Postseason Upon Us, Teamwork Matters More Than Ever

Walt Kelly's classic Pogo cartoon proclaims, "We have met the enemy and he is us." As teams head into the playoffs, teamwork separates champions from also-rans. Inspire greatness with stories, analogies, and mental models. 

Powerful stories reveal truths about the fragility and teamwork. Teamwork makes teams antifragile. Redundancy (depth) makes teams antifragile. Weights make us antifragile.

TRUE STORY. A girls' high school team headed into the postseason as a favorite to win a sectional title. A player dated (stole) a teammate's boyfriend. The team fractured and lost in the first round. Disillusion became dissolution. 

Basketball's major paradox is the need for individual achievement during collaboration. 

ANALOGY. "Connect the dots." Children connect the dots to create pictures, to get clarity. Coaches "help teams go where they cannot go alone." Sometimes the puzzles have easy solutions and sometimes not. But separating the dots ruins the picture. 

Players are like dots in the picture. Phil Jackson wrote in Sacred Hoops, "The most effective way to forge a winning team, is to call on the players' need to connect with something larger than themselves.” Teamwork connects the dots.

MENTAL MODEL. Teamwork allows groups to achieve a critical mass, a tipping point for success. 

A few individual sticks are easily broken. Bundled, they are not. Finger pointing seldom wins battles. A clenched fist may. "The strength of the wolf is in the pack."Teams choose individual numbers or collective achievement. Remember the UNC Women's soccer motto, "excellence is our only agenda." 

STORY. Ian O'Connor's new book Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski, shares LeBron's buy-in to the Olympic 'redeem team'. "The room turned quiet...LeBron was not very trusting of male figures and coaches, and Coach K just wore him down and established a trust. That meeting was so emotional and empowering that I think LeBron was like, ‘All right, I’ve got to plant my flag here.’

James started talking about the U.S. needing to be “a no-excuse team.” He looked around the room, saw all the talent any basketball player could ask for and announced that a failure to win gold would be theirs and theirs alone. “How many times do we say, ‘I wish I had Chris Paul in the backcourt,’ or ‘I wish I had Dwight Howard with me,’ or ‘I wish I had Jason Kidd with me’?” he asked. “Well, guess what? I’ve got Dwight Howard. I’ve got Jason Kidd. . . . This is what we always wanted. There are no f------ excuses.”

In the moment, players decide the game through their commitment, skill, and will.

ANALOGY. Represent the playoffs as struggles to overcome.

• "Pyramids" with few survivors at the top.
• Mountains to climb with obstacles to overcome - steep facades, merciless cold, and avalanches.
• Impossible terrain to navigate with insurmountable hazards, Shackleton.
• Zero-sum game...although each contest produces a winner and loser, within each team, it is NOT a zero sum game as teamwork is a force multiplier.
• Gauntlets to traverse

MENTAL MODEL. Jay Bilas' "Toughness" is a mental model to translate false toughness (chest thumping) into authentic toughness, players doing the necessary dirty work. Players can't "decide" to go to the floor, set up cuts, or remember, "it's not your shot, it's our shot." Coaches have to find or train, "that guy."

Image from Silko.

Summary:

• Emphasize teamwork with stories, analogy, mental models.
• "We have met the enemy and he is us."
• Create antifragility.
• "Connect the dots."
• Teamwork forms a critical mass.
• Be a "no excuse" team.
• Teamwork allows people to achieve what individuals cannot.

Lagniappe. The beautiful game.

Lagniappe 2. Create separation off the step back.