Trying Harder Loses the Championship

Bantam hockey. Pretty good season. Team working together. Team having fun. Team starting out strong in the playoffs.

Then, a few rabid hockey parents throw in a bunch of comments...

• "This is the most important game of the season."
• "You better be motivated for this."
• "Damn right there's pressure!"
• "Make me proud!"
• "Quit fooling around, think about the game ahead."
• "Be a winner."
• "Give it all you've got, this is the playoffs."
• "Try your hardest, the whole team's counting on you."
• "Get serious."
• "You've got to win this one."

Watch all the kids try to be heroes. Watch all the kids "try their hardest" to score a goal. Watch the team collapse.

Watch the team stop passing. Watch the team get down on each other. Watch the team stop joking and laughing. Watch the team stop enjoying hockey. Watch the team get serious. Watch the team become ineffective. Watch the team lose.

If the team had played the way they usually played, in a fun, relaxed enjoyable way, working together without real concern for fame or the Big Win, they probably would have also won - they had the skills, they had the track record, they were the better team. But when they were all corralled into thinking that being serious, being individual heroes, being individual winners would somehow be more effective than good, fun,  relaxed team play, they crashed and burned.

In hockey, in business, if you've built a culture of relaxed, engaged teamwork to get you where you are, don't suddenly think that serious, individual heroics will somehow work better when things get challenging. Use what's worked. Good teams are more successful, and more enjoyable, than a bunch of heroes.