What Next for Rowing? Exploring the Discontinuous Side of Change

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What Next for Rowing?
Exploring the
Discontinuous Side of
Change
Ian McCarthy
2021 RCA Conference
31st January 2021

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What is change?
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 Technology
 Coaching and education
 Safety
 Members
 Events
 Rules
 Governance
What changes?
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Doggett's Coat and Badge Race in 1715
Quidi Vidi Lake Regatta 2017

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 Continuous change
 better and bigger maybe, but more of the same for
the same people.
 going in the same direction.
 Discontinuous change
 doing different things for the same people, or the
same things for different people.
 going in a different direction
Direction of change
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Continuous change
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Henley Regatta 2017
Henley Regatta 1968

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Continuous and discontinuous change
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Smartoar (2020)

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Discontinuous change

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Discontinuous change
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Discontinuous change
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Lamborghini 1948
Lamborghini 1963

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Continuous and discontinuous change
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Discontinuous change can deliver
enormous value and benefits, but
it is difficultto produce.
Why?
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It is disruptive – to you!
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It is often viewed as inferior
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Perceived to go against heritage and tradition
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Can require being ‘open’ to learning from outside your
domain
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Can require being ‘open’ to weird ideas
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Can require being ‘open’ tolearning from users
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Can require being ‘open’ tolearning from users
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Can require being ‘open’ to learning from the
community
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Can require a different business model
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Ambidexterity
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Exploitation and continuous
change
Exploration and discontinuous
change
Adhere to the rules, follow the crowd
and conform.
Change the rules, lead the crowd and
rebel.
Focus on serving existing members
and their existing needs.
Serve new members and new needs.
Manage and refine existing
competences.
Develop and lead new competences.
Optimize the organization for existing
rules.
Develop new organization system with
new rules.
Red ocean thinking Blue ocean thinking

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 Going in a different direction typically involves.
 Disrupting what you are proud of and going against
tradition and heritage.
 Being open to learning from outside your domain and
from users.
 Seeing value in things that seem weird or inferior.
 Recognising that existing members (at first) will not
value the discontinuous change.
 Being ambidextrous.
Summary
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