Rediscovering Sports as a Young Adult in Manhattan

I am in my mid-20s, work a 9-5 job, and am bored with life. I went from playing varsity soccer in college and drinking with friends, and now I find myself coming home from work, with nothing to look forward to, and having a beer as I watch whatever ESPN has to show me that night. This is a reality for most mid-20 aged men in NYC. 

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a beautiful turf field on 90th and York, by the name of Asphalt Green. Each night I would walk by, I saw 40-50 men and women competing in adult soccer leagues. I tried to step in and join, but I was told games were organized through GothamSports and ZogSports. 

I signed up immediately and was placed on a free agent team. With ZogSports, you can sign up as a team and play with your friends or join individually and get placed with others who signed up as individuals. In short, I was playing with a team of random men and women. It took us a couple games to build chemistry and rapport, but soon enough, we were in full swing. After losing in shootouts to end our first two seasons, we won 3 straight championships and went from a team that started as free agents to a tight knit team of players, each knowing their role and laughing throughout. 

While playing weekly and winning leagues is enjoyable, our team created a tradition of going to a local bar at the conclusion of each game. We have group chats, celebrate birthdays together, and even watched world cup games at each other’s apartments. 

I would like to take a moment to thank ZogSports and promote adult soccer in Manhattan for not only allowing me to get great exercise and play a game that I love, but also create a social group that I look forward to seeing week to week. 

Understanding Change Management through Key Activities in Transformation

 

Change management is a collection of practices to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations as they are engaged through organizational change. All organizations undergo some level of change over time. Some changes may be small enough, where they only impact a few members of the IT office that manage a certain process, while other changes may impact the way several teams perform day-to-day tasks. Regardless of size, change management practices must be enacted in order to drive the introduction, adoption, and reinforcement of the change to impacted stakeholders. 

Change management capabilities have become critical to the success of organizational change/transformation. So much so, many organizations have invested in internal transformation offices that specialize in change management skills and help the organization manage large scale changes. Other organizations choose to bring change management consulting in to manage changes or support the transformation office depending on the complexity of change. Below are some of the key change management deliverables and activities which are consistent across most mid- to large- scale transformations. 

Case for Change – This deliverable is critical at the early stages of a change as it is important to have a set of materials that clearly detail why a specific change is happening as well as the key benefits of the change for different audiences. This deliverable is the all-important elevator pitch for change that will be leveraged by the change team as they engage with stakeholders, change agents, and drive buy-in across the organization. 

Stakeholder Analysis – Start by brainstorming and working with the program team to identify all possible stakeholders and impacted parties associated with the change. Once stakeholder groups have been identified, group and prioritize stakeholders on specific criteria (ex. level of engagement, significance, seniority, etc.). This analysis will be critical to other deliverables and strategy associated with the change. 

Change Impact Analysis – This tool serves as the backbone of the change effort as it identifies potential consequences, risks, and impacts specific to different stakeholder groups as a result of change. Change impacts can be determined through interviews, focus groups, surveys, as well as an overall understanding of organizational processes. This tool will inform how the change/program team approaches different stakeholder groups.

Communication/Engagement Strategy – While communication with stakeholders and project sponsors will begin at the initial stages of engagement with the client, the change impacts and stakeholder analysis will be critical to a stakeholder tailored communication plan. In any change effort, some stakeholders will require additional communication and engagement to ensure they feel supported with the right adoption information. 

Training and Reinforcement Planning – Mid- to large-scale changes typically require some degree of training to end users as processes change and new behaviors must be adopted. In some cases, training teams will be brought on if they specialize in a specific tool or technology, however, if changes are focused on process or behavior, the change team will often lead this effort. Activities such as training sessions and focus groups are common, and will be accompanied by training videos, user guides, and instructor-led office hours. Change planning does not end at go-live, instead the right level adoption and reinforcement activities must be planned for well-past go-live. 

A Few Facts to Note about Lobbying

 

Lobbying is a political tool that has taken several dimensions over the years. Historically, it refers to efforts to influence legislators' votes by literally standing in the lobby of the legislative chamber and waiting to address legislators.

Commonly practiced in the United States, lobbying can take many different forms. Sometimes it might require that representatives of certain interest groups be present at the legislative chambers to address legislators regarding why certain legislative policies should be adopted. In other instances, government representatives may be "buttonholed" in hotels, resorts, or private residences.

In some instances, public authorities are contacted by phone calls or letters, and campaigns can be set up specifically for that reason. Favored candidates may receive services and financial support from organizations. To sway public opinion, lobbyists might resort to inundating the public with mass media that do support their cause, utilizing all sorts of contemporary mass communication instruments like social media and instant messaging.

The democratically acknowledged practice of lobbying is sometimes mistaken for bribery. This is not true as public campaigns that the government legally recognizes are usually at the forefront of lobbying as lobbyists expedite efforts to persuade governments to enact particular public policy acts.

Similarly, the constitution and the American-type democracy, which advocates that people should be involved in the governance process, both support the legality of lobbying. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects lobbying by granting the right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances." However, the federal government and most states control lobbyists by requiring them to register, report their contributions and expenses, and do the same for the organizations they represent.

The fact that Lobbyists spent $3.47 billion in 2019 alone to influence political policy shows that lobbying has come to stay as a political culture in the United States. The 2019 spending on lobbying is the largest amount spent since the peak of lobbying spending in 2010. Therefore, as lobbyists become more influential and get more opportunities to utilize political influence legislators to enact useful legislation, it is timely to recall the reasons why lobbying is permissible and why it is crucial for a functioning government.

Educating and informing legislators is a crucial part of lobbying as it plays an important role in filling in any information gaps. Lobbyists give information and data about their subject and then attempt to urge the government to take action with each issue brought to legislators' notice. Further, since the issue they advocate for is their only interest and the purpose of their work, lobbyists will bring the greatest, most extensive knowledge and skills to the table. In the long run, the legislature's constituents, as well as lobbying organizations, profit from policy decisions that are made with the finest information available.

It is almost impossible for an individual to gain access to government legislatures without the help of lobbying. Lawmakers tend to pay more attention to lobbyists when they represent the interests of many rather than just one voter by combining individual aims into a lobbying goal.

The Numerous Benefits of Playing Soccer

 Soccer is a team sport with 11 players on each side. One game lasts 90 minutes. Players pass the ball with their legs and heads to score goals. While soccer is fun to watch and participate in, it has several positive effects on your body and mind.

Playing soccer can improve your cardio better than running on a treadmill. It is possible that over the game's tenure, an average player will cover between five and seven miles. All this running benefits your cardiovascular health as it improves your aerobic fitness. It increases your heart's capacity to pump blood to the muscles and reduces atherosclerotic plaque buildup within the arteries. This makes it less likely that you will have a stroke or other health problems in the future.

Soccer is a great way to improve bone density because of the frequent weight-bearing demands placed on the body. As a highly active sport, soccer is great for maintaining muscular tone since it keeps players' muscles working for extended durations. This can help you prevent injuries and shattered bones in the long run.

The sport promotes better coordination due to the constant transitions between walking, jogging, and sprinting. It also involves multidirectional actions like dribbling, passing, and sharp turning. All these movements help you develop better body awareness and control. Furthermore, your hand and eye coordination develops due to the constant kicking and receiving off the ball on the ground or at head height. In addition to enhancing your body coordination and response time, playing soccer makes you more nimble, and improved coordination means better success on the field.

Playing soccer also improves your levels of focus, self-discipline, and tenacity. You are constantly searching for territorial advantages by positioning yourself to receive a ball or block a possible attack.

Being able to work effectively with other people is a powerful real-life skill. Soccer teaches you to put aside your egos and focus on the team's greater good, a skill that is valuable in other aspects of life. The bond you form with your teammates may be unrivaled, and the lessons you learn on the field can apply to other parts of your daily life.

Soccer can help players build up their self-confidence and self-worth, which are essential for their emotional health. Setting objectives, working diligently to accomplish them, and acquiring new skills and talents all boost players' confidence and sense of value. This highly enriching and powerful event will leave them with a greater understanding of self.

Soccer also provides an excellent opportunity for athletes to practice and improve their interpersonal and communication abilities. Soccer is a fantastic way to learn valuable life lessons, such as how to work together as a team, communicate well, and support one another.

Regarding team sports, soccer is a fantastic option for youngsters who may not have exceptional athletic skills but would still want to compete. Soccer is great because it allows people of all genders and sexual orientations to play together, under the same rules, and in the same divisions as they are able.