Section No. 1: This week's BIG Takeaway Publicly punishing mistakes can instill fear across an organization
Image: NFL/New England Patriots
Three and out It's scary playing in New England around Halloween
The context: Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was pulled after only three series against the Bears on Oct. 25, something that appeared to be a surprise to many fans, members of the media and even Jones's teammates.
It was Jones's first game since he suffered an ankle injury on Sept. 25 versus Baltimore.
Rookie Bailey Zappe replaced Jones after Jones threw an interception; Zappe immediately led the Patriots to two touchdowns; the team did not score in the second half.
After the game headcoach Bill Belichick told the press he had planned to play both quarterbacks; Zappe wasn't aware the change would happen so early in the game and other players had no idea a switch was coming.
What we can learn: It's hard to have a culture where people feel psychologically safe if mistakes are punished.
Hall of Fame quarterback Payton Manning shared an interesting perspective.
“That’s a hard way to play quarterback right?” Manning said. “If you’re hesitant to make a play knowing you’re going to come out, that’s tough. My guess is he didn’t know that was the deal.”
Boston Globe sportswriter Eric Wilbur went further.
"Belichick helped deliver a season-altering mortification that ranks right up there with the most absurd evenings of his tenure in New England."
The Patriots lost the game and until later in the week no one was sure who would be starting versus the Jets yesterday; Jones took the snaps and led the team to victory.
My take: Changing quarterbacks immediately after an interception sent the message Jones was being replaced because of a mistake, not because of a pregame strategy.
This perception was magnified because no one on the team except the quarterbacks seemed to know this was part of the game plan.
If you were a player on the Patriots in that moment you were likely thinking, "Am I next if I make a mistake?"
If you want employees to take risks and be their best and true self they can't operate from a place of fear for their job.
To recap: Publicly punishing mistakes can instill fear across an organization
Section No. 2: Other lessons from the week
Image: NBC
The NHL's Arizona Coyotes will be playing at Arizona States' Mullet Arena this year.
In case you are wondering where Twitter's culture might be headed, here's a nice reminder of some of Musk's past actions.
I am going to guess that the company might score low on our SAFETY scale.
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers criticized his teammates and believed doing so was OK because no one has confronted him.
Note to Aaron - many players are probably scared of you and are on the wrong side of the power dynamic. While Rodgers might "enjoy" conflict, the culture might not support and others may see it as a threat.
A dose of the "E" in our model - Empathy - would be helpful here.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" had its initial release; this interview mentions the importance of culture.
Here's a story former cast member and co-writer of the original sketch Bobby Moynihan told on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
It is a unbelievable example of the "Y" - Yes and versus Yeah but - in our SAFETY model.
“There’s a video of an Indian guy dancing around, and every once in a while he stops and the music stops,” Moynihan said. “And we thought that was really fun, and we were like, ‘Let’s write something where we’re dancing.’
And then it was Halloween, and we said, ‘There’s no Santa Claus for Halloween.’ So we were like ‘Okay, so if we make this guy, and we’re his side dancers…’ And Mikey [Day] was like ‘How about David Pumpkins?’ And I was like ‘How about David S. Pumpkins?’ And the rest was history.”
Any questions?
That's all for now Thanks for reading and please remember:
We archive our stories and put them here for the world to read so feel free to have a look.
If you have any ideas or feedbackContact me with your thoughts.
Rich Trombetta @trombettarich
Please share this and tell your friends and colleagues!
Our why: We believe EVERYONE has something to offer. It's is just a matter of making it EASY for leaders to create the environment for everyone to feel SAFE to do so.
Our vision: Companies will make the same effort to keep people psychologically safe at work as they do to keep them physically safe on the job.
Copyright 2022 The Pop Culture Training Company.
