When Scottish Rowing approached us about supporting Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association (ASRA), the goal wasn’t simply to deliver a workshop. It was to help the club pause, reflect and intentionally shape the culture it wants to be known for.

This wasn’t about compliance.
It was about culture.

Starting with Listening

Before stepping into the club, we hosted an online working group with ASRA leadership.

This allowed us to understand the club’s context, strengths and dynamics and to design delivery that felt relevant and grounded rather than generic.

From the outset, this was positioned as a collaborative process.

In the Room

We delivered Creating Healthier Sports Environments in person across four separate groups:

• Coaches, Trustees and Committee

• Under-15 Athletes

• Under-19 Athletes

• Parents

Creating separate spaces meant each group could speak openly, while allowing shared themes to emerge across the whole club.

We asked two simple but powerful questions:

• What does a healthy rowing environment look and feel like?

• What value or behaviour should this club commit to?

The answers were thoughtful, aligned and, in many cases, strikingly mature.

Young athletes spoke about psychological safety.
Parents spoke about transparency and trust.
Coaches spoke about structure and responsibility.

Across every group, the same message surfaced: performance matters but not at the expense of respect, inclusion and wellbeing.

From Conversation to Commitment

This wasn’t a one-off session.

Following delivery, we produced:

• A detailed Engagement Report

• A co-created set of Club Values

• A formal Culture Code (policy version)

• A Culture Code flyer for display in the club hub

Every output was built directly from participant voice.

The result wasn’t something imposed on ASRA, it was something shaped by them.

What Emerged

Six clear cultural pillars surfaced across all cohorts:

• Psychological safety

• Respect and accountability

• Inclusion and belonging

• Transparent leadership

• Healthy, development-focused performance

• Community and connection

Perhaps most powerfully, athletes asked for proactive mental health check-ins, not just support when someone is visibly struggling.

They weren’t asking for less ambition.
They were asking for relational structure: clear standards, open dialogue and leadership they can trust.

The Impact

Through this process, ASRA now has:

• A shared language for culture

• Clear behavioural commitments

• Visible standards embedded across the club

• A foundation for preventative safeguarding

This work demonstrates what it looks like when a national governing body and a local club proactively invest in culture to transparently tackle the problems they’ve faced.

It shows that healthier environments aren’t accidental. They are intentional.