I swear this post has a serious point—not just bragging about Michigan winning the national championship.

Sports commentator and Michigan alum Rich Eisen was almost in tears on his show Tuesday talking about how much it meant for his team to win the national championship.

He said, “I remember going to school there and sensing, going to [Michigan Stadium] for the first time, how big this was—being amongst 100,000 people singing the same fight song. [...] I just remember feeling the collective for the first time and going to the games and seeing what it meant and feeling what it meant to root for this team and then to connect your psyche, your id, your belief system to a football program. I know it sounds strange but it’s the truth.” 

Eisen continued with a point about the power of connection and culture that is built around those experiences. 

He said, “Sports is the marking of time. You remember where you were and who you were with for big moments. You remember what it meant to you. [...] That's what I'm thinking of today. And everybody I met on campus who I still have contact with or relationships with, or who I've met because I walk down streets or see somebody in Michigan gear abroad and you say ‘Go Blue.’ That's what this is about.”

That point stood out to me because, this week, I was reading business professor Henry Mintzberg’s Understanding Organizations...Finally!, which talks about the power of a strong organizational culture.

Mintzberg writes, “Organizations with indistinct cultures are like people with indistinct personalities—they are more flesh and bones than heart and soul. But some organizations are distinct: they have their unique ways of doing things. This can render their culture compelling, thus infusing their structure with soul, much as a dye infuses a clear liquid with color.”

In particular, the strong culture helps constrain the forces that drive us apart in organizations. Mintzberg writes, “As various actors pursue their self-interest, the centrifugal force of conflict that could explode an organization can be restrained by the centripetal force of culture.” A strong culture creates the conditions in which conflict can lead to a productive resolution.  

And that strong culture is built by the kinds of collective experiences and socialization that Rich Eisen describes about Michigan football—being with others, singing and chanting together, and common sayings.   

That’s even true on an individual level. A friend of mine, who is a tall and athletic black man, provided a stark example a few years ago. He once said, “If I have Michigan gear on, there will be small white women who come up to me on the street at night, say ‘Go Blue,’ and give a high-five. That never happens otherwise.” 

Now, I’m not saying Michigan football can cure the world’s ills, but there’s certainly evidence that it helps. Similarly, a strong culture doesn’t eliminate conflict in organizations but it can grease the gears of getting things done.