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Darryl Talley was spot on in his criticism of the team. They have one of the most talented rosters in the league, and their struggling to finish .500. Why is that?
What Talley is saying is this:
"Culture eats strategy for lunch."
Look at the Patriots. Yes, they cheat, and yes they have the best QB and coach ever quite possibly. But their culture is impeccable. Their brand makes players achieve more. They are great at X's and O's, no doubt, but their culture is the real force on that team. They are nowhere near as talented as the Bills, but they dominate us.
Organizational culture is the real competitive advantage in Football, and the Bills culture is a mess.
Look at Levy. Would you say he was a great Xs and Os guy? Of course not. But he managed to take a team of beasts and steer them in a way that maximized their effectiveness towards a common goal. It wasn't, as Talley put it, a bunch of guys running in their own direction. It really only seemed to fall apart in the Superbowl where all the spotlight and partying and individualism caught up with them.
Whaley and Rex are responsible for this. Since they aren't going anywhere, they are responsible for fixing this. Whaley is all about talent. He wants all aces and gamebreakers and all these fancy things, but he has really done nothing to improve the actual culture of the organization. Great, you went out and got Watkins. That shows you want to win and looks like swagger on paper. But that is all showmanship. Building a culture of winning is not about going out and getting good players, I think Bills fans can attest to that more than any team in the NFL.
Rex thought he was going to come in here and unleash all of these fancy tools on the NFL, but he neglected to acknowledge that these beasts need to be tamed and focused rather than unleashed. Hence you have undisciplined and unfocused football. Hence you have an Eagles game that was all about one player and if I remember correctly the only team captain. He encourages this behavior and it is counter to the most prominent theories on organizational behavior. Make no mistake, yes this is sports, but this is an organization and the same principles that allow General Electric to succeed as a corporation apply to NFL teams.
Do the Patriots "unleash the beast" against teams? Did Herb Brooks "unleash the beast" against the Soviets in the Miracle on Ice? Does a team of firefighters "unleash the beast" when they are fighting a fire?
Disciplined and focused organizations and teams always beat a team of more talented individuals thrown together. People arguing about Xs and Os and challenges and the like are missing the point. This team has not made the playoffs for 16 goddamn years, and that's more relevant than any single on-field metric you can come up with. Winning begets winning, and helps build a strong organizational culture like the Pats. No doubt about it. But that's why Whaley and Rex get paid the big bucks. They need to learn some more and do some actual research on these ideas. This bullheaded commitment to talent and faux-macho bravado is bull**** and not how champions are made. Champions act and behave like champions, it's not just talent and x's and o's. How do you build a winner out of an organization that doesn't even know what winning looks like? Rex thought he could maybe mold this team off the Seahawks, but he neglected to look at anything more than surface level of why that team was great. The Seahawks may have looked like a wild bunch of oorah beasts going wacky and making plays all over the field, but in fact they played very disciplined football in terms of strategy. Yes they had a lot of wild personalities, but in terms of the product on the field they all bought in and they all were motivated towards a common goal. That is real success.
I'm not like some of you guys who think everyone should be fired. I think people can grow, and they can learn, and mistakes can be made. I think that Rex and Whaley need to have a sit-down and learn something from Pegula, who has made a lot of money running successful organizations. Pegula needs to involve himself more in this team. Sure, he doesn't know diddly about football. But, Rex and Whaley do and where has that gotten us? What he does know about is winning and positive organizational climates. Players like Mario need to be gone. Any player like him who loafs because they don't like things should be let go.
The science is out there and there are plenty of resources to learn. Spend 30 bucks on a damn Harvard Business Review subscription and read from prominent practitioners about this. Get with the modern times, this "we're gonna punch'em in the mouth" bull**** goes nowhere and is embarrassing.
Culture eats strategy for lunch, and unless Whaley and Rex learn that we are in for a long season next year as well.
What Talley is saying is this:
"Culture eats strategy for lunch."
Look at the Patriots. Yes, they cheat, and yes they have the best QB and coach ever quite possibly. But their culture is impeccable. Their brand makes players achieve more. They are great at X's and O's, no doubt, but their culture is the real force on that team. They are nowhere near as talented as the Bills, but they dominate us.
Organizational culture is the real competitive advantage in Football, and the Bills culture is a mess.
Look at Levy. Would you say he was a great Xs and Os guy? Of course not. But he managed to take a team of beasts and steer them in a way that maximized their effectiveness towards a common goal. It wasn't, as Talley put it, a bunch of guys running in their own direction. It really only seemed to fall apart in the Superbowl where all the spotlight and partying and individualism caught up with them.
Whaley and Rex are responsible for this. Since they aren't going anywhere, they are responsible for fixing this. Whaley is all about talent. He wants all aces and gamebreakers and all these fancy things, but he has really done nothing to improve the actual culture of the organization. Great, you went out and got Watkins. That shows you want to win and looks like swagger on paper. But that is all showmanship. Building a culture of winning is not about going out and getting good players, I think Bills fans can attest to that more than any team in the NFL.
Rex thought he was going to come in here and unleash all of these fancy tools on the NFL, but he neglected to acknowledge that these beasts need to be tamed and focused rather than unleashed. Hence you have undisciplined and unfocused football. Hence you have an Eagles game that was all about one player and if I remember correctly the only team captain. He encourages this behavior and it is counter to the most prominent theories on organizational behavior. Make no mistake, yes this is sports, but this is an organization and the same principles that allow General Electric to succeed as a corporation apply to NFL teams.
Do the Patriots "unleash the beast" against teams? Did Herb Brooks "unleash the beast" against the Soviets in the Miracle on Ice? Does a team of firefighters "unleash the beast" when they are fighting a fire?
Disciplined and focused organizations and teams always beat a team of more talented individuals thrown together. People arguing about Xs and Os and challenges and the like are missing the point. This team has not made the playoffs for 16 goddamn years, and that's more relevant than any single on-field metric you can come up with. Winning begets winning, and helps build a strong organizational culture like the Pats. No doubt about it. But that's why Whaley and Rex get paid the big bucks. They need to learn some more and do some actual research on these ideas. This bullheaded commitment to talent and faux-macho bravado is bull**** and not how champions are made. Champions act and behave like champions, it's not just talent and x's and o's. How do you build a winner out of an organization that doesn't even know what winning looks like? Rex thought he could maybe mold this team off the Seahawks, but he neglected to look at anything more than surface level of why that team was great. The Seahawks may have looked like a wild bunch of oorah beasts going wacky and making plays all over the field, but in fact they played very disciplined football in terms of strategy. Yes they had a lot of wild personalities, but in terms of the product on the field they all bought in and they all were motivated towards a common goal. That is real success.
I'm not like some of you guys who think everyone should be fired. I think people can grow, and they can learn, and mistakes can be made. I think that Rex and Whaley need to have a sit-down and learn something from Pegula, who has made a lot of money running successful organizations. Pegula needs to involve himself more in this team. Sure, he doesn't know diddly about football. But, Rex and Whaley do and where has that gotten us? What he does know about is winning and positive organizational climates. Players like Mario need to be gone. Any player like him who loafs because they don't like things should be let go.
The science is out there and there are plenty of resources to learn. Spend 30 bucks on a damn Harvard Business Review subscription and read from prominent practitioners about this. Get with the modern times, this "we're gonna punch'em in the mouth" bull**** goes nowhere and is embarrassing.
Culture eats strategy for lunch, and unless Whaley and Rex learn that we are in for a long season next year as well.
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