In 1979 hall of fame NFL coach Bill Walsh inherited a terrible San Francisco 49ers team…

Because of his track record and legendary status, expectations were sky high.

But in his first year there was no improvement in the won loss record.

The year before Walsh arrived, the 49ers won two with fourteen losses, which he matched in his first year.

So, why no instant turnaround?

Well, as reported in his book ‘The Score Takes Care of Itself’ Walsh spent that first year on ‘culture’.

And yes, we’re talking about an American football team.

During his first year, Walsh reported he worked on establishing an ethos of professionalism, decorum, and support for one’s teammates.

His first year’s results of two wins and fourteen losses, gave the impression they had bad players.

But this was clearly not the case, as just two years later the 49ers won the Super Bowl with a record of seventeen wins and just two losses.

Culture (not immediate results) is the most important thing to get right in any organisation.

Culture is exceedingly difficult to change and can take years before you get it right.

Culture is about how the team interact and help each other out, how professional they are with customers and the responsibility, integrity, and honesty they show.

When we transformed our business from a network of retail stores selling printer cartridges, into a business providing office technology solutions, changing the culture was the hardest thing to do.

It took us 4 years of perseverance, working with and tweaking the team. Now we have a team who help each other out and have our customers interests at the heart of everything they do.

…get the culture right in any organisation and results will follow.