How do you define "Team Culture"?

[Califan007 The Constipated]

Got me thinking about this after Bruce's presser.

 

Bruce said the culture was "damn good" or something like that. Everyone else breathing called him delusional for saying that lol. It seems like Bruce tried defining "culture" as working hard, putting forth a ton of effort, wanting to win. Says he sees everyone doing those things.

 

In my mind, that in no way defines team culture. But then again, I hadn't really thought about how I would define the term. I also realized I differentiate between team culture and organizational culture. Maybe I shouldn't, though. But again, never gave it any thought until now.

 

I also thought about this after seeing someone recommend Scott Pioli as the new GM. In my mind, Pioli is the poster boy for horrible organizational culture. A lot of Chiefs fans agreed while he was there. But what if the Chiefs had won under his guidance? I mean, did the 90s Cowboys team and franchise have a good culture while winning Super Bowls? Again, I'm guessing it all depends on how you define the term. An argument can be made, I guess, that teams with a good culture don't continuously lose, and teams with a bad culture don't consistently win...so all you need to see are the results. But to me, that might point more to the idea that "team culture" is an NFL old wive's tale and not an actual thing.

 

For the record, I define team culture as one where there is a strong level of respect between players and coaches, where when things go bad there is no finger-pointing, where the players feel accountable to each other, where everyone is on the same page that winning is all that matters, where coaches instill discipline and expect maturity and lead by displaying these characteristics themselves, where strong and healthy debate--even arguments--between all the coaches and between the coaches and the front office is normal and doesn't derail team goals.

 

Good organizational culture is where a company fosters independence while also stressing following established lines of communication and actions, gives employees the unquestionable belief that their good works will be noticed, appreciated, and valued...where advancement is based on merit alone, where leadership and direction are always strong, where there are operational guidelines that are consistent and make sense, where ethics are emphasized on a regular basis, and where stress is limited to the natural issues and problems that come with the job and not those that are created internally.

 

Obviously no NFL franchise will have all of these things, but if they have a good number of each in both categories, I'd say they have a good culture. To me, the Skins have been absolutely lacking in both team and organizational culture according to how I defined it above. But maybe it's all about talent and winning, and good culture is basically the skill each team possesses in finding the best players and the best minds to make it all work, and the rest is just window dressing. I dunno lol...

 

How would you define team culture?

 

 

[Boss_Hogg]

It's damn good

[veteranskinsfan]

Players and coaches know good culture when they see it.  When a player gets traded from a bad team to a good team they often remark how everyone is on 

the same page with the new team.  Employees can express their ideas without getting shot down by management for speaking up.  Top management has the

responsibility to set the focus on culture.   I think about Alex Smith going from San Francisco to Kansas City and then to the Redskins.   He could really explain

to the Danny how having a good culture makes a difference and can help affect either winning or losing.   Companies invest money in hiring change management

consultants not just for big projects but also for changing bad culture situations.   A successful retired General Manager who has built a winning culture previously

would be able to help this team address the culture issues.   Top down organizations who ignore culture issues suffer in the long run big time.  Being in denial and

saying we have a damn good culture here is not going to work at all.

[Mooka]

Winning = team culture.

 

Losing = everything else.

 

 

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

 

- Vince Lombardi

[RichmondRedskin88]

According to Bruce 

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

5 minutes ago, veteranskinsfan said:

Players and coaches know good culture when they see it. 

1

 

Good culture and hardcore pornography lol...I always thought they should go together.

[RichmondRedskin88]

4 minutes ago, Califan007 said:

 

Good culture and hardcore pornography lol...I always thought they should go together.

 I guess one way or another you beat something that day. 

[FuriousD]

Bruce Allen's best Bagdad Bob routine!  Sad day... I think the thing that's going to stick with me the most is clearly the buck doesn't stop at the top with these guys.  Today it clearly stopped at Jay Gruden and the 2 clowns at the top are blameless.  Sad and pathetic!

[Burgundy Yoda]

Team culture to me is identifying your goal as a team and the path you take to get there.

 

Let's say your goal is to win, its a simple goal but should honestly be the only goal in sports. Here's my analysis:

 

A team with a good team culture is going to build everything from the ground up, best equipment, gym, staff, practice facilities right from the start. Make players want to come to the team for reasons apart from the money. As a billionaire owner you are a fool to not do this. 

 

Owners, GMs, coaches need to be as transparent as possible, in business trust is built on transparency. Instill a truly winning formula, make players want to love to come to practice not just because they're fun but because of the self improvement to their games that will help the team win. Let players know that they may take parts in roles that aren't glorious but in the end they will not care because they are part of the Redskins and winning is the only thing that matters. 

 

Bad team culture is exactly what we're currently doing. 

[profusion]

Organizational culture is tough to define, but it absolutely exists.

 

Companies constantly use buzzwords like "transparency", "accountability", "focus", etc. However, those things have to be practiced by ownership and executives in order to become engrained in the workforce.

 

The Redskins are hyper-political and backstabbing. Upper management is opaque and unaccountable. The focus of the organization is elsewhere than fielding the best team.

 

Unfortunately, there's no good fix for this.

[SemperFi Skins]

Definition - Patriots

[Burgold]

So, a culture is usually a test for growing bacteria or germs... the kind you put in a petri dish or under a microscope. A team culture therefore is likely a infestation of germs.

 

Am I close?

[Commander -JB-]

The main problem is that Bruce Allen can not define what is good culture.

[carex]

well this is a team that cries and apologizes about not getting the job done for the coach.  Seems like they care then and got some team loyalty.  That actually sounds like pretty decent culture to me

12 minutes ago, SemperFi Skins said:

Definition - Patriots

 

Pats are a bunch of dirty cheaters

[SemperFi Skins]

Just now, carex said:

 

 

Pats are a bunch of dirty cheaters

 

Nice guys finish last...

[Stone Cold]

Copied/pasted from another thread...more appropriate here imo...

 

Culture is what prevents losing streaks.  It’s what says “we just lost to the worst team in the league, but it’s ok cuz we’re still gonna whoop some ass”.  We don’t have that.  We lose and it snowballs.  Drafting fixes that.  We haven’t been drafting long enough.  We’re 2 good drafts away from having enough depth to be competitive annually.  FAs are cool and all but they augment and put your team over the top.  We’re suffering from years of selling picks for FAs.  Gonna take time to rebuild the right way.  My fear...THIS is the window.  We have good 26> talent but a lame duck coach and/front office.  We can not swing and miss with the coaching change this time or we’ll find ourselves here again in 5 years.  Whoever it is dan brings in...if we want perpetual competitive seasons with realistic playoff expectations...that person HAS to be allowed to develop with our youth movement and hopefully whatever young talent we continue to draft

[Ghost of]

12 minutes ago, carex said:

 

 

Pats are a bunch of dirty cheaters

 

You misspelled perennial winners, losing mindset-haver.

[Dirt]

It's a blah blah nothing term that means nothing.  In this case anyway.  It's just part of the noise Bruce made while he was behind a microphone.  You put 50x more thought into the word in the OP than Bruce did.

 

"uhh the culture's good....DAMN good".  That means absolutely nothing.  NOTHING is good about the Redskins right now, the players, the coaches, the fan attendance, the fan experience, NOTHING.  Having to say the uhhh..'culture' is good to find something that sounds good is pathetic.  

 

If "culture" is locker room culture then everyone including the players know it's awful.  Players who leave talk about it, one even got canned for mentioning it.

 

If "culture" is the business side of things, as in healthy communication, delegation, balance of authority etc... then LOL get the **** out of here, i don't even have to comment on that.

 

If "culture" is loyal fans then, well, nope.  I can't believe this guy said "oh they sold the tickets cause Patriots" holy hell man are you serious?  Even if that's the case (um, every home game), MOST fans don't go to the game.  The fans around the country and world who never go to games, what about them?  They've all become beyond apathetic to the point they are rooting against the team.

 

If "culture" has something to do with native americans...well, nah, but that whole thing's a mess anyhow.

 

So, "culture", by any definition, is awful for the Redskins.  

[FrFan]

A vision, hiring the right people at the right position, great management, recognition, caring, inspiring others, accountability, commitment.

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. -Michael Jordan

[joeken24]

Team culture is not defined. There's a culture here. Its just not conducive at this point to winning football games. The culture here is much like everything else inside the beltway. The good old two step where talk is considered change but everything stays terrible mediocre with no value. Bruce is indeed presidential.

Problem here is, this is mother****ing football. I honestly don't think any of the guys they have their eyes on are going to put up with fake ass ****.

[srtman04]

The culture here is toxic, like toxic relationships.   In a toxic relationship, you get the life sucked out of you by design.   Then when you are deprived of all oxygen,  you get dumped and discarded like you were  a piece of trash all along.   This is what the Redskins culture is now for the players and the fans.  It's like a cancer and there is no real cure unless it is removed, which we know won't happen.  So we are stuck in the suck.....

[hatchetwound]

Ya'all are blasting Allen but to be fair, "Toxic" is a culture.  And they are really, really good at it

[Springfield]

This mother****er stood there in front of the press and any fan watching on TV and said that the team had all the pieces.  That the culture was good.

 

Bruce Allen wouldn’t know a positive culture if he was born into it.

[Wildbunny]

Team Culture is doing the thing you usually do.

 

What we usually do is: suck.

 

But now, we're also being punked as well.

 

Team culture has improved, we're doing two things instead of one.

[BleedBNG]

I think it came from what he was trying to say at the presser...  "We have a very young core of players that we have brought in here who are accustomed to winning. If you look at the record of these guys they're accustomed to winning. They want to win."