Performance Rising: Recent Episodes
Matthew Dunn
I read somewhere that culture is not something you are—it is something you do. But how do you "do" culture? How do you bring a "great" culture into existence? Join me, Matthew Dunn, educator, coach, and soon-to-be organizational psychologist, as I explore the frontlines of culture creation with coaches, managers, academics, and thought leaders. Whether you are leading, following, or somewhere in the middle, this podcast is for all who are curious about how to create, develop, and sustain an intentional culture.
Matt provides insight into how an Athletic Director thinks about, engineers, and develops culture in his/her department.
Ian joins the podcast to talk about all things sports performance, culture, and Wagner College's response to social distancing.
Katharina was gracious enough to record this interview with me back in the summer. As is often the case, life got away from me and I am only now getting around to posting it. Katharina is an amazing professional and an even better human. I hope you enjoy listening to Kat's perspective on culture & life.
Chris returns to recap how his culture performed during their exceptional season and talk about the impact of COVID.
Sinead returns to talk about how social distancing is impacting her team and what she is doing in response.
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Edward Scott, Director of Athletics at Morgan State University. Ed brings a wealth of knowledge from all levels of higher education to this conversation and his insights are incredible. Ed is a true thought leader in the culture creation space and he has done amazing work rebuilding the Morgan State Athletics brand with a focus on G.R.I.T.
In this episode, I speak with Chris Taylor, Head Men's Soccer Coach at Plattsburgh State College.
Born in Liverpool, England, Chris speaks about how Liverpool FC, one of the biggest soccer clubs in the world, shaped and was shaped by the culture of the Liverpool community.
Coming to the US, Chris talks about the power of psychological safety and how feeling safer as a persona and player allowed him to flourish in his new country.
Finally, Chris talks about inheriting a successful program run by a legendary coach, Chris Waterbury, and the pressures that come with finding his authentic voice apart from that of his predecessor.
In this episode, I speak with Dr. John D'Auria about the role culture creation plays in education. John has been a classroom teacher, a guidance counselor, a principal, and a superintendent. Needless to say, when it comes to education he has seen the institution, and the role of culture, from all sides.
In this very special bonus episode, I speak with three Cortland State men's soccer players about how they experience the culture of the team.
Coach Steve Axtell explained his view of the team's culture in Episode 1, and here we hear from the player's point of view how that culture lives and is created in the minds of the players.
“You have the culture you want when you know the process is there and you are always building to it. Just know that there never may be a total end result and that you’ve got to consistently have that buy-in and believe in the process every day.”
“Whatever environment you’re in or whatever team you’re working with, the culture is that family feel…I think of culture as being [a family]. We have a specific culture and that culture changes of course. But it’s what you are expecting of the people who you are living with, working with, learning with on a daily basis.” -Jason Seward
In this episode, I speak with Sinead McSharry about how she creates culture.
“The first step in creating an intentional culture is to let your team know who you are outside of being just their coach”
Entering his 9th season as Head Women’s Soccer Coach at SUNY Potsdam, Mark Misiak and his players have experienced a steady increase in wins each year. In this conversation, Mark discusses the culture change that has enabled his program to compete with the best in their conference.
Quotable:
“[Culture is] how the team acts with each other when no one is watching.”
“I believe culture and identity are two different things. Our identity is what people see of us. Our culture is what happens between myself and the team. That’s our culture.”
Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Performance Rising podcast!
In this Episode I speak with Steve Axtell about how he creates culture.
“I think culture is something that [is] daily norms, daily behaviors, daily actions. What are the things that are non-negotiables that the players hold true to? . It’s almost like a series of family values. Culture can change the second one plater leaves or one player enters. Its’ now a different series of interactions and things, but I think you can maintain culture by having the same actions and behaviors; common threads that players know that they’re not going to mess around with. I think culture should be something that they take outside of the game.”
*Note: as this is the first episode I ask for your patience as I figure out all the technical details of audio production. The audio can sound different in parts and I am working to sort that out for the second episode.