A sports psychology intervention aimed at improving the culture of the McGill Redbirds football team provides valuable insights that can be applied in many organizational settings, researchers say.
During the 13-week intervention, athletes were invited to work together to define the team's values and recommend how to cultivate and reinforce them.
"Our findings suggest this can be an effective way to foster buy-in and commitment," explained Marc Glaude, a PhD Candidate and Course Lecturer in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education and lead author of the study.
Observing change as it happens
The intervention came at a time when the McGill football program was experiencing a coaching change and wanted to create a clear framework and shared direction, explained Glaude, who also is an associate coach with the team.
Unlike most previous research on this topic, based on successful coaches reflecting on their work, this project provided the opportunity to design and test a program to change team culture in real time, he noted.
Glaude and Professor Gordon Bloom, director of the McGill Sport Psychology Research Laboratory, conducted the study along with colleagues from Université de Montréal and the University of Windsor.
The season-long intervention included culture workshops, team-building sessions and bi-weekly psychological skills training sessions. This also allowed the athletes to improve their communications skills, get to know each other and learn more about such topics as resilience and responding effectively to pressure.
The researchers asked the athletes to complete questionnaires throughout the intervention and interviewed them post-season.
"Athletes reported stronger team cohesion over the course of the season and described the intervention as contributing to greater accountability, buy-in and team unity," said Glaude.
He noted that this cohesion was maintained throughout the cycle of wins and losses experienced during the season.
Team success beyond sports
The lessons from this study, the researchers emphasized, are relevant outside of sports.
Involving team members in defining shared values, translating those values into everyday behaviours and reinforcing them over time are measures that can be applied in many organizational settings, explained Glaude.
"When individuals have a voice in defining a group's values and expectations, they may be more likely to embrace and reinforce the standards that emerge from that process," he noted.
And though an improved team culture does not guarantee success, he added, it can create the conditions that allow teams to perform at their best.
About the study
"A longitudinal case study of a sport psychology intervention designed to facilitate team culture change," by Marc Glaude (McGill University), Danielle Alexander-Urquhart (Université de Montréal), Siobhan Henderson (McGill University), Mason B. Sheppard (University of Windsor), Todd M. Loughead (University of Windsor), and Gordon A. Bloom (McGill University), was published in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology.
