Promoting a Stoic Culture: Systems-Level Change by Bringing Together Stoic Philosophy, Organisational and Cultural Sport Psychology

This paper presents a novel approach to team culture change grounded in organisational and cultural sport psychology. Responding to growing calls for sport psychology practitioners to move beyond individual-level interventions, we offer a framework that views culture as a dynamic, socio-relational phenomenon. Our work embraced a non-reductive, context-sensitive process embedded within the everyday life of a university men’s volleyball team, rather than applying linear or deterministic models of change. Drawing on Stoic philosophy as both a conceptual foundation and practical guide, we developed and implemented a culturally integrated program that promoted psychological resilience, personal accountability, and collective mental strength. We describe the five key Stoic principles introduced, the method of delivery, and the cultural shifts observed within the team. We show how embedding philosophical principles within a lived team context can potentially support system-level change.