Becoming aware of what we didn’t know we didn’t know

In 2023, the Yorkshire Sport Foundation completed the Digital Futures survey – a tool designed by ukactive and Sport England with the help of digital consultants Rewrite Digital.

It helps the sector better understand our digital maturity – that is, how capable we are to respond to changes in the digital landscape – and improve our readiness for future challenges.

I think it’s fair to say we were a bit sceptical when we first did the survey.

Unexpected but helpful outcomes

We thought we were already in a good place digitally and were unsure about what it would tell us, but the benefits of doing the survey for us have been great and it has made us aware of things we didn’t even know that we didn’t know.

According to the survey we are “digital experimenters” and we think that’s probably a fair reflection.

But what does being “digital experimenters” mean?

The term refers to organisations that are already making some great advances in digital but that would benefit from a committed and ongoing investment in digital from the top to accelerate business performance and to be ahead of other companies or groups.

As part of the survey we also received a digital score, which we are hoping to increase when we complete the survey again this year.

This result was pulled from five areas and allowed us to see how we were performing compared to the sector.

It also gave us some tips on how to improve it over the coming year.

The key learning we took from the survey is the benefit of having a digital strategy.

At Yorkshire Sport Foundation, we commit to five continuous improvement areas each year – the Moving the Dial items.

Writing our digital strategy became one of these and this was supported by our Board.

But how should we start?

Getting the impulse to improve

The Digital Futures survey provided us with advice on the key elements to include, as well as real-life examples from organisations outside the sector.

Our digital strategy sets out the principles we will work to and the main topic areas we need to focus on, which are:

• internal digital skills
• reviewing emerging digital areas 
• digital infrastructure
• data, security and collaboration.

These topics have an action plan that sits underneath them and we have already begun working towards some of these.

Some of the tactics we’ve put into practice include:

• auditing our hardware to make sure that the team have the right equipment to do their jobs in the most efficient ways
• dedicating some staff time to explore artificial intelligence and how it can be used within our work
• setting up a new mapping solution for the team to be able to make decisions based on data in a more timely and efficient way
• redeveloping our website while thinking about additional digital benefits
• providing a wider range of data through digital solutions.

We also now assess everything in the strategy against the principles we want to deliver by, which are:

• passion in innovation
• integrity through data-driven actions
• being people-centred
• fairness and inclusivity
• collaboration
• security
• being climate-conscious
• a focus on learning.

Time well spent

So, to other organisations who may be unsure whether completing the Digital Futures survey is worth the time (it takes about 30 minutes to do it properly) we say: “It is!”

Because if you want to be conscious of what you don’t know when it comes to digital, this will help highlight where to focus first and will also help you identify small or bigger actions that you can take to increase the critical role that digital can play within your organisation.

As with any survey, it’s the analysis of the results and the next-steps actions that you create that will add value to the insights the test gives you, so we would encourage you to make sure you have time dedicated to do that when the results come out in November. 

It really is time well spent for you, your team and your organisation.