FIA Conference and FLAME Awards 2010

Well. FLAME has come and gone and I personally feel that all I want to do is find a hole somewhere and sleep for a week.

A fair number of the 700 plus attendees have told me that it was a great success – complimenting everything from the calibre of the speakers, to the new ‘fruit & food grazing’ feeding arrangements.
For me, it was (as always) great to see and meet up with so many old faces - and new. But what really excited me was the attendees’ hunger for knowledge for information on subjects which, even a couple of years ago, would have only attracted enough people for a five-a-side team, let alone pack a room. Topics ranging from applying psychology to our delivery models, to the importance of data, the value of social media and the whole issue of ‘exercise as medicine’ filled session after session.

Thinking about this, as well as the calibre of FLAME Award winners and runners up suggests that there is a real and very tangible sea change in our industry. Everywhere I looked and every conversation I had gave me the feeling that people are taking everything we do and improving it by 50% - whether it’s the graphics on kit or its phenomenal capacity to record and interpret data: whether it’s new programmes which are reaching deeper and more consistently into communities, or the phenomenal work currently being done by a handful of organisations with GPs and health professionals.

Now, this isn’t a cheap plug for the TwentyTen Commission, but there are pockets of excellence throughout our industry; just think of the contribution we could make to the nation (and our own bottom line), if we collated best practice, shared it and used it as a springboard for improving what we do and how deeply we engage with our respective communities. The catalyst to that is the Commission, but the drivers to that are you.

Thinking about drivers makes me think about ‘Movers and Shakers’ ... wait ‘till you see the pics from the Awards ... think Strictly Come Dancing ... then think John Sergeant!
Need I say more ... I don’t think I should, or there will be no greeting of ‘old faces and new’ next year.

Click here to see a sample of the photo's from the event.

David Stalker, Executive Director at FIA

Being intellectually smart isn't enough

I came across this quote from the book, “Primal Leadership, Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee.


“Of all the factors in a company’s control, tuned-out, dissonant leaders are one of the main reasons that talented people leave and take the company’s knowledge with them.”

How many of you lose good people because they’re managed and led by people who have brilliant minds, but can’t make that vital connection with people? How much does this cost the business?

At what point would you like to remedy it?

A co-founder of Talent Smoothie http://www.talentsmoothie.com/, Simon Walker is one of the UK’s leading authorities on Generation Y and how to better understand and lead them. Simon will be giving two presentations at the FIA Conference on July 14th at Cheltenham Racecourse.

Written by Simon Walker

Does big mean your customer service has to suck?

It’s so often big organisations that let us down on customer service, isn’t it. Because their policies are too rigid to fit every circumstance, usually.

So, if they don’t allow the frontline to practise common sense, use some discretion, we, as non-standard customers not fitting the policy, don’t exist and don’t get served.

I’m thinking of the case of the Bank of America customer who was born with no arms, but found himself standing in front of a cashier who said that no, without a thumb print, he couldn’t cash the cheque he wanted to cash. Because that’s the policy.

Bill Taylor, in his Practically Radical blog at the Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/), says that the lesson here is that size, as a strategy in itself, is no longer enough.

Companies get big because it’s a sign of success and it gives them the muscle, the clout, to carry on getting bigger – their buying power increases, economies of scale kick in, suppliers offer them favourable prices, competitors can’t match their marketing power, blah, blah, blah.

But, says Taylor, if you haven’t figured out how to harness the smarts of people that work with you, then you are part of the ranks of ‘big and stupid’ companies. And your days are numbered.

Taylor says: “Pete Carril, the Hall of Fame basketball coach, has a trademark expression that sums up the relationship between size and success. ‘The strong take from the weak,’ he likes to say, ‘but the smart take from the strong.’

“If you can figure out, as Jack Welch [the legendary CEO of General Electric] did, how to add to your company’s muscles without atrophying its brain, then maybe you’re not too big to succeed.”

Written by Phil Dourado

Phil Dourado is one of the UK’s leading analysts and commentators on putting the customer at the heart of business, and uses his insights to help organisations improve their customer focus and get closer to their customers. He is giving two presentations around leadership and customer service at the FIA Conference on July 14th at Cheltenham Racecourse.

The Conference that will take you into the next dimension

Today, I felt as if I was on the flight deck of the Star Ship Enterprise.

Less than a week to go to the Flame Conference and we've just hit the Warp Speed button: the stars have turned into streaks of light: the staff of Star Ship FIA have pinned their ears back and the old bus is rattling as we travel at the speed of light.

I know when we arrive at Planet Cheltenham, the air will be pure and intergalactic attendees (drawn from the four corners of our solar system. The Fitness Way), will be..."Enough!" I hear you cry.

But seriously, as the FIA prepares for the industry's second industry conference, goody bags are being checked, speakers' slides are being double checked and seating plans for the Ball are being poured over.

As for the golf day, judging by the fact that less than 10% of players will be playing off a single figure handicap, whilst over 50% are playing off a 20+ handicap, I can only assume that as an industry, we spend more time at the coal face than we do on the green... or maybe golf is our handicap.

But just like Captain Kirk and all the other starship troopers (or am I mixing my Sci Fi), next week we really will '...go where no man has been before'. The Twentyten Commission's Industry Consultation will be launched. It's ambitious and will have profound implications for ambitions, business planning all seem overshadowed by uncertainty and a certain collective insecurity, it's gratifying to think that we at least, are trying to think rationally about a coherent strategy designed to achieve specific future goals.

But in the short term, some of the country's leading experts will be stimulating us with new ideas for old problems. Think of the power of harnessing those three horses of business- psychology, marketing and communications- and the advantage it could give you.

If your are the Flame Conference next week, I look forward to seeing you.

If you're not...well there's always nest year.

To quote Captain Kirk... I'll spare you. See you on the other side of the Warp Factor.

David Stalker, Executive Director of the FIA

If Curiosity Killed the Cat, Who Killed Business?

Don't know if any of you watch 'Three in a Bed', a documentary series in which three bed and breakfast owning couples visit each other's establishments and pay what they believe the experience is worth.


At the end of the programme, one couple wins based on how much they get paid in relation to the price they normally charge.

Anyway, the other day there was one couple who did nothing but criticise and look down their noses at everything that was offered them.



On more than one occasion the husband was heard to declare, “I've been in this business for 45 years, and blah, blah, blah.” You'll be delighted to hear that they came last, the other two couples having decided to pay them only 73% of their bill. Ouch!

And as I listened to him, an old phrase came back to me that I haven't thought about for a long time.

“So is that 45 years experience, or one year's experience, repeated 45 times?”

Whenever we think we know our business that well.

Whenever we begin to think there's nothing more to learn.

Whenever we believe that our experience of our business is more important than our customer's.

That's the time to shut up shop and retire to somewhere where we can do no more harm.

One of the industry’s favourite presenters, Tim Fearon has over twenty years of working in results-driven corporate environments. He will be presenting at the FIA Conference on July 14th in Cheltenham.

Tim Fearon, Owner of the Extraordinary Coaching Company

Learning From the World Cup

Given the fact that management gurus always turn to sports and the army for lessons on management skills and maximising team performances, I wondered what lessons we could teach ourselves ...and save £000s on consultancy fees.

We have our own world cup to work towards – being more than a bit player in the delivery of healthcare strategies.

Like England, we have qualified with flying colours – just think of the use of the FIA logo on the Let’s Dance with Change4Life posters and ads.



Like England, we are rich in talent, creativity and commitment.... who is our Joe Cole? Wait for the announcement of the winner of the Future of FLAME Awards!

Like England we have a good management team in place: the TwentyTen Commission highlights the fact that they have a clear strategy about where they want to take Team Health & Fitness.

So how can we prevent the confidence and performance collapse which always seems to haunt our country teams?

Is it a management issue? Is it a skills issue? Is it a recruitment issue - i.e. we do not attract and keep the best talent? Is it a selection issue - i.e. reward, recognition and promotion? Or is it a bit of all?

I have no answers, only questions. If I did have the answers, I would probably be called Davio Stalkero and be paid £6m a year..... Mind you, some might argue that our Fabio doesn’t have all the answers either.

So let me close with two simple questions:

• How can we ensure that we do not squander the great opportunity we have earned to play in the final rounds of our own world cup?

• Will our boys in white lift that trophy on July 11th?

Answers on a postcard please

David Stalker, Executive Director at the FIA

The W[H]ealth of the Nation

You can almost hear the drum-roll around Whitehall as the Chancellor of the Exchequer sharpens his axe for another round of cuts and bloodletting next week. The emergency budget is due to be released at 12:30 on 22 June. It’s likely to be pretty brutal.

Popular initiatives in the sector such as Free Swimming have already been cut while others are under real threat. To put it into context, the £40million saved on Free Swimming is less than 0.0004% of annual spending on healthcare. Whilst Change4Life is likely to scrape through and live another day, many other perfectly worthy projects are going to go to the wall.

We have already seen accusations in the press that physical activity promotion roles are “non-jobs” and in the first line of cuts. We have also began to see the spending of the Department of Health come into question; when other departments are seeing between 15-30% cuts, is it right that health escapes the firing line? Simon Heffer, hardly a Cameroon but a recognised big beast of conservative thought argued as much in the Daily Mail.

Real leadership is needed around public health and physical activity policy. When we are cutting the amount spent on troops on the front line, you can be sure that segments of the media are going to have a field day on a campaign to get the nation walking. Someone is going to have to be ready with the response to this criticism and stand up to the criticism.

All the indications are that the new Secretary of State Andrew Lansley is the man for the job.

Convinced of the importance of public health, Lansley is not an easy man to shake off his strategy, as was seen by his guarantee from Mr Cameron of the position of Secretary of State.

Fundamentally, he has a very strong case. Without addressing the health of the nation, you can never enhance its wealth. We spend over £100billion per year on healthcare. This is double the 1997 level. Yet demand on healthcare continues to rise. This can not continue. It might not be this Parliament but probably the next which is presented with a choice as to whether a health service remains free at the point of use.

Public health and physical activity in particular, is critical to containing demand on healthcare. Whether it is the aging, fattening or sickening society, physical activity can have an impact and savings can be made.

Currently, physical inactivity including direct costs of treatment for the major lifestyle-related diseases, and the indirect costs caused through sickness absence – has been estimated at £8.2 billion a year.

Furthermore, the direct cost of workplace absenteeism due to preventable illness is estimated at £13.2bn whilst combined with the direct cost, the UK lost £19.9bn to preventable absence in 2007.

Take a few examples. Stroke is the third largest cause of death in the United Kingdom. Over 130,000 strokes occur every year. There are 300,000 people living with a disability as a result of stroke in the UK. The overall cost of Stroke to the economy, including direct & indirect care costs and loss of productivity, is £7 billion a year. Preventing just 2% of strokes that occurred in England could save £37 million within a year. Even just moderate physical activity can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 27%.

There are currently over 2.6 million people with Diabetes in the UK with a further 500,000 cases undiagnosed. Diabetes UK estimates the cost of Diabetes to the NHS at £9 billion a year. The Department of Health, ‘Be Active Be Healthy’ physical activity strategy states that physically active individuals who meet the Chief Medical Officer Guidelines have a 33% reduced risk of developing Diabetes. Therefore, moderate physical activity represents a possible £2.33 billion saving for the NHS.

3.4 million adults in the UK suffer from Coronary Heart Disease. This costs the UK healthcare system around £3.2 billion a year and the overall economy nearly £9 billion a year. According to guidance by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence 35% of CHD is caused by physical inactivity. Moderate levels of physical activity could save £1.5 billion a year.

These are serious numbers and even the Treasury will recognise their significance. Whether it is containing demand on healthcare, helping people to be more productive in work or simply helping people back into work, physical activity has a major role to play.

If we want a wealthy nation, we better make sure it’s healthy first.

Steven Ward, Director of Public Affairs at the FIA