On Teamwork…

This video is about six minutes long. You might not think you’ll watch the entire thing, but you probably will. Posting it here will lead to a large collective loss of productivity. I’m not sorry.

(There are quite a few versions of this video floating around. This was the original. I saw one the other day that was 15 minutes long. I watched every second of it.)

It seems like every book on culture or leadership or mentoring eventually gets around to Gregg Popovich. He’s the coach of the San Antonio Spurs. He has been their coach for almost 30 years straight, which is the longest anyone has coached any professional team (playing anything) in the U.S.

So many leadership books talk about Pop because he’s incredibly good at creating culture and getting people to give their best. With the Spurs, he’s built a really amazing team that plays basketball differently. The Spurs are wildly collaborative in a sport where it’s very easy to over-emphasize one’s self.

(Honestly, though, other teams may have emulated the Spurs by now. Maybe they’re not unique anymore, but rather just set a trend for decades? I’m not a basketball expert.)

Pop loves his players and his coaches. He thanks them every year for allowing him to coach them. He spends as much time planning what they do away from the court as what they do on it. With few exceptions, his players are incredibly loyal to him and to the team.

“The Culture Code” talks about Pop a lot. So do dozens of other business books. This video gives a nice look into why. This video makes me want to be part of a team.