Team Culture - How long until you knew it was working?

I don't know if you can simply just get to a point and check off the 'culture' box on the to do list.  There are so many variables.  Think about how the 'culture' of the community/state/country has changed.  No where is the culture going to be the same forever.


A community that has been successful in the past, is fairly static in population, is going to very different than one that has a transient population.  I know that is a rather 'duh' pronunciation, but parents still have a great deal of influence as well as the greater community.

I would look at this simple test: Are the kids consistently doing the things you expect in order be successful?  Not winning successful, but doing those particular 'things' consistently that will lead to success.  

And those 'things' are whichever ones you have deemed important enough to have consequences if not followed/done.

@newhscoach18

I feel that the 'culture' war/fight is along the same lines as continuous improvement.  You can approach it, but the closer you get the harder you have to work.  Also, I think it is important to not lose sight of how far you have come.  And also sometimes it is like Sisyphus.

Again, it will always be subject to your particular case, but yes I think you can see it working.  Go back and take a realistic snap shot of the beginning, then apply the standard are most of the kids consistently doing the things  needed to be successful.  Probably the biggest challenge is making sure the kids understand the definition of success and can have some validation in seeing that success.

If I had to simplify my answer, I would say our emphasis on building Team culture is working for the following reasons:

1. Our off-season workout attendance is at an all-time high

2. We have more people than ever wanting to be a part of our Program (players, staff, parents, and community members)

3. Players are now holding each other accountable. We can still improve significantly in this area, but just the fact that it's visible now is a major milestone for our Program.


It has taken us several years to get to this point and I think we still have significant room for improvement.

Culture can change faster than the OP's time as a member
here on the website.

Here's a decent measurement - when your lower levels, freshman JV and sophs, are consistently winning, you probably have a good culture in place


I'll tell ya this, winning on varsity dang sure isn't a great barometer. I think culture is the process of becoming a program that will consistently play over their talent level year after year, so you are playing the long game thinking long term. A lot of programs will talk culture culture culture when they are bad then they'll get a few talented a-holes and cater to their every whim, win for a year then the whole culture process resets to zero, or even worse than it was when you started.
It's an easy trap to fall into, losing sucks, the prospect of winning is tempting, so you fudge a little on your "core values" maybe you look the other way on the ol' "mission statement" so you can get a few wins behind a talented guy or two that doesn't give a crap about anybody's values but his own.
A lot of this is created by the "get in and get out" mentality of so many jobs. In Texas, it's kind of like a light version of college football, everybody wants to get a their first head football job at some low level program (all that's available) then win just enough to be seen as a "turnaround" guy and get one of the top 15% type jobs that are out there

left in the wake of this are bad programs staying bad because a guy comes in and ransacks the place trying to tie enough wins together to get out of there. I see it all the time, then they become bottom feeders again for a while and somebody else comes in and restarts the whole process.
Now mind you nobody comes out and SAYS any of this, your boy's twitter feed will be all about how he is in it for the Jayhawks for life! but behind the scenes every decision that gets made will be short sighted and short term. The lower levels in programs like this will almost always be consistently terrible because nobody is going to invest in them,talented kids that are nowhere near ready get moved up and ride the bench, they never get coached outside of scout team, and when they play their games they look unorganized and apathetic.

It may be too grand of a generalization, but assuming a coaching staff has been at a school for over a year or two, I feel like I can watch their lower levels play and make a fair assessment of whether or not they are doing things the right way.

All you need is a question mark t-shirt, a book by Tim Kight and a few posters and it will take care of itself.

Agreed. 

And, IME, the more successful a program is, the more susceptible they are to hitting a "tipping point". When a quality culture is established and a program is successful, it's because high standards have been set and the kids are meeting them, year round. You get one class of seniors that doesn't buy in, the program takes a hit and it seems like bad things just snowball. That group of seniors ends up riding the pine while sophomores and juniors start, the program has a rough year and all hell breaks loose. The community and school is used to winning, that doesn't happen and people declare that "Rome Has Fallen". 

It's amazing how one .500 season can send a good program into a tailspin for a few years. 

question mark T-shirt! Guaranteed success!

I wonder if Tim Kight sells the question mark t-shirts himself or is there just some random T-shirt making company wonder who the F all these people are getting these shirts made. 

"hey linda we got another order for 200 question mark t-shirts!....must be some kind of socrates cult around here"

The most important aspect of John Curtis Christian School's success is that for most of its existence, the headmaster was sleeping with the head coach's mom        

I have often thought that when the phenomenon you described occurs, it is in part due to the younger group experiencing success, but not contributing to it.  Maybe it is subconscious, but they seem to expect to win but never paid the dues so to speak.   Kind of a "Well, this is the part where someone steps up and makes a great play" situation, only they are now the person who has to do it. 

YES

Unfortunately, being a good coach still only leaves you with a limited number of things you can control. Getting those things in order doesn't necessarily equate to establishing a culture of winning.

We had that problem this year. Some classes are just chock full of losers man. This was one of them

So true.  We had a group coming up and when they were freshman I told my assistants that if I'm still here, that group will get me fired as seniors.  No matter what we did, they were what they were.  I ended up leaving for a coordinator job at a bigger school, but still talked with one of my assistants that's still on staff and he told me, "be glad you left." LOL