Cups, Captains, & Culture
It’s Ryder Cup week, and that can only mean one thing…plenty of people will be second guessing the decisions made by team captains Jim Furyk and Thomas Bjorn! A debate will rage over their decisions regarding their captain’s picks, partner selection, and of the culture in the “team room”.
While the stakes might not seem as high for you, the decisions you make have an impact on the culture of every group you in which you are a member (workplace, family, friends, etc). In the workplace, culture creation is especially important because others will be making value judgements about the success of failure of your group. Possibly more importantly, the culture of teamwork that you create, or fail to create, has an impact on the lives of your team members beyond the 300 acres of your club. Your staff member’s “personal teams” may suffer if their “work team” isn’t a high performing one.
Whether you are the “captain” of the culture at your facility or one of the team members, you have the ability to drive the purpose of the group in the right direction. The following quote from The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle is a great summary of high performing cultures.
“Purpose isn’t about tapping into some mystical internal drive but rather about creating simple beacons that focus attention and engagement on the shared goal. Successful cultures do this by relentlessly seeking ways to tell and retell their story. To do this, they build what we’ll call high-purpose environments.”
“High-purpose environments are filled with small, vivid signals designed to create a link between the present moment and a future ideal. They provide the two simple locators that every navigation process requires: Here is where we are and here is where we want to go.”
-Daniel Coyle
The team that captures the Ryder Cup on Sunday afternoon will have created a culture that is a safe space for members to make mistakes, and that trust will allow the team to “focus attention and engagement on the shared goal”.
The additional resources below provide more insight into this theme. I hope you find them educational and inspire you to examine the culture you create.
Please feel free share this email via social media or forward the email to anyone you feel that would benefit from the information.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The Secrets of Great Teamwork “Collaboration has become more complex, but success still depends on the fundamentals” From Harvard Business Review | Martine Haas & Mark Mortensen
8 Keys to a High Performing Culture – and 8 Ways to Build it “Build trust and fuel organizational performance” From INC.com | Michael Schneider
Tribal Leadership “By understanding our shared tribal tendencies, we can help each other become better” From Ted Talks | David Logan
What Everyone Should Know About Teamwork “Teamwork is the key to success. However teamwork is a challenge in and of itself” From Forbes | Luis E Romero
How to Turn a Group of Strangers into a Team “How do people come together quickly to solve new, urgent or unusual problems?” From Ted Talks | Amy Edmonson
Let’s get together soon and discuss your team’s culture.
Sincerely,
Jason Boaz, PGA
PGA Career Consultant
Illinois and Wisconsin Sections of the PGA of America
608.318.5355