self-assessment process will involve: • Securing commitment from within your organisation – directors, staff and volunteers • Deciding how to communicate progress and outcomes • Planning the self-assessment process • Explaining the process and its purpose to those invited to be involved 5 • Conducting the self-assessment • Considering the outcomes and prioritising them • Establishing and implementing your actions for improvement • Monitoring your progress Your Business Support Manager can help you to identify and implement the steps you need to take to make your self-assessment process successful. Think about the self-assessment you have done up until now. What has worked well, what could be better? Has it driven sustained improvement? There are lots of ways of identifying the progress you have made and in highlighting the areas where you can improve but ultimately there are only two types of self-assessment, those that drive real change and improvements and those that don’t. Both take up a lot of energy and valuable resources, so make sure you know what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it and how you will know when you have achieved it. Finally remember that You are the Umpire. This is your assessment for your benefit. The results will help you to demonstrate that you are Ready to Invest but you will not be expected to share this assessment so try be as honest with yourselves as possible. And if you need to improve in an area think about who is well placed to help drive that improvement. Click here to return to contents page

Note on using this tool This tool has been developed to work electronically, through Microsoft Word. An accompanying Powerpoint version has been developed for use in group sessions. It has been designed to be user friendly and you can navigate quickly and easily from page to page. To maintain a simple, visual style a number of the hyperlinks are discretely located. On the characteristics pages clicking on the umpires will take you to the following pages.

Link to guide to scoring Link to contents page Go to next characteristic The cricket ball score indicator is designed to slide easily from one column to the next you will not need to cut and paste. The hyperlinks within the annexes will take you to websites containing relevant information to support your self-assessment and improvement planning.

Click here to return to contents page

6 Guide to scoring your self-assessment Each statement gives you the opportunity to respond in one of five ways. Try to choose the answer that most closely fits your current position.

Click here to return to Contents page Characteristic 1 Characteristic 2 Characteristic 3 Characteristic 4 Characteristic 5 Characteristic 6 Characteristic 7 Characteristic 8 Characteristic One: Strong Leadership 7

1.1 We have a clear sense of our vision, our values and our outcomes 1.2 We have communicated these appropriately and given our network a clear direction 1.3 Our staff understand our direction and are committed to delivering 1.4 Our staff, associations and volunteers support our direction and are committed to delivering 1.5 We support innovation and

8 changing how we deliver our services 1.6 We are powerful advocates of cricket 1.7 We champion ‘One Game’ as a vision for inclusion and diversity cricket 1.8 We understand how the game can make a positive contribution to our different communities

Characteristic Two: Strong Corporate Governance

2.1 We are fully aware of all our responsibilities as 9 directors 2.2 We comply with all relevant legal duties and statutory guidance 2.3 We discharge our financial responsibilities 2.4 We have clear policies and procedures in place to ensure consistency of approach 2.5 We review our business risks and have effective risk management processes 2.6 We have business continuity plans in place 2.7 Our governance process and our decision making processes are aligned 2.8 We are proactive in our approach to safeguarding

10 children

11 Characteristic Three: Working in Partnership

3.1 We work with all our key partners in the cricket network 3.2 We know who our key external partners in our communities are and how we will work with them 3.3 We understand how we will ensure we have effective relationships within the cricket network and how we will assess the effectiveness of those relationships 3.4 We have identified how we

12 can work together to provide an integrated offer to clubs and players 3.5 We have identified opportunities for sharing resource and driving economies of scale across the network 3.6 We have common policies and procedures that enable us to work together to deliver ‘One Game’ 3.7 We host partnership and community events to discuss progress and agree future direction 3.8 We are involved in joint planning with our partners

Characteristic Four: Effective Decision Making Processes

4.1 We operate a clear, robust & transparent decision-making process that reflects the views of the cricket network 4.2 We have communicated our approach to all stakeholders 4.3 Our decision making process will support the delivery of our outcomes 4.4 We have aligned our resources and programmes with our partners 4.5 We have identified the needs of our stakeholders

14 4.6 Decisions are informed by customer insight from all relevant communities 4.7 We actively seek and make good use of the knowledge, experience and ideas of professional staff, volunteers and partners in reaching decisions 4.8 We take collective responsibility for implementing the decisions we make

Characteristic Five: Focus on Meeting Customer Need

5.1 We understand who our Customers are 5.2 We use market segmentation to help us group and identify our diverse customers 5.3 We have clear methods for collecting Insight from our Customers 5.4 The Insight we collect is designed to enable us to understand the needs, wants, expectations, perceptions and experiences of people 5.5 We use Insight to inform the decisions we make

16 5.6 We use the Growth Cycle to develop action plans to improve our services 5.7 We have used Insight to create a clear Player Recruitment and Retention strategy 5.8 We have used Insight to create a strategy for Disability Cricket

Characteristic Six: Focus on the Delivery of Desired & Key Results

6.1 We measure our success against our Insight led Outcomes

17 6.2 Our professional staff, volunteers, associations and partners support our outcomes and understand their roles in ensuring they are delivered 6.3 We understand how we measure the impact we are having for each of the outcomes we have defined 6.4 We regularly review how we are performing utilising internal and external feedback 6.5 We use the results we achieve to identify how we can continue to improve our performance 6.6 We understand best practice and how we use that to drive innovation

18 6.7 We deliver against minimum quality standards in Premium Product areas 6.8 We have an agreed improvement plan in place

Characteristic Seven: Managing the Future

7.1 We have a vision for the long term future for cricket in our county 7.2 We understand the impact of the economic downturn on the game 7.3 We are utilising new 19 technology e.g. social media to help achieve our outcomes 7.4 We understand how changes in society and demographics can impact upon the game 7.5 We understand the impact environmental changes are having on cricket 7.6 We review the risks and opportunities that face cricket and adapt our services and support accordingly 7.7 We work with clubs to deliver the National Club Strategy to ensure a sustainable club network 7.8 We have identified markets

20 where future growth potential exists Characteristic Eight: Skilled Workforce

8.1 We always recruit widely and appoint people that can demonstrate their ability to meet organisational needs 8.2 We have clear and transparent roles and responsibilities for the professional and volunteer workforce 8.3 We invest in on-going Continued Professional

21 Development for our professional staff based on regular organisational and individual needs analysis 8.4 We create and provide opportunities for the development of the volunteer workforce 8.5 We recognise, reward and record good practice from across the network 8.6 Everyone understands how far they are empowered to take action and make improvements/ch anges 8.7 Everyone has clear objectives and regular performance reviews 8.8 Succession plans are in place

22 for key individuals