One of the most exciting sports events of the year is the Women’s College Softball World Series (WCWS) held out in Oklahoma City, OK. Essentially, the format consists of qualified Division 1 programs competing in regionals nationwide which culminates into two, 4-team double-elimination brackets at the World Series. The winners of each bracket then compete in a best-of-three series to determine the Division I WCWS National Champion. On June 10th, the Oklahoma Sooners won a hard-fought series in the final round against the Florida State Seminoles to capture the championship with a 5-1 victory.
The games no doubt captured our focused interest, but it was the post-game interview with Head Coach Patty Gasso that brought everything about “team” into light. The Oklahoma Softball Team individually are made up of talented student-athletes. They all have their own style, looks, and thoughts. They are unique individuals in their own right. What is all the same though, is their approach in performing as a team unit. Not as purely individuals. It is the same with the coaching staff. It must be about the team, and this post discusses how cultures can prevent losing track of this ultimate concept!
Let’s highlight some of Coach Gasso’s statements in her post game interview as they highlight some important take-away concepts in regard to “team”. The first comment early in the session was , “What got us here was really good leadership, great staff, a great strength coach, a great hitting coach, a great pitching coach… just surrounded by really hard-working people… they had so much belief in this team and we felt it.” When hearing this statement, a few things come to mind.
First, is that the success of the season was likely largely attributable to many inspired individuals believing in each other and operating as such…. so much so that they just “felt it”. Culture is often described as something that one can just “feel”. They know when it is there, and when it feels right, or not. The team probably kicked off the pre-season with this attitude in mind and got stronger with successes along the way. Not to mention with the season being already challenged due to COVID19, successes along the way were probably that much more satisfying. It seemed that the team really banded together and stuck it out right from the start.
The second take-away from that comment was about being surrounded by hard working people. Hard work tends to rub off on others. Usually, individuals do not want to be excluded from the group because of their lack of work ethic. Everyone tows the line, and the ones that don’t on a consistent basis, usually weed themselves out of the pack somehow. It is not simply hard work either. Other characteristics (both positive and negative unfortunately) can rub off on one another as well.
Further into the interview, Gasso discussed how the season was filled with uncertainty due to COVID19. She described that her players were consistently filling in for different positions than their norm due to the day-to-day unpredictability. The team did not know day to day who was going to be out, who was going to be quarantined, or who was going to get sick. The Coach praised the attitudes of the players for their complete selflessness. The players even proactively went to the coach to let her know it was completely okay to put them wherever position the team needed them. Also, some of the players offered, or were asked, to sit out knowing completely that they were talented enough to be playing. Coach Patty Gasso said, “it was such a selfless, team approach the entire season… that’s what it’s about.”
We want to clarify and expound on the Coach’s statement about selflessness because it is very important regarding culture. Selflessness can be looked at as a master key concept of a performing, compassionate, and sustainable culture. In our article titled, “Helping others is the cornerstone for growing and sustaining culture!”, the idea about growing and sustaining this attitude and approach regarding others is really “selflessness”. A bunch of people who hone in on the team’s performance as a unit, versus entirely individual performance, usually leads to excellence.
Acting in a selfless fashion for the long term is difficult. As mentioned in our article about peak and sustained performance, to consistently operate at a peak level if extremely difficult, if not impossible. However, selflessness is a culture trait worth fighting for to keep at those peak levels. Therefore, let’s take some advice from Larry Robertson’s, Rebel Leadership, on maintaining peak levels of operating.
In Chapter 3 of his book, Robertson describes the concept of “sharing the load”. Humans are tribal beings by makeup and collective sharing of a load is how people have overcome insurmountable obstacles. Sharing loads also prevents burnout of any one individual. The book expounds on some compelling scientific studies and stories around this concept that support it. So, when we discuss selflessness, many people as a team need to be sharing that particular load. Gasso’s softball team shared the load throughout the season during volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous (VUCA) times and ended up winning the world series!
A last point we want to highlight was a response given Coach Gasso regarding a question about generational performance. In other words, she was asked what was the “tipping point” for her that led her to believe that year after year her team would be able to compete on highest stage consistently. Her response that her staff, “…Works really, really hard recruiting. Recruiting not only good athletes, but you have to get athletes that fit your program.” She goes on to say that her, “culture is breeding itself, and other athletes want to be a part of it.”. She likened it to a “sisterhood” where many former players come back to many of the games to stay part of the program. That is how strong the culture is.
Gasso herself, her staff, players, and former players have created and are continuing to create and refine the culture that athletes and fans want to be a part of. The messaging heavily promotes, and expects all within it, to live the team, selflessness, and hard work mentality. In summary, individual ways of thinking and operating do not work in an environment like the Oklahoma Women’s College Softball Team. It must be about the team, and it is up to the culture creators to ensure their own respective teams, groups, organizations, and communities do not lose sight of this.