Breaking people down doesn't build strong teams. #breakthecycle #teamculture #mindshift

14 Jul 2025 · 0 min

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0:08

Short conversational excerpt from a YouTube video by Donald Burns about toxic workplace culture and leadership philosophy. Speakers describe prolonged toxicity (“20–30 years”) and contrast a damaging ‘break them down, build them up’ leadership approach (attributed to Donald’s father) with the harm it causes—often leaving people partially broken (metaphor: reassembled item missing one screw).

This took me, like, six months to realize that. Yep, it's all about culture. We had such a toxic environment. I mean, for like, 30 years, 20 something years toxic.
My dad, like, break them down, build them up. Explain. This was about my dad all the time. My dad's philosophy, again, was that break them down, build them up. And I use the kind of stories like, you ever take something apart, put it back together, and then you have one screw that's missing? That's what happens when you. When you break people down and you try to build it back up.