Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 1 An Analysis of Team Development, Conflict, and Leadership in Miracle Ryan Biddlecombe, Alex Eicher, Stefan Elslager, Kyle Linford, Mary Kate MacLean, Jasmine Pearson, and Jasmine Sparks Eastern Michigan University
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 2 An Analysis of Team Development, Conflict, and Leadership in Miracle The 1980 Miracle on Ice US men s hockey team was a team that showed the world how miracles can happen. At a time when the country was gripped in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, their success in the games became crucial for helping to restore patriotism and demonstrating how team work can succeed. In 2004, this story was made into a Disney movie, Miracle, to tell the story of what happened to make this team of underdogs succeed against some of the best teams in the world and win the gold medal. From this film s background account of this historical event, the success of the hockey team, while appearing to be a miraculous achievement, can be seen as the sum of strategic work that head coach Herb Brooks utilized to develop a collection of individuals into an Olympic team. Because of this strategic influence to promote the team s development, their achievement can be seen as a rather unmiraculous miracle. The film begins in 1979 with a meeting between Herb Brooks and officials at the United States Olympic Committee, where Brooks interviewed for the position to coach the US men s Olympic hockey team. In the interview, Brooks sets the tone for how he will lead this team to achieving his goal of winning the gold medal. Receiving the job, Brooks goes to work and begins to implement this plan for reaching the perceived impossible goal. As the coach, Herb did things very different that year leading up to the Olympics. During the beginning of the film, tryouts are held to find players. Rather than consult with the required delegates after a week of tryouts, Herb selected the team members directly after only one day stating his reason for this quick decision being, I don t want the best players. I want the right ones. Brooks goal was to build the cohesion between players in such a way that they would be able to defeat the
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 3 Soviets and ultimately win the gold. These team members were then put through Brooks training as he pushed them to their physical limits to develop them as a team. Herb was trying to display chemistry amongst the players and that is how he felt they would win it all. Before the tournament the team had several preseason games where they had played poorly and had a lot more team chemistry and team building to do. The US men s hockey team went into the tournament as huge underdogs but started to defy all the odds and win every game leading up to the semifinal round where they played the best team in the world the Soviet Union. The Soviets had won four gold medals previously and were seen as unbeatable by everyone they faced. The US team had already played them earlier that year and lost by seven points. However, the US team was undefeated and had shown a lot more team chemistry leading up to that point. Politically, the United States was at a period of confrontation in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the Communist Party. These political tensions made this game crucial to the whole country that America beat the Soviets and show America s strength. Ultimately, the US overcame the Soviet threat and won against them in the semifinals, four to three. They then went on to win against Sweden in the championship to win the gold medal. They were able to achieve the miracle they set out to win. However, achieving this miracle took more work than what is initially expected. The ability to achieve these high expectations was largely influenced by the development of the team unit. This cohesive unit is suggested to have allowed them to be better prepared for the games and ultimately win. However, this high level of cooperation and cohesion was not produced instantly; rather, team development was an issue that was an ongoing battle from the beginning. Herb Brooks knew what was necessary to succeed as a
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 4 team, and because of this, he selects specific players that he believes will build this cooperative unit. During a beginning scene were tryouts are held for the Olympic team, college hockey players from around the country were invited to come to what was supposed to be an all week session where the selection of members was to be made by the combined input of Brooks and a selection committee. However, after only a day, Brooks had selected the initial 26 players that would be participating in the offseason training session and preseason scrimmages. When his direct actions were questioned, Brooks explained, I don t want the best players. I want the right ones, and with this, the team development process began. However, this process was not as quick and easily achieved as he continued to create this team. Conflict between team members became a necessary issue to be addressed. Jehn (as cited in Hamm-Kerwin, 2010) defined intragroup conflict as "perceptions by the parties involved [in a group] that they hold discrepant views or have interpersonal incompatibilities. Furthermore, intragroup conflict is a multi-dimensional construct characterized by task, process, and relationship conflict. From the very start of the movie Herb Brooks created conflict. It started with his meeting with the selection committee; he wanted to change the way team USA had been coached in the past. Immediately the higher ups of the committee balked at this idea. One of them even refused to shake Herb s hand at the conclusion of the meeting. However, Brooks furthered this conflict with organization by refusing to work with them on the selection process by choosing his own players. This conflict was not solely caused by Brooks. Throughout the film, there were multiple player conflict issues. As stated in the article Resolving Team Conflict (1996), All coaches and athletes are confronted with team conflict at some time (Copeland). However, the players
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 5 primarily experienced these conflicts when first coming together as a team. After the initial 26 members were selected, the film depicts a scene where the team went out to a local bar to celebrate. The team split up between different groups, mainly between the past college rivalry of Boston University and the University of Minnesota. This rivalry was driven by some controversial calls in the 1976 national championship game. One of the players, Jack O Callahan, who played for Boston University, discussed how another player, Rob McClanahan, took his national championship because of a controversial shot in the game. This conflict carries over into the next scene at practice when Jack O Callahan and Rob McClanahan got into a physical altercation because of these old rivalries and egos. Brooks let the players continue the rest of the fight out and used it as a learning experience for the team: Does this look like hockey to you? Looks more like a couple of monkeys trying to hump a football. This was a pivotal turning point for the team because Brooks goes on to stop practice and have the team get to know one another by player introductions. As a coach and leader, he had to try and bring the team together. One of the ways Brooks was able to go about doing this was by pushing into everyone s minds that they were representing team USA and no one else. Initially, when prompted to identify their names, hometown, and team they play for, many players responded with the university team that they played for in the past. However, this focus shifted when the team was given suicides for tying against the lesser Norwegian national team. Brooks made the team do suicides for a long time after they had just finished the game in their full pads and many players had even started getting sick because of how hard they were being pushed. Eventually soon to be named team captain Michael Eruzioni yelled out his name and Herb Brooks
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 6 responded, Who do you play for? Eruzioni, as a member of the developing team unit, answered back, The United States of America. This showed the team that what they are playing for is much bigger than just one individual person and that this was something a whole nation was behind. Additionally, the article, Resolving Team Conflict (1996), explored the importance of roles on a team as a cooperative unit: A clear understanding and acceptance of one's role leads to a sense of purposeful identity with the team, which can improve team loyalty and decrease rule-breaking behavior (Copeland). By working to define the role of the players as beyond just their position by creating the unifying identity of the team, Brooks builds these players cooperation and puts together a team. Just as Brooks as when Brooks states, The name on the front of your jersey is more important the name on the back, he shows the players that the success of this team is based on more than just their individual successes. His tactics were at first to try and bring the team together with a common hatred of him. He worked them hard and tried to instill in them that they were not playing for themselves or their old universities but for the United States of America. Brooks pushed the team hard with many suicides, a lot of repetition when it came to learning and running their offensive formations, and mental toughness. The team started showing signs of cooperation when a new line was made up comprised of players from Boston and Minnesota who worked so well together it was as if they had been playing together for years and not weeks. They were called the Cone Head Line and thus started some team togetherness instead of just a bunch of individuals. With these experiences, the team started to come together. When Herb Brooks brought in a current University of Minnesota player who was initially cut in the opening
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 7 combine to play in some of the pre-olympic scrimmages, he created conflict because the original team members became worried about their spots. However, instead of fighting with each other they banded together and met with Herb. At this meeting, the team tells him of their unhappiness with his decision to bring the new player in so late. Brooks questioned their viewpoint and asked why he should not be giving him a look at all. The guys responded, Because we re a family. This section of the film showed Brooks what he had been trying to get the team to do from the beginning was finally been completed; he brought them together as a team. It did this because they created a bond through all the gruesome practices and time they had spent together under Herb. They met with Herb and called their team a family. Saying that it was too late to bring a new team member on because he did not go through what they went through. Brooks agreed and allowed the team to make this decision. In this way, he was able to see the response he wanted and utilized this conflict for the betterment of the team. While this team worked to develop their cooperation and operate as a single unit, their success was possible through the leadership of Brooks. It is from his guidance that the team was able to actually develop and utilize the necessary skills to meet the necessary needs. One of the pivotal elements that made this team successful is the leadership of Brooks. Coach Brooks leadership style pushed the players to be their best. It can be seen that the coach s direction for the team is different right from the interview process. Coach Brooks proposes several changes in the way the team operates and the way they teach the team to be a team. He looks at the competing teams strengths and wants to adopt their style of training into the way he coaches the team. Brooks sees that group cohesion is the most important element to creating an effective team stating, All-star teams fail because they rely solely on the
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 8 individuals talent; the soviets win because they take that talent and they use it inside a system that s designed for the betterment of the team. Brooks states this to show how group cohesion has better their competing teams in the past and how the USA current style is not bettering their players because of the team s me mentality. Coach Brooks takes this mindset right into building an effective team into the tryouts when he picks his roster of 26 members from the first day of tryouts and oversteps the board in his decisions. During practice, he creates this cohesion by creating team accountability, were its not your failure its our failure. An example of this is the question Brooks asks his team, What team do you play for? Another powerful example is the suicide scene. Coach Brooks created cohesion when he made the team run suicides after tying a game. Coach kept the team on the ice for hours until one of the players yelled, I play for the United States of America. The Coach s leadership style was an essential part of creating team cohesion and the teams success. In a study by Paul Turman (2003) that explores the types of leadership styles and how they relate to building cohesion within a team, Turman interviewed players to find out what qualities in coaches and coaching styles contribute to overall team cohesion. Turman found six qualities in the coach and athlete interaction that promoted team cohesion. These include bragging, sarcasm/ teasing, motivational speeches, quality opponent, athlete directed techniques, and team prayer. You can see some of these qualities in the leadership style of Coach Brooks. In the Christmas scene you can see the qualities of sarcasm and teasing when the team brought the coach a whip and the assistant coach a whistle. Coach Brooks gives a motivational speech before the team goes and faces the Soviets, telling the team, You were born for this. Brooks pushed them to be their best from the start and give their full
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 9 cooperation. During practice he used athlete directed techniques to make sure the whole team could be the best they could be. Herb Brooks leadership style contributed greatly to the win that happened in 1980 s winter Olympics. Brooks actions show the importance of having great leadership, as well as great players. He ignored the executive committees and became an executive decision maker for the team. With his leadership, the twenty boys from different colleges around the county became one team and one family. Together, with all of their individual expertise, they were able to work as a team and defeat the Soviet Union. Brooks constant pushing of the team had built their collaborative interdependence and made them all want to succeed at something that was better than them showing off their own individual talents. From the influence of Herb Brooks, his actions as a leader to both handle conflict and develop a team made the win against the Soviets possible. In this way, Brooks shows that perhaps this apparent miraculous achievement was not as miraculous as it appears.
Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT, CONFLICT, AND LEADERSHIP IN MIRACLE 10 References Copeland, B. W., & Wida, Kathy. (1996). Resolving Team Conflict. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 67(4), 52-54. doi: 10.1080/07303084.1996.10607376. Hamm-Kerwin, S. M. (2010). Learning from the Experiences of Older Adult Volunteers in Sport: A Serious Leisure Perspective. Journal of Leisure Research, 42(2). Retrieved from http://js.sagamorepub.com/jlr/article/view/377/360. Turman, P. D. (2003). Coaches and Cohesion: The Impact of Coaching Techniques on Team Cohesion in the Small Group Sport Setting. Journal of Sports Behavior, 26(1), 86-103. Retrieved from Google Scholar.