It's time to get Up to Speed!

While everybody wants the benefits of scale, nobody wants the messy challenges that follow. All I want are simple solutions that keep people moving.

Our middle school track and field program has experienced significant growth over the past three years, with our roster expanding from 110 to 160 athletes. While this increase is exciting, it has also presented us with a messy set of challenges. Adding 45% more middle school boys and girls means we have turned up the volume in many ways. This rapid scaling forced us to transform nearly every aspect of managing the program.

Among the most notable changes came about in our approach to team communications. We had a larger and more diverse audience. Communication at this scale demands that we move beyond the easy objectives of answering who needs to know what and when they need to know it. We needed to cut through the noise of busy lives, convince them that we cared about doing our best, and get everyone up to speed!

The solution was to create an e-newsletter that always went out on Monday evenings. The hard part was learning to write and design something that would keep people informed and inspired. With our upgraded goals, we were aiming to touch on almost every level of the communication hierarchy:

Level One: Inform
Level Two: Create Understanding
Level Three: Reinforce Shared Values
Level Four: Change Attitudes
Level Five: Elicit Action
Thanks to speechwriting legend Fletcher Dean for this framework.

Each e-newsletter was structured to provide our readers with the information they needed in a clear and engaging manner. We started with easy-to-read tables under the headings “Coming Attractions” and “Future Attractions,” which served as a modified calendar with our events' dates, times, and locations. The rest of the newsletter included a limited number of announcements and a closing motivational message from the Head Coach. We also added some color and fun.

One parent, in particular, shared a short and sweet testimonial to let us know we had hit our communication target:

Thanks for sending this out “written in crayon” for us parents in multi-sports who may not know what to ask. We appreciate you all!

In the world of middle school athletics, bigger is better. But it comes with complexity. Leveling up our communications was essential to keeping everyone on our team moving forward.