By Jeff Spahn, M football letterman
What did Bo mean and feel when he said, “The Team The Team The Team” with such tenacity?
Some might say he meant there is no ‘me’ in team.
Even more might say that he was identifying the experience of “more than the sum of the parts.”
Others might say he was referring to the thrill of victory.
All of these may have some truth to them, however The Team, The Team, The Team refers to the distinctive sum of the interactions of the parts.
For example, the sum of the parts could be a pile of puzzle pieces turned blank side up laying on the dining room table, a sum with no meaningful interaction. In contrast, an assembled puzzle is the result of the interaction of the puzzle pieces. This interaction includes each puzzle piece being turned right side up, then each piece being set forth – asserted and let go to connect or fit with the other pieces until eventually, the whole puzzle fits together.
In the case of Blake Corum’s OT touchdown, each of the 11 individual players showed up fully playing their unique, different, and vital role, or piece, as a snapper, distributor, carrier, protector-blocker, etc., assuring the delivery of the ball into the endzone, to complete the touchdown puzzle!
Furthermore, this touchdown and the victory against Alabama illustrates the distinctive advantage of the sum of the interactions of the parts. No team has ever won a national championship ranked outside the top 10 in the 24/7 Team Talent Composite. This year, Michigan ranks 14th and Alabama ranks first. As in the epic 1969 victory over OSU, Michigan won precisely because of interactions of The Team, The Team, The Team.
What are these interactions?
Repeating this collective ingenuity and success requires each individual player, or piece, to bring their full unique self forward. It ends up that there is a ME in tEaM. It just often becomes unrecognizable. Without this ME, in spelling and experience, the team is only a t_a_.
At the same time, these MEs see, respect, honor, even love each other as equal, different and vital pieces of the common purpose puzzle of scoring that touchdown, winning The Game, capturing the third straight Big Ten title, and becoming national champions. Their differences are not reasons to avoid or attack each other, but cherished opportunities to create with their differences, for iron to sharpen iron, to make a difference, on and off the field, through their differences.
Finally, the team includes and transcends the thrill of victory. The experience of offering one’s full unique self in the moment, in concert with others, on behalf of something bigger than oneself, results in the awe-filled mystical feeling of being fully alive. What is better than being a part of something that at once belongs to, yet is so beyond, oneself?
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To Team #144: Your Greatest Accomplishment?
HAIL!
* 3 consecutive victories over Ohio State
* 3 consecutive Big Ten titles
* 3 consecutive College Football Playoff appearances
* NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
All of this on the heels of a 2-4 season.
Team #144 I ask you, What is your greatest accomplishment?
What if your greatest accomplishment is far beyond these great accomplishments? What would that look like?
You can tell me better than I can tell you, but let me get the conversation started. What about
* a head coach who can’t help gushing over how good his players are and how much he loves them?
What about …
* Coach Moore’s passionate post-Penn State game declaration of love for Coach Harbaugh, the staff, the players, the A.D., the University, and alumni?
What about …
* the way post-game conferences begin with enthusiastic and authentic hugs and words of appreciation and love for each other?
Speaking of hugs what about …
* the way coach to players, coaches to coaches, players to coaches, players to players move beyond slapping high fives, handshake chest hugs to full embraces lifting each other off the ground?
What about …
* the 14th ranked team in talent creating the skill, strategy, respect, trust, and love to defeat the #1 team in talent coached by the most acclaimed coach in college football history?
What about … ?
All of these and more express your greatest accomplishment.
The rings, the hardware, the $30,000 glass football indicate that business is finished.
However, your greatest accomplishment is never finished. It goes beyond a game, a season, a championship, a career, lifetimes.
Love endures forever.
Love never fails.
Love heals.
Love creates.
Love wins.
* 3 consecutive victories over Ohio State.
* 3 consecutive Big Ten titles
* 3 consecutive College Football Playoff appearances
* NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
The greatest of these is Love!
from Jeff Spahn, M football letterman
Jeffrey Spahn is the founder and president of Leading Leaders Inc. For more than 20 years he has researched, coached, and inspired top business executives and their teams through the distinctive collective leadership process of We the Leader®.
Jeff’s journey into leading leaders was sparked by experiences of collective flow in high school and as a letterman on the University of Michigan football team. His business degree from the University of Michigan and doctorate from the University of Chicago ground his practice in sound scholarship. Beyond his formal education, Jeff found himself in a workshop with a group of researchers from MIT on genuine dialogue, rooted in the thinking and practice of the physicist David Bohm. From here, he went deep into training at the renowned Second City school of improvisation. Along with conducting original research on the purpose of business, Jeff taught MBA students at Dominican University. Above all, through working with clients including industry leaders such as Capital Group, Steelcase, and Encova he forged the organic diversity, equity, and inclusive operating system called We the Leader.
Jeff’s most recent publication is the book, We the Leader, published by McGraw-Hill, backed by science, endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith – the only person awarded the world’s Top #1 Leadership Thinker twice – and includes a chapter from the CEO of a Fortune #15 global company.