What Culture Looks Like

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers on winning their record-tying 17th NBA Championship this past Sunday and defeating the Miami Heat 4 games to 2. The Lakers earned all 16 victories, overcoming quarantine away from their families and offsetting any concerns regarding fans, travel and other road-weary hardships. This title was as well earned as their other 16.

But the Heat’s story can’t be overlooked either. During one of the timeouts in Game 6, the cameras focused on their bench, as every single player was fully engaged in the huddle listening to Coach Erik Spoelstra. They hung on his every single word with focus and concentration. What made this even more remarkable was that the Heat was down by a wide margin and their championship aspirations were all but gone. Still, they acted like they were in the lead, like they were in control of the series and needed just one more stop. Spoelstra’s players were fully engaged, fully vested regardless of the scoreboard.

The video becomes a portrait of the culture of the Heat. A culture that believes in doing the right thing even when things are not going right. A culture that prides itself on accepting coaching, not hearing criticism.

We need to show our players/staff this video. We need to show the people we lead what being fully engaged looks like. Everyone loves a great Hollywood story — a happy ending like Jimmy Chitwood in Hoosiers. That kind of movie gives us goosebumps, but often only helps serve to keep our dreams alive. What we need more of is a video showing a winning culture in action, when they are LOSING. We need more videos to show our teams about how they need to behave when things get tough. And most of all we need videos that might not end in a championship but show us how to be a champion.

Let’s show our team.

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