The 4 Components of Elite Environments

As Developers, the environments we create are foundational to shaping our organization and its people.?

It's crucial to meticulously and deliberately structure one's environment to align with a desired vision. Any person from outside your organization should be able to walk in and immediately "feel" the environment. They won't be able to explain it completely, but they can certainly feel its power.

Here are the 4 components of an elite environment with descriptions of how the Developer maximizes each.

1. Culture Vision

The first and most important aspect of environment creation is culture.?

Your values lived every day to the maximum are the most important way to build an elite environment. It’s not just slapping a list of core values on the wall and saying, "This is what we stand for." Everything done within the environment must represent what your culture stands for, and anything that falls outside of that needs to be immediately addressed.?

With enough iterations, this component alone will be the best way to ensure you are striving toward your potential.

2. Playing Vision

Secondly, there needs to be clear ideas and execution around player and team development.?

This second component is best described by a clear understanding of the concepts taught to help prepare players for the future game irrespective of any future opponent. An organization’s style of play (team) and core developmental philosophy (individual) have to be very clear constructs that can be understood and witnessed every day. For the players, it provides a playing blueprint that teaches, never stifles, and moves players closer to their playing potential.

Extreme clarity of vision and teaching is the hallmark of the Playing Vision component.

3. Game Vision

Thirdly, there is the Game Vision component that leverages the previous two components against the specificity of a future opponent.?

This component will manifest on the training ground and on match day. During training, especially at older age brackets, this will translate into an artistic interpretation of a future opponent and the best way to leverage the culture and playing vision against the challenges they present. On match day, it encapsulates the energy emitted from a group and a physical location in spite of any match condition (i.e., poor refereeing, goals scored/conceded) and opponent challenges.?

Game Vision transforms an organization into an entity that cannot be prepared for by simply studying tape.

4. Infrastructure

Infrastructure's power lies in its ability to support the previous three visions, never the opposite.

The most important piece of environment creation is that we continue to iterate on our culture, playing, and game vision long-term. Infrastructure’s purpose is simply to create the conditions for those same visions to grow further. Infrastructure can be physical (a new stadium, a training facility, a club laundry machine) or incentive-based (a professional pathway, a top-tier league, a college showcase), but it can never be the first mover of environment creation.?

Otherwise, the environment can become a soulless entity that lacks energy and can never maximize the development of the organization and its people.

Conclusion

Regardless of the level, age, and infrastructure, every organization can maximize these components, especially the first three, and build a truly elite environment that will continue to churn out great players and incredible people.?

Environment creation is just an extension of your developmental beliefs and visions come to life. Any environment that has transformative properties can be felt by anyone, especially those who experience it for the first time. In the beginning, your environment grows in lockstep with your people, but when those people graduate and move on, your environment will be more established and affect every new player who comes through those doors on a level that was not possible in the beginning.?

Nurture an elite environment, and your team will grow accordingly.

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