Via reddit/r/nfl:

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/14/3371495/arrowhead-anxiety-turnover-off.html

I can't imagine someone comes in and decides this kind of culture is appropriate. I figure it's more like a severe combover. To the guy with hair issues, the combover is a slow degredation that isn't noticeable from one day to the next because the delta between today and yesterday is so small. To the random people he meets, it is a disaster.

How do we prevent our places of employment from turning out like this?

What are the warning flags?

Does this kind of culture come from the top? or does it spread from the bottom?

Is it reversible?

I believe toxic cultures start from the top, because only the top is empowered to do something about a bad environment, such as make rules and ask people to leave.

All people on the bottom can do if they're in a toxic culture is... leave.

This is why it's important to be very careful when setting up the rules by which we work.

Not just explicit rules, but also the unspoken ones revealed by our everyday actions.

It seems to me that the real issue here might be that insecure B and C players tend to key off the more visible signs of an A player's style without truly being able to emulate the core skills. So you have someone like Pioli picking up on secrecy and attention to detail from Belicheck... but not being able to lead a team to greatness like Belicheck. In the software industry you always have people who ape the manners of the alpha dog -- whether that be Gates, Jobs, or Page/Brin -- without being able to achieve their results.

All I can say is, the Chiefs still aren't a very competitive football club. If you're going to be a 7 - 9 club, you might as well be nice about it.