Instruction: Please read the following case and answer the discussion questions.

We Can Learn Much About Work Teams from Studying Sports Teams

Point

In nearly every nation on earth, sports teams are looked upon as examples of teamwork and collective achievement. We celebrate when our favorite teams win and commiserate with others when they lose. Individual sports like golf or singles tennis can be enjoyable to play and, depending on your taste, to watch, but nothing compares to the exhilaration of seeing teamswhether it is football (soccer or American football), basketball, or baseballband together and succeed.

Of course, it only stands to reason that we seek to draw leadership lessons from these teams. After all, they won at the highest levels of competition, and sometimes they can provide a unique window into team dynamics because their actions are so visible. There is nothing wrong in seeing what we can learn from these teams in terms of making our teams at work more effective. We learn from examples, and if the examples are good ones, the learning is good, too.

Interestingly, some research suggests that, more than those in other cultures, U.S. individuals tend to use team metaphors rather than references to family, the military, or other institutions. Hewlett-Packards Susie Wee writes:

Every so often someone asks me what I learned in grad school that helped me in the working world. I can say that many of my most important learnings from school came from playing team sports. My school had a womens club ice hockey team that I played on for 10 years (as an undergrad and grad student). Over these 10 years, my role on the team evolved from a benchwarmer . . . to a player . . . to a captain . . . back to a player . . . and to an assistant coach. Many of my everyday experiences with the team turned into learnings that stayed with me and help me at work.

A perhaps more subtle learning comes from how you make yourself a part of the team when you are the worst skilled player or a bench warmer. You can still make important contributions by having a great attitude, [and] by working hard to improve your skills. This directly carries over to the working world, as no matter what your skill or experience level, you can always find a way to make an important contribution to your team.

My advice to people? Studentsget involved in a team sport! Workerstreat your career like a team sport!

CounterPoint

Susie Wees story is a nice one, but that fact that she found her athletic experience helpful doesnt prove much, because that experience may be specific to Susie Wee. A lot of mischief is created in our understanding of organizational behavior when folks try to over-generalize from their past experience.

There certainly is no shortage of athletes and coaches hawking books they propose have organizational implications. In fact, such books are a veritable cottage industry for current and former NFL coaches. Tony Dungy can tell you how to be a mentor leader of your team. Rex Ryan can tell you how to use passion and humor to lead teams. Even Bill Walsh (who died in 2007) has a 2010 team leadership book whose theme is the score takes care of itself. Vince Lombardi (who died in 1970) seems to have a book on team leadership published every year. In all these books, the coaches spend a lot of time discussing how their approach is relevant in the business world. These are all good coaches, some of them are great coaches, but there is little reason to believe athletic teams function like work teams. How many coaches go on to successful careers in organizations outside the athletic context?

In fact, some in-depth reporting on the 2010 U.S. Winter Olympic Team, which won more medals in Vancouver than have ever been won by a U.S. team, demonstrate it was not really a team. The hockey team didnt have much to do with the figure skating team, which didnt have much interaction with the curling team. However, even within the teams organized by sport, there often was no team effort in any real sense of the word. Speedskater Shani Davis, winner of a gold and a silver medal, neither lived nor practiced with the team. He didnt even allow his biography to be posted on the teams Web site. Skier Lindsey Vonn, snowboarder Shaun White, and many others were similarly and rather defiantly on their own.

There are not many organizations in which a member of a team could get by with that kind of behavior. It often happens, and in fact may be the norm, in sports teams where winning is the only thing that matters. That is one of many differences between sports teams and work teams.

Discussion:

Which argument do you agree with (point or counterpoint)? Justify your debate, you can seek additional information from other sources to justify your reasoning.