Exactly what enables a team of no-hopers or perennial losers to turn things around?

If we had a definitive answer to that, we would have solved one of sport’s greatest mysteries!

Of course there are loads of examples where this happened, in fact, it’s still happening today. Unfortunately the answer to this question is more a sum of parts, than one single event or influencing factor. But if we go back in history and compare teams of yesterday (and today), there is one common denominator that pops up all the time.

I recently read an article about the Highlanders and their amazing turn-around in 2011. Most people, even including Highlanders fans, would not have given them much of a chance to end up in the top 6 of the Super 15 competition, yet they currently stand a very real chance.

The reason for this is an area we have visited quite often in the recent past. Teams either suffer from this and find it extremely difficult to come out of it, or they feed of it, it is the culture of the team, or more importantly, the organisation as a whole.

When Jamie Joseph returned to Carisbrook to take charge of the Highlanders there was a sense of relief from those closely associated to the franchise. The reason for this was that one of their own, a Highlanders man, has come home to fix things and get them out of the rot they managed to get themselves into in recent years.

The fact that he was seen as ‘one of their own’ immediately established a sense of trust and a sense of respect between Joseph and his employers, and also his players. The result of this is what we now see on the pitch and even around the pitch. The Highlanders are not just knocking over big names in the competition, they are doing it consistently and they are well in contention of a top 6 finish in this year’s competition. In addition, where crowds of less than 10 000 were the norm in recent years, Carisbrook now sees crowds exceeding 20 000 fans pack the historical stadium and grass banks.

There is a sense of pride in the team, a sense of determination and an obvious change in culture not only in the team, but also the franchise administration and the fans.

Can one man really be the difference between a team being successful or a bit of a joke? That would be a bit of a simplistic view I reckon, and as I mentioned success is a sum of parts rather than one cog or gear being changed, but the importance of this one aspect can hardly be denied.

Joseph might have been slightly lucky in respect of the trust and respect he immediately enjoyed being an ‘old-boy’, but in many cases especially in the professional era, this has to be earned.

In a South African context there is arguably no better example of this than the Bulls and Heyneke Meyer. Meyer did not have an easy time of it when he started out. Up and till recently, he had the unfortunate record of the worst Super Rugby season where they lost every single game in one year. For once however, a union or franchise stuck by their man and the result of this is known to everyone who follows rugby.

Whenever you ask someone to tell you the story of how Meyer turned the Bulls around from easy-beats to champions, you will no doubt hear that two things worked in his favour, he had the buy-in and respect from his administration and he had buy-in and respect from his players.

Once he achieved this, Meyer set out to change the culture within the union.

For years and even today still we often read about the ‘family’ that exists at the Bulls, personally, I would like to call it a culture that exists within the union. It is a culture that saw the Bulls get together on Christmas day in the past to put in the extra 4 or 5 hours they knew no other team did. It is a culture which we read about today from players where win or lose, the team and players get together at one-another’s house to discuss and sort matters out. It is a culture that goes beyond individuals just being team mates, or coaches or even administrators, it’s a culture of success in which everyone has to play their part, and being part of a family.

As much as the Bulls and Highlanders are two teams that can be used of examples of success or where this was achieved, South African rugby also has quite a number of examples where the opposite is true.

It might sound like I am making a case for individuals (Meyer and Joseph) as being the most important reason teams were able to create a winning culture, but I believe this is the mistake we all make. In a team environment whether it be in rugby or your daily lives at work, your success as the boss or employee, or the coach and the player/coach and administrator, is more dependent on who you associate yourself with than who you actually are.

Perhaps that is a very bold statement, but one I feel carries a lot of truth in it.

It is impossible for one person to win over all the individuals in that organisation all at once. It is a process that takes time and is not only dependent on your actions or words, but who you associate yourself with internally in that organisation to help you instigate change. The most talented and gifted individuals will fail if they do not find the perfect fit for themselves in other individuals to spread this culture.

As much as a positive culture spreads like a virus throughout an organisation, so does a negative one.

Rassie Erasmus joined a Stormers culture which was similar to that of the Highlanders in years gone by. If we forget the person for a moment, there will be very few individuals in rugby that will not acknowledge the genius of the man. Yet when it came to changing to culture as a coach, Erasmus failed.

When he was moved from the role of coach to that of Director of Rugby, things started to change. Erasmus, as brilliant as he is from a rugby perspective did not have the ability to enforce a change in the culture that existed from the position he was in. Once removed, he found the perfect partners (associations) to ignite this change more effectively.

Whether this move came from the Stormers administration who identified his worth but realised how ineffective it was utilised, or from Erasmus himself who knew he had to move to surround himself or associate himself with different individuals to effect the change that the franchise needed is unimportant, what is important is that how the structures changed and who he now surrounded himself, or associated himself with, and how that had a much more positive and dramatic effect in changing the culture that existed.

He found his perfect partner or foil in Coetzee who immediately had a profoundly different effect with the media and the players both of which suddenly became much more relaxed and a lot more positive.

The message in all this is that there is no set blueprint for teams to follow to effect a change in culture, for that, the ‘problem’ is a lot more complex and the environments in each team too different.

What I do believe most unions and coaches miss however, is that individual brilliance or ‘buying the best’ (coaches or players) won’t change this either, it is finding the perfect fit for your team and who you choose to associate yourself with.