Tribe! How to build a winning team

“Transcendence can be achieved by the mere fact of coming together, thinking together, feeling together, acting together.” – émile Durkheim, 1914

A tribe is the ultimate performing team: ties for life, the group more important than the self, the ideal/cause deserves every sacrifice. Members of the tribe share the same values, worship the same things, build around rituals, speak the same ? language ? and have a common inspiration. They focus not on what makes them different, but what makes them the same. They are comrades in the war, connected by something even stronger than blood ties. 

The power of the tribe is unstoppable! The leader of the tribe is not like any other.

I believe in a holistic view on things so it is worthy to mention that everything is important in team performance: An inspiring (insist on the emotional connotation of that word) mission on ? why we are doing what we are doing ?, a challenging vision, a real strategy, objectives, roadmaps of actions, performance indicators, right competencies, roles and responsibilities, mechanism of feedback, support and resources to accomplish the tasks. Moreover, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the equation: the Right Leader and the Right members. Because it doesn't matter the direction you go, no road will be long with good company. You can change direction, get lost, find it again and it will still be fun. Certain Startups know that far too well. However, in real life, you don't always choose your team or your leader. This in itself requires pages to explain.

However, I’m going to focus on something else today: the “team spirit” as this is the “core” of the tribe and the most ignored factor in team performance management. It is precisely what Phil Jackson made a priority. 

A few days ago, I was listening to experts talking in a sports show about the Paris Saint Germain soccer team firing and replacing the Coach in the middle of the season. And one of them, an ex-professional player said: “Well, it doesn’t matter if the coach changes, this will not have much effect on the team”! What?! To me, there is no more absurd concept than that. 

When I teach students the supply chain, I talk about the “replaceable” functional products. They are cheap, satisfy basic needs and you can easily interchange them for another brand because there is no differentiation. I realize many coaches and many leaders are standard products. They bring “basic staff” to the team but nothing transcendent to take it to another level. They can come and go and nothing will change. They are no exception to our world of “too much of the same”: same ideas, same people, same schools, same products, same practices. 

A leader of a Tribe is Unique! He can not be replaced in a click. And if he decides to leave, the rest of the tribe will leave as well. Michael Jordan said: “I’m not going to play without Phil Jackson”. 

To many, uniqueness is scary, risky and disruptive. It can bring chaos. But it is at the same time the only way to make a difference! You can copy a strategy, a model, a process that another successful coach or leader uses. You can hire players/members from a great team and competitors. But, you can never copy what is intangible, the very essence of the tribe: the culture, the bond, the collective spirit, the inspiration, the synergy and the creative storm a tribal leader creates. This is the real competitive advantage!

The tribe doesn’t happen overnight. Teams evolve through different stages and cycles. The role, priorities and attitudes of the leader would change accordingly. Before talking about those cycles, the first thing for the leader to understand is that there are three things people care about when interacting with others in a group: 

Am I significant? 

Am I competent? 

Am I likable? 

corresponding to the 3-dimensional model developed by Will Shultz[1]

Inclusion: Am I significant? 

Our biggest fear in a group is to be insignificant. We seek inclusion because of our desire to belong, to receive attention, to feel special. If the leader and other group members ? include ? me it means that I matter, that I’m important and that gives me a feeling of aliveness and motivation. I don't feel like an outsider to the group. Inclusion is not related to our competencies. 

Control : Am I competent ? 

When people have a self-concept of incompetence their attitude is either to dominate and control others or to avoid conflicts and give up power (victims). Competition, fights, rebellions emerge from that. Power, authority and influence are at stake. The challenge of the leader for this as for the other two dimensions (inclusion and openness) is double: distribute control/power (or inclusion or openness) in a fair way for assuring everybody is recognized in his competence (or in his importance and likability) and address the individual self-concept of competence/incompetence (or importance or likeability) i.e. the personal desire for control is not from lack of recognition from the others but rather from his self-concept of being an impostor.  

Openness: Am I likeable ? 

The openness of the group members including the leader depends on how much they express themselves (their emotions, feelings, thoughts, truth) in the group context. In a team the high degree of openness leads to the famous “psychological safety” - people can expose themselves without the fear of being judged, punished or rejected. For each individual the capacity to be open or defensive depends on how much everyone feels likable, i.e: do I like myself, am I ashamed of my feelings or behaviors, desires, am I afraid that if I open up, people will dislike me. If we feel secure and likable in our core, we don’t have problems in opening up in the right way (meaning adapting to each relation). We are not afraid to show to the team our true selves for fear of rejection or judgment. Openness is the most difficult to achieve in the team and the last one emerging in group life as it needs time and Trust. More there is openness, more there are positive emotions. 

The leader has to pay attention to those three dimensions all the time, but his most important challenge would be to manage them right at the beginning of team Life, Stage 1. I built an integrative approach as a compass for the Leader, having as a reference the Three Team Development Stages of Vincent Lenhardt[2]. .

Stage 1 – Building foundations

At stage 1, we may call it a team but in fact, there is just a group of individuals, every one with his own agenda, values and aspirations. Each searches to find his place and role in the group (leader, helper, rebel,…) and identifies with his function, his skills. Game powers and conflicts are very common as everyone tries to mark his territory (the need for control is the most present at the beginning). The view is either I suck - the world sucks, or I’m great - the world and the others suck. Differences in competencies & ambitions frustrate certain members of the group. The process drains the energy of everybody. There are teams that never pass that stage. 

Bulls stage one was what Phil Jackson called when he started coaching them: ? A one-man show : Michael Jordan and the Jordanaires ?[3]

What a challenging task for a leader! It is precisely at this stage that his knowledge of “how humans function” which I was mentioning in my previous article would be the most crucial. 

The Leader has to : 

- Build individual relations  

- Focus on managing and shaping the ? group interactions ? - the way individuals “communicate, exchange, solve conflicts, listen, share, take decisions,…” [4]

Relations

Well, there is no other way to gain trust - the leader has to first connect individually with each member without playing favorites. He has to understand their personality, drivers, feelings, ambitions, motivations, expectations and fears (as the competencies are shown in the “playground”) and often, as for the sports coach, their life story. He should include and show that he cares not only about "the professional" but above all about "the person". I’m amazed at how sometimes leaders have no clue about the importance of inclusion and the impact they have on the team. Sometimes a smile, a nice word, a handshake, a question, or a hello can make the difference. People look up to Leaders. 

Phil Jackson mentioned “I bought a book for every player to read every year. Some players read every book I gave to them; others dumped it in the trash. But I never expected everyone’s 100% engagement. The message I wanted to convey was that I cared enough about them as individuals to spend time searching for a book that might have special meaning for them. Or at least make them laugh.”

Team members would open up slowly if the Leader does it first. He should show authenticity, empathy, vulnerability, emotions and create a bond on common ground.

Practice inclusion, control, openness all the time! By understanding each individual better, you could adapt your management to everyone: some want freedom, some want recognition, some want energy, some want attention and so on. You would know to push the right button of motivation. When he started coaching Phil Jackson knew that he had to get into the heads of those ambitious, competitive young men who were not ready to show any “sensibility” (especially to the coach). He used questionnaires with questions like: “What’s your greatest inspiration? What is something people don’t know about you? …” and get the discussion going. 

Group Interactions 

There is two kinds of processes the Leader needs to manage in parallel in order to create the team spirit: 

1. The decision-making process. The keyword here is Co-construction. A tribal leader doesn’t impose. He gives up power without giving up on authority. 

“The more I tried to exert power directly the less powerful I became. I learned to dial back my ego and distribute power as widely as possible without surrendering final authority” 

What does this mean? You let people contribute to major decisions & let them figure out how they should do things. Again, it is the basis of motivation: make each one feel important and competent. Michael Jordan was not a big fan of the “triangle system”. The first thing Phil Jackson did when talking to him was to say: I’ll make you win the title, I’m planning to use the triangle but you have to share the spotlight with other players (and you have to sacrifice the best scorer title). But he left MJ to figure out his vision of the triangle and his role in it. 

Co-construction in the group is essential when defining Vision, Strategy, Culture & Norms although the Leader is the final decision-maker. 

2. Building the relations and the bond between team members 

The members have to connect not only with the Leader but in between them. Again they have to become warriors who trust the other with their own life. So, you have to create the conditions for it. I’m not talking about team building for fun (although this is important as well)

Every leader has his way. What did Phil Jackson do? 

- Exercises: He would introduce a lot of exercises. For example in one of the trips, he used the social bull’s eye exercise which was nothing more than a sheet of paper with 3 rings representing the team. It describes how people see themselves in relation to the group. And then he would ask the players to position themselves in the ? bulls-eye ? (you can call it something else). Obviously, the backups placed themselves in the second or third ring, and one of them far outside the third ring! The intention was to get an understanding of players' feelings, discuss and make them figure out how to get closer to the center. 

- Meditation: He would use mindfulness meditation for 10 min usually before the video sessions. “It was not about turning them into monks. It was about keeping their mind focused in the present and ignore the voices in their heads”. Moreover: “When players were sitting in silence breathing in sync it aligned them much better than words” 

- Rituals: Rituals are the core of a tribe. They create harmony, give strength, energy & power. It connects the members in between them and to something greater than themselves. Bulls used rituals to ?infuse practices with a sense of sacred?. 

For example, Phil Jackson introduced the team to the customs of the Lakota Tribe. One of the Lakota Rituals he adopted was beating a drum when he wanted the players to congregate in the tribal room (aka – video room) for a meeting. That very room was decorated with Indian totems and other inspiring images. Sometimes when the team lost, he would sage smudge stick in the players' locker room – A Lakota tradition- and playfully wave it through the air so to ? purify ? the room. When players saw it for the first time they said: “What kind of weed you smokin’ there Phil”?  

- Break the routine & create momentum so as to keep the energy high 

If you have a defined repetitive sequence: training, traveling, match.., a coach that repeats the same things every day, even the biggest passion can be boring at times. Phil broke the routine. People from different walks of life were invited so players can have other perspectives on problem solving, teamwork, performance pressure, or life. Experts of yoga, taichi, and others would teach players mind-body techniques. He would do things like surprise players after a match to take them on a trip to visit the city instead of going to a press conference. One day in practice he would turn the lights off so players get a new experience (and learn to find each other even with their eyes closed)

Stage 2

In stage 2 “the team emerges” The relations evolve towards trust and complementarity and the energy is concentrated on how to improve the process of “working together”. Players have found the automatisms with each other (and great efficiency in working together). Everybody is in his place. In this stage, participants start to feel responsible and accountable for the group's success. The feeling is “we are great, they are not”. The role of the leader would be to position himself as a simple participant and assume his hierarchical role only when is needed. The power is distributed, other leaders, emerge. The group has the power. Conflicts and misunderstandings are addressed and discussed in a constructive manner. As for the Bulls, the other players showed the world that they were more than Michael’s supporting cast. And the most telling example is what happened during a playoffs match in the 1993-94 season when Scottie Pippen refused to get back in the game after a timeout. Phil didn’t say anything. He gathered the players into the dressing room and gave the floor to Bill Cartwright (Scottie’s fellow co-captain). Bill spoke about how betrayed he and all the teammates felt by Scottie’s selfishness. Phil left, players stayed behind to talk about it, Scottie apologized and the rest is history. This is what it means to distribute power and act only when needed for the Leader. 

Stage 3

In stage 3 the tribe emerges. The team performance is at its peak, the power is distributed equally. Members are inspired by the same mission, share the same vision, the same values. In a certain way, everyone becomes a leader and has surrendered his self-interest for the greater good. Because there is a high degree of openness and connection, positive emotions follow. Teams at stage 3 often live moments of “being in the flow”. They are so performant, so focused on the present moment, everything seems easy and natural. It is just fun! The vibe is "Life is Great"! It was the 1995-1996 Bulls team – poetry in motion. And it followed after until the end of ? The Last Dance ?

That was real. So real that the phrases below still give me chills :  

? I dubbed the season ? the Last Dance ? because that’s what it felt like. Many players wouldn't be wearing Bulls uniforms next year (including Michael Jordan). The finality of it gave the game a certain resonance that bonded the team closer together. It felt as we were on a sacred mission, driven by a force that went beyond fame, glory, and other spoils of victory. We were doing this one for the pure joy of playing together one more time. It felt magical ? 

or :  

? It was important to have a certain closure as a team. What the season and the team meant to them. This was the end of an era. So I scheduled a special team meeting before the playoffs and asked everyone to write a short paragraph about what the season and our team had meant to them. After each person spoke, I asked him to put the message in a coffee can. Then we turn the lights off and set fire to their words. I’ll never forget that moment. The intense intimacy we felt sitting silently together and watch the flames dies down. I don’t think the bond among us had been stronger ?

What to say after this? You can not start a fire without the spark. It is the same for inspiration. Phil Jackson’s Tribe inspiration was Lakota. Mine is Phil Jackson and the Bulls. What is yours? 

This is a follow up on previous first article: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/phil-jackson-last-dance-thoughts-becoming-leader-elda-simonaska-1e/

[1] Will Shultz. L’élément humain - InterEditions-Dunod, 2006

[2] Vincent Lenhardt. Les responsables porteurs de sens - INSEP Consulting Editions, 2002

[3] All Phil Jackson quotes – Phil Jackson and Huge Delehanty. Eleven Rings – the Penguin Press, 2013

[4] Note: Obviously building individual relations and shaping group interactions would continue at stage 2 and stage 3