The Collegiate Rugby Association of America’s (CRAA) 2024 D1 Elite season ended recently. Although our Brigham Young University Womens Rugby — Go COUGS — didn’t go the way we wanted it to, there were a lot of lessons on building team culture that I thought would be great to share.
Public Service Announcement: I’m not an expert in team culture but I have been fortunate enough to learn with great teams and great people throughout my life.
These lessons I learnt and will share are for groups, organizations, companies, and teams that are starting out, so please bear this in mind. Some of the lessons may not apply to you if you’re an established leader in your field or competition and some adjustments may need to be made in order for it to work in your context.
Find Your Adversary — The Big Bad Wolf.
The D1 Elite conference is extremely competitive with two of the best women’s rugby programs in the nation dominating the competition — Lindendwood University Lions and Life University Running Eagles. The teams to beat, with their incredible talent and focused curriculum, they set the pace of the whole competition, and what a great job they’ve done so far.
In all the organizations that I’ve been a part of, one important aspect in building team culture has been to find out who the adversary was and establishing them as the measurement of which you would evaluate your progress against — at least at the beginning. Whether it’s performing a competitor analysis in the business setting or studying historic champions in your competition — like Lindewood and Life, understanding the players out there allows you to see areas for improvement in your own team.
Cue wise adage:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. – Sun Tsu, The Art of War.
Now I’ve intentionally used the word adversary. You aren’t focusing all your attention to seek and destroy. What you really want to do is study them objectively. Learn what works for them and check if it would work with you. Study their weaknesses and strengths and formulate ways to counter them.
Leave all emotions at the door!
When creating your team culture, you need a “big bad wolf” to rally the troops against. You need to stoke the fire of competition within your own team. The “they creep closer when you’re sleeping” quotes tend to help.
Build The Dream. Sell The Dream.
This is a two-parter so pay attention!
Whenever you talk about culture, you’re talking about how a group of people think and act, what the norms are and what’s taboo.
But how does culture start?
It begins with the vision of the leader — the dream. As a leader, your principal goal, when building team culture, is to critically think about what values, principles, and behavior you want to become habits in your organization. Be intentional. Envision the type of people you want to work with. Build the dream.
Once you’ve created that dream organization in your head, then comes the hard part — to sell that dream to everyone else.
You need your people to buy into your vision. Why? Because they need to want to achieve the goals you’ve set for them. They need to want to achieve the goals you set. They need to have the same fervor you have about that dream. Because no matter how much you preach, hoot and holler, they will not move unless they believe in the message. Sure they may do whatever it is you want them to do when you’re there, but what about when you’re not there? That is the reason why you need to successfully sell, and they willingly buy into, the idea. For when you’re not there. Once they buy into the dream and make it their own, then that is when camaraderie and Esprit de Corps can begin to take root.
Although it sounds like a behemoth task, it can be quite simple. Start with your core. Sell your dream to the core group of the team/organization. The managers, the team leaders, the “glue” of it all. If they believe, everyone else will too!
The Standards You Walk Past — See something, say something.
The truth about culture is that it evolves over time. A little here, a little there. Norms shift and change according to actions deemed “ok” over a period of time. This is true for any context. Once you drop your standards, it’s hard to get it back.
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. – Gen. David Morrison, Chief of Army (Australian Defense Force).
Now what’s the big deal about breaking a few small rules here and there right? I mean rules are meant to be broken…especially the non-life threatening ones right? Wrong!
One of my favorite books on leadership, About Face — The Odyssey of an American Warrior by Colonel David Hacksworth, spoke at length about this very thing. Col. Hacksworth fought in the Vietnam War and had been put in charge of men that didn’t want to be there. At the start of his command he noticed that his men wore beards and long hair — a trivial thing when you’re fighting for your life in the middle of the jungle. They hadn’t just bent this small rule, they had broken it like dry twigs. But Hacksworth realized it for what it was, the first tile in a long line of falling dominoes. Because these men didn’t maintain their personal grooming — lowered their standards on the little things — it had led them to ignoring more dire concerns like maintaining their weapons and security — i.e. their lives were in danger. Hacksworth quickly raised the standards of their grooming and with it, their pride in what they did. They went from delivering one of the highest body counts in their theatre to becoming one of the most efficient forces in Vietnam — just by raising their grooming standards.
I observed the same thing throughout our season. Coming to practice in the wrong colors, skipping a drill here and there, not doing their homework, etc. “The standards you walk past…” In the workplace, certain behaviors like gossiping, gaslighting, and other actions may be ignored because it seems trivial. Do not make that mistake! “…the standards you accept“. When you see something, say something!
Now this can only work if your leadership group has bought into the team and are there to enforce the same standards you have. The core group needs to be on the same page about the values of the team, which is why “Build the dream. Sell the dream” is before this point. You’re not omnipotent — being everywhere all at once — and you need to trust that your leadership team are going to be driving that dream for you.
What I love about these observations is that it ties into my personal philosophy — that we can learn business concepts through examples in other fields, be it from rugby or our culture. Team culture in the business world is not dissimilar to team culture in the sports world. In fact, I believe that the building blocks to making a great team in the sports should be transferred into the workplace.
Our Pasifika people thrive in sports, from rugby to football, and this article emphasizes a truth that has driven me thus far — we can build great teams and great organizations, create successful businesses, and deliver great products, with lessons that we already know and understand from areas familiar to us like sports! Don’t limit yourself because you may not have the “necessary” qualifications.
Believe!
Australia business Business Strategy Collaborations Communication Company Culture culture Entrepreneurial Entrepreneurship EQ feedback Fiji Fiji Rugby Union Future giving Goals growth growth mindset HR HR Tips indigenous knowledge Indigenous Psychology Innovation iop io psychology Leadership Melanesia Micronesia. Mindset NZ organizationalpsychology Pasifika Pasifika Organizations Pasifika psy PNG Polynesia Proactive HR Reflections Samoa Small Business Support Local Business Tonga Trainers Wisdom Work-Life Balance
Alfred Tora 
Leave a comment