Culture Counts! - Greg Clink

Chico State Coach Greg Clink has his second DVD out -- his first was: "Crunch Time Playbook: Great Ways To Score With Limited Time" -- and this new one is titled "Culture Counts! Principles and Ideas for Building a Championship Environment." 

It runs 40 minutes, with Clink speaking to the camera about his 10 principles for developing and maintaining a great culture within an organization.

So what is culture? Let's go with the dictionary definition of "the attitudes, feelings, values, and behavior that characterize and inform society as a whole or any social group within it."

Now it's true that culture can breed both success and failure.

Get it right and team performance soars, with the whole often succeeding the sum of the individual parts.

But failing in this venture, or simply ignoring culture altogether, and the road to success is full of unattended potholes. It can also force all to live in energy-sapping, day-to-day crisis mode that breeds reaction, not pro-action.

Yes, diligence with X's and O's is important for coaching success in any sport. The ability to recruit is similarly imperative. Nobody can successfully argue against these premises.

But the processes that create the best cultural environment for teaching and learning requires a top-to-bottom genuine desire-to-learn attitude and a willingness to act unselfishly. Such draws the best out of people and is an coveted atmosphere.

As Clink stresses, such requires a people-first mindset in all areas of life, a treat-people-right mentality. But it also sometimes requires respectful "brutal honesty" and a willingness to "confront the snowball before it becomes an avalanche."

In the video, Clink covers the vision of what he wanted when he took over the head coaching spot at Chico four years ago and how he went about, developed and enhanced that culture. He talks about getting the right people, both as assistants and student-athletes -- high character, hardworking, honest role models as building blocks.

It's fascinating material, applicable all across the human interaction spectrum.

So what's your vision for yourself as an individual or the entity you head or work for, and how do you plan on reaching that goal?

"Culture Counts! Principles and Ideas for Building a Championship Environment" can help. There once was "the HP way" and this is the Chico State basketball way.

The DVD can be purchased here.