Culture of Love in a Violent Game!

What This is About: I’m a huge Seattle Seahawks fan, and while writing this I am sitting down to watch their big playoff game against the iconic Green Bay Packers. When this publishes, they will be on their way to the NFC championship or on vacation (update: vacation). From the perspective of the message in this blog, winning or losing this one game is not the point. By almost any dimension, the Seahawks franchise is overall a winning club. One fundamental reason is because of the leadership philosophy of Pete Carroll, their celebrated 68-year-old coach.

Tens of thousands of Microsoft employees have chosen to spend more than a quarter of a million hours doing a course called “Compete to Create.” So have employees at AT&T, Salesforce, Kohls, Amazon, Access Bank, Boeing and Zynga. So why and how are these two paragraphs connected?

The Seahawks were owned by the late Paul Allen, who was the co-founder of Microsoft. Carroll spoke to their CEO, Satya Nadella, and his direct reports. Nadella wanted to transform and refresh the Microsoft culture and decided Carroll’s message should be available to all employees. Hence, Carroll and long time friend/business partner psychologist Michael Gervais created the formal course referenced above. Since then, the lesson has been embraced by many.

Why Should We Care? Gervais emphasizes that the Seahawks have a simple yet effective mantra in their culture: “We are a relationship-based organization, rather than having an outcome-based approach,” he notes in a recent NYT article. The idea is that strong, trusting relationships among people who are striving to be the best versions of themselves create something powerful. Carroll is also very open and fearless in using the “love” word. He inspires people to compete to develop personal and team greatness, rather than focusing on the narrow, ever elusive short term view of simply beating the competition each week. Much of the focus is on both personal and organization purpose and meaning. We have lots to learn from coaches like Carroll. If we emphasized both personal relationships and inspired people to be better in every way at their jobs, we would make momentous progress in organizations.

By the way, it’s half way through, and the Packers are kicking the Hawks around big time. But as noted above it’s not just about one game. (Update: They lost, but their culture is still a winning example).

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

- Lorne

One Millennial View: There is certainly something special that is forged in the bond of a team and locker room. While many great former athletes like myself peaked in high school, (haha), we haven’t forgotten the feeling of wins and losses shared between aluminum crates and wooden benches. If our offices could feel more like that, it would be better and ideally less sweaty for all of us.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis.

Culture of Love in a Violent Game!

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