7 Coaches Share What Culture Is and How It Produces Results

On today’s podcast, we share insight on building culture from our clinics and interviews with 7 coaches. I want to start by sharing a definition from Brian Kight who has appeared on this podcast often. Culture is the Belief and Behaviors that create the outcome. It’s the experience that can be felt by everyone involved. With that in mind, we focused on what these coaches share specifically in that regard.  

Culture is a buzzword used not only in sports but at any place you have a team of people working together today. It seems that there are many intangible aspects of it, but as you will hear, the culture you create can be seen in the actions of the people in your organization both on and off the field. There is no single way to do it, but the outcome definitely can be seen and evaluated for its effectiveness and success, and that goes beyond the wins and championships.

-We start with one of the best to ever do it, the head coach of Alabama, Nick Saban. It’s a process and he shares the keys to it in this Q&A I did with him for the Louisiana Football Coaches Association Clinic.

-Hall of Fame Coach and retired Kansas Head Coach Bill Snyder built a strong culture for the Wildcats, but it was one in which he had to change the experience completely for his players. He shares what it was like at the beginning and how they changed it.

-Sean Lewis, now the offensive coordinator for Coach Prime at Colorado created a culture at Kents State that he called Flash Fast which was built behind a mindset that he referred to as Be the Alpha. In this segment from the Southern California Football Coaches Association Clinic Coach Lewis defines the culture, talks about how the behavior that becomes habits build culture, and finally touches on the Be the Alpha mindset.

-Lazarus Morgan was the defensive coordinator for some very successful small college programs and now is tasked with resetting a culture at Buffalo state. He explains his approach to building a new culture in a program.

-Ralph Isernia, head coach at RPI notes in this segment that culture shows up on game film. It is about turning belief into team chemistry and he does that with what he calls the MVP process. He shares his insight in this segment of our interview.

-I had the opportunity to sit down with Carlos Lynn who took over the program at Cedar Hill after current Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire moved on to the college level. For him, the small details are the behaviors his players need to develop and he calls them vital things. They are everything to him in creating a full-service program.

-We finish with a clip from Jason Negro, head Coach of John Bosco in California. A perennial contender for a national championship. His program has won it twice. He talks about how they create a competitive culture that can be applied to any program.

I appreciate all the insight that all of our guests share in our interviews and clinics. There are definitely takeaways from what they do that can be implemented in any team, unit, or position group, and hopefully, you leave with at least one idea that can help you this upcoming season. Enjoy the process.

Be sure to check out all we are doing on coachandcoordinator.com. We have plenty of new interviews and clines heading your way in the new year. Subscribe to our newsletter coachandcoordinator.com for weekly recaps and updates.

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