The most important thing to realize about your team’s culture is that it will change every season.
Yes, I was concerned when I first joined Riot that I might never fit into the intense, upfront grind of the kickass East Coast transplant women, but the team has changed a great deal in the past 7 years. Riot has become a weird, unique, open-nearly-to-a-fault bunch of weenies (young and old) who’d rather drink Dr. Pepper than the beer and wine of Beth Wise and Vivian Zayas. I think this attitude of being ok with change is particularly important when coaching a team.
You need to allow your players to find their own sources of culture each season. From one year to the next, you may find yourself nurturing a completely different development of team culture based on the events in the lives of your team members. At times, you may not even agree with the development of a cultural practice (wearing eye black or skirts, swearing in your cheers or your huddle talks…) but you have to listen to your teammates/players to figure out what is working for them. If you’re lucky enough to stay with the same team long enough, you’ll recognize some themes will never change, even through the practical sways – the Small Fryz will always love each other more than anything else and Riot will always support each member in their individual pursuits even above the pursuits of the team.
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