VIEWPOINT

Navigating toward team successWolfgang Jenewein and Felicitas MorhartUniversity of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland

AbstractPurpose The purpose of this paper is to outline a set of principles which enable companies andmanagers to effectively handle people as a resource and allow them to turn teams into highperformance teams.

Design/methodology/approach The Alinghi sailing teams approach to establishing andmanaging a high performance team was explored by means of an ethnographic case study. Thedevelopment, organization and leadership principles of the team were subjected to intense scrutiny.This was done by interviewing the key players in the different areas (sailing crew, design team andmanagement) at different stages, by observation of the group at work and video analyses. Tosubstantiate the findings from interviews and observations, workshops with team members andexperts were organized.

Findings The Swiss Alinghi sailing team was the undisputed winner of the famous Americas Cupin 2003 and managed to defend it successfully in July 2007 against strong competition. Theprinciples implemented by team founder Ernesto Bertarelli also offer a valuable model for managers.

Originality/value The study is a useful tool for companies and managers who wish to create andmanage high performance teams.

Keywords Team working, Leadership

Paper type Viewpoint

They made it at last. The Swiss Alinghi team won the 2003 Americas Cup with a 5:0victory over the title defenders New Zealand. This was the first time ever that alandlocked nation won the Americas Cup and the first time a team won this mostfamous trophy in sailing at its first attempt. Larry Ellison, boss of rival team OracleBMW, expressed his admiration at the end of the competition: Alinghi is the bestsailing team I have ever seen. The crews run of success has continued almost withoutinterruption and made them defend the Americas Cup successfully in July 2007.

What made and makes this extraordinary achievement possible? Our research ledus to conclude that the lead crews unique handling of its human resources was thedecisive factor in securing the teams competitive edge. Part consciously and partintuitively, team founder Ernesto Bertarelli and his crew recognized the value ofhuman resources as a key competitive advantage. That way, the usual financial,technological and size issues were not the deciding factors. Jochen Schumann, athleticdirector and helmsman for the Team Alinghi, gets to the point:

The Americas Cup is not an auction which is won by the highest bidder. Rather, it is abouttrue competition which is decided by the people and the way they work together.

In the field of management research, the Resource-based View (Barney, 1991)promulgates this strategy. But to this day, scientists have no exact answers on how toharness human resources most effectively in order to unlock their full potential.

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Received September 2007Accepted December 2007

Team Performance ManagementVol. 14 No. 1/2, 2008pp. 102-108q Emerald Group Publishing Limited1352-7592DOI 10.1108/13527590810860230

We therefore subjected the development, organization and leadership principles ofthe team to intense scrutiny by the means of an ethnographic study. As the focus of thestudy were the processes and routines of managing a high performance sport team,such qualitative approach appeared most suitable as it allows for uncovering the tacitknowledge of the unit of analysis and for the development of frameworks and theories.Adopting a participant-observer role, we thus immersed ourselves in the lives of theAlinghi team by taking part in their preparations for the Americas Cup 2003. Weinterviewed the key players in the different areas (sailing crew, design team andmanagement) at different stages in detail, observed the group at work and performedvideo analyses. To substantiate the findings from interviews and observations, weorganized workshops with team members and experts. Interestingly, in a second study,we discovered similar mechanisms at work in the Formula 1 team Sauber whichreinforced our conclusions (Jenewein and Erk, 2005).

How can companies and managers benefit from our findings? We have derived fromour investigations seven principles for effective handling of people as a resource, whichare also helpful and useful to the business sector. In keeping with the object of ourinvestigation, we have called these the Seven Maneuvers for Success with HumanResources. To facilitate working with these principles or maneuvers, we haveassigned them the categories Personnel Management, Leadership and Team Culture.The maneuvers are presented and discussed individually below based on thisclassification.

Personnel management: finding the right team membersAfter Ernesto Bertarelli had assembled the Alinghi core team, he and his lead crewimmediately set about recruiting the other members. The lead crew agreed not tocompromise in their choice of team members. In particular, the crew was looking forsailors who were highly skilled, had a businesslike approach, an ability to see thebigger picture, a sense of humor and an ongoing commitment to furthering the teamscampaign. Simon Daubney, one of the team members responsible for personnelselection, clarifies: We didnt simply search for good sailors. We also looked for peoplewith passion and a sense of humor. The final decision about whether or not to take ona new member fell to the whole team. All team members were recruited according tothis democratic principle, which led many of them to describe the Alinghi story as astory of friends.

Maneuver 1: No compromises in choice of personnelOne thing is for sure no other personnel decision has such negative and lasting effectson your company as a badly chosen employee since so-called short-term solutions maybe difficult to reverse. Be aware of what qualities your new employees should have. It iscrucial to verify not only the candidates successes a relatively straightforward task but also how well he or she would fit into the corporate culture. You should always takethe trouble to check the references supplied by the applicant. An informal chat with thecandidates former boss can reveal a great deal about your future team member that a jobinterview fails to unearth. Finally, you should also trust the judgment of your ownemployees. When you decide on new team members by consensus, you can prevent awhole raft of potential interpersonal conflicts right from the outset.

Competition and performance are important. What counts is whether youremployees and team members are prepared to give their all every working day. AtAlinghi, internal training competitions took place regularly at which everyone,

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including Bertarelli, had to put their performance to the test. The lead crew onlydecided the final sailing team on the day of the first Americas Cup race based ontraining results going back over two years. Ernesto Bertarelli assures:

We followed the principle of the best person for each job and that applied to me, too. It is notyour job title that gains you recognition with the other sailors, but your skills and yourperformance in the team.

Leadership: putting the team firstBefore the start of the intensive training, all team members developed a joint teamphilosophy. They defined and internalized their vision as a group:

We want to create a team to be proud of, a team that is capable of winning the Americas Cup,and one that inspires other people to even greater feats.

The unique feature of this vision is that, in addition to the measurable goal of winningthe Cup, it also contains a behavioral component. Sports director Jochen Schumannemphasizes:

Our vision stated that we wanted to win the Cup well thats only logical but the crucialfactor for us was also How. We have inspired our team members, we have competed fairly.We have tried to stick to our motto and not just win the trophy at any price.

To achieve this goal, the team leaders relied primarily on the skills of each individualteam member and their readiness to take responsibility for their own actions.

Maneuver 2: Employees taking responsibility for their own actionsErnesto Bertarelli believed that, in a high-performance team, everyone must be givenas much freedom as possible within the cooperative framework in order to bringeverybodys skills to bear and to maximize individual performance:

We have made sure that we work well together and that we allow each individual the freedomto develop their skills. Our management style was based on getting the best people on theteam and then letting them do their job. However, this requires a firm foundation of mutualtrust.

Alinghis cooperation was thus based on the freedom to act.If you have followed Maneuver 1, you should have excellent employees in every

role, in terms of both personality and technical expertise. Once they have worked theirway into the job, these people know best what needs to be done mostly even betterthan you! It is impossible for you to be the number one expert in all the different areasof your business. Trust the skills of your employees and give them the freedom theyneed to do their job on their own initiative. Not only can you save yourself a lot of timeand worry, they will also return your trust by making more responsible andwell-considered decisions. It is important that you remain true to this managementprinciple even in difficult situations and crises. Of course, you should be present insuch situations, but take care not to snatch the reins from your employees hands. Ifyou do, they will soon start regarding the philosophy of taking responsibility as anempty phrase.

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Maneuver 3: Productive competition within the teamMake it clear to your employees that the achievements of each individual are for theservice of the whole enterprise and that, if the team fails, it is a failure for eachindividual too. Combine competitiveness with cooperation and social exchange. Thiskeeps the internal competition fair and productive and enables a high level of collectiveachievement which could never be attained by an individual effort alone.

The internal training competitions at Alinghi followed precisely this principle. Thetwo opposing teams were mostly on a par, so an individual crew member might be onthe winning team one day and one of the losers the next. This demonstrated toeveryone that victory or defeat did not depend on individuals, but always on thecollective achievement of the group. Jochen Schumann recalls:

The B team beat the A team at least as often as the other way round. This was not only aconsolation to those who didnt make it to the top team, but also a source of motivation andpressure for the other team to do better next time.

Bertarelli, Schumann and skipper Russel Coutts would always try to get the personsinvolved in conflicts to resolve their problems and differences straight away amongthemselves without any intervention by the team leaders. In a corporate environment,we often encounter precisely the opposite behavior. Encourage your employees to solveproblems in the workplace on their own initiative so that they take on high levels ofresponsibility and develop their problem-solving skills.

Maneuver 4: Solving problems instead of complaining about themContinuous complaining is a widespread phenomenon among company employees:The IT department just cant get the computers working properly for us. Thesupplier delivered the goods too late again and the quality was poor. Every so oftenyou will come across an organizational unit that tackles problems from an optimisticangle by regarding them as challenges that need to be actively addressed. Such aculture shifts the emphasis on future opportunities and perspectives rather thanproblems, errors and omissions. When you rely on human beings as a success factor,errors and problems are inevitable. Accept that and, when problems occur, set aboutremedying them together without delay. Looking for a scapegoat only holds up theproceedings and spreads bad feeling in the team.

With the Alinghi team, we observed a similar solution-oriented approach in all areasof work. One example illustrates its importance in a crisis situation: One day before thesemi-finals in 2003, the mast of the racing yacht broke. Nevertheless, the team did notlet this seemingly unsolvable problem deter them and worked right through the night.Every team member got down to work and gave their all to make sure the yacht wasready for the race in time. Dirk Kramers, Chief Designer of the Alinghi team, recalls:

What I found fascinating about the whole thing was the way that, throughout that wholetime, no-one ever tried to find out who was responsible for breaking the mast. In other teams,Ive often found that everyone wanted to blame each other for the error. Here it was different we didnt talk about errors, only about solutions.

Maneuver 5: Setting an example to your employeesSave yourself the cost of expensive motivational gurus. Trust that your own approachis effective in itself. Your employees will see through glossy presentations and floweryspeeches thought up by your PA straight away. The best principle for an authentic

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management style is and always has been: Follow up your words with deeds. Honoryour promises and behave as you expect your employees to behave.

At Alinghi, the training started every morning at 6.30 a.m. with weight-lifting in thefitness room. Jochen Schumann was always the first there. Sewerman Curtis Blewettstresses that:

. . . all team members knew exactly what they had to do and why. There were no pep talks bythe leaders or pseudo-motivational experiments. I only had to take one look at Russel at anygiven moment to feel his ambition, intensity and concentration. That motivated me.

Team culture: courage to do the unconventionalAround two years before the start of the final races of the Americas Cup 2003, thewhole Alinghi team moved to New Zealand. True to the Alinghi principle of taking onresponsibility, every team member played a part in the building of the headquartersand received a budget for individual accommodation in Auckland. Instead oforganizing shared accommodation for everyone, the team leaders left it up to eachmember to find something suitable. Relatively quickly, crew members joined togetherin twos or threes to rent together large and comfortable apartments or even houses.Thereby parts of the team also became miniature communities in their own rightthrough sharing the same living space.

Maneuver 6: Trust to natural team-buildingAll too often, teams are physically separated, spread over many different offices,corridors or even floors. Mostly the members communicate electronically by telephoneor e-mail and get together only occasionally at a meeting or discussion. This meansthey rarely experience a real feeling of we. Yet this is absolutely essential if they areto deliver a top collective performance. Bring the team members physically closetogether to promote continuous exchange between them. Through continuous directcontact, the employees get to know and understand each other on both a formal and aninformal basis. Social roles such as positions of trust, opinion leaders and arbitratorscrystallize of their own accord without having to be defined in an organizational chart.Above all, internal cohesion, trust and loyalty within the group develop naturally.

For Alinghi, moving the whole group to Auckland was a key milestone in theteam-building process. Schumann describes it as follows:

The fact that we were all working under one roof and were all involved in setting up our basecamp together did more for us than any artificially orchestrated event. We consciouslysteered clear of any large team-building events like crossing ravines etc. Instead, weconcentrated on the literal meaning of teamwork, namely working together.

Maneuver 7: Fostering internal communicationHowever difficult it might be for some individuals, encourage your employees to keepcommunicating and providing constructive feedback. Alinghi valued this feedbackculture very highly and called it the imperative of the freely spoken word. True tothis principle, the team leaders organized a discussion after every training unit. Foreach of these discussions, Jochen Schumann selected a team member to express directand honest feedback about the training unit. This ensured that everyone, even the mostreticent, took part in this open dialog aimed at mutual improvement.

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Many employees mistakenly believe that information is something they aresupposed to be supplied with by others. They like to abdicate responsibility foromissions or errors with a terse No-one told me that. Therefore, make it clear to yourteam that each individual is responsible for acquiring the information relevant to them.For your part, you must of course ensure that the relevant information is available atall times to all team members.

From a structural point of view, sufficient space and opportunities for informalexchange should be provided. In Alinghi, team members from the design department,management and marketing worked out alongside the sailors every morning, givingthem an informal opportunity to discuss with each other the latest developments andany problems that might have arisen:

We had a very unconventional and open style of communication. There were regularmeetings, but we didnt have to meet often as we actually exchanged informationcontinuously on an informal basis in the fitness room, in the corridor or in the evening over abeer . . .

recalls Alinghis finance manager Catherine Pierrin.A culture of information exchange and transparency can be fostered with the right

symbols, rituals or models. For example, instead of the management committeemeeting for days on end behind closed doors and emerging with an endless list oftasks, you should allow your employees to take part in the decision-making processthemselves. When the employees know how a given decision, however unpleasant, wasarrived at, they are much more prepared to take responsibility for it and accept theconsequences it carries with it.

SummaryThe seven maneuvers described represent the key principles behind Alinghis success.Uncompromising in their choice of personnel, consistent in their leadership andunconventional in the setup of their team culture, the lead crew succeeded in creatingan environment that fostered highly committed individual performance as a means toachieving a common goal. Unhampered by egotism, vanity and internal powerstruggles, the team was able to focus all its energy on pursuing its shared dream,skillfully overcoming any difficulties that arose and winning the Americas Cup in themost impressive way.

Naturally, the insights from Alinghis strategy do not all translate in every detail tocorporate practice:

. For one thing, their goal of winning the Americas Cup gave them a clear andmeasurable vision that was to be attained within a pre-defined time periodknown in advance. The team members could mobilize their energy for thismanageable length of time. In companies it is far more difficult to pursue suchclear visions or have such fixed timeframes because of the volatile marketenvironment and frequent internal management changes.

. A further difference is the fact that the leadership was able to build the wholeteam up from scratch, which enabled them to search for ideal candidates forevery position. At the start of a major project, company managers usually haveto work with a set team of personnel that they can only add to selectively. Underthese conditions it is much harder to foster a positive feeling of we.

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. Finally, it is an inherent feature of competitive sports that the participantsregularly receive objective and clearly measurable feedback on theirperformance in contests and training sessions. In a corporate environment,managers cannot always define the goals clearly in an easily verifiable way.

These limitations notwithstanding, we are convinced that the Alinghi team and itsunconventional approach to personnel management, leadership and team culture offercompanies of all sizes and industries both inspiration and guidance for better handlingof human resources. Were all in the same boat is a saying you will certainly haveheard many times in your company. Perhaps Alinghis example will help you see thismetaphor in a new light.

References

Barney, J.B. (1991), Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, Journal ofManagement, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 99-120.

Jenewein, W. and Erk, C. (2005), Sauber Petronas 2005: achieving much with comparativelylittle, case study, University of St Gallen, St Gallen.

Further reading

Bass, B.M. (1985), Leadership and Performance beyond Expectations, Free Press, New York, NY.

Bass, B.M. and Riggio, R.E. (2005), Transformational Leadership, 2nd ed., Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates, Mahwah, NJ.

Hackman, J.R. and Wageman, R. (2005), A theory of team coaching, Academy of ManagementReview, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 269-87.

Jenewein, W., Bruch, H. and Heidbrink, M. (2005), Alinghi 2005 the freedom to act, case study,University of St Gallen, St Gallen.

Katz, N. (2001), Sport teams as a model for workplace teams: lessons and liabilities, Academy ofManagement Executive, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 56-67.

Kets de Vries, M.F.R. (2005), Leadership group coaching in action: the Zen of creating highperformance teams, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 61-76.

Spreitzer, G.M. (1995), Psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions,measurement, and validation, Academy ofManagement Journal, Vol. 38 No. 1, pp. 1442-65.

About the authorsWolfgang Jenewein, PhD, serves as an Executive Director of the Executive MBA Programs of theUniversity of St. Gallen in Switzerland. He is a senior lecturer in leadership and marketing andadvises various international companies and professional sports teams, such as theVfB-Stuttgart, on leadership in high performance teams. Wolfgang Jenewein is thecorresponding author and can be contacted at: wolfgang.jenewein@unisg.ch

Felicitas Morhart, M.A., is research associate and doctoral candidate at the University of St.Gallen. Her research interest centers on organizational behavior with specialization in leadershipand its application to various fields in business research.

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