Written by CultureCon Guest Blogger, Frank Keck, Founder & CEO of CoreBuild
Sitting on the plane today, I read an article about Scott Frost, the new Head Football Coach at the University of Nebraska.
Coach Frost was the quarterback for the Huskers the last time they won a national championship 20 years ago. In the article he spoke about how he was going to restore the Nebraska football program to prominence. He was going to change the culture.
So, he went and determined his Primary Values and his Driving Force. We are here to make these young men better people, not to just win games. That’s why they are there.
He stressed that he saw three things (Primary Values anyone?) were important to create the right foundation.
First, players had to be in great shape. They had to work hard, to outwork players at the other schools. Frost said, we don’t have to have the top recruiting class in the country. We must have a good recruiting class of kids that want to come in here and work hard. I would call that dedication. They must love to play football. Fun. We want to have a team of people who trust one another, who will be open and vulnerable. Trust.
Frost was hired by Nebraska from his previous coaching job as head coach at the University of Central Florida. The year before he took over the ICF program, the team had an 0-12 record. In Frost’s second year at UCF, the went 13 - 0. He built the program on those three values.
Everything they do, they will do based on those three values. It worked at UCF, it will work at Nebraska.
Once you have your values, you must activate them. Put them into play. How do your values impact EVERYTHING that you do? Examine every routine, every behavior, every process and procedure. How do all these things support your values, EACH value? If they don’t, then you must replace them with ones that DO support EACH value.
The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of people and transmitted from one to another.
What is Culture? My synopsis: Culture is a leaving breathing organism, with a life we create that connects us all and permeates us all. It is our shared values, behaviors and beliefs and how we interact as humans.