Scott Fillner

A simple physics principle can explain why it can be so difficult repairing a culture when you inherit a new team or program. Here's how it works: Imagine you just had a tough conversation, maybe with a player, a colleague, or your spouse. The conversation ends and you try to carry on with the rest of your day, but can’t seem to get over it. Your body is still tense. You become quieter. You find yourself purposefully distancing yourself from others and your patience is thinner than usual. The difficult conversation is over, but your body didn’t get the memo. This experience is a version of what physicists call hysteresis. Hysteresis is a concept that describes how a system’s current state is shaped not just by what’s happening now, but by what happened before. In essence, the system has a memory and residue remains even after the original cause is gone. Another way to look at it is like walking on wet sand at the beach. The wave rolls in and recedes, but your footprint is still faintly there. The tide has moved on, yet the imprint remains. That’s hysteresis. Now I’m not a physics expert to say the least (it was my worst grade over the course of my high school years!), but I think this concept matters a lot more to us than we may realize. As human beings, many of our reactions, habits, and behaviors aren’t responses to the present moment, they’re echoes of the past. For example, when you take over a team or organization, you don’t just inherit the personnel and systems, you inherit memory of what came before. This includes potential scars from past leadership. Broken trust. Experiences that taught people to protect themselves. Lax standards. That’s why repairing culture and relationships often takes longer than expected. You’re not just building something new, you’re helping people release something old. So coaches ask yourself: What “footprints” from the past could still be shaping how my players are showing up today?

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