What Corporate Culture Has To Do with the "Miracle on Ice"

Most people know it as “The Miracle on Ice,” but on an ice hockey rink in front of about 8,000 people in northern New York almost 40 years ago, a group of college-aged players pulled off the impossible. It is, arguably, the biggest upset in sports history. Even for those not familiar with the sport of ice hockey or for those who do not remember because decades have passed, the event was a monumental occurrence in American history because of not only the “David versus Goliath” storyline, but it also happened during a crossroads in the American Experience. Set against the backdrop of the height of Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Iran Hostage Crisis, a second energy crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the national hockey teams of the United States and the Soviet Union played what was probably much more than a hockey game. 

Going into the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the Soviet National Hockey Team had won the gold medal in the previous four Olympics and in five of the previous six Olympic tournaments. By contrast, the United States’ National Team had won its one and only gold medal 20 years earlier in the 1960 Games. American hockey teams were typically college all-star teams – in order to conform to Olympic rules of amateurism – formed months prior to the Opening Ceremonies while the Soviet teams were government-employed professionals who trained together perpetually. Eight years prior to Lake Placid, some of the same Soviet Union players participated in the Summit Series. The Summit Series pitted the best in Canadian professional ice hockey talent against the Soviet National Team in an eight-game series. The team of Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) all-stars prevailed in a tight, hard-fought tilt four games to three with one tie.

Despite the odds against them, the Americans defeated the powerful Soviet team on their way to earning an unexpected gold medal. Sports Illustrated would name “The Miracle on Ice” as the greatest sports moment in history. However, despite a number of challenges that the American team faced – youth against experience, a relatively short training timeline, and the Cold War dynamics of “Freedom versus Communism” – the young team achieve the incredible. And they did it for one reason: a strong and effective corporate culture.

Loosely defined, a corporate culture is the collective values, norms, and beliefs that guide employee behavior and their interactions with those around them. Corporate culture tends to be the accumulation of a number of different tangible – employee perks – and intangible – employee development or effective management styles – things that together form a conducive environment for exemplary employee productivity and organizational performance. There is evidence that companies with effective corporate cultures outperform their counterparts who do not make similar investments in employees and work structures. But what better example to support this evidence than the story of college kids defeating seasoned professionals when just about everyone said that they could not do it?

The Soviet team featured longtime captain Boris Mikhailov, speedy winger Valeri Kharlamov, and veteran goaltender Vladislav Tretiak. All three of these players played in the Summit Series against the Canadians and all three would later be enshrined into the International Hockey Hall of Fame. By contrast, the American team had one player with Olympic experience and the average age of the team was 22 years old. By all measures, the Americans might have had a chance at a silver or bronze medal since they were playing on American ice, but beating the Soviets was probably a task too great. Even pundits on the sidelines thought that a miracle would have to occur for the Americans to defeat the Soviets.

Enter Herb Brooks.

Brooks formed the American team the summer prior during tryouts of the best college and non-NHL ice hockey talent. Brooks was the coach at the University of Minnesota and led the Golden Gophers to three national championships during the 1970’s. He was also the last player cut from the 1960 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that won the gold medal. His coaching style was stern, confrontational, and abrupt. The players that played for him in college and in the Olympics remember him as a strict disciplinarian with an aggressive management style. However, according to defenseman Ken Morrow, who played on the 1980 team and went on to win Stanley Cup championships with the New York Islanders, Herb Brooks was the right guy at the right time to coach the Olympic team.

So how was it that a college coach could take, essentially, a college team and enable them to achieve such monumental success?

First, he created a cohesive organization of players. He did this by unifying the players against a common adversary: himself. He always kept a distance and a player (employee) engagement style that fostered unity and common purpose.

Next, he laid down clear performance objectives and supported a path to performance through adherence to an exceptional work ethic. Coach Brooks knew it would take an extraordinary effort to win the gold medal and he forced his team to push beyond their limits and notions of traditional “hard work.” In a pre-Olympic exhibition against the Norwegian National Team, the Americans mustered just a tie that incensed Coach Brooks. Immediately after the game ended, he made the team skate “Herbies” – skating from one end of the ice, to the center, and back, and then back to the far end of the ice. He did this for so long that the arena manager turned out the lights in an effort to get the team off the ice so that he could go home. However, the message was clear that a lackluster work ethic was entirely unacceptable.

Finally and in spite of his gruff veneer, he was a masterful motivator. Even decades later, players recognized this about him. His motivation tools were almost endless. Prior to the matchup against the Soviets, he felt that his players were giving too much deference to their Soviet opponents. He started mentioning to his players that the Soviet captain, Mikhailov, bore a striking resemblance to English actor and comedian Stan Laurel of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy just to take some Mikhailov’s mystique away. Brooks also continued his aggressive practice style in the days prior to the game against the Soviets, rather than change his approach in any manner just before the biggest Olympic match. And he believed in what he said and did. In his pregame speech before the turn with the Soviets, Brooks emphasized that the Soviets were ready to be beaten and that this was their time to do it. The moment was “meant to be.” 

Ultimately, it was.

While the Coach Herb Brooks method might not be effective for building an exceptional corporate culture in all places, the fundamentals of his methodologies can be essential to building the winning atmosphere. After defining goals and objectives and allocating the resources along the needed lines of effort to achieve those ends, implementing means that foster unity, catalyze work ethic, and motivate individuals and groups are fundamental to reaching beyond the possible. Finding those mechanisms like employee training, team building programs, and leadership enhancement devices are critical to reaching previously unattainable heights.

In an interesting postscript to the victory over the Soviets, the Americans had to win one more game against Finland to secure the gold medal. The Americans trailed by a goal entering the final period. During the intermission before that final period, Coach Brooks looked at his players and only said, “If you lose this game tonight, you will take it to your (expletive) graves!” He turned, walked a few steps, turned back around and said to the team, “Your (expletive) graves!” The Americans won by two goals and received their gold medals.

In memory of Coach Herb Brooks (1937 – 2003)