15 Lessons On Building A Successful Organizational Culture and 5 Lessons On Giving Effective Feedback

Seth Godin says culture can be defined in 11 words, “This is what we say and this is what we do.”  A successful organizational culture does not happen by accident.  It happens by design and intentionality.

Currently worth $4.08 billion and winners of the 2020 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the world’s most successful cultures.  The team was recently profiled in Pedro Moura’s excellent book How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink.  Click HERE or on the image provided to purchase a copy.

As I read his book, I gleaned the following 15 Lessons On Building A Successful Organizational Culture.

1. The economics of your organization hinge on the mass, not specialized appeal.
2. Desperate organizations make bad economic decisions.  Because of their economic health, the Dodgers could seize the opportunities created by other team’s desperation.
3. The most talented members of your organization have optionality.  They are always available to boost the team in one facet or another.  One dimensional people are more costly than you think.  Multi-dimensional people are more valuable than you think.
4. Top performers never feel they are at the mountaintop.  They can always get better.
5. Data analysis raises every player’s floor which allows you to then raise their ceiling.  Success starts by raising the floor.
6. Great players remain great by making continual adjustments.
7. Bad performances should be immediately learned from and then flushed quickly.  Win the next pitch.
8. Great habits are never recognized until you are successful.  They are then adapted by everyone.
9. Develop a unique perspective that things can always be done differently.
10. The Dodgers employed multiple outside organizations and coaches in an effort to get better.  They then systematized their best practices into their daily routine.  They also hire the best people from those organization’s as full-time employees.
11. Build resumes, don’t buy them.
12. Old school scouting + New methods of player development + Desire = Success
13. Don’t be attached to results but rather the process of getting better.
14. When adding talent to your team, look for skill (this creates the possibility for improvement) and an aptitude for focused practice (this can enact prescribe change from coaching).
15. Your leaders should fall in one of two categories – Skill Developers or Vibe Setters.

5 additional Leadership Lessons from the team’s manager Dave Roberts:

1. Got the job because he was willing to heed the front office’s information-based advice in most game situations.
2. He was convincingly optimistic.
3. Coach Roberts was skilled at staying on message.
4. Each day, Coach Roberts said, “Hi” to every player on the team.
5. He always delivered his criticism in private.

5 Bonus Lessons On Delivering Feedback from page 130:

“Roberts and his coaches are in constant search of the moments when players are ready to hear critiques of their play.  In exceptional cases, they bring them up in the immediate aftermath.  More often, they wait.  They have concluded that the ideal moment is an exceedingly rare occasion: when a hitter singles and forces the opposing pitcher out of the game, leaving the first-base coach three uninterrupted minutes to deliver a message.  ‘When they’ve got a hit, they’re in for anything,’ said Roberts, who was the Padres’ first-base coach for three seasons.  ‘Oh man, you’re right, you’re right, I screwed up.'”

1. Smart leaders are constantly looking for ways to better deliver feedback.
2. Give feedback when people are ready to receive it.
3. Ideal conditions for receiving feedback are rare.
4. Giving feedback should happen in uninterrupted environments.
5. People are most open to feedback after success.

Once again, if you are wanting to create a more successful culture at your organization, click HERE and order Pedro Moura’s book How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink.  You will not be disappointed.

The Top 75 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 2 is my latest ebook.  For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world.  People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional.  Hope seems to be in short supply.  Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.

Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership.  If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource.  The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.