Book Notes from 'You Win in the Locker Room First' By Mike Smith & Jon Gordon
Culture
- Culture drives expectations
and beliefs - expectations and beliefs drive behavior; behavior drives
habits; and habits create the future. It all starts with culture
- I was going to turn this team
around, the first step would be to focus on transforming the culture
- I knew the biggest priority
was to create a winning culture in which every member could thrive and
excel.
- This meant we would not only
have to create the right culture for the team but also for the rest of the
organization.
- Build your culture up and
down
- Always believed that culture
is defined and created from the top down
- But it comes to life from
the bottom up.
- I had to build our culture
by working with the leadership group, coaching staff and football team.
- Discuss the changes we were
making and why we were making them.
- We wanted to have team
members who were going to positively represent the organization on and
off the field.
- All of these moves were in
line with the coaching:
- Philosophy
- Values
- Principles
- We were not going to be
adding any outliers to our organization, no matter how much talent they
had.
- Meetings about personnel
always involved what a player could bring to the locker room and the
culture of the team.
- We both knew that building a
team would be much more complex than just adding the best available
athletes.
- I needed the owner and
leaders to buy in and be an integral part of the process.
- We needed everyone in the
organization to buy in.
- Everyone Creates Your Culture
- Culture exists of the shared
purpose, attitudes, values, goals, practices, behaviors and habits that
define a team or organization.
- To be successful, you need
everyone in your organization thinking, believing, talking and behaving
in sync.
- You need everyone aligned
with the same beliefs, expectations, behaviors and habits.
- Have the team Jon Gordon's
book - 'The Energy Bus' - gave it to everyone in the organization.
- I wanted us all thinking the
same way.
- Spent a majority of the my
time those first few months as head coach meeting with as many people as
possible.
- It was important for them to
know that their roles in the organization were important and that they
were going to be an integral part of our team's success in the future.
- I wanted us to be one team
with one culture.
- I let everyone know that my
role was to assist them in doing their jobs and together we would build a
winning team.
- X's and O'x are Overrated.
- The most overlooked aspect
in team sports, and what most coaches leaders fail to grasp, is the fact
that it is your culture that will determine whether your strategy works
and is sustainable.
- It is your culture that will
be the driving force to create the resiliency, toughness, passion,
attitude to overcome the obstacles along the way
- X's and O's are important
but culture is the rock that your organization must be built upon.
- And if you do it the right
way - you will have sustained success.
- Sustained Culture = Sustained
Success
- Organizations with sustained
cultures have sustained success.
- Culture drives expectations
and beliefs
- Expectations and beliefs
drive behaviors
- Behaviors drive habits
- Habits create your future.
- Know What you Stand For
- The first questions you
should ask yourself are
- What do we stand for
- What do we want to be known
for.
- Jeff Tambroni - help build
Cornell lacrosse into a national power.
- 'we know who our people
are. We know who fits our culture.
- Jeff built a culture that
was defined by a blue-collar work ethic, as well as selflessness,
teamwork, relentless effort and continuous improvement.
- Brad Stevens - head coach
Boston Celtics
- Your culture is not just
your tradition
- It’s the people in the
locker room who carry it on.
- When you have people who
fit your culture and carry it on - it comes to life in a powerful way.
- Apple is famous for saying
that culture beats strategy. What you stand for drives everything else.
- It’s a great example that
once you know what you stand for, decisions are easy to make.
- Process and Milestones
- Knowing what you stand for
is essential
- The seven responsibilities
everyone had
- Have fun, work hard, enjoy
the journey
- Show respect for everyone
- Put the team first
- Do your job
- Appropriately handle
victory and defeat - adulation and humiliation
- Understand that all
organization decisions aim to make the team better, stronger and more
efficient
- Have a positive attitude.
- We were going to be a team
that focused on the process of preparing for each practice and game, not
the outcome of the entire season.
- I knew the best way to do
this was to not focus on a season's outcome, but instead use a practice
to practice, game to game process.
- I told them we were going to
focus on milestones and that after we accomplished one, we would be
presented with the next.
- Our focus was on the journey
not the destination.
- Focus on the Root - Not the
Fruit
- Milestones and process were
a big part of our culture and philosophy those first five years - as a
result was had unprecedented success as a team and organization.
- Jon had often told me that
if you focus on the fruit and ignore the root, the tree will die, but if
you continue to care for the root and focus on your culture, process,
people and purpose, then you'll always have a great supply of fruit
- Allowed the pressure to
steer us away from the very things that made us successful.
- I didn’t fight enough for
our culture.
- We all learned that hard way
that culture can change almost as quickly as the momentum in a football
game.
- I let outside forces and
pressure weaken our culture.
- You Have to Fight for Your
Culture and Team
- I didn’t fight for the team
like I should have.
- I thought that if we won,
the leaks and news would go away.
- I was focused on the outcome
instead of fighting for my team and culture.
- I helped create our culture
and I should have fought for it until the end.
- That’s why I want to
encourage you to build your culture, value it, live it, reinforce it, and
fight for it.
- Make sure the new people
joining the team and organization know what you stand for.
- Focus on the process and
don't let outside or inside forces sabotage your culture.
follow me and Polaris Solutions on Twitter at @gevjen