Written by Brian Adams
I.
Great goals can make competitors into collaborators.
No matter what you do, not everyone is going to get along all the time. In such situations, we need to be able to find ways to motivate them to work together despite their differences. One way to do this is to find the right goal or vision that will change their focus from one another to the end objective.
This past week has provided two impressive examples of the power of a clear and compelling goal to bring competitors together in a team effort. The one that attracts the most attention is undeniably the accomplishments of Team Astana in the Tour de France, which placed two of its members on Sunday’s victory podium, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, and captured the team time trial title.
Road racing is considered by many to be the epitome of team collaboration. While only one person climbs the winner’s podium, he is able to do so only because he has worked closely with several other riders who sacrifice their chance for winning to get him there. This is done in two ways. First, as a team rides together in a time trial, one rider will take the lead while the others ride closely behind in his slipstream. The lead rider expends significantly more energy and will, as a result, fatigue more quickly. Once this happens, he will relinquish the lead role and slide to the back for a rest while another takes up the lead position. This allows the team to travel further and faster than any individual rider would be able to do. It also allows their designated leader to conserve himself for the individual efforts ahead.
The second way the team works to get one of their members on the victory podium is by attacking the chief competitors from other teams. This is done by sending out a rider from the team to engage the chief competitor in areas of his strength, such as climbing mountains, or individual time trials. This is designed to weaken rivals who have to rise to the challenge with greater expenditure of energy or risk falling behind in the standings.
The powerful goal of winning the Tour de France pushed Team Astana to overcome a less-than amicable relationship between Contador and Armstrong, a relationship that has become increasingly vitriolic as they’ve battled for the role of top dog on the team.
Coincidentally, Sunday was also the finish of another gruelling race, this one stretching back for almost three years to October 2006 when Netflix announced a US$1 million prize to whoever could improve on its movie recommendation algorithm. As reported in an article from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/internet/28netflix.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss), the top two competitors met the deadline in a veritable photo finish with only 1/100th of one percent separating the two submissions. The two are so close and their submissions so complex that it will take until sometime in September to determine the ultimate victor.
Unlike the Tour de France, the teams competing for the Netflix prize changed over the course of the competition. As a clear leader began to develop, some teams dropped out while others amalgamated to combine their strengths and forge ahead. This amalgamation of former competitors led to an outburst of ever-strengthening submissions that pushed several teams towards the exciting finish.
These examples demonstrate different challenges that can be overcome if the overarching ambition is compelling. One team overcame competing team members battling each other for supremacy while another was able to incorporate former direct competitor.
Whether it is a prestigious award or an inventive competition, great goals can capture the imagination and energies of your team members and attract high quality people from around the globe.
II.
This past week has provided two impressive examples of teamwork achievement.
The one that attracts the most attention is undeniably the accomplishments of Team Astana in the Tour de France in placing two of its members on Sunday’s victory podium, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, and captured the team time trial title. But, instead of sustained celebration and preparations for future success, the team immediately exploded, almost before crossing the finish line, from the pressure of management in disarray and its two biggest stars bitterly divided against one another.
While it was definitely a victory for the Astana team, it was hardly a team victory.
Coincidentally, Sunday was also the finish of another gruelling race, this one stretching back for almost three years to October 2006 when Netflix announced a US$1 million prize to whoever could improve on its movie recommendation algorithm. As reported in an article from the New York Times, the top two competitors met the deadline in a veritable photo finish with only 1/100th of one percent separating the two submissions. The two are so close and their submissions so complex that it will take until sometime in September to determine the ultimate victor.
Unlike Team Astana, future work and collaborative opportunities have already come about, including a spin off company as well as increased expertise in a growing field of importance—recommendation algorithms to sort through the vast amount of data available on the Web.
III.
On another note, I think the Netflix prize is a great win-win scenario.
The whole Netflix prize has been a great marketing move by Netflix
–improves their system significantly at very little cost and commitment
–helps them identify with a market of savvy Internet users
–provides tons of free, positive publicity over several years
–solidifies their brand as being more responsive to the public and flexible/open versus that of their main competitor, Blockbuster, with its brick-and-mortar backbone
