What makes a team?
Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to attend the leaving do for my long-time friend and collaborator, James Kemp. He launched Marple parkrun in 2012, then became an ambassador, and then joined the operations team in 2017. Today is his final day, signing off as Global Head of Event Delivery.
It was incredible catching up with a load of parkrun staff, and to reminisce about the ‘good old days’ where we made things up as we went along, faced weird and wonderful challenges every week, and had the great privilege of steering parkrun through its early (ish) unchartered waters.
When I look back on it now, it feels remarkable that we achieved the things we did, going from 15,000 participants per week in 2012 to 400,000 participants per week in 2024. Supporting the delivery of some way north of 100 million recorded instances of participation, I don’t imagine there’s ever been anything else like it in organised community sport.
Before I sound like I’m blowing our own trumpet a little too enthusiastically however, I think the most interesting thing about that incredible team was that we were all just regular normal people. It’s not like we were all Oxbridge graduates who’d spent a decade at McKinsey before finding our purpose … we were just super passionate parkrunners, who wanted to share that with as many people as possible.
Individually I don’t think you’d have highlighted any of us (and certainly not me) as world class high performers, but as a team we achieved things we could never have dreamed of and many would have said impossible.
Why do I think that was?
- We recruited on character above all other metrics. Spending time getting to know people as parkrun volunteers taught us more than any interview process could ever do.
- There was no hierarchy of individual value. We all considered each other equals as people, and anyone could challenge anyone on any topic at any time. No offence taken.
- We respected each other’s professional responsibilities. If you were the safeguarding team, or the tech team, or the event delivery team, you had the final decision in that area and we wouldn’t move past a decision until you were 100% comfortable.
- There were absolutely no egos. Yes we all had our moments, but a bit like great sports teams, the ‘dressing room’ just wouldn’t allow prima donnas.
- We shared success and failure in the same way. When we got something right, we all got it right, and when we got something wrong, we all got it wrong.
- It was never about us. Every decision we ever made was focussed on the best interests of the parkrun events themselves, who we were incredibly proud to serve.
That was a bit of a ramble, but I hope you found it interesting and perhaps there are some good points to take away into your own teams, both personal and professional.
📸 The fantastic parkrun operations team in 2018, all but three of us are still there (JSH and Kempo have retired, and I'm here doing this with Chris).
