Why Most Team Culture Doesn’t Stick (And What Actually Works) | Greg Berge

By now, you’ve heard it from multiple angles:

Culture matters.

Standards matter.
Leadership matters.
Relationships matter.

But here’s the real challenge:

Why doesn’t it stick?

In this conversation, coach Greg Berge breaks down culture in the simplest way possible. He explains why most teams struggle with consistency and how great programs turn culture from an idea into something athletes actually experience.

If you’ve ever felt like your team understands what matters (but doesn’t consistently show it), this episode brings everything together.

In this episode, we cover:

•  Why culture often fades over time
•  The three drivers of real team culture
•  Why consistency beats intensity
•  How great programs make culture visible

🎧 This conversation originally took place inside Momentum Sessions, a free community for coaches who take culture seriously.

If you’d like to join future sessions, ask questions live, and connect with other coaches working on this, visit:
 👉 momentumteams.com/sessions

About Momentum Sessions
Momentum Sessions is a free, private community where coaches explore how culture, leadership, and standards actually work inside real teams.

Join future sessions:
 👉 momentumteams.com/sessions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

As I really thought about what culture is over the years, I narrowed it down to my definition, which is simply it is what you allow, it's what you emphasize, and it's every day.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

We've looked at culture from a lot of different angles, but one of the biggest challenges coaches still face is even when you understand culture, it doesn't always stick. In our season one finale, Greg Burge breaks down culture in a very simple way for how to actually build and sustain it over time. The conversation starts with him discussing his journey to starting a business to help other coaches just like him.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

In all honesty, when I was in college, I had a I had written a bunch of goals down when I was a young coach. Uh and doing something like this was part of that. I never knew what it would turn into. I just felt I've got a lot to share. And so I I honestly, I just took a I took a risk four years ago, March of 2022, and I made a commitment that I'm gonna I'm gonna start writing online uh for a year and I'm just gonna see what happens. I went from 500 followers on X to 50,000 this summer, which is still crazy to me. Um, but along that process, I I wrote a book, I've created courses, I've now written four short books, and it's really, you know, it's just been this incredible journey so far talking about things that I'm passionate about, leadership, culture, coaching, and teams.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

What has been the biggest surprise as you share your wisdom and knowledge online? Has there been a certain thing that's surprised you the most?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

We're all going through the same thing, and I think I think what resonates maybe with what I've been able to write and share is it's just kind of a simplistic approach to what coaching is really all about. Really try to simplify the complex, whether we're talking about leadership or culture or anything. And you know, I think when you've been through it a lot, um coaches can connect with that. And uh, we're all going through the same journey, whether you're coaching high school, you're coaching middle school, you're coaching college, um, professionally, the same lessons really apply. And uh I'm just happy that my thoughts have resonated with people, and I'm just trying to make an impact because this profession is really hard. It's getting harder and harder to find coaches, and I think we need to do more to support coaches, to develop coaches, and I'm just trying to do my part.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Gotcha. So let's jump into talking about culture. I asked folks to introduce themselves as they got in, and the key thing is the one challenge that a lot of them brought up was not X's and O's, it was around culture. So I guess let's first define culture, though. What does that even mean to you? And how do you see that?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Culture is such a broad word and it gets overused, and you know, it's a powerful word. And as I really thought about what culture is over the years, I narrowed it down to my definition, which is simply it is what you allow, it's what you emphasize, and it's every day. So, what do we allow as a coach? And this could be a classroom teacher, this could be a coach, this could be a leader of a school, but we are what we allow. And so um we really have to think about what are the day-to-day things that we allow. Then we got to focus on what we emphasize. And so I always try to do things in terms of threes. Um, I think you remember that. And what things are non-negotiables for you? What are your values? What are your standards? Um, that's critically important. And then the most important thing with culture is the everyday piece and the consistency with it. You can put something on a piece of paper and think that's your culture. It means nothing unless you live with it daily, uh, you follow through with it daily. Things happen in teams, guaranteed. I don't care how great your culture is. What's important as a coach is how you how or if you respond to it. And I think a lot of coaches think they have a good culture, things happen, they turn a blind eye, and all of a sudden that good culture they had isn't so good anymore. And they're like, what happened? And so that's where that everyday piece is. I always I use the analogy, it's like an aquarium. You know, if if you take care of your aquarium every day and you clean it every day and you're consistent with that, you're gonna have a vibrant aquarium. If you forget about that and you don't manage that every day, it can get real muddy and real murky really fast. And that in essence is what happens with culture.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yep. Awesome. So that's kind of a cool framework to think about. Let's break that down a little bit deeper. So we talk about, I think the first step you said was really around clarifying what's most important to you, clarifying their values. Is that um again how you're looking at it? That first step.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Absolutely. You you have to know who you are, and I think you know, if I'm a young coach, the first thing I'm gonna say to a young coach is you have to be yourself, right? Um, there's a great video out there. Uh Steve Kerr is being interviewed, and he talks about when he first started coaching, Pete Carroll, you know, the football coach, the Seahawks, had come up to him, and Steve Kerr is all excited to to coach. And Pete Carroll said to him, his question was, So how are you gonna coach? And Steve Kerr looked at him like, What do you mean? I've got all these X's and O's, I got these plans, I you know, I've got my whole strategy, I'm all set. And he said, No, how are you gonna coach? How are you gonna coach your kids? And he didn't even think about that. And Pete Carroll told the story, his first time coaching, he kind of failed. And it was because he didn't know how to coach, he knew all the X's, O's, and the strategies, but he didn't know how to coach and how to lead people. And that's the thing, and and those of you that have coached, those of us that have coached, we know this. Like people get thrown into the fire as a coach with really little to no training, even if you've been an assistant coach. And until you're in that fire and you know everything that goes into it and all the challenges of it, um, you really don't know how to coach. And that's where I think a lot of people fail. They they go in worried about the X's and O's and the strategy, and they realize that's like 10% of the job as a head coach. Like it's about you're managing and leading people and you're trying to build a cohesive group together. And so I always say the number one job of any coach is to build culture. You're building culture every day, and if you let that slide, it is going to sabotage and hurt your team. So I love the X's and O's. I I mean, I I would spend all day doing that, but I know that my number one job is to build culture and get our team and program always moving in that right direction. So, to your point, you have to know who you are, you have to know what your standards are, you have to know what your values are, you have to know what's important to you. And, you know, as a young coach, I made the mistake of I had too many things that were important to me, and I would convey them with my team. And we'd be talking about defense, and I had the 10 principles of defense, too much. You know, I I've learned more and more that less is more, simplify the complex. And so the three things they hear from me all the time is number one, they're gonna hear positive energy, they're gonna hear we over me, team first, okay, and they're gonna hear hard work, which is the theme of our program, no deposit, no return. So the obvious one. So the mantra of our whole program is no deposit, no return. So our off-season program, it's our 300-hour club, it's our day-to-day. And then that with positive energy and team, it's it's all we we talk about. And then what I think is important is once you know who you are, you have to constantly stack these culture moments on top of that day after day after day. And and we can talk about how we do that. But your values and your standards are non-negotiables. Um, and that's where everything starts.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Okay, so you got three that you've identified. Do you recommend a coach sticking with three, or is more than three too many?

SPEAKER_00 7:45

In my in my culture course, I have them start with a mantra, which is like for us, it's no deposit, no return. For Sean McVeigh and the Rams, it's it's we over me. For PJ Fleck, it's row the boat. I mean, there's a lot of mantras out there that kind of symbolize the the whole value of the program. But then you have to break that down, I think, to pillars. And I always try to do things in threes because I always remember that, and kids remember it more importantly. If you if you get more than that, it's it's too much. And so um, that's my recommendation. Um, and then from that, you can go to more detailed standards, and then I talk about culture vocabulary. So, what what is the terminology and vocabulary that you use that is important in your program? And uh every sport is different, you know, you have got sport-specific vocabulary, and then you've got your general cultural vocabulary that you use, and then within that, you you then go to your rituals. So, what are the things we do on a day-to-day base that stack on top of those pillars, whatever our culture is? And to me, that these are just the day-to-day interactions that all come back to those pillars of our program. And then you can dive into leadership, and then you can dive into you know how you celebrate within your culture. But in essence, it's kind of a pyramid that works down, and I guess that's how I view it.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

So you define it, you then have the the way to stack the kind of the wins, the rituals, the things you're gonna do every day, and then the last piece is the celebration or the praising, the recognition piece, it sounds like. Is that kind of a fair formula?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

How you know, so you've got your what you're all about, you got your program and what you're all about, how you're gonna do things. And for us, it's you know, it's hard work, it's team, and it's positive energy, right? So then everything that I do within these, I'm gonna call them culture chats or things that I do to stack onto that culture, I want aligned with those pillars of my program. So, for example, if I talk about positive energy is a big one for us, we're gonna talk about EGBs. That's something that we do in our program. Energy giving behaviors. Okay. What are you doing? You know, the Steve Nash story with high fives, fist pumps, pats on the back, in basketball, it might be drawing a charge, diving for a loose ball. These are all energy-giving behaviors that we talk about, that we track, but really that aligns with positive energy and how important it is with us, right? So it's one of our pillars, but it's something that I'm doing that is stacking on top of that pillar. Um, our whole theme of no deposit, no return, that's that pillar of hard work. Um, our 300-hour club, our off-season program is all aligned with that. When I talk about team, you know, one of my favorite phrases I'll use with our team is be great at what you're good at. Okay. That really is on the concept of we over me and team because we're defining roles. And when you define roles, you're really separating the team from you know, the importance of team and what that individual role is and how it fits in there. So everything that we do aligns with the pillars. And I think that's that's these stacking culture moments that I think are so important.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

And what if somebody is not just silly behavior, whatever? Like, how do you get them back in line?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

You are what you allow. So if you allow that and you don't address it, it's going to affect your culture. There's that uh great study called the Bad Apple Study, which I talk about in my presentations, and I've got uh resources in in my course on it, which in a quick I'll give you the quick summary, but um uh Will Phelps did a study, um, he's a sociologist out at the University of Washington on um the impact of an individual on a on a team or a group. So we put people in groups of four and he gave them a task, he gave them 45 minutes. Uh, these are all business students, and he incentivized it and said, if you finish this task in you know 45 minutes, you're all gonna make $100, $200. Uh, what he didn't tell them is he put a quote unquote bad apple in that group. He trained that person how to kind of sabotage the group. And what do you think happened? Well, the productivity went way down. Okay, so that culture was incredibly affected by that one person. The positive of that story is there was one group that overcame it all. And that group had a tremendous leader that overcame that and kept everyone together and built a real positive culture, irregardless of that. So the lesson is as a coach, if we don't address the bad Apple concept or that person in the background with that poor behavior, whatever it may be, it's gonna affect your culture. And so you have a choice to either affect it and allow it or not address it. And I think that's so critically important that you address that head on. As a younger coach, I had plenty of instances where I didn't address something that backfired later on. And so you learn that over time. And I think that's that's an incredibly important part of coaching is putting out these little small fires and trusting your leaders to do the same often in your program.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

We've got already some questions that people have dropped in into the community. So we got another five minutes or so. Tyler asked a really good one. If you were taking over a team that has historically not performed well, what would be the one thing that you'd want to implement immediately to help the team be more successful?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

I'm gonna go back to building culture is the number one job of a coach, and and you gotta set the tone right off the bat on what your culture is gonna be, and you have to lay that foundation right away. And I, you know, you gotta this is what we're gonna be about. This is what is important to me. Pick three things and just you gotta live it every day. And uh it's you can't go in expecting that you're gonna win every game. Um, if you determine your success by wins and losses, you're gonna not feel good about that. So just focus on building the right culture because you got to build that culture over time before the winning can really happen. And so um, if that means that people who aren't gonna keep up with that culture, aren't gonna make the choices that you need, have to move on, you can't sacrifice your culture for those uh people that don't want to be a part of it. And I think that's the hardest thing when you start out fresh.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

And then Kevin dropped in a couple of questions. I think the first one you already answered, but the second one he asked was how would you approach a season that probably won't be all that successful regarding wins and losses?

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I tell like all coaches that, you know, and you hear this all the time, but everything focuses on the process, right? So I even our team, we'll have a good team, we'll we'll be picked to win this or win that. We'll talk our first meeting. Our goals are to our goal is to win this action championship, our goal is to win the conference championship. It always is, right? That's we all want to do that. Okay, that's done now. That doesn't matter because it's the process and the day to day that really matters. So when you get into games that you you may not you may not win as many as you're planning on, you got to change your your goals and what's important to you. And I always talk about the game within a game. Can we win a half? Can we win the rebound battle? Can we win the turnover battle? Can we get you know fewer than 12 turnovers a game? Whatever it is, focus on things and set your goals on measurables that are gonna be lead you to potentially win. If you focus on the win, you're you're gonna feel like a failure every single time. So you gotta you gotta get kids to focus on things that they can control, that they can see growth and progress in, and not let them get all hung up on the wins and losses, knowing if we do these things right along the way and we meet these little uh games within the games, the winning will take care of itself at some point. We we all know we can have a great culture and not win. We also know we can win games and have a crappy culture. And so, you know, focus on building a good culture that you can be proud of that your kids are gonna have good memories from.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

And you mentioned this, the 300-hour club, the off-season program that you developed. Talk a little bit about that because that kind of ties into what we're doing with our app Momentum. But how did you come up with that idea? And what is that for those that aren't that sure about it?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

You know, I I read about it uh 25, 30 years ago when I was first starting out as a basketball coach. It's this great book called The Edge that just had a lot of motivational stuff in it. And I came across it, and this was a a former Olympian who had wrote uh about no deposit, no return. And basically, he talked about the coins that we pay our persistence and commitment and dedication. And I think it was John Neighbor actually that wrote it. And uh and I it resonated with me because I'm an everything is earned type of guy, and that's the message I gave my kids. Everything is earned, that's what no deposit, no return means. So you're gonna get out of basketball what you put into it, you're gonna get out of school what you put into it, you're gonna get out of relationships what you put into it, you're gonna get out of everything what you put into it. If you don't make a deposit, you're not gonna make get the return. And so, you know, kids accumulate hours in the offseason and uh they get rewarded. If they're a three-sport athlete, they get hours for their fall and spring sport. If they make the honor roll, they get hours. If they do service hours, they get hours. If they do basketball-related activities, they earn hours. Um, they keep a calendar, they set goals, and then they turn in that calendar at the end of the offseason program, and we recognize them, you know, like a lot of people do before the season. Uh, my all-time winner in that program is a guy who's playing Division I basketball right now at Iowa State, Nate Heise. Uh, he'll probably be a starter, or you know, he's a key player for them last year, right off the bench. He's gonna be in that mold this year again. And you should have seen his calendar when he was in middle school and early high school. I mean, incredibly thorough and detailed, and you know why he's had the success he's had. And so that is our mantra of our program. What I love about your product, Matt, is that you are creating a digital version in essence of this 300 hour club where you can track all of these things that you want kids to do on this digital app, and uh you can incentivize that with kids.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Awesome. Yeah, no, you've been an awesome supporter of us and a great uh resource just to understand more of the history of the 300 hour club and what works, maybe what you know could use improvements and that kind of thing. In terms of when you mentioned Nate, did he get more than 300 hours? Can you actually do more than that?

SPEAKER_00 18:29

Yeah, he was he was over, I think, 700 or 680, 90 in that in that range. And we've had other kids. Ironically, every kid that's gotten over 600 hours in our program has played college basketball. So that's a good message to give kids too, if they're motivated.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Well, awesome stuff, Greg. I guess with your long career, what's what's next for you? What do you still want to accomplish? And how many more years are you gonna do this? What's kind of the roadmap for you?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

It's my 31st year of education. Um, you know, I don't know, I'm taking it one year at a time. I'm this whole journey that I've been on to talk about culture and leadership, coaching and teams was not something I planned five years ago. So I'm just excited that I'm, you know, contributing to to helping coaches be better and help supporting this profession that's so critically important. And I'm just gonna keep trying to do that in any way I can.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Makes a lot of sense. Thank you for all the wisdom that you're sharing. And to everybody else out there, thanks for joining us tonight. Greg, any uh parting words from you?

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Thanks for doing this, Matt. I appreciate it. And that is uh best of luck to everyone out there and keep doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Thanks again to Greg, and thank you for listening to season one of the Momentum Sessions podcast. Throughout this season, we've looked at culture from a lot of different angles, what you tolerate, how you define standards, what your athletes experience, and how you lead and connect with them. But if there's one thing that ties it all together, it's this culture isn't something you talk about once, it's something your team experiences every single day. And if you're a coach trying to get this right, you're not alone. That's exactly why momentum sessions exist, to bring together coaches who are working through this in real time. If you want to be part of a future live conversation, you can join us at momentumteams.com slash sessions. And a quick favor before we leave if you enjoyed this first season, please subscribe to the show so you don't miss our next season, season two, that will be coming out in just a few weeks. Thank you again for listening, and we'll see you next time.