Culture Isn't the Ping Pong Table

I watched a video reacting to a debate on corporate culture — one side making fun of companies that think a ping pong table and free lattes count as "culture," the other side saying culture fit should trump skills and experience when hiring. Both sides had a point, but neither had the whole picture.

Culture isn't the perks. It's not the events either, honestly — those are just the visible layer. Culture is built day in and day out, mostly through what you don't say.

I lead by demonstrating through action. I work for D-BAT Evansville, but I also work for my instructors and staff. If I'm building an environment that members want to walk into and people want to work in, the culture takes care of itself. The fun stuff — food, events, time together — happens because the environment is right, not the other way around.

That shapes how I hire, too. I'm not just checking whether someone's baseball background lines up with what we already do. I'm listening for how they'd adapt what we do, or where their interests could take us somewhere new — an instructor who wants to run a clinic we've never offered, for example. Fit isn't a filter against what exists. It's picturing where someone could take it.

But building that environment also means being willing to sacrifice fun to protect it. Keeping people honest about cage time. Enforcing policies. Stepping in when kids are roughhousing, or there's language that isn't okay around younger kids or during a lesson. None of that feels fun in the moment.

The tone I try to hold onto through all of it: this is baseball and softball. Not life or death. Structure isn't the opposite of fun — it's what makes the fun sustainable instead of chaotic.

That's the third option nobody talks about. Not "perks are stupid" and not "perks are the culture." It's: build the thing worth showing up for, and protect it even when protecting it isn't fun.