Is Culture More Important Than Winning?
A couple weeks ago, Joe Ferraro asked this question on Episode 59 of the “One Percent Better Podcast.”
Is culture more important than winning?
The answer that Joe gave was simple, “One hundred percent yes.” Joe then went on to add a few thoughts about why he believes this. I absolutely agree with Joe. Culture is more important than winning. That is the short answer. However, I think there is a longer answer, and when I heard Joe discussing this question on his podcast, I knew I was going to write a little bit about it.
The Long Answer
Tim and Brian Kight at Focus 3 talk a lot about culture. I’ve heard them describe culture as “what a group of people believe, how they behave, and the experience that their behaviors deliver.” Belief… Behavior… Experience…
I like that definition a lot. It’s tangible. It’s not some feel-good, kumbaya definition that you can’t put into practice.
When I was coaching, part of my mission was to make football, wrestling, or track and field the best part of my student-athletes’ high school experience.. I wanted them to look back 20-30 years later and still think that being on our team was the best experience of their 4 years in high school. I believed that I could do that, and that belief drove certain behaviors in my coaching that were designed to deliver that experience for the young men and young women in my charge.
I believed (and still do) that the sport that I coached was just a tool by which I could have the opportunity to help mold and shape student-athletes into strong, confident, and compassionate men and women of character and integrity. That belief drove me to focus on behaviors that would create an experience that would lead these young men and women down the right path.
I spent 14 years coaching in Texas and Oklahoma. In this part of the world, unfortunately, if you don’t win there’s a good chance you are going to get fired. Here’s my long answer…
Culture is, without a doubt, more important than winning. However, winning is the price of admission that must be paid in order to be able to continue to build the kind of culture that creates the experience that you know is best for the kids on your team or the people in your organization.
That is true in sports, in business, in school, and in life. If everyone gets along great while holding hands and singing kumbaya, but they can’t produce (win), their time together will end. We have to produce. We have to win. Most importantly, we have to create a culture that wins.
I wrote a blog almost four years ago titled “Winning and Standardized Tests” that dives a lot deeper into this idea. If you have a few more minutes, I’d ask you take a look at it. I talk about what guys like Grant Teaff and Todd Whitaker have to say about the subject, and they are much more qualified to speak on it than I am.
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to check out the One Percent Better podcast, I’ve embedded episode 59 below. It’s a shorter episode that will give you an idea of the kind of value Joe brings every week. I’ve also included a video of Tim and Brian Kight explaining culture on episode 4 of their “Focus 3 Podcast.” Tim starts defining culture right around the 3:35 mark. Their stuff is outstanding!
Thanks for reading along. I hope you enjoyed it. Take some time this week to check out the other resources I’ve referenced here. You’ll be glad you did. See you next week!