Sustainable Leadership of Sport

The ability to listen and observe allows us to perceive needs and desires, to grasp ideas and convert them into projects and actions.

And it is along this path of listening and observation that ONElabMilano understood its willing to contribute tangible and intangible resources. It wants to inject professionalism, skills, experience, and leveling tools into the world of sport. It wants to launch the numerous advantages expressed through sport and spread them throughout the territory for the community’s benefit.

Within a community, relationships are built on respect and honesty toward people, rules, and things.

Respect is the element that brings people together, makes them accept each other, and enables them to live together. It is the foundation of all healthy relationships.

Loyalty is a value that strengthens relationships. Respect also governs relationships between people who are far away. When loyalty steps in, it means that the relationship has become close. Loyalty is a sign of respect between those people closest to each other.

Respect and loyalty are two pillars on which ethical choices and behaviors are based.

The word passion has two meanings. At an etymological level, it originates from the Latin “passio”, derived in turn from the verb “pati” which means to endure or suffer. Subsequently, the word increasingly took on a positive connotation.

Passion is the kindling that ignites the most intense relationships. It is the feeling that fills life by making it more beautiful.

However, it becomes a considerable weakness when there is no loyalty.

Sport is a natural expression of these values.

ONElabMilano intends to work in the territory and the community respectfully, fairly, and transparently, defining the projects and goals to which it has committed. Once the needs and desires of a territory and/or community, whether large or small, have been identified, each project’s objectives will be defined and shared, and the economic resources necessary for its completion will be sought.

The business and social spheres can and must work together towards common goals.

We want to create a win-win-win relationship in which the economic actors supporting the projects, the beneficiaries, and ONElabMilano produce and achieve prosperity by achieving the objectives.

An ethical approach is the basis of everything.

Ethics has a fundamental role in being reborn and starting over. Unlike in this historic period, whoever makes the rules of the game may be tempted to exploit positions of strength/weakness. However, the person who is genuinely “strong” is the one who applies an ethical modus operandi while still benefiting from it as regards a good reputation.

ONElabMilano firmly believes that, for inexplicable reasons, sport has not as yet been attributed the high cultural status that must now be recognized.

This recognition is deserved because, on the one hand, sport is an expression of ethical values and principles. On the other hand, it serve as an example for inspiring a healthy sense of competition, encouraging physical and mental well-being, bringing people together, expressing high-profile skills and experiences, and generating prosperity and work.

ONElabMilano is committed to ensuring that the value of sport is appreciated as an expression of excellence and its various forms enhanced.

All variations of the value of sport, those mentioned plus others, have different positive effects and diverse actors. The projects developed by ONElabMilano will seek to facilitate the creation of several different but compatible effects.

ONElabMilano calls sustainability the ability to produce different positive impacts.

We're talking about cultural, social, environmental, and emotional ones, plus examples and forces that influence people’s lives positively.

Indeed, the concept of sustainability applies to many areas, which is precisely the reason that this aspiration to enhance the strength expressed by sport has emerged.

There is enormous potential to be expressed and used. By coming up with projects, ONElabMilano wants to encourage converting this potential into reality.

Sustainable leadership is a vision; it is both values and value, an expression of excellence manifested by sport, which offers it to the territory and the community.

It is not a concept linked to a leader but a range of resources. It also offers collective leadership because it is led by many different actors, anyone who embraces this vision to make it their own.

ONElabMilano’s Mission is to bring this vision to fruition in everyday life by generating shared prosperity in the broadest sense.

We are stating that business and society can and must proceed together towards common goals. Also, we are saying that all variations of the value of sport have a range of positive effects and different actors. ONElabMilano wants to combine the forces of these factors to contribute to creating value and prosperity.

The sport system in Italy employs hundreds of thousands of people and stirs the enthusiasm of millions among the athletes, fans, and consumers. In one way or another, sport passes through the lives of tens of millions of Italians!

The very cross-cutting nature of sport, combined with its being a container of values and passion, makes it unique and can create and develop business. An ethical business, of course.

For millennia, the driving force behind historic changes has been innovation. In more recent times, it has become part of people’s daily lives. In this momentous period, innovating and being innovative signify offering a way out, a new perspective, a new vision of oneself, a new meaning to one’s actions, and a fresh way of thinking and implementing projects.

Sport understands the need to transform our way of doing and being. Small businesses sense this need acutely; they offer thousands of people the opportunity to play individual and team sport: the true heart of our country’s sport.

The levers to be pulled to facilitate this transformative movement include a broader view of one’s being, a recognition of the value of the activities carried out in the territory, spaces and structures, defined and substantial professional profiles, functional and adequate management tools, and not only technical but also the financial training courses necessary to support this transformation.

Whether a company, sport club, or institution, each organization has its own identity developed over time through behavior styles, objectives pursued, the way things are done, and the human and professional quality of the people populating it. In keeping its identity unique and integral, some distinctive elements increase the overall value of the activities undertaken, attracting economic resources to carry them out.

Hence, setting oneself apart becomes an essential factor to be considered when designing and implementing projects.

As clearly highlighted in its Mission, ONElabMilano wants to be an engine for generating ideas and projects in a workshop setting: a virtual space in which to host nearby stakeholders or those who wish to approach the sport universe by embracing the vision of sustainable sport leadership, and stakeholders motivated by this shared vision of generating positive impacts via a virtuous model of being and of playing sport with a capital S.

We are referring to sport groups, clubs, federations, sport promotion organizations, leagues, and athletes. We are talking about the world of business, institutions at all levels, and education and awareness via schools and universities. However, in a more comprehensive and realistic view, we must not forget all the people in whose lives sport are present.

Establishing a network of different stakeholders means having different points of view, elements that enhance comparison and widen the range of opportunities for developing ideas and, thus, projects.

The time has come to make the transition from thoughts and words to deeds. ONElabMilano will be the workshop group leader involving all those who believe in sustainable leadership of sport. The workshop will analyze and evaluate needs and desires; attract attention, insights, and ideas; and finally produce and implement projects.

Along this path, there are eight lodestars, eight adjectives that light the way:

realistic, courageous, prudent, confident, proactive, creative, balanced, and concrete.

Realistic because there must be a sense of reality at all times. Even when there are ambitious dreams or a clear vision of the future, there must always be a grip on reality that prevents making risky choices.

Courageous and prudent because, even if it seems oxymoronic, they go hand in hand. If challenging choices with a certain margin of risk are made, prudence is the brake pedal, and courage the accelerator. They must be measured, compatible, and allow moving forward.

Confident because when risks are evaluated and even courageous choices are made to ensure proceeding confidently.

Proactive because it means being flexible and dynamic by anticipating and facing situations. It also means making tough decisions when called for.

Creative because if there is to be innovation and transformation, it is invention and distinction that must essentially influence creativity.

Balanced and tangible because they communicate with each other as balance helps to make choices based on tangibility.

In playing its role in a workshop, ONElabMilano will have an approach that refers to these eight adjectives.