February 24, 2021 –The SLSG believes in bringing members of the sport community together through our monthly “Conversation Matters: You Ask, We Share”, spending an hour with sport leaders from across the country sharing information and responding to questions on employment, insurance, leadership, financial management, grief management, equity, diversity and inclusion and other matters related to managing through COVID-19. Our next one will be on March 24, from noon to 1 PM EST that you can register to join for free here: https://sportlaw.ca/webinar-series/

Here’s what SLSG Partners Steve Indig and Dina Bell-Laroche had to share:

• The momentum of the pandemic continues to shift the conversation around sport to topics that can become neglected in the rush of sport seasonality such as strategic planning, governance, policies, educational pieces, and transgender inclusion. Steve shared how a few sport organizations approach transgender athletes registering to play including legacy clauses, inviting athletes to self-determine where they play, and reviewing sport’s traditional gender identification protocols.
• Safe Sport is continuing to be a hot topic and we have guides and processes to support sport leaders along the way. Steve invites sport organizations to proactively manage complaints before they needlessly escalate to a crisis.
• Steve recommends that sport organizations prepare their travel plans according to their risk tolerance while safeguarding the wellbeing of national team members. If you want to learn more about the considerations of managing travel related risk, contact Jason at JER@sportlaw.ca.
• When it comes to EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) in your communications strategy, Dina recommends you take a step back first by asking “who are we” and identifying “what we believe in.” Naming our ‘ethos’ as an organization can guide how we make decisions that reflect inclusive practices.
• Employees and volunteers are feeling disconnected and the pandemic continues to increase the number of mental health risks. Dina explains how the NOVA Profile can be used as a tool to encourage, better, deeper, and more meaningful conversations in our work and daily training environments. This psychometric tool can help teams improve communication through self-awareness practices and better teamwork.
• The number of complaints is on the rise and a tool like the NOVA Profile supports better dialogue that de-escalates conflict before they become unnecessary complaints.
• Make a commitment to live your values through athlete engagement. This allows you to work through some of the natural tensions that arise within high performance cultures. Going the extra mile by engaging athletes and making sure they feel supported and heard will go a long way to helping you walk the talk with respect to ‘safe sport’.
• A reminder that one of the best ways to reduce conflict is to communicate effectively … ask  “who needs to know what, by when, how, and why”.

To access our recording, please visit here: https://sportlaw.ca/sport-law-strategy-group-shares-helpful-tips-during-covid-19-update-17

Our high hopes for the sector are to re-imagine new ways to deal with the stuff that might be keeping you up at night and in so doing, feel less alone as a result. If COVID-19 has taught us anything it’s that we need each other more than ever to work through some of the complexities of leading, living, competing and volunteering in the 21^st Century.

The Sport Law & Strategy Group has been providing strategic insight to the Canadian sport community since 1992. We offer a full range of management consulting, leadership development and legal services to the Canadian sport community. We are accessible, affordable, highly skilled, and we bring experience and common sense to every project.

Our mission is to help you achieve yours.

To learn more about us please visit https://sportlaw.ca. For more information, please contact Dina Bell-Laroche at 613-591-1246 or 613-294-4118 or DBL@sportlaw.ca.