Rick Olson :: Blog :: Culture of Winning

Nov. 4, 2007

In my past travels to Michigan, I have often commented on many of your outstanding sports teams.  The Pistons have long been one of the top NBA teams.  The Red Wings consistently play at a very high level.  The Wolverine football team often is challenging for Big Ten supremacy, and sometimes for the national title.  And in the past few years, the Tigers have become a feared baseball team.  But I have been silent about the Lions.  I was taught that if you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all. 

But today I want to talk about the Lions.  Yesterday, they improved their record to 6-2.  Halfway through the season they are the talk of the NFL – the biggest surprise in the league.  They trounced the Broncos yesterday.  Sports fans all across the country smiled as they watched big – no, huge – Shaun Rogers intercept a screen pass, lumber 66 yards down the field, stiff-arm a would-be tackler, and dive into the end zone.

In the book Good to Great by Jim Collins (the business book of the year in 2003), Collins revealed the keys that helped 11 good companies make the leap to become great companies.  It is fantastic research, inspiring reading, and a road map for any company that wants to make an upward leap.

The Lions didn’t just move from good to great.  They moved from miserable to great.  It is the feel-good story of the year in the NFL, and it should be great inspiration for you.  They are moving from a culture of losing to a culture of winning.  They used to be the team everyone wanted to play.  Now they are the team no one wants to play.

The conclusion:  positive change can happen.  Your workplace can become a fun place to work.  Winning can become a way of life.  To bring about this positive change you must, like the Lions, focus a great amount of energy on our culture.  Steps should be taken to kill de-motivating factors that lead to a culture of losing, and you must create an environment of encouragement which stimulates the growth of a winning culture.  This is the time of year to focus on priorities for the new year.  Perhaps the priority most deserving of your best attention is the culture of your workplace.

PS – Yesterday, I watched one of the most remarkable athletic performances I have ever witnessed.  Adrian Peterson, the rookie running back for the Minnesota Vikings, set the all-time singl- game rushing record by running for 296 yards on 30 carries.  It was breathtaking.

But I think I saw an even greater athletic performance at 6:30 this morning.  I was sitting in the hot tub behind my house watching a squirrel doing about a half dozen death-defying feats every minute.  My yard is filled with tall maple trees.  This 3 pound athlete was running from thin branch to thin branch some 40-50 feet above ground.  Leaping from tree to tree, in a matter of a few moments he went from the south side of my yard to the north side, always 50 feet above the ground.

Second conclusion:  Not everything great is on TV.