# What Matt Serra Taught Me About Building Great Teams

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951/what-matt-serra-taught-me-about-onboarding-teams-bjj-leadership-and-pmo-culture
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951/what-matt-serra-taught-me-about-onboarding-teams-bjj-leadership-and-pmo-culture.md
Podcast: [People. Process. Progress.](https://stenobird.com/podcast/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951)
Published: 2026-05-19T15:42:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcast.show/poeopleprocessprogress/episode/153894026/
Audio file: https://media.blubrry.com/peopleprocessprogress/ins.blubrry.com/peopleprocessprogress/What_Matt_Serra_Tauht_Me_About_Onboarding.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951/episodes/what-matt-serra-taught-me-about-onboarding-teams-bjj-leadership-and-pmo-culture
Duration seconds: 598

## Resource

What can PMO leaders, healthcare IT teams, and organizational leaders learn from UFC Hall of Famer Matt Serra’s approach to onboarding new Brazilian Jiu Jitsu students? Quite a bit. In this episode, What Matt Serra Taught Me About Onboarding Teams, Kevin Pannell reflects on lessons from BJJ, emergency management, healthcare IT, and PMO leadership to explore why new employees are basically white belts and why good onboarding matters more than most organizations realize. The conversation covers: • onboarding and organizational culture • confidence through repetition • balancing accountability with support • psychological safety and leadership • progressive exposure versus overwhelming people • lessons from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Incident Management Teams A central theme throughout the episode: “New people do not need to be tested immediately. They need to be developed.” Own your mind. Move your body. Anchor your spirit. Godspeed, y’all.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951/episodes/what-matt-serra-taught-me-about-onboarding-teams-bjj-leadership-and-pmo-culture/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/own-move-anchor-mindset-leadership-kevin-pannell-844951/what-matt-serra-taught-me-about-onboarding-teams-bjj-leadership-and-pmo-culture.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.