The Culture of Winning and Losing

March 20, 2017

"One of the most basic factors in sports is that winning becomes a habit and losing is the same way. When failure starts to feel normal in your life, work, or even your darkest vices, you won't have to go for trouble because trouble will find you. Count on it" Hunter S. Thompson

A winning culture and a losing one are spread over franchises, and both are in unison in trying to build something and not getting anywhere. Not to pick on the Cleveland Browns, but the consistency they display for losing and starting over is impressive. How many quarterbacks rolled through this town before they finally nailed it? Being very apparent, the NFL is all about the quarterback. You can win in some cases with a stout defense, but in the end, year after year, solid quarterback play is the ticket to winning.

When you see the New England Patriots being victorious year and year and out, finding themselves in the playoffs, you ponder it is more than just Tom Brady pulling out miracles? Many football fans are tired of the New England Patriots story and the constant reminders of their greatness, sometimes controversial and dramatic. And dammit, when is Tom Brady going to retire? Wouldn't every team want this problem? They win and win, and our teams don't most of the time.

In today's professional sports world, the modus operandi is about the deep pockets and the fleeting chance to land a couple of blue-chip athletes. In the NFL, there is the quarterback and wide receivers. In MLB, the pitching and the NBA looking like having two talented ballers to build around. It is also about having a good core of players in other team sports, but your superstar is not necessarily the most critical position on the team. The next level down is your healthy guys that produce with average statistics. You also throw in a few "glue guys, character guys, and old pros and you have the typical make-up of a winning team on the court, rink, and field.

Professional sports have become increasingly win first, ask questions later. Teams will overlook flaws in players, coaches, management as long as they can deliver a winner. The organizations that avoid scandals are so often the same ones who win more. The culture of winning consistently will often contain unique and groundbreaking ways of setting up a culture. The days of Vince Lombardi running a team with rigid discipline and my way or the highway leadership are gone. Coaching is more about building trust and team-building and less authoritarian.

A winning culture has been cultivated over the years. The franchises may not always win and move into a playoff situation, but next year will be their time in the sunshine. They built a foundation of well-run farm systems, practice squads, and year-round training facilities. If you are not doing this and executing efficiently, your organization cannot keep up. The stakes are high, and teams will look under every rock worldwide to find the best athletes. Professional franchises are going international and going to recruit poor kids into their dream.

Most of us don't or haven't played at the pro level but still recognize what a winning and losing culture feels like. Either it is sports, or at a company, it's all the same. When companies are primarily bottom-line motivated, you know this is a defeatist mentality. If a business gets to a point where the slowdown of dollars coming in takes away from innovation and the ability to reinvent, they are doomed. Employees become expendable and are no longer considered assets, turnover sets in, and the culture suffers. Hope will always exist in Cleveland for their Browns, but until they get a change in philosophy and culture established, their seasons will be long and fruitless.