Tuesday the 10th of November, 2026
Collaborating
After last week’s Playbook, where we talked about the importance of balancing local knowledge with central experience, I wanted to delve a little deeper into a real life example of just that.
When the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic forced pretty much all gatherings to close, we had to come to a pretty quick decision as to whether we would open or close events and when.
I was fortunate enough to have the responsibility to lead parkrun through that crazy time, and for me the initial answer was simple … where we could legally operate we would. Which lasted all of about two weeks, before everything came to a grinding halt, and for the first time in more than 15 years there was a global parkrun-free Saturday.
Opening back up again, however, was a different matter.
And in a couple of locations, the law stated that in order for parkrun events to operate, participants would need to provide a certificate of vaccination.
In those situations, the rules of the game stated clearly that we could return.
But morally I didn’t believe it was right that people should be excluded from participation in outdoor physical activity based on their personal medical information, particularly when the evidence of safety was clear.
So my decision at that time was that those events should remain closed as a point of principle. And that was something I felt incredibly strongly about.
However, these things are rarely that simple, and spending time discussing things with impacted local communities changed my mind, as they explained to me that the need for their parkrun events was greater than it had ever been. And although it was frustrating that some people couldn’t legally return, we could still make a massive difference to a lot of people when they were most in need.
Once the decision to allow those events to reopen had been made, however, we then needed to develop an operational process to make it work and keep things legal. The local teams themselves had come up with various ideas, however these weren’t practical or robust enough to accommodate everyone and keep things simple.
So, putting it back to the global operations team, we developed a simple process, where status was checked after the finish line at the point of scanning. Which meant that every recorded participant could provide the relevant information, without slowing down or disrupting delivery of the event itself.
We were also able, using our central resources, to ensure that the new operating principles were fully legal and covered by our insurance.
Thankfully, before too long (in some places) and after an absolute age (in others) the world returned to normal and everyone was once again able to participate in our events. However, that experience serves as a great example of how parkrun HQ and local events were able to come together, each bringing different perspectives and experience, in order to find the effective solutions at the appropriate time.
Without the local input we would have stubbornly remained closed and deprived people of a much-needed initiative.
Without the central input we may not have opened in a way that both complied with the law and kept things simple enough to operate effectively.
York parkrun #001
January, 2012
Comment
If there were one right answer to everything, then I’d be very much convinced that computers were going to take over the world. But there isn’t.
There are, in fact, an infinite number of answers to an infinite number of questions. And a good leader is someone who can more often than not make a decent judgement and come to a sensible conclusion, maximising (but not guaranteeing) a positive outcome.
And central to that is an effective understanding of a) the rules of the game, and b) your own beliefs, principles, and morals. If you don’t understand the rules then you’re doomed to failure from the start. And if you don’t understand yourself, then you might as well make your decisions with a Magic 8 Ball.
In the example above, we’d spent so much time understanding the rules of returning in each of the 23 countries we operated in at that time, that that bit was easy.
As the person ultimately responsible for making the final judgement, I knew myself well enough to understand that prioritising the immediate needs of others above my own philosophical position was the right thing at that time.
And we only achieved that outcome through a short but intense period of open, honest, and authentic collaboration.
Tom Williams
Co-Founder, Participate World
participateworld.org
The Participate Playbook newsletter reflects Tom Williams' personal experience and recollections from his time at parkrun. It is not an official parkrun position or record, and any errors are unintentional. Tom writes as an independent consultant through Participate World Limited, and neither he nor the company are affiliated with, employed by, or representatives of parkrun Global or any of its group companies.
