Culture is a word that gets thrown around sport all the time. Everyone is desperate to discover how great leaders and coaches develop strong cultures ultimately leading to success, not only in sporting performance, but also in financial performance, brand recognition, and in many more areas. This has led to many books and podcasts being devoted to topic: discussing the culture behind the All Blacks in the book Legacy, the Tim Ferris Show podcast, and anything written by Simon Sinek. Despite the plethora of information out there on the topic, the generation of a stand-out culture which is greatly successful appears to be quite rare. We had Sir Alex Ferguson develop the mighty Red Devils, but how many football managers come in with their own philosophy and ideas only to not see any success? It is well known that for developing a strong culture you need to build teamwork and a strong work ethic through good relationships within the team and have team members who possess good human qualities such as kindness, patience, tolerance, and open-mindedness. Everyone knows what ‘good culture’ is yet developing it must be difficult.
Weirdly, it was watching something outside of the sporting world that made me reflect on this question differently. In my teens, I was obsessed with the programmes Jackass and Viva la Bam. It was the camaraderie with all the characters on those shows when doing their pranks which really drew me in. The friendships, the stories. Despite the pranks, they all clearly had great relationships with each other, and it showed on screen. These programmes were derived from a group of friends just being creative and creating content which they thought was funny and enjoyable to watch. I understand these programmes aren’t to everyone’s taste, but they did create a cultural shift in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. I clearly liked it, but why was it successful to that scale?
This led me to read up on the creation of the TV programmes, listen to podcasts on what went on behind the scenes, and what the characters are up to now. Many of the crew developed serious drug problems, and though some have since become sober, others are still struggling and one passed away in a car accident. The programmes had run their course but was this because the idea become tired or because the programme and the characters themselves had strayed so far from what had created them. Had the creative culture they developed initially, which grew so popular, been lost and that started to show in their final product?
It’s probably a bit of both, but it was this idea that which led me to develop some new ideas behind culture and its development. Hopefully these new ideas will start to permeate into my own practise.
1) Initially, don’t focus too much on long term goals. The focus should be on your passion and your creativity.
Before Jackass, Bam Margera and co. had created the CKY crew. These guys filmed a number of skits, pranks and a lot of skateboarding footage to create music videos for the band CKY. When this started out, there was no focus on where this would take them long term. It was just a group of friends doing what they enjoyed, doing what made them laugh, and enjoying the freedom to be creative. As these videos grew in popularity, the increased income allowed greater opportunities to explore this creative freedom. The influence of money was magnified when you compare the beginning of the shows to the final episodes. Viva La Bam had so much money per episode that the outlandish ideas came across as staged, and there were reports that certain members of cast had let the money and fame go to their heads. The culture became about pleasing others for ratings rather than creating content which they loved, and thus the culture imploded.
The show developed because the cast initially focussed on being creative and doing what they enjoyed. I’m sure the popularity of the show was a long-term focus, but initially that was never the goal. Having the long-term goals being prominent at the start would only negatively influence your creativity as you’ll always have the opinions of others clouding your creative judgement. In sport, this rule should be the same. Initially, the success of the team should be secondary to enjoying the sport, being creative, and developing relationships with teammates and staff through being passionate in the same area. Success will develop from this, rather than trying to create a culture to directly be successful.
2) Culture and creativity NEEDS to be grown organically. I can’t be inserted and expect immediate results. Have patience.
Following from point 1, the seeds for crafting a creative and passionate environment need to grow organically through the environment you create rather than inserting it directly. If it is obvious you’re trying to create a culture for success then it loses sight of the passions which should form its foundations. How many footballing managers have been appointed saying how they wish to insert their philosophy only for it be unsuccessful? Their intentions are for success not for the love of playing football, and thus the culture they wish to develop struggles to grow. Create an environment for creativity and passion first and the results, over time, will grow organically.
3) Change is inevitable, but if the change strays too far from what created the culture originally, the culture will crumble (usually very quickly).
As the good results start to happen (winning, money etc) more factors are introduced which can have an effect on the culture you’ve allowed to develop organically. If these factors occur too large too soon, this can have catastrophic results. For example, money and fame took its toll on the Viva La Bam crew, which led to many fallings out and the popularity of the genre started to wane. If they had remained truthful to their original culture, they may have been able to stay together and generate further content which was as equally popular.
In sport, many factors may derail an organically derived culture. Money, big ego’s and injuries can all play an influential role in maintaining a creative culture. A creative culture should be able to embrace these changes and use these new factors to their advantage. The culture absorbs these new factors for the benefit of the team as the passions, creativity and humility between players remains the key focus. However, if these changes stray the culture away from this main focus, the culture will crumble. Sir Alex Ferguson was renowned for moving players on he felt were too disruptive to the team, no matter how big of a ‘star’ that player was. The passion and creativity which the culture was built on must be protected and it is up to coaches to either absorb the change or discard it.
To conclude, the development of a culture must not initially focus on long-term performance goals, but rather the development of passion and creativity, allowing for strong relationships to be formed. This can’t be forced or rushed, because if it is, then it is clear the long-term goals are the main focus, not the goals of developing passion and creativity, and the culture won’t be developed organically, no matter how hard you try. Passion, creativity and strong human relationships should create a culture robust enough to deal with change and use it to their advantage. However, too large a change can derail to strongest of cultures if the original focus of passion and creativity is lost.
It may seem that I’ve chosen a weird route in finding these new ideas. I’m not sure many articles on culture have been developed from thinking about programmes where a group of guys do stupid pranks on each other. However, since investigating this I have seen many patterns develop in different domains which has led to conclude what is important for the development of a successful culture. I look forward to trying these new ideas.
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