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For years, trainers, consultants, industry professionals, and motivational speakers have been making the analogy between sports teams and work groups. I was in a bookstore last week and noticed that this phenomenon has gotten more pronounced. It seems as though everyone and anyone connected to a sport has a book on how to incorporate sports' principles in the workplace. Football great Vince Lombardi may have been the pioneer in this trend, but now everyone from Tiger Woods to Lou Holtz is weighing in on how to make the analogy between their sport and your success as a team leader. Titles range from Strike Three: How Baseball Can Help Your Team Dynamic to Coach to Coach: Business Lessons From The Locker Room. I wonder what the title of Barry Bond's new book will be?
I, for one, had not succumbed to the sports analogy mantra in my training, mostly because I don't know a lot about sports, but also, because it had been done, SO-O-O-DONE! However, I've decided that my lack of support for sports and teamwork is going to end. The truth is, when I started reading through some of these books and materials, I realized it's not just marketing hoopla. A lot of what's being said makes good business sense.
How does it work?
My mental shift really began six years ago watching the New England Patriots run out onto the field as one unit, instead of the starters being individually introduced at the start of each game. Beginning with their championship run in 2001, the Patriots have put the emphasis on team, rather than individual players, and this approach has continued to pay off in the win column. The emphasis on team is apparent in many aspects of how they choose to operate. In fact, their tradition of being introduced and taking the field as one unified team continues today.
Although the Patriots had the best record in the NFL in 2003 at 14 and 2, many of the so-called experts often said that the Patriots' opponents where better on paper in their pre-game analysis each week. This claim was based on analysis of individual talent, position-by-position. However, what the experts did not take into consideration, and what never shows up on paper, was the strength of the Patriots as a team.
Rather than focus on individual star players or super achievers, the Patriots, under the direction and example of head Coach Bill Belichick, focused on the greater power of team as one unit. Belichick coached his players on how to leverage their strengths, stay calm under pressure, listen to each other and the coaching staff, take calculated risks, and —most of all—how to come together as a team.
Another example of the power of a great team is the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team. The recently released hit movie Miracle tells the unbelievable story of this team and the coach who lead them to the ultimate victory — a gold medal. The US team was a collection of college hockey players, who practiced together for only six months and ultimately defeated the Soviet Union, a team comprised of professional players, who had been practicing and playing together for years. Just a few months before the US Olympic Hockey team upset them in the Olympics, the Soviets had trounced a team of NHL all-stars.
So, how did a group of college kids defeat a team, that even the best professional players in the NHL couldn't compete with? It was the US team's ability to see that individually they couldn't win, but if they came together as one unit, believed in each others' inherent strengths and began to work together, instead of against one another, that they could, in fact, be successful. Driven by head Coach Herb Brooks, the team relentlessly practiced and trained so that when the time came to face the Soviets any advantage the Russians had in talent was ultimately erased by the US team's stamina, unwavering resolve, and commitment to each other and the team as a whole.
What is the learning for the Business World?
You could read one of the many publications but the truth is it is not brain surgery.
One Last Thought.
If business teams could apply the same principles that the teams above did (and of course there are plenty more), we would all be going to the Super Bowl of our respective industries.
So are you applying team techniques in your organization? Could you use these same principles? I say, what do you have to lose? ... Batter up!
~Grace Andrews
I, for one, had not succumbed to the sports analogy mantra in my training, mostly because I don't know a lot about sports, but also, because it had been done, SO-O-O-DONE! However, I've decided that my lack of support for sports and teamwork is going to end. The truth is, when I started reading through some of these books and materials, I realized it's not just marketing hoopla. A lot of what's being said makes good business sense.
How does it work?
My mental shift really began six years ago watching the New England Patriots run out onto the field as one unit, instead of the starters being individually introduced at the start of each game. Beginning with their championship run in 2001, the Patriots have put the emphasis on team, rather than individual players, and this approach has continued to pay off in the win column. The emphasis on team is apparent in many aspects of how they choose to operate. In fact, their tradition of being introduced and taking the field as one unified team continues today.
Although the Patriots had the best record in the NFL in 2003 at 14 and 2, many of the so-called experts often said that the Patriots' opponents where better on paper in their pre-game analysis each week. This claim was based on analysis of individual talent, position-by-position. However, what the experts did not take into consideration, and what never shows up on paper, was the strength of the Patriots as a team.
Rather than focus on individual star players or super achievers, the Patriots, under the direction and example of head Coach Bill Belichick, focused on the greater power of team as one unit. Belichick coached his players on how to leverage their strengths, stay calm under pressure, listen to each other and the coaching staff, take calculated risks, and —most of all—how to come together as a team.
Another example of the power of a great team is the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team. The recently released hit movie Miracle tells the unbelievable story of this team and the coach who lead them to the ultimate victory — a gold medal. The US team was a collection of college hockey players, who practiced together for only six months and ultimately defeated the Soviet Union, a team comprised of professional players, who had been practicing and playing together for years. Just a few months before the US Olympic Hockey team upset them in the Olympics, the Soviets had trounced a team of NHL all-stars.
So, how did a group of college kids defeat a team, that even the best professional players in the NHL couldn't compete with? It was the US team's ability to see that individually they couldn't win, but if they came together as one unit, believed in each others' inherent strengths and began to work together, instead of against one another, that they could, in fact, be successful. Driven by head Coach Herb Brooks, the team relentlessly practiced and trained so that when the time came to face the Soviets any advantage the Russians had in talent was ultimately erased by the US team's stamina, unwavering resolve, and commitment to each other and the team as a whole.
What is the learning for the Business World?
You could read one of the many publications but the truth is it is not brain surgery.
- Know your team — strengths, weaknesses, needs, and wants.
- Practice together — teams are not a group of individual contributors.
- Synergy is where it's at — 1+1 can equal 3 when working collectively.
- Have a great coach — one who knows how to lead, follow and get out of the way.
- Care about each other — at least professionally.
- Select great talent— know how to do it and never compromise.
- Have players who are passionate about what they do.
- Have fun — teams that have fun win more often.
One Last Thought.
If business teams could apply the same principles that the teams above did (and of course there are plenty more), we would all be going to the Super Bowl of our respective industries.
So are you applying team techniques in your organization? Could you use these same principles? I say, what do you have to lose? ... Batter up!
~Grace Andrews
