The Culture Code
Implementing wisdom from Daniel Coyle's book to make our environments feel like home
The final piece of Gregg Popovich’s communication style, as highlighted by Daniel Coyle in The Culture Code, is providing big-picture perspective.
The Spurs doesn't just talk about basketball.
Popovich engages his players on bigger issues: poverty, racism, etc.
The game is not the end-all, be-all. Life is bigger than that.
Providing this big-picture perspective frees people in a culture to stop navel-gazing, to get out of their own heads, and to start serving a broader purpose.
This is an essential human need many children are unfortunately not provided. Many modern children are instead receiving the message, “It’s all about you.”
Here are three ways we can provide big-picture perspective in our homes:
1. Stop to discuss movies and books.
Many read books and watch movies with kids. Few of them pause long enough to actually enter into the lives of the characters in the story. Movies and books can be an amazing window to the bigger world, providing kids a perspective beyond their own bubble. Passively receiving these stories isn’t enough. Adults need to stop and ask questions about how something makes children feel, tell their own stories about encountering a certain problem in the world, etc.
Don’t get in a rush to consume media with your kids, but use it as a gateway to big-picture perspective.
- Check out our favorite books list for fun read-aloud ideas here.
- Get free movie guides for discussions and activities to accompany several kid-friendly films here.
2. Serve your neighbors.
All of us have neighbors. They’re close and thus easy to serve, whether a next door classroom, next door house, custodian, or assisted living home. Get creative in how you serve: give them the kids’ art creations, make them goodies, rake their leaves, do some extra cleaning, or sing a song. Be a neighbor with kids.
3. Disrupt studies/practices for more important things
A standard of hard work is essential to healthy culture, but valuing people over productivity is equally important. Parents and educators alike should intentionally disrupt homework, soccer practice, or even exceptional programming in order to attend to the needs of other folks. Popovich stops and talks about family, warfare, or sorrow with his players just when most coaches would be putting their noses to the grindstone. By taking the pressure off and focusing on service, we allow people to take themselves less seriously and cultivate better friends, neighbors, and citizens in our kids.