Culture Shift

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1:02Hi folks, welcome to another episode of Film Study. This is Ken McEuzick and we're back for another short episode tonight. And this is an interesting one. I got sent this topic and I thought right away, this is something that's really worth discussing. Anyway, we have Alex G. with us tonight. He's going to talk to us about the new culture and elements he's seeing from Jesse Minter. He does this professionally as a consultant to help build corporate culture. Alex, thanks for joining us. Yeah, my pleasure. I've been doing this field for about 15 years. So it's one thing to create the culture. It's one another thing to sustain it. And I think the Ravens are in a very unique position, both as just a company, but also a sports team coming off of success and organization-wise success. So I'm really happy to sort of just talk about these two passions that I have together. I'm sure this is going to be outstanding. And I as someone who has always been suspicious of any sort of culture imposed by a corporation,

2:04I'll listen very attentively. And with a jaundiced eye as the IRS would say with regard to this. But I appreciate you coming on Alex. I want this to be wide open. So take us down the road as you, we've had a fair amount of time now to observe, mentor, and some of the cultural changes through training camp at least. Yeah, so let me start with a question if I can. Ken, and this is something that we've talked about a little bit. I hear my question. To you, what does it mean to play like a Raven? There is a Ravens way that I think has been established over multiple coaches and the same GM effectively. Because I think that Ozzy's basically in his influence on the cost are very strong. Ozzy, of course, is still around the business in terms of what they, how they want to run the organization. And on the field and in terms of the play, physicality is certainly a portion of it. But there's a lot more to it than that. And I think the things they do organizationally are in some ways even more important than the cultural values

3:09they instill, although both are important. They wouldn't have it without the talent in drafting they've had. And without the extraordinary success they've had with Steve Bishati and an open pocketbook owner who spends all the right things. I think they've done a lot of things very well that are outside of the specifically the culture department. I think play like a Raven is not just a cultural element. It's more than that. But anyway, I'll leave it to you. What do you think probably play like a Raven? Yeah, well, first, I think there's a lot to unpack in what you said. But I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about how important it is to, first of all, the history of the Raven. So just where does this culture come from? So starting in 96, setting the tone with the NFL draft, Ogden Ray Lewis sets his tone. So we have a saying among fans, right, in Ozzy we trust. That came from the very first year of the organization.

4:11And then five years later, or four years later, depending on how you want to count it, they win a Super Bowl. And not just winning a Super Bowl, but how they won a Super Bowl. They dominated on defense. Tony Saragusa injured Rich Ganon and then laughed about it post-game. So how they won. I'm going to touch back on that point a little bit later because it's also culture. It also created a television show of hard knocks. They said, hey, these guys are awesome. These guys are great television. I need to put them on camera. So the culture of the Ravens was really established by Ozzy, of course, as we all know. Ray Lewis, Tony Saragusa, Shannon Sharp, Woods and those types of guys, who we all sort of fell in love with on the onset of the team, which by the way, historically, I looked this up. I wanted to be accurate. One of the few teams to find immediate success and sustained success after a relocation, which is different than an expansion.

5:12Different expansions have different rules about what player pools people are allowed to get. It's sort of us and the Quebec Nordics becoming the Colorado Avalanche in terms of an immediate long-term success. So this is a very rare thing just around sports. So forgive me as I make that little aside. So the next sort of biggest, I would say, year of cultural significance would be in 2008, where the Ravens hired John Harvaw, who, if you remember, and I'm sure you do, not the Ravens first choice. First choice was Jason Garrett, and a lot of fans were upset that it wasn't Rex Ryan. So when you think about playing like a Raven, just you take these three people, and you have better recall, I'm sure, than I do. Jason Garrett, and what we now know about him, John Harvaw, and what we now know about him, and Rex Ryan, what we now know about him. Can we imagine sort of in an alternate universe a different way of what it means to play like a Raven?

6:17Yeah, I think we can, but I don't think that Rex Ryan would have been a long-lasting coach with the Ravens. I think he's too much of a sign curve personality in terms of what he would bring to the organization. There'd be too much of a chance of conflict that that relationship would have broken down more quickly than 18 years anyway. Garrett is the kind of tofu character that might have been around for an extended period, but I don't think he'd have been as good as Harvaw was. So I think they got lucky. They hired the right guy of the three, and whatever feelings people may have about Harvaw in these last couple of years, or, you know, the incredible vitriolic bile that seems to be sprayed at these waisted the Jackson years. I think they'd have to admit he's been a, was a darn good coach for the Ravens. Yeah, I think you can say that his track record speaks for itself. I think that's a whole, that's a separate conflict. Harvaw conversation, I think it's a separate conversation. One little sort of aside about the Harvaw hiring, which I didn't remember at the time,

7:18but Rex Ryan actually sort of got promoted as his assistant head coach. So there was a little bit of service to the organization that was already there when Harvaw came in, and you're going to see that that's pretty consistent throughout what mentors doing when he enters the organization. So the reason why I'm going through all this and I have two more years, I'll just do this next one quickly. 2019, the other cultural sort of landmark is, and you're nodding your head, as a news and retirees, but more importantly than that, he stays in the building. That is such a unique situation where a GM leaves, but decides to stay on as the late blue, the A's on, slash whatever you want to call it. And you can tell in the draft videos, even from this year, that guy sits at the head of the table. He is still the culture, and it's not just a figurehead. He's consulted, he's involved, he's collaborated with. So that is a huge sort of cultural, I would say, unique quality of the Ravens is that they have him here.

8:19He has a title and he has maybe not positional power, right? But he definitely has referential power, his words matter. They put him in positions of cultural significance. So one of the big, like easiest GM transitions that you're ever going to see in sports. That was made easy by Ozzy himself. I mean, there's very few people who can subordinate themselves to the person who they've had under their wing for many years. But part of it was the fact that Ozzy had already picked a successor, and he was invested in DeCosta doing the job very well. The other thing that's still amazing about Ozzy is what they've talked about when, newsome, sorry, when Bishaddi had the press conference, and he talked about how he talked to Eric DeCosta about it. It was very clear that the three guys he was putting in charge of the search for a new coach were DeCosta, Ozzy, and Sasha Brown.

9:19And first of all, it's a little unusual for twin silos like this, for that to be the case, because it was never, I didn't think it was ever under consideration. It certainly shouldn't have ever been, because that would have been a big organizational shift to subordinate the head coach to the GM. I don't think it was ever in question. I think it was always going to be a multi-silodial, but the amount of power they gave Ozzy in that arrangement was also very impressive. Yeah, and this is consistent with what you're going to hear me talk about later on, which is just the real emphasis of partnership around the organization. A lot of organizations are very top-down old school, hierarchical, patriarchal, whatever sort of you want to call that. But you're going to hear me emphasize a lot about Jesse Mentor's recognition and Eric DeCosta's recognition about how important and significant partnerships are, and this is going to become very tangibly important

10:19when it comes to things like Lamar Jackson's next contract. So speaking of Lamar, the other thing that happens in 2019 is Lamar wins his first MVP, and that's a cultural and significant moment also for the Ravens, because we have had, for my memory, largely with a couple of two sort of like, yes, sort of kind of offshoots. We have been known as a one-first defense team in terms of our identity. When we saw posters and highlights, and when we thought about what it meant to be a Ravens fan or AFC North football, it wasn't people putting on spin moves and announcer calling our, you know, comparing our quarterback to magicians and things like that. So the first MVP, I think, puts Baltimore on a national conversation in a way we've never been before. So another cultural shift, so go ahead. I buy that. I think that actually started in 2018. They're multiple things that happened. First of all, Flaka was injured, so they gave Jackson the job. Right. Then Jackson took it over, and Flaka was ready again in a couple of weeks.

11:24And Harba said, we're rolling with Jackson the rest of the way. They had already realized they had lightning in a bottle. And it's not lightning in a bottle, because this is like a state around for nine years, you know, in this same form, but they already had the greatest rushing offense in the history of the NFL, and they knew they were going to build around it at that moment. And that kind of, that kind of ability to pivot in terms of what they had, in terms of an identity that they were obviously a passing team with Flaka, and passing team at a running team, but they threw the ball of air out with Flaka, and they had the deep ball capabilities with him. They changed. They pivoted on a heartbeat to live and die by the read option, and how effectively they had become. That was, you know, it might have been Harbaugh's finest moment to basically say, okay, we're tearing up everything we've got. We're going to go this way. And then the next year, they got Greg Roman to really run that offense that would threaten the field horizontally. Yeah. So I guess we can just say when Lamar Jackson arrives,

12:24whenever you want to decide when that is, as a cultural moment for the Ravens. And then up until now, now is the next one with Jesse Mentor. Everything else, I mean, I don't see them as culturally significant in terms of, if I fork in the road or a turning point in how the Ravens have looked, have been talked about, have operated, really other than just the ones that I've laid out. And I bring that up because it's not that many. When you think about how long the Ravens have operated, you can boil them down to just a handful of really important cultural significant moments. But there's a reason why Ray Lewis has a statue. And it's not just because he was great. It's because he set the tone for the culture in just the same way that Adi News sent it. So I really value what you said about how, as a, you know, as a guy that bristles at sort of mission statements and things like that. Yeah. So the thesis of why I wanted to talk about this is because,

13:28for 90% of organizations, I would say, you're absolutely right. Mission statements are what we say, what we're about, what's called an expaused value, and what's an actual value. It's just like when you go into a job interview, it's what the company tells you they're about. And then if you actually talk to the employees, what they're actually about. Right. A politicians of the same way, but is it different in an organization which has highly transient employees? Is that part of the thing where the mission statement is more valuable one of those circumstances? Right. Exactly. So when Jesse Minter came in, he had my interest because he said some things that I thought were very unique. But before that, I just, I want to talk about what culture is because I've been sort of dancing around a little bit. So to me, what culture is it's, because it's been in the news, and this is why it's a little bit sort of top of mind for me in addition to the Leadership Council, which I will get to. So if that's what you're here for, we'll talk about that. But it's not to me about karaoke, even though that stuff's great

14:31and Minter apparently killed it on the Eminem thing. It's not roller coasters at the Mall of America. It's really about when we're in this place, how do we feel when we're here? What do we do that's different? What are our roles and our responsibilities? And what does this place reward and what does it punish? And so even just in football, where we can think, gosh, it's pretty simple, right? We want to score more points than the other guys. And we want to do well at football, and there are technique and strength and things like that and how different could be. Well, there's so many nuances of that, and there's degrees of that. So for example, we all know that we want our guys on defense to hit hard, right? Good, right. But there's a difference between, hey, we're training people to tackle versus we have a slush fund for people knocking people out of games,

15:33which are referring to bounty game with the Saints in the late 2000s, right? So the reason why that was a scandal isn't because the players said, hey, I'm gonna go after him. It's because there was an institutional reinforcement from coaching that says, hey, not only do I want you to hit these guys hard, I want to, I will monetarily reward you for taking them out of the game. And because there was a monetary reward, 13 instances of people of Saints trying to hurt Red Far in the AFC Championship game, instances of trying to take out hurt Warner and we before. So the difference in culture is when we structure things around what are we reinforcing, what are we rewarding, what's punished, that's how you parse out, oh, this mission statement stuff is just talk versus, this is something that's actually within the DNA of our organization. Okay, so let me ask you a question about that. Sure, it had been any better.

16:34The money provided them with a trail and there was known things about what went on with the Saints. Would it have been any better if they'd said, look, we're gonna think very highly of you, if you knock him out of the game, that's not any money attached, but we're gonna think very highly of you for it. Please go after him, knock him out of the game, do whatever you can. I'm not sure that that really would be any better. I mean, it was very bad for them to attach money to it. But I don't think encouraging any kind of unprofessional or unethical behavior is good in business period. So we have some people and we're cross-pollinating topics here, but I knew we would, so that's fine with that. So we have a couple guys now on the Raven Staff, who are both very large, jolly, happy guys with big smiles, who really love to talk about how important it is to be violent and that's Dwayne Ledford and that's Anthony Weaver. And violence is one thing. We want our folks to be violent, and there's nothing wrong with admitting that the NFL is a violent sport.

17:35At the same time, the players are in a union, and this idea that, hey, it's fine if our guys wanna take out our guys and it's within our guys sort of like scope, we'll sort of take care of that as players. And in fact, if you look, the research into bounty gate was actually, this had gone on for a long time, which sort of like players were warning and giving ups and props to people and even maybe financially, I mean, I can't speak for certain, but I do know that because it was institutionalized by the saints and they rewarded it and the coaches reinforced it, that was the switch because now the players union can say, hey, you're now financially rewarding. You're getting a financial incentive to take out one of ours and that's not gonna fly. Okay, so that even goes to the message can be the same, but who's delivering the message and how it's delivered can make a huge difference.

18:39Okay, all right. Football is finally back and price picks is bringing out their best offer yet. New users who sign up will get $150 in lineups. If you win your first $5 lineup. Now, price picks is available nationwide. So what are you waiting for? Lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on price picks. So what you want in this football season, I'm all in on Lamar Jackson's rushing stats. This summer, he's looked as fast as anyone and the mesh point between Lamar and Derek Henry should return to be the most powerful offensive combination in the league. I picked more on his rush yards projection for the season because I think he'll again be a nightmare for opposing DCs. He's my guy and he's on price picks. Price picks is going crazy with the deals to start the football season, giving you users a new promo every day during stack September. Make sure to sign up now for guaranteed picks every Sunday, along with profit boosts and daily discounts throughout the month. You just pick two to six players, then pick more or less on a broad range of projected stats. It's the best way to get more locked in on game day.

19:39You can make all the picks you want across any sport, all in the same app. Download the app today and use code Ravens to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup. That's Ravens for $150 in lineups if you're win your first $5 lineup. Price picks, run your game. Do you seek adventure and want to serve your country? The Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations is hiring. As a member of our team, you'll work on high-impact operations around the world, safeguarding our nation and making a difference. We are looking for individuals with a can-do attitude and a collaborative mindset. If you are looking for a challenging and rewarding role, explore available opportunities and apply online at CIA.gov slash careers. In business, there's no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters, every deadline counts. When you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty. That's why reliability is at the core of USPS ground advantage.

20:41From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure nationwide network, aiding in a timely and accurate delivery. You get near real-time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments and with affordable upfront pricing, there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharges to throw off your cost sheets. It all adds up to predictable deliveries you can depend on because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else, your customers, your team, and the future you're building. Visit usps.com slash ground advantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS, official shipping sponsor of the NHL. So let's start here. So when Jesse Miner was hired, he talked about how, he's trying to build on the foundation of the Ravens. And so we went into the history of it, but how does it show up now? And I'm talking about the organization as a whole. So that play like a Raven, a little tagline that I said, I found it really interesting that in their jerseys this year, they put that on the uniform.

21:42But also interestingly, they put it on the inside, which almost means that this is something that we have to internalize. This isn't for the crowd to get behind. The crowd doesn't need to play like a Raven. But we do. So it's in the jersey, but it's hidden. The little things on their own, we can scoff at, but I'm trying to sort of paint a picture of how all the little things that the Ravens do create this sort of culture that Jesse Miner is building upon. And he's doing what he said he's going to do, which I think is really good. That's what a lot of successful people do. It's what they say they're going to do. Is there any organization that's achieved a high level of success? And certainly no matter what you think of the Ravens, they've achieved a high level of success over the 30 years that doesn't have some totem that they worship in that regard. Whether it's Notre Dame football and hitting on the sign on the way out of the tunnel, or any of the things

22:42that in the SEC programs that they're very proud of, or play like a Raven for the Ravens. And I don't know what the Steelers have, but I guarantee you they have something similar. I just don't know what it is. I'd be very, I just, I think there are a lot of, that's a normal thing. I am mildly impressed by the fact that they would have it on the inside of the jersey, not of the out. That is more important. And it is some way you can point to it and say, we have this here, we don't need the fans to see this, you guys need to understand this, that I am impressed by. Yeah, so most organizations to your point will have a mission, vision, value statement, strategic goals, strategic planning, that's a whole thing. That's not unique to your point. And what I find interesting about the Ravens, and why, and I think something that contributes to the Ravens success long term is how they deploy and use and embody those mission, vision, and values in a way that other teams don't. So I'll give you some examples. So one, that, so I can only go off of,

23:45because I'm not in these groups, right? I can only go off what the Ravens show us and what they say and what they do. So one thing that they do amazingly well from my perspective, and I couldn't research every other organization, but just like the AFC North, for example, we have an incredibly comparatively transparent draft process, unbelievably transparent. They're coaching hiring process, unbelievably transparent. We get a sense of not just who's drafted, but who has input on the decision making, it's a collaborative process. There's been an article about getting, you know, all the coaches input on just this year, Vega versus Bain versus Zadik, and where does that come from? There's a story about germane, the giraffe, germane, the draft, draft. Do you know about germane, the draft, draft? No, I don't know that I know that one. So germane, the draft, draft is, Eric DeCosta's son gifted him a draft, and it is a mascot for the draft room

24:49for his scouts to stick their neck out. So even though Eric DeCosta is the primary, let's say decision maker, he takes input from his coaching staff, his scouts. We see that if you just look back the last two years, it's, oh, hey, John's got one. I took John's input when he'd wanted the nearest people. Oh, Warhop got one with Carson Vincent. So he's not just like this is my guy and everybody clear out in a way that maybe some other GMs are. Yeah, he's a natural consensus builder. There's no doubt about that. And there's something else going on that I don't think is necessarily apparent to everybody is that he's attempting to guide people in a lot of cases to a particular conclusion, or at least uswage the feelings of the people who feel differently within the room. Now last year, I don't think he had to do that. And it's very scary to me that the Ravens were so 100% aligned on thinking Malachi Starks when they did.

25:49Now, fine football player probably would have been an outstanding second round pick. They had better options, in my opinion, where they picked Starks, starting with him and War. Not to go into that and he agreed to deal. But that time, all he had to basically do is think, are we sure about this? Are we sure he's so far ahead of everybody else? So he did at least test back on that. But there's another times when he has tried to go down that path and tried to then get the negative elements in the room turn to a degree. And that can't always happen. And by the way, when he was a guy, when he was Aussie's number two, he had his guys that he absolutely couldn't stand that Aussie picked. And you knew about it after the draft. One of the big ones was Devon Drew. Was a guy that played into a Aussie's guy, and he made it really clear after the fact, which, by the way, that in a lot of cases, that's going to be a mission element, or a vision element, or a value element,

26:50or whatever you want to talk about, that we don't publicly deride each other's draft fix. But when he says he's Aussie's guy, and he's the head of college scouting, there's no reason. I mean, it's clear that he doesn't believe in the pick. Yeah. Now, they're not going to give you that on the Baltimore Ravens YouTube channel about the disagreement. So I can't only go by actually the Baltimore Ravens YouTube channel just to be transparent. But even with just that as a resource, you're seeing a lot of elements of that culture just trickle through. So another one that happened this year was a lack of desperation. So a lot of times in the Ravens draft room, like this year, around four, everybody was climbing four. OK, we need a center. We need a center. We need a center. Conor Luz right there. Profitball focus loves him. I'll love him. Just pick him. And they said, no, no, thanks. We'll take Elijah Sharat, because he's the best player on our board. Right or wrong, because the Ravens

27:51have been an operation for too long to have correct picks all the time. But the culture is about what's their decision-making process. So this is another example of just you can see this year about, hey, we're going to stick to our board. Now, we knew that having a center replacing Tyler Limblum, we knew that that was going to be an organizational need. And that relates to Eridikhatsda. I think for the first time that I can remember, although I'm not as plugged in as you are, about Eridikhatsda basically going on a mini-apology tour, being like, hey, guys, sorry, we didn't draft a center. We wanted to, but the board didn't fall that way. Just like just sort of like getting out ahead of that. I don't know. Can you imagine? Can you remember a time when he's sort of done that in recent memory of sort of like apologizing for a pick he didn't make? I can't remember another time. I mean, the draft was extraordinarily well handled in retrospect. I thought in the first round, the deconvain were both legitimate options to Yawane.

28:51And Yawane being a guard, there's a lot of additional cost to making that selection. But the thing that tipped it for me on Yawane was that it made it so that they were not desperate, the rest of the draft at any particular position group. So you could say they didn't get a center, but they did get their interior offensive linemen. They got the best interior offensive linemen in the draft. And it are one of the best anyway. And that didn't leave them holding the bag entirely on their weakest position group of all. And then they said, we have potential other solutions for it. We can go to find one at trade. We can, they've got very lucky in terms of having lead for its guy seemingly work out there. And I think he's going to start week one. That's Gwen. But the draft overall was handled very well. An apology that sort is probably unnecessary from my perspective. It's OK if he wants to say to the fans, however you like, do it. It's not necessary to me, just the way I never need to be told when what the actual status

29:54of injuries are. I know there's a lot of fans who want to know. I know there's a lot of media who feel like they have something right to know. To me, it'd be better if they were just always my only comment is no comment, I'm sorry. Yeah. So that reminds me, I'm checking the clock here. And this is going by way faster than I anticipated. So I want to make sure that I touch up on things. So one of the things that really struck out to me when Jesse Menter was introduced, among the things that talk about partnerships, relationship builders, we've heard a lot before. And I want to get the leaders accountable. Before I do that, I do want to mention he talked about the difference between expectations and standards. And this is something so important. So very quickly, expectations are like, we expect you to be on time to a job. You come on time, that's the expectation. We can't expect it every single day, but that's the hope. But if you're a person who comes in late, you violate the standard. So what Jesse Menter is trying to do is really establish and be clear about standards and accountability. And this is something that even someone like Nick Gill talks about, it's a standard that you walk by, is the standard that you allow.

30:55There's an organization-wide standard that he's trying to set. And we're seeing that play out in now the development of this leadership council. So this is news that I think is kind of interesting and important. And what this is is the Ravens have named now for the first time ever, because Arbola never did this. Season-long captain said this thing. So voted by the players up to 10, one for each position group. So the top five are the core members of the council, Jackson Henry Hamilton, Kalea Campbell, who Eric DeCosta can't say enough great things about, and then Rhoquan Smith to round out the five. And then the last 10 flowers, Andrew Stanley, Hendrickson, and Moore, who Randy Brown calls the Lamar Jackson of Long Snappers, which I just wanted to throw in there. So what did you think about this announcement that didn't mean anything to you? Was anything surprising to you about this?

31:56The Digital Bill James comment that I love on this. It's the best leadership comes from the best players. What you don't want to have is one of your really top leaders being one of your really bad players. And that can happen. Late in career, in particular, Pete Rose was a terrible player at the end of his career. Just an awful player. And I have him being a leader with all of the volatility and idiocy that Pete Rose brings to the table would have been really bad. The guy who was a very bad leader for the Orioles by being a bad, bad player by the time he was with him was Rick Sutcliffe. I mean, he was a leader in the clubhouse, but a terrible pitcher. And that's a very bad combination. It's just what you want. You want your leadership to come from your very best players. You want Adley Rushman to be your leader. You want Pete Alonzo to be your leader. Those things are fine. And I would say normally you want Gunnar Henderson to be leader. He has had a good year, but he's still one of their bad players. I'll find Adley Rushman since he's no longer with the team. Well, I have to do that as well.

32:56But the names you name, there's not a bad player in the group. The guy who's closest to being that would be Mark Andrews. And he's still, I think Mark Andrews will know enough not to say things he shouldn't. I don't think he has a volatility level that I'd be concerned at the end of his career. I would be with Pete Rose. I would be not really concerned with any of those. And there are players in that group that I think actually challenging them to lead is a very good thing. Like with Derek Henry, he's very quiet normally, but you know, he's certainly a tremendous gravity as a leader. Yeah. So you mentioned sort of as the prep about Marlon Humphrey and the reason why he might have been left off that list. I think it comes down to the fact that all of these players from my understanding have other years on their contracts. And so I think that plays into a factor of being a part of the leadership council is, hey, can we, you know, if they decide to leave next year, or if they're not with us last year, it's sort of our decision and not their decision. So I think that probably plays into a little bit of a factor.

33:59You said it was a vote of the players. But then they had, they have to be under, under contract for next year. Well, no, no, that's a good question. I don't know if the players voted had to do anything with it, but I did notice that all these players had extra years on their contract. So that might be a, we can probably reach out to Marlon Humphrey and ask him about it. He probably might talk about it. Kauaius Campbell is only here for this year. I'm not, Rick Wandsmith is probably only here for this year, although he is technically under contract next year. I'm not sure that that played into it. I think the reason not to have Humphrey on there are other reasons, but yeah. So the structural reason to do this, and it goes around, it goes to what Minter talked about in terms of accountability, connectiveness. First of all, now he can have leadership conversations with 10 people instead of 53. That's much more manageable. People are going to be much more honest, but they're also going to be much more accountable. So if there's something happening in a position group, if there's something happening where, let's say,

35:01one of these 10 players, not to call anybody out, but Derek Henry Fumbles, Flowers Fumbles, Andrew Fumbles, not only does he have to answer to the whole team, yes, they have to answer to the leadership committee. So it's an extra little bit of accountability to that. And then Minter gets to deputize a little bit of his culture and accountability. This is what we're doing, not because I say so, but it's because of what the council agreed on. And so now when somebody falls short of their expectations, not only are you letting the team down and your coach down and the unit down, but now somebody has to go to that for you in this leadership council. Now we don't know necessarily what the roles and responsibilities are of this council, but the fact that Minter's doing what he says he's going to do, which is build this collaboration, it's a team, he said this from a very first introductory presser, he's going to do this

36:02and now he's doing it. Okay, so I have a couple of things to say about this whole thing because I think basically delegating cultural dissemination. Yes, it's something that is always a problem for large organizations. So you start with an element of double talk, you can't possibly come through with. And that is Minter saying things like it's a relationship game, I want to build relationships with all my players. And I'm not sure by the way that Minter's ever actually said that, but it's too much of a time burden for him to build truly these relationships that he talks about being built one at a time, one conversation at a time in terms of being real relationships for players who are here for a transient period. And the head coach's responsibilities, not alone the defensive coordinators are too large to allow for that. So I think he's had players who've had it. That's true by the way, organizationally at any big company you run into is you know, you're, Spana control is very limited. If you're not in a process function,

37:02you can't have a span of control greater than six or seven people. It's too many. That's right. And that means to get down to levels, you need, you need 36 or 49 to get down to three levels. You know, you only cover 343 employees in an entire organization, let's say, a lot of organizations serve many times that size. And you know, it doesn't, it doesn't easily handle that. And that's why I don't think you can really say those two things to say about how I want to build my relationships one at a time with 90 players and then with 53 or 70, depending on whether you can agree with the practice squad or not and say that I can do that in a kind of realistic sense. The minimum requirement would have been a veterans committee and not veterans committee, a leadership committee. Well, yes. And I think publicizing it, making it a big deal, making it something to celebrate, I think, is important. I think if you go back to his introductory press conference, I'll talk about Jesse Mentors. He's talking about starting things

38:03with the relationships in the building. I'm using direct quotes here. What he's looking for before he hired Doyle, before he hired Anthony Mentor was looking for leaders, connectors and relationship builders. First three things he said, schematic expertise was four, but most importantly, guys, players believe in. So you're right. He's not saying it's the Jesse Mentor way and going to each person one at a time. He says, Doyle, you're responsible for building this culture. And he is. Doyle's talking about how precise he's being the relationship he's building with Lamar Jackson and it's not just one conversation. It's ongoing, building that multiple phone calls, multiple hours, Anthony, we were the same thing. So the quote that really pops out in the introductory press conference, which I pay a special attention to because it's the most prepared. As when it feels like this, the team is ours. Not just this is what the players do, this is what the coaches do. So I think the leadership council is one of the things that he's doing structurally to really live into that,

39:07live into that promise that he made at the introductory press conference. Of the things you told me, I think the most important function of the leadership council would be to get the players to police themselves. That kind of comment, if you can really make that happen. And if there's nothing saying, no deputy badge like this leadership council for the players to hold up, another player who's a troublemaker and it's just gonna say, go to hell. You don't have any specific power. If mentors think this will come to me, you can go with it. But having a leadership council should have some value in that way. But it does break down part of the thing. The coach already, that coach already is incredibly dependent on a very broad net of coaches who will fulfill his span of control extensions. Down the organization. But the players themselves, policing themselves is a very good thing because you do want them basically saying, look, don't do that. You know better than that.

40:07And you're gonna get us all in trouble or anything like that that will help redirect this as a player who's a stray. Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to sort of point out, because I know, I think you mentioned that you have some people who are more STEM oriented, results oriented. So this culture can sometimes be a little bit fluffy or foofy. So if you want to do some reading, which I don't recommend it because my wife, I told my wife I was doing this podcast about culture and she said, quote, ew. So I'm gonna make it light reading. But so the seminal text in culture is, both in Google. So Google project oxygen, Google project aerostatal is around Google who are the ultimate sort of like, how do you make a high performing team? What's the most important factor? And actually they did the results, its relationships. So Google backs that this relationship thing is important. And so wise, in my opinion of what Jesse Menter sort of is exfousing at the very least is,

41:09if we can build this together, it's not just having players police themselves by saying, hey, you all need to police yourself for what I want to do. You've got to give people a space to be honest. You've got to make space for their voices. He said over and over again, I've got to develop a relationship with Mar Jackson and it's going to take time. And he's the key factor, but that is still true with everybody else. So I guess to summarize, because I'm checking it time here, I think it's a really exciting time to be a Ravenspan because I think we can default into eye rolling and coach speak about, hey, they're just saying the right things. But Jesse Menter, at least before preseason, is doing all the things that he said he's going to do. And the last bit of culture is that he came from the bottom and worked his way up. Eric DeCosta came from the bottom, worked his way up. That doesn't just show grit and determination. It also shows an awareness of the significance

42:10of all these different pieces in the organization. So that is something I think is a huge contributor to the Ravens success. And I'm looking forward to a lot of success this season. All right, Alex, outstanding to have you on here. I have natural suspicion for this sort of thing. I kind of like let you up that, to that notion early on in the program, but I do appreciate all you've talked about. Where can people contact you online if they have questions about football or culture? Oh gosh, they should just give good feedback to this episode and said, hey, this was interesting or this was a bunch of Malarkey. And then we'll go from there. All right, Alex will find you if you say I have something nice to say about him. That's the way to do. All right, other folks out there. Please use film study mail back at gmail.com for your questions. I'll get them to any particular show. Occasionally they come in like Alex and he's got an idea for an episode that's just outstanding and this is where we end up. So if you've got a question, if you got a passion about the Baltimore Ravens,

43:11I want to hear from you and let's talk football. Alex, thanks again for coming on. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you. And we'll talk to you next time on Film Study. CalShe's own CEO says it himself. And yes, two thirds of people on CalShe lose money. So what does it take to be in the other third? You have to do extensive amount of research to be good. There are people that spend copious amount of money, time, resources, energy. They've dedicated their lives to basically becoming good at it. All that and still. And yes, two thirds of people on CalShe lose money. lose money. lose money. That's CalShe in their own CEOs words. Go to www.fairpredicts.com to learn more.

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