Great Teams.

Hockey fans were absolutely certain that the 1998 Canadian Men’s Hockey Team would easily win the Gold Medal in Nagano, Japan. This was the first time in history that professional NHL players were allowed to play in the Olympics, and Canada had built the most powerful hockey team in the history of the game. This team had 3 full lines of some of the greatest NHL superstars the game has ever known; guys like Joe Sakic, Paul Kariya, Ray Bourque, Adam Foote, Eric Lindros, Steve Yzerman, and many others. Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, was the team coach. The Olympics had never seen such a brilliant concentration of talent, skill, and top-shelf experience on one sports team. It didn’t end well. The Canadians lost the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals to the Czech Republic, Russia, and Finland. If America’s “1980 Miracle on Ice” game was one of the most surprising hockey wins ever, the Canadians going home from the 1998 Nagano Olympics without a medal is one of the most stunning defeats in sports. Does it take more than a room full of top talent to build a high-performing team? What is the secret sauce to aligning the best talent on a team and winning the Gold Medal?

Most leaders know that selecting the best talent for any team is the fundamental DNA for success. Stack your team with "A Players" and the proverbial Gold Medal is certain. There are thousands of excellent books - and millions of ideas and approaches - circulating on what works in selecting, building, aligning, and activating team potential to achieve superior results. Obviously, it is not as easy as it might first appear. The 1998 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team demonstrated that clearly. Gallup consistently surveys American workers every year and finds that 32% are engaged at work, and 68% are disengaged or actively disengaged. That same survey in other parts of the world is even less impressive. Building, aligning and activating great teamwork is not simple.

In May 1996, professional climber and author Jon Krakauer tried climbing Mount Everest with a group of affluent and motivated climbers. There were 20 people on the team including the Sherpas. The team was full of highly-skilled professional climbers. However, the team was missing good leadership, a set of operating principles, and alignment to the goal. When they started to encounter blizzards and a few unplanned events, the team quickly fell apart; too many superstars with different ideas and competing goals. It was a deadly team experience; 8 people on that team died on the mountain that day. Their bodies are still entombed on the mountain; they joined more than 200 other dead bodies resting on Everest from years of failed teamwork since the first Everest summit on May 29, 1953. Krakauer chronicled the 1996 disaster in his book, Into Thin Air (Villard Books, 1997).

Five years later another team set out to climb Mount Everest. Their simple goal was to help Erik Weihenmayer, a Colorado-climber who is completely blind, reach the summit. This team was successful and reached the summit - and everyone made it home safely. This remarkable team had planned every detail of the journey and worked effectively as ONE TEAM from the start to finish. There were no superstars on this team, just servants ready to support and help each other – applying their talent and skills together in unison, and practicing good alignment and teamwork throughout the entire process. The picture above captures Erik’s smile sitting at 29,029 feet, the very tip of Everest. 

Great Teams don’t have superstars; they usually have a lot of talent, skill, and ONE TEAM mindsets. They are committed and aligned to the goals and success of the entire team, and always have a strong, competent leader and coach who can quickly identify and leverage the unique strengths of each team member. Great Teams can effectively orchestrate complementing strengths to create a unique level of effort and execution when it counts. If they can’t work well together as ONE TEAM with a common purpose and goal, the result is much like the Canadian team in 1998. Miracles on Ice only happen when all of the talent and dynamics come together as one Great Team. Canadian hockey fans will remember this lesson for a long, long time.

Let's Create More Sparks: Robert is a curious Irish-Canadian and well-traveled American who naturally enjoys story telling that includes lots of interesting facts and figures. Stats and data points help tell powerful stories. Interesting quotes and good books bring vivid colors and memorable shapes to a story. Good stories inspire the human spirit. Ideally you found an idea or two in this LinkedIn article that you can now use as a fantastic conversation starter with friends or colleagues over a good cup of coffee on a leisurely Saturday afternoon.