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The Dyson Principle
What coaches can learn from the company that disrupted vacuuming
Dave Keelty
May 19, 2025
Between my wife and I, I think we probably vacuum some part of our house four times a day. I think about this often (I know, I sound like so much fun), because we never used to vacuum that often. At best, it was a once a week job. Pull the vacuum out of the cupboard, plug it in, vacuum one room, un plug it and take it to the next one, plug it in, do that room etc etc. It was niggly! So what changed??? We brought a Dyson*. Now, we pull it out whenever we need to vacuum a specific spot then and there. Kids have dropped food on the floor, no drama, just get the Dyson. Accidently bring mud in from outside, just grab the Dyson. Vacuuming has gone from niggliness to easiness, because the technology of the Dyson made the behaviour that much more accessible.
Even though the Dyson is a product, I believe we can think of our environments as a way to make behaviours more accessible using the same principle. That’s what we can learn from this Dyson principle. By principle, what I’m meaning is:
What are the behaviours you want to see more of in your environment?
How can you tweak, redesign or change your environment to make those behaviours more accessible?
It makes me think of a story about when Andrew Webster started as head coach of the Rugby League team the NZ Warriors (a team in the NRL). One of the first things he did was redesign the layout of the offices so that the first and last contact a player had when they arrived or left their training base was with one of the coaching team. The behaviour he wanted to see more of was interaction and connection between players and coaches, so he designed the environment to increase the ability for that to happen. That redesign made the behaviour accessible. Now, we don’t all have the ability to redesign offices and workplaces to increase the behaviours we want to see, but we can apply the principle to our contexts:
For example:
Behaviour | Redesign of environment |
|---|---|
I want to connect more with players off the field | Get to training 30 mins earlier and place yourself at the entrance |
I want my team to connect more with each other | Create a monthly team dinner or event away from your standard trainings and matches/events. |
I want more feedback from my coaching team | Hold mini debriefs after each training session, focused on how you all coached in that session and NOT on how the players trained |
Now, that’s just step one. Once you’ve redesigned your environment to make the behaviours you want to see easier and more accessible, the next step is arguably more important. Make the experience quality. If the experience is bad, accessibility isn’t worth much. When we first used the Dyson, the experience was great. The vacuum was more maneuverable. It was more powerful. You pull a trigger to turn it on rather than a standard switch. You don’t have to touch the dust and dirt when you empty it. All these things fed in to us feeling like the experience was quality. This made us want to use it more often. Our perception of vacuuming went from:
Niggly, what a pain
to
I actually kind of enjoy this
Unfortunately for our bank account, I don’t think we’ll ever not be Dyson owners again, although…..
Gif by NoCheeseRecords on Giphy
Let me go back to the story about Webster and the Warriors, because he applied this second part of the principle too. As I mentioned, when a player leaves the Warriors after training, the last people they’ll see before they get into their car are their coaches. The coaches make sure that last interaction is quality by:
Bringing up a video of something that player did from training that day that was great
Celebrating that with the player before they leave.
So the player leaves that training feeling connected to their coach, and also feeling good about their game. Its a double dopamine hit. That is a quality experience.
So, let’s take the table from above and extend it:
Behaviour | Design of environment | Make it quality |
|---|---|---|
Want to connect more with players off the field | Get to training 30 mins earlier and hover around the entrance | Genuinely listen to your players. Have eye contact, ask follow up questions, affirm what they say |
Want your team to connect more with each other | Create a monthly team dinner or event away from your sport | Ensure everyone is invited Make a point to connect with as many as possible Use games or activities to get players interacting with each other^ |
Want more feedback from your coaching team | Hold mini debriefs after each training session, focused on how you all coached in that session and NOT on how the players trained | When you do get feedback, take it on board without getting defensive, and thank the giver for it |
There are a lot of people who have made behaviour change their career, and who have thought a lot more about it than I have. But I do wonder if it can be thought about this simply. What are the behaviours I want to see more of, let me design the environment so that these behaviours can happen more consistently, and then make sure when your people do the behaviours you want to see more of, make that experience is a quality one.
*Important note, we are not sponsored or promoting Dyson in anyway… although if anyone knows them and can put us in touch for potential sponsorship, please get in touch ;-)
^For an example of this, see this link that outlines how Gregg Popovich, former coach of the San Antonio Spurs, used to organise team meals whenever they were on the road, and even organised the seating plans to get different players interacting:
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