Building a Miracle Team
The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team
The only class I’m taking this semester that really engages my interests is my Organizational Behavior course. We’re assigned to student teams for a semester-long project to study a local company or organization and how it functions.
A team, according to our course definition is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
We just read a white paper by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith, authors of The Wisdom of Teams. In it, they argue that teams should be selected on skill and skill potential and not on personality. I pride myself on being a Myers-Briggs personality type ISTJ because I like making decisions based on hard facts and objective viewpoints. But I disagree with Katzenbach and Smith. I think personality plays a huge role in how well a team functions an performs.
High-performing teams focus on personality. Individual personalities on a team have to fit delicately together like a jigsaw puzzle. Herb Brooks had the right idea when he coached the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a miracle gold medal. The winter Olympics are this week so I think the time is right to take a look at his team.
Brooks (played here by Kurt Russell in Disney’s 2004 film Miracle) made his players take personality tests before assigning them positions in his lineup. He defied the failed pattern of Olympic embarrassment by proclaiming that all-star teams fail because they rely solely on the skill of the individual. He wasn’t looking for the best players; he was looking for the right ones. Sure, he saw the “complementary skills” and “skill potential” Katzenbach and Smith mention, but he cared way more about individual personal dynamics than the two authors recommend.
Who’s right? Herb Brooks’ team won a gold medal. Just saying.
I'm an Emerging Technology Strategist, freelance social media consultant, and recent grad of Boston University. I'm into marketing, emerging tech, content creation, speaking, writing and communicating. In my free time, I am a speech coach and amateur chef.
Hey Eric,
Just out of curiosity, what do you think Herb Brooks’ MBTI was?
Jason
Interesting question, Jason. Thanks for commenting!
I would estimate that he got his energy internally. He seemed to be motivated by his own ideas, despite the fact that everyone told him they were impossible (I). I’d also say he went on intuition with a lot of his decisions, especially putting that team together (N). I think his analysis of what would defeat the Russian team was very carefully calculated, rather than based on what he FELT would work (T). And he definitely had a concrete sense of time. He knew when his team was falling behind schedule and how long the boys had to develop (J).
My estimated guess: INTJ