On Wednesday evening, October, 21, 1998 the New York Yankees had just won four straight games against the Padres to win the World Series. The Yankees also finished the year with an astounding 114-48 record. The players and the fans were, of course, very excited and two days later, New York honored the team with one of the biggest ticker tape parades in its history. The debate has continued over the past ten years whether this was the best Yankee team of all time. The Yankees did go on to win the World Series again in 1999 and 2000. Coincidently, on Wednesday evening, November 4, 2009 the New York Yankees had won four games out of six against the Philadelphia Phillies to again claim the World Series title. The players and the fans were certainly thrilled, especially winning the series during their first season in a new stadium. And yes, there was a ticker tape parade on Wall Street attended by over one million people.
Why did it take the Yankees nine years to rebuild their team and win the series in 2009 to capture their 27th championship? With many players traded or retiring after 2001, the Yankee ownership bankrolled a collection of "super stars" for the explicit purpose of continuing to win the World Series. But even with all their talent and one of the biggest payrolls in baseball, the Yankees were unable to regain their top place and in some years they did not even reach the playoffs. It is my premise that the Yankees won in 1998-2000 and in 2009 because they played together as a winning team.
Certainly, if you are a Yankee fan, as I am, there was cause to celebrate during these four World Series wins. But the victory was more than celebrating a World Series Championship. It was the celebration of being a team. In 1998, every newspaper article, television show, player, manager and owner interviews, and speeches by public officials praised the victory of Joe Torre, the manager, for building this group of talented players into a true winning team. On October 23, 1998, the New York Times wrote an article on the editorial page titled "World Champs." The following quotes some excerpts from the editorial:
"For starters, egos were in unusually short supply, as were superstars. There was little of the old Yankee swagger, and even less of the backbiting of the Reggie Jackson/Thurman Munson era. When Chuck Knoblauch made a silly mental error that helped the Cleveland Indians win a crucial playoff game a couple of weeks ago, the team rallied around him, with nary a snide comment to the press. The players seemed genuinely to believe in teamwork and unselfishness – virtues reflected in the series sweep, when everyone made an important contribution."
Two days later, David Cone, one of the starting pitchers was quoted in the New York Times as saying: "When you play for a team that’s better than the sum of its parts, and you’re part of that equation – it’s overwhelming, when you have a team that really buys into that philosophy." Many similar quotes were made in 2009 by Joe Girardi, the manager, and by the players and the owners. The most poignant comment came from owner Hal Steinbrenner after the Yankees won the playoffs to go to the World Series.
"What I like about our team is they really care about each other. They are a family. They have all the ability, we know that. But they support each other, they pick each other up, and they never quit." (New York Times, 10/26/09, D1)
What Makes a Winning Team?
For many years, we have seen the proliferation of literature on team management and team building. We can hardly pick up a copy of Training and Development, Fortune, or the Harvard Business Review, without seeing a new article on team management. Certainly, many of these articles and books are valuable and provide worthwhile information. But it is unlikely that Joe Torre and Joe Girardi regularly read these scholarly works. So what made these Yankee teams so successful?
Teamwork is not something that automatically happens when a group of people get together, even if they share a common objective such as winning the World Series. Teamwork takes effort. It requires working together as a cohesive team to build trust among team members based on a shared sense that what they are doing together is important and valuable and that they are all in it together. It requires a good game plan, a clear set of signals, a lot of hard practice, good leadership and a willingness to review mistakes. Each of these components has its equivalent in effective task team functioning.
Cohesiveness and Trust: The Yankees of 1998 and 2009 were a very cohesive team. No longer was A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez), the Yankee third baseman, preoccupied with his personal and professional difficulties. In most TV interviews, A-Rod spoke about being a member of the Yankee team and contributing as best he could. Other new players acquired for this 2009 team brought a lively team spirit to the locker room. This change of chemistry and behavior and greater camaraderie contributed to developing cohesiveness, the desire to help the team win games and to put forth a united and strong team effort.
Cohesiveness is a critical element for successful team performance. Hal Steinbrenner’s quote about the Yankee players caring about each other demonstrated this high level of cohesiveness. Although we live in a world, in both sports and in organizations, of "free agents", both Joe Torre and Joe Girardi knew that you "cannot buy team." They worked diligently to build cohesiveness by pulling together a talented and high paid group of superstars into a winning team.
As a leader in an organization, how will you contribute to building cohesiveness and active engagement in work teams? Think about the processes that facilitate trust, expressing concern and support for colleagues even when things don’t quite go right, recognizing each person’s contribution, creating an atmosphere where concerns can be raised during a meeting or in an evaluation session rather than "hallway critique sessions," and developing that strong desire to remain in this work group, to remain a Yankee. Johnny Damon summed it up when he was quoted as saying: "We have the best owner, we have the best team, and we have the most revenue. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that Yankee tradition?" (NY Times, 11/7/09, p.D5)
A Good Game Plan: Many hours are spent by players and coaches reviewing scouting reports and game video tapes. Based on this data and an assessment of each player’s capabilities, such as who has the best batting average against the starting pitcher, every game has a plan, a strategy to be competitive. Most organizations spend a great deal of time and money developing their business plan. The biggest failure, however, is that the vast majority of business plans are not implemented or not implemented as intended. The first place to correct this problem is to improve the functioning of work teams throughout the organization. Are these teams aligned with the strategy and can they function to successfully execute the strategy? To be successful, work teams must clarify objectives, assess appropriate utilization of people resources, determine the rules of the game and lay out steps to be taken over the life of a project. A successful team should take periodic "time-outs" to review its game plan and make adjustments as needed. A good game plan increases cohesiveness, engagement and trust.
Clear Signals: All baseball teams have developed a set of signals which must be understood by players and coaches. These signals, catcher to pitcher, coach to players and head coach to field coaches, are part of the plan for every game. Everyone is expected to follow these signals. Work teams could also increase their effectiveness by clarifying what they expect from each other. Without these shared expectations, it is difficult to give help and support. This is especially crucial in a task team setting where people from different backgrounds and departments have limited time to accomplish their task. Developing signals to remind team members of the agreed-upon ground rules and procedures can be an effective way to keep the team functioning well.
Hard Practice: The Yankee players practice just about every day during the season, in the batting cages, on the field, and in the dugout. Teamwork doesn’t come instantaneously. It develops over time. It requires a lot of practice before execution becomes smooth. Sometimes team members can become frustrated or disillusioned because progress might be slower than expected. It is critical for team leaders to help members understand that a slow start and hard practice are to be expected. It takes time, commitment and effort to focus on the team dynamics and to build the processes that will eventually help the team to become a cohesive unit and to successfully accomplish its objectives. There is just no substitute for the discipline of hard work and teams are no exception.
Leadership: As a team leader, one must first recognize that power resides unequally among members of a group. Leaders in groups are those individuals who have the power to move the group in different directions to help the group accomplish its goals. Joe Girardi adjusted his leadership style after his first season. He was able to be looser or softer his second year as the coach taking some advice and cues from Giants Coach Tom Coughlin. He even played pool with his team during spring training.
Many players also stepped up as leaders. Derek Jeter has certainly been a positive influence as the captain of the Yankees over many years. A-Rod set a new example by emphasizing that we all need to play together as a team. A. J. Barnett, a pitcher, initiated a "pie in your face" routine for players who hit for a walk-off win. The veteran players on Yankees who previously won World Series titles inspired the younger players. Leadership is not about maintaining the power of the assigned leader but rather giving that power away. An authoritative and sometimes coercive style does not help teams to be productive. Leadership in groups is about building the leadership capabilities in the team. We can accomplish this by valuing employee participation, jointly building team meeting agendas, paying attention to individual strengths and roles, focusing on cohesiveness, and building respect and trust for each other.
According to various studies especially by the Center for Creative Leadership, approximately 40% of senior leaders who transfer from one company to another do not last past 18 months. One key factor is the inability to manage a new team. Thus, at the core of many of the new leader consulting programs are interventions designed to help the team and the leader quickly assimilate, to get all the hidden agendas on the table, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the team and to put together an action plan for effective team functioning. This is a step which should not be overlooked. High performing strategic teams have assigned leaders who understand the importance and the power of building leadership among group members.
Review of Performance: Only by constant evaluation can we improve the quality of team performance. Sports teams spend considerable time viewing videos of previous games. Your team can evaluate performance by setting aside the last ten minutes of each meeting to discuss progress as a team and the overall game plan. As a team becomes more cohesive, an atmosphere will be created where people can give feedback to each other (not just to the team leader) about what was helpful and what seemed to slow or block the team’s progress. A simple format for this discussion is to ask everyone to say (and have someone record) what they think the team should do more of, do less of and stop doing. Periodically teams can also use a more formal process such as completing a team meeting evaluation form, compiling the scores and discussing actions to improve problem areas.
Make Every Team a Winning Team
Cartwright and Zander (1968, NY: Harper & Row) over forty years ago wrote one of the major classics on groups titled Group Dynamics: Research and Theory. The following quote appears in their introduction:
"If it were possible for the overworked hypothetical man from Mars to take a fresh view of the people of Earth, he would probably be impressed by the amount of time they spend doing things together in groups…He might be gladdened to see groups of people enjoying themselves in recreation and sports of various kind. Finally, he might be puzzled why so many people spend so much time in little groups talking, planning and being "in conference." Surely he would conclude that if he wanted to understand much about what is happening on Earth, he would have to examine rather carefully the ways in which groups form, function, and dissolve." (p.3)
This hypothetical "man from Mars" would today observe this same phenomenon. We spend a lot of our working time in groups and teams. A major part of the Yankee payroll is devoted to following Cartwright and Zander’s advice on how to form the team and improve functioning to become world champions. This message was very clear. Joe Girardi even wore #27 on his uniform everyday to remind his team that everyone was united around the goal of the senior executives’ to win their 27th championship. Work teams also need to have well defined goals and a clear set of objectives. Successful teams devote the time and the resources on comprising teams, getting the right players in the right positions, and evaluating team performance.
Although I am proud to have been a Yankee fan my entire life, many other baseball teams and other sports teams have demonstrated these qualities. Although there is no love lost between the Yankees and the Red Sox, the Boston team of 2004 was a good example of how well they played together as a team to rally from three losses to win four straight games in their odyssey to capture their first World Series title in 86 years. Strategic, high performing teams are critical in sports as well as in most organizations.
In today’s business environment it is imperative that work teams possess collaborative and strategic skills to create business solutions. As organizations have eliminated a tier of middle managers, the effectiveness and the accountability of work teams are now more important than ever. Our global economy has also influenced work teams since organizations have become more dependent on the effectiveness of both cross-cultural and virtual team performance. Advances in technology provide teams with information and analysis that is instantaneous, real time, and comprehensive thus impacting team performance. The key to a leader’s effectiveness is his or her ability to build high performing work teams that can function globally and are effective in aligning vision with strategy as well as implementing strategy. Yet, few teams live up to their potential. We should examine how we can improve the functioning of all types of teams in the workplace: teams with a new leader or a completely new team; poorly functioning teams which are experiencing conflict, or disruption or inability to achieve objectives; virtual teams where people are working together from all over the world; high performing teams that might be facing extraordinary challenges; and how to collaborate with other teams. Good team leaders focus on team performance by empowering individuals and the team.
Every work team has the potential to achieve their goals, to wear #27 and to become a winning team.
Ron Esposito, Ph.D.
Ron Esposito, Ph.D. is a professor at New York University specializing in group dynamics, consulting and leadership development, cross-cultural psychology and understanding the meaning of work in people’s lives. He is also an acknowledged international expert with over 25 years experience working with major organizations in the fields of Executive Leadership Development, Action-Learning Processes to Implement Strategy, Organizational Change, Team Alignment and Multi-Cultural Training. He has particular expertise in developing innovative and high-impact consulting interventions to help senior leaders and senior teams drive change and implement strategy, especially for international and global companies.
