By John Portch

• Data supplements intuition, it does not replace gut feeling.

• Provide training and education for all the relevant stakeholders.

• Anomalies are all the more reason to undertake a ‘test and learn’ approach.

Use data to check your intuition

Analysts, whether in sport or banking, come up against the same challenge: people’s intuition. “The biggest challenge is that people don’t want to break the bottles that they have – their gut intuition,” Ameet Shetty, who was serving as the Chief Data & Analytics Officer of the Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank when he spoke to the Leaders Sport Performance Summit at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2019. In the right hands, however, data can be used to check your intuition. Shetty added: “I heard this when I was talking to the Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s [Silvia Lagnado] and she said: ‘I use data and analytics to check my intuition; I still check my intuition but I use it as one more information point’ and you can usually convince most leaders. Most leaders are logical and sound in their thought process – they want to challenge themselves and give you that open door.”

Helping people to learn and reinvent their approach

A blend of data and intuition can be an aspiration but staff members need help to reach a happy equilibrium. Shetty, who is now the Chief Data Officer at travel centre operator Pilot Flying J, spoke of the growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning across analytics in numerous industries but that few, even in banking, know how it is applied. “Even those that have it in their organisation, a lot of them have been doing it a certain way for 20 years. The hardest thing is how you get someone to take 20 years’ experience in their industry, that knows that space, that hears everything moving; they won’t really want to change the way they are,” he said. “Then you’ve got young talent coming out of college – how do you blend them together?” This has been a key focus for Shetty who wanted veteran bankers to keep reinventing themselves. “We make sure we have programmes and expected training that they go through and we make sure our leadership understands the impact they have on those teammates and how they see the company.” During Shetty’s 17 years at SunTrust, his initiatives have helped the analytics department grow from a modest 15 to a figure closer to 600 in 2019.

Be prepared for two-way conversations with athletes and coaches

SunTrust, as Shetty explained, needed to promote two-way conversations with its clients, who are analogous with coaches or athletes in a high performance context. “We spend a lot of time on education with our business partners; telling them what we can do, but we also need a bit more,” he said. “They need to give us a little bit of insight into what they think is going to drive incremental growth for them or what it is they are trying to risk-avoid or what it is they think from an efficiency standpoint.” He described how prospecting with commercial lenders leads to “canned options and opportunities” but that “we would never have figured out how to build the right models to help them figure out what are the best prospects to go after had we not gone and spent time in the front office.”

Deal with anomalies through a ‘test and learn’ process

Session moderator Steve Gera asked about inevitable anomalies, those moments when decisions are made in the face of the data. How did Shetty approach such scenarios? “Test and learn,” was his swift response, although he admitted that at SunTrust he benefited from the trust of his employers and his clients. That may be harder to come by in sport but, “you’ve got to take a little bit of trust but verify; you’ve got to give it a chance to see if it works.”

By Sarah Evans

Recommended reading

Is a Lack of Diversity Holding your Team Back? Here Are Some Steps you Can Take to Create a True Sense of Belonging

How the Brooklyn Nets Put their People at the Heart of their Culture

Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness

Framing the Topic

In this Member Case Study format of our Virtual Roundtables, Dan Jackson, the Head of Leadership and Culture Development at the AFL’s Adelaide Football Club, spoke about the relationship between environmental profiling and evolving team culture. Dan is a former professional AFL player and he explained how his own experiences of the high performance environment as a player has influenced his work to evolve team culture with the Crows.

Dan framed the session by breaking it down into three parts:

1. Assessing culture
2. Changing culture
3. Cultural trends

Assessing culture

What is ‘culture’?

“Culture is both a dynamic phenomenon that surrounds us at all times, being constantly enacted and created by our interactions with others and shaped by leadership behaviour, and a set of structures, routines, rules and norms that guide and constrain behaviour.” (E. Schein, 2004)

Jackson’s definition: “Culture is a reflection of how a consistent group of people behave in a particular environment over time.”

In assessing the culture of a group, there are three cultural pillars:

• Artifacts: the phenomena that one sees, hears, and feels. For example, trophies, medals, kit. Anything you can capture with a photo.
• Exposed beliefs and values: strategies and goals, i.e. Mission. Philosophies and values, i.e. vision. Sometimes these can just go up on a wall and simply be words – how can you bring these to life? It is about people’s behaviour, and something you could see on video.
• Underlying assumptions: unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs, perceptions, thoughts and feelings. These are mental models and are the ways that people think.

Changing culture

Unfreeze

• Acknowledge the status of the existing culture by presenting the ‘disconfirming data’ needed to change people’s minds and attitudes.
• Changing leadership doesn’t lend itself to sustainable success, it can simply paper over the cracks in the foundations. It is crucial to first look in the mirror to rebuild a culture.

Cognitive restructure

• Rules and standards of behaviour. This requires rewards and punishments to drive results.
• Vision and values. What are we trying to achieve and what do we stand for.
• Clarity on who we are and what is expected and not expected.

Evolve

• This is continuous.
• People and environments are constantly changing and therefore we need to continuously evolve the team culture, whilst staying in touch with the team’s origin story.

Cultural trends

• Connection and belonging
• Psychological safety
• Strengths over deficits
• What else?

Members’ thoughts on current trends:

• Surveys that are meant to attract employee responses where employees are too scared to be honest.
• Increased awareness of diversity and how this can enhance cultural development
• Radical honesty.
• That culture is a ‘thing’ we work on.
• Leaders aren’t necessarily the most experienced.
• Embracing your role in living and creating the culture
• Breaking psychological safety into the four stages proposed by Timothy Clark so that people understand the difference between creating the level of psychological safety to feel part of the team and the level required to challenge the cultural norms.
• Player empowerment – how much value does this have compared to a coach-led environment?

By Lorena Torres Ronda

Would a diverse environment be something beneficial for you or your organization?

Definitely yes – and it’s not just me saying it.

There is growing support from the scientific community as well as empirical evidence from a range of different fields that diverse work environments are more innovative, creative and rich in productivity.

As Chris Hirst points out in his book No Bullsh*t Leadership, ‘a 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in top quartile for ethnic and radical diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean… Diverse teams outperform those that aren’t.’

It often feels easier said than done, as creating or fostering a work environment rich in diversity requires that we know the sociological foundations of inclusion to really be successful in attaining an effective high performance environment. Firstly, let’s define and clarify some basic concepts.

Diversity means that “everybody is invited to the party” – you hire diversly, regardless of gender, race, skin colour, social background, physical ability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and so forth. But being invited to the party doesn’t automatically mean you feel seen, heard and valued – all characteristics of feeling included – but the ultimate feeling of inclusion is the feeling that you belong. ‘Belonging’ means that you are in an environment where you can be your authentic self and everybody accepts you as you are. In order to foster an environment of belonging, you need to treat people (and be treated) with equity, with fairness, where everybody is given what is necessary to achieve similar or the same results.

Treating people equally (equality) means treating everybody the same, and while it might sound counterintuitive, treating people as individuals – which often means treating them differently – and providing an environment of security and support, where there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity of the members in a certain group, is fair.

A final point on this topic, as I wrote elsewhere, if you were intentional in your efforts to hire, say, female or African American staff but it turns out that those individuals attended the same schools, learned from the same professors and mentors, went to the ‘same book clubs’, or people who surround themselves with people with the same ideas or who will support them in their ideas (people enjoy being reinforced in their own ideas!), probably won’t bring functional, cognitive diversity to a group, but superficial diversity.

Diversity can come from the traits listed above, but also importantly from deep-level diversity: personality, values, abilities or beliefs. These characteristics might be accompanied by challenges and biases that must be taken into account and managed when conflict emerges.

What helps to create an inclusive environment? What is needed? What is the correct strategic approach?

We don’t want it to be a box-ticking exercise. There is increasing awareness that we live in a professionally more globalized world. Today the geographical location is not a barrier, you can find an Australian in America, a European in South America, an American in Asia, and all possible combinations. Finding women in high performance is already more difficult, especially in certain jobs or leadership positions. Unfortunately, the promotion of inclusion of races, gender, sexual orientations or religions in a community traditionally dominated by white males is not a norm yet. And sometimes the driver of diversity is reduced to a box-checking exercise. But if we work in an organization that is going to bet on diversity and innovation, what helps to create those inclusive environments?

An inclusive environment promotes the idea that everybody is heard and we all have a voice. We listen and we learn; and in those conversations there is a room for productive disagreement and free exchange of ideas. But in order to facilitate this, it is imperative to create a trusting and safe place, be open to different approaches, and understand that different people feel safe in different ways.

One exercise one can do, before thinking about tools to approach diversity and create an inclusive environment, is to do an exercise in establishing your awareness of your unconscious bias. What does this mean? Influences from our background, cultural environment and personal experiences we might have can lead to subtle, even unintended (unconscious) judgments. But they are there, they are the product of learned associations, social and cultural conditions. Therefore, practicing being self-aware of those possible biases, and being aware of how our words and actions might affect others, or even raising awareness of others biases, is a first step towards creating an inclusive environment. ‘Practice being an advocate to encourage open, candid, and respectful conversation to develop relationships built on trust. An inclusive leader is self-reflective and attendant to the feelings of others. They’ve also “done the work” – they’ve attuned all manner of different intelligences (gender, cultural, generational) that helps them understand difference’ (ADP, 2022).

Gardenswartz & Rowe, Diverse Teams at Work (2nd Edition, SHRM, 2003). Internal Dimensions and External Dimensions are adapted from Marilyn Loden and Judy Rosener, Workforce America! (Business One Irwin, 1991).

Steps that can be taken to increase the number of female coaches and practitioners

I want to bring to the table something that has happen to me, when applying to a job or even when I had to hire people while working at an NBA franchise. To cite Chris Hirst again, ‘diversity is an undoubtedly desirable outcome, but when considering any individual hire or promotion, you have a duty, even moral responsibility, to hire the best possible person for the role, irrespective of who they are’. I have used almost the same exact words with my supervisor when expressing doubts about three candidates for a specific position, an argument that can be perceived as a less diverse team. On the one hand, we want the best candidate possible, and on the other hand, how are we ever going to get jobs that have been traditionally held by white males if we are never going to be given or give the first chance?! How do we know if a woman can be head coach in the NBA, or the performance director in a LaLiga team, if no one is given a chance to any women?! Of course we don’t have the experience – it’s almost impossible to obtain the experience! And the few that are sometimes afforded that opportunity face the pressure to excel, which is fair in itself, but are we being treated and evaluated as fairly as our male peers? How can we increase the number of female coaches or practitioners? Just give them the chance! And then, create an environment of fairness, and protect that environment, leaders, management, and staff. And the elephant in the room: remove those who are in the way and are the biggest barrier to change. Eliminate nostalgia from your organization. Make decisions to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace. Period.

How can teams better understand the atmosphere within teams – what data or feedback can you collect? Focus groups? One-to-ones?

I read the following in a book, and I thought ‘well, I wish my former supervisor, an apparent leadership expert, had read this sooner’. It read: ‘what you need to achieve change is for every member of your audience (AKA staff) to spend ABSOLUTELY NO TIME AT ALL thinking about how others need to change and to think only of the change they themselves will make’. I have experienced myself the huge damage that can be inflicted when people are given the opportunity to anonymously rate your colleagues. Rather than that, work to promote safe environments for having difficult conversations if needed. This enables everyone to be clear on what everybody else needs to do better.

Behavioral change happens when the individual grasps the need for them to change, and understands the benefit of that change. It is true that change is a challenge for most people; getting out of our comfort zone, the feeling of losing power or even fear of what might come, the feeling of being threatened by others’ success (huge in our sector!) – all are barriers to overcome on the path to future team success. Rather than allowing themselves to be inspired by others, some people puts barriers to new forms of thinking and behaving. If you are brave at heart, embrace the change rather than fear it. If you are able to adapt to challenging personalities, such as some players and coaches, why not be open to promoting diversity for the greater good of your team or your organization?

Lorena is one of six Leaders Performance Advisors, a group of leading performance thinkers providing more subject expertise to our member-only content and learning resources. To find out more about all our Performance Advisors, click here.

By John Portch

• Look for those individuals who can embody the values and cultural norms you are seeking to instil.

• Support your people and their families.

• When your culture can be clearly defined, it will become self-selecting.

Find those who know what it takes to win

In the early days of the Brooklyn Nets’ continuing rebuild under General Manager Sean Marks, he sought to bring in talents from organisations with a proven performance pedigree. The headliners were the likes of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, but it extended to the performance staff and beyond. As Marks told an audience at 2020’s Virtual Leaders Meet: Total High Performance Summit, the Nets needed to know what it takes to win. He said: “When you bring in the likes of Kyrie and Kevin, it was a matter of sitting down with them, learning what do they want to see, how do they want to grow. What do they need and what are they looking for in a successful operation?” Both were forthcoming. “Kevin said right off the bat ‘this organisation needs to have championship characteristics in everything we do’. That is one of our tenets here that we constantly talk about to this day, whether that’s how we scout, how we conduct our reports, conduct ourselves both on and off the court; and this goes for players and staff.”

Opine and share, disagree and commit

Cultural architects come in all guises and Marks has brought together a disparate group on and off the court. “I like the fact that I’m bringing in people whether it’s from baseball or all walks of life in terms of computer programmers; a group of coaches that are coming from a variety of different backgrounds too,” he said, mindful that it is these people who continue to shape the Nets’ culture. “Multiple have been head coaches before; some haven’t, some have been in developing systems, some have been key development coaches and some of the best in the business.” Marks sets himself up as Devil’s advocate and weighs up divergent views before deciding the best course of action. Everyone can have their say but they must respect his final decision. “The worst thing you can have is people behind closed doors saying ‘I wish I was involved’ or ‘I didn’t have a say in that decision’ or ‘man, I disagree with that decision’,” Marks added. “Nobody’s allowed to disagree once we’ve already committed. Once we’ve committed we’re all in and that’s the type of environment that I’d like to be part of.

We are family

Marks understands that the Nets’ culture is continuously being reshaped by the players and staff. He described them as the team’s “No 1 priority”. Moreover, people need to be free to focus on the day job knowing that their families and loved ones are provided for and supported while they are away. Marks said: “Right from the get-go we like to make them feel like they are family – like they are in the Brooklyn Nets family.” He acknowledges how much people have sacrificed to commit to the Brooklyn rebuild. “Nothing goes awry here. We wouldn’t want them left to their own devices; it’s a big city, it can be a little daunting. Where do you find a place to live, whether it’s nurseries or restaurants; you name it, but things are catered for [to] these players and staff so they come in here and they’re able to assimilate into Brooklyn and the Nets, hopefully as seamlessly as possible.”

Strong cultures are self-selecting

When a culture’s values and norms are defined, those who cannot conform tend to take themselves out of the equation. “You can’t have a metric system to say ‘this person is bought in and this person isn’t’,” said Marks. “Honestly, if you’ve built the right culture and continue to have the right people around it weeds itself out. I know that’s strange to say but I’ve had a few people over the course of the time here just say, ‘look, you guys are moving at a pace that I can’t handle. I’d love to say that I want to own this and be part of this, there’s great things ahead, but, to be honest, I’m not cut for this – you can do better’. When people come to me and say that, terrific, there’s better things on the horizon, whether it suits their families or their livelihoods, terrific. I don’t think I always need to be the one to say ‘I don’t think that person’s bought-in’ or ‘I don’t think they’re a high riser or a high flyer’.”

By John Portch

When Rory Sloane spoke at Virtual Leaders Meet: Evolution of Leadership in June 2021, he delivered a curious insight into the make-up of the Adelaide Football Club’s player leadership group.

The club, which draws its five-player leadership group from a list of 45 decided to give youth a chance in 2020.

“Couple of guys who have been part of the leadership group over the previous four years stepped aside to let some of these young kids develop,” said Sloane.

Adelaide finished bottom of the AFL ladder in 2020 – a fact that left Sloane, as captain, “stung” – and decided to turn to youth to renew their fortunes. In this context, it made sense to empower some of the younger players on the list.

“We’ve still got a lot of leaders without titles,” he continued, “But yeah, five official leaders.”

Sloane is joined onstage by Jarrad Butler, the captain of Connacht Rugby, where their eight-strong leadership group takes responsibility for driving standards and behaviours. Together, they explore the creation of leadership groups at Adelaide and Connacht and the main dynamics involved.

Democracy

Leadership groups tend to be elected by athletes from amongst their peers and neither Adelaide nor Connacht are any different. “At the start of the year there was a questionnaire on who do you think leads by example on the field, who do you think is the best communicator, the guy that holds the most people to account,” said Butler of the process that saw Connacht’s eight-person group appointed for the 2020-2021 season. “We kind of ticked boxes that we thought [represented] values that we wanted to have as a group, as a team, who do you think best kind of ticks that box. And we tried to put a group together that then covers a whole lot of those bases, so we didn’t want just a whole bunch of guys that are all maybe very good at the same areas, so that was important.”

Regular meetings

“What we’ve been trying to do is catch up at least once a fortnight just to get on the same,” said Butler. “I think where we fell short, especially when the seasons for us dragged on, you kind of get caught just going through the motions a little bit and you forget to catch up. “We’ve have a meeting where we all get together and these guys aren’t really on the same page, and you’re seeing that come out in the performances as well and you’re like, well we haven’t got together in four weeks [so] no wonder we’re not on the same page at the moment. So we found one of the first challenges I guess was being diligent and actually catching up with each other, and again it’s one of those things where Andy Friend, our head coach, he was like ‘well it’s up to guys if you want to get together, we’re not going to chuck something in your diaries for you – either you do it or you don’t,’ and we learnt early that if you’re not going to do, then everything else starts slipping by the wayside as well.”

Learning dynamics

Butler explained that leadership groups also have a vital role in ensuring learning and development of understanding because there are times when a coach’s impact can be limited. “It’s one of those things where you’re in a meeting and you’re getting – you know, the defence coach comes up, the head coach, and they’re showing clips and clips and clips – it’s easy for things to get watered down,” said Butler, who discussed the balance of challenge and support with Sloane in more depth here. “For the main session, we [often] get one of the players, usually one of the leaders, early on they would do the review of the session, and they would come up with the clips. This year, it’s been a little harder to have these meetings with Covid, but still, coming up with clips and sending them out because we’ve found that when you’re getting told by your peers, when they’re highlighting something I think it holds more weight than when you’re getting it from a coach for whatever reason.”

Spread the load

Butler also makes the point that their duties extend beyond performance or rugby and it is important that the playing group does not allow a mere handful of individuals manage tasks for the group. “I think the main thing is that we all took on something that wasn’t rugby-related,” he said, “so it wasn’t falling on the same guys. So one guy would link up with the team manager on if there was any issue around travel or things like that, someone else would link up with the kitman, if there were any issues; and it would just mean that we haven’t had the same conversations with a whole bunch of people unnecessarily. So it helped kind of disperse that load as well, so it wasn’t falling on the same blokes. Because imagine, you know, there’s all those guys that are happy to do everything if you ask them to, but it’s not fair to them as well. So it’s all about lightening the load.”

By Luke Whitworth

A fundamental aspect of sustaining success over a long period of time is the strength of an organisation’s culture.

Research by Alex Hill and the Centre for High Performance into how successful organisations can outperform their peers for more than 100 years, highlights a number of common characteristics between industry-leading organisations such as the New Zealand All Blacks, NASA, the Royal College of Art, and the Royal Shakespeare Company. If you are interested in hearing from two leaders of organisations who were part of this study – Eton College and the Royal College of Art – you can view this session from the 2018 Leaders Sport Performance Summit in London.

Besides the number of characteristics that these organisations have, simply put, they all take culture incredibly seriously. They work at it. They constantly review. They are always evolving, but with a number of cornerstones that remain foundations of how they operate.

As part of an intriguing set of conversations between Leaders Performance Institute members, the group discussed some of their thoughts around how they think about cultural evaluation.

1. Perform culture health checks

How often are you proactively measuring the strength of your culture? A number of organisations look to review and evaluate on an annual basis, but should they be more frequent? Some participants on the call suggest a review every three months is a powerful way of taking the pulse of the environment. On this theme, be mindful of the tension between what the data suggest, versus the awareness and insight of the culture that occurs through sitting, listening and talking to people. It can be easy to jump to the measurable part of the evaluation and determine the health of the culture on that – be aware of what the data doesn’t show us.

2. How do you use language?

Language is a powerful notion, particularly when there is clear alignment and consistency around how your people communicate the mission, values and behaviours. We can engage in measurements to evaluate culture, but you can also see it, feel it and, most importantly, hear it. Are your athletes and staff using the language that aligns to the culture we want to live by? If not, it suggests there is some work to be done to create wider organisational alignment.

3. What is your culture’s openness to change?

Change is one thing in life that is guaranteed, none more so than in high performance sport where we experience fast-paced and ever-evolving environments. As human beings, we are wired to not like change. A question to consider when analysing your culture is ‘how open are we to change?’ because it will inevitably come. It can be an integral measure in understanding how robust the culture is. To evolve and improve, we need that growth mindset and willingness to be adaptable within the environment. Have you ever questioned your peers and asked them of your environment, ‘what do you think we are losing or would lose if we were to engage in change?’ This is a simple but effective way of highlighting what is working in the environment – try to keep these components and grow in other areas.

4. Identify and evaluate pain points and disruptions

Every environment experienced disruption and the emergence of pain points. Are you identifying and evaluating what these are, as they will have a direct impact on your culture? As society evolves, it’s important to be on the pulse of what this might mean for your specific environment and those operating within that. Mapping the pain points provides more opportunity to review and reflect as to whether you are providing that level of support and shaping the environment to optimise the performance of your people. Consider garnering feedback through the use of focus groups, and perhaps seek feedback from those in the organisation who you don’t hear from as much.

A Keiser Series Podcast brought to you by our Main Partners

“There’s more evidence to support what we do but, at the same time, there’s more perspective, but certain things don’t change,” says Jimmy Wright.

“If you chase the science, if you purely chase the literature, and you forget about experience and what has traditionally delivered the results you might just miss the diamonds.”

Jimmy Wright, the Team Biokineticist at the Durban-based Sharks, who compete locally in the Currie Cup and internationally in the United Rugby Championship, is the first guest on the latest series of the Keiser Series Podcast.

Jimmy has been with the Sharks for 23 years – in fact he was the first individual to hold his position at a franchise in South Africa – and has seen both his role evolve as well as the needs of the game.

He discusses those developments and also touches upon:

• His belief in focusing on growth between Monday and Friday [14:30];
• The concept of ‘ubuntu’ and selflessness that informs his work [17:00];
• How his style as a leader developed from his background in track & field [20:00];
• The advice he would like to give his younger self [26:00].

John Portch: Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen above and subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Overcast, or your chosen podcast platform.

By Luke Whitworth

Recommended reading

What Does Cultural Mapping Look Like at Ulster Rugby?

In an Era of Player Power, How Can you Protect your Team’s Culture and Vision?

High Performance Environments – What the Research Is Telling Us

How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years

Framing the topic

Across the Leaders Performance Institute network, the number one topic of interest is culture. Everyone is striving for a strong and high performing culture and it’s fair to say some are better placed than others to succeed around this. A couple of anecdotes from friends of the network ring true around the topic of culture:

• You have to really work at it.
• Those organisations that have sustained success over a long period of time, take culture incredibly seriously. Dan Coyle’s work in The Culture Code brings this to life in a stark away.

Across this virtual roundtable conversation, we explored the following question: knowing the importance of culture, how are peers in the group evaluating, reviewing and subsequently, evolving their culture across their respective organisations? Below is an account of best practices and considerations outlined by the group.

Discussion points

• Have a Culture Health Check Process: a couple of organisations on the call do an annual survey amongst athletes and staff to measure the strength of their culture. Another organisation from a different sport shared that they have introduced more frequent reviews and health checks, leveraging those every three months.
• Consider Subcultures: many of us work within larger organisations so there is an overarching organisational culture that surrounds us which we embody parts of, but there is also the challenge of implementing a coherent culture across different sub-groups. There is a balance to be found. Is one standard culture wise or is there value in providing some autonomy to those sub-groups? Are you evaluating both the wider organisational culture and the natural subcultures that are present in our environments?
• Measurement: there is some push and pull between the nuanced face-to-face, anecdotal evaluation and the data-orientated angle systems (culture health check). Does steering too far in one direction or the other have the potential to throw you off?
• Wrestling with Tension: we have to find the balance between wanting something concrete that is easy to understand (quantitative insight) around our culture and how relevant and useful that is versus the awareness and insight of the culture that occurs through sitting, listening and talking to people (qualitative). It’s critical to be aware of the tension between these two aspects in how we evaluate culture because it can be easy to jump to the measurable part of the evaluation and determine the health of the culture on that – be aware of what the data doesn’t show us. There is a gap between these two factors that is often present within organisations.
• Creating the Need for Change: there is value in using best practices such as culture health checks to create the space for facilitated conversations around culture. This is where the creation of actual need for change arises. How are you effectively doing that? The tool can never be as valuable as the conversation that is there to create – use this as a reference point.
• Expansion of Staff: the inclusion vs. exclusion membrane becomes a really important aspect of cultural influence. How are you celebrating with the expansion of staff to create that sense of inclusion and belonging?
• Feel It & See It: we often talk about a metric-based approach to culture, but often you can feel it and see it, making it difficult to define. ‘Whether it’s air for humans or water for fish, you notice it when it’s not there’. This builds on the point relating to the separation between measurement, implementation and action – if you are taking the temperature measurement, what are you doing in the second and third phases to move things on?
• Culture & Interaction: you need to invest in the direction you want the culture to move in, but if you don’t have the right level of interaction around it, the culture is dead. The challenges of the pandemic have naturally reduced the cultural interaction and engagement. How can you heighten the level of interaction?
• What is a Culture’s Openness to Change: this can be an interesting question to ask yourself when considering the evaluation of the culture. This can be an integral measure to understanding how robust the culture is. Change is one thing in life that is guaranteed, but there is tension that exists as people often don’t like it, so is there a growth mindset and adaptability that exists within the environment? What do you think you are losing if you are to engage in the change?
• Language: we can engage in measurements, but as mentioned earlier, you can also see it, feel it and, most importantly, hear it. Are your people and staff using the language that aligns to the culture we want to live by?
• Values: there is a sweet spot – there can be too many values and also that notion of being stuck on a wall without being truly lived – this is not doing the work of culture and bringing it to life is much harder.
• Pain Points & Disruptions: are you identifying and evaluating these, as they will have a direct impact on your culture? Wellbeing for employees in particular, not just mental and emotional but also financial. Mapping the pain points provides more opportunity to review and reflect.
• Focus Groups: how are you garnering feedback from those in the organisation who perhaps don’t get the same attention? Create focus groups to ensure you are providing opportunities for their voice to be heard. Bridge the gap between exclusion and inclusion.
• Mission, Values & Cornerstones: when we consider the evaluation of the ‘culture in practice’, are you also frequently taking the time to review and evolve the mission, values and cornerstones of the culture? Are they still relevant, has the environment evolved where something is more aligned to the culture? Doing this will allow you to stay more on the pulse of how the organisation is living and breathing.
• Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up: it’s important to review the context of how your culture is established. In many environments where practitioners are working with younger talent, it tends to be top-down. In other environments, bottom-up will be the direction. Because they are context-dependent, there will be different questions and measurements to consider, there shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach to how you evaluate.

“I think sport teaches us so many of our great life skills such as teamwork, becoming leaders and overcoming adversity. And I think mentoring is inherent within sport,” says Jessica Battaglia.

The United States Tennis Association’s Senior Manager of Operations, Programming & Events has come onto the show to discuss the organisation’s Coach Mentoring Program, particularly in light of the fact that just 25% of tennis coaches in the US are female. The USTA and Jessica are seeking to redress the balance.

The discussion was supplemented by co-host Sarah Evans, the Leaders Performance Institute’s Senior Community & Account Executive. Sarah is a former Great Britain hockey international who benefited from female mentorship during her career and who now serves as a sports mentor herself.

The conversation covered:

• The importance of mentorship and support systems for women in sport [4:00];
• The distinction between mentoring and coaching [10:40];
• Efforts to turn the tide in providing opportunities for women in sport [19:40];
• The value of female perspectives in high performance environments [23:30].

Sarah Evans LinkedIn | Twitter

John Portch LinkedIn | Twitter

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