T EAM B UILDING E XERCISES FOR S EPARATE T EAMS

As previously indicated, whilst there has been a notable shift to addressing the overall Team culture and cohesion, there is also ongoing recognition of the value in similarly addressing matters of group culture within the separate units that make up the Games Team. Effective work in this domain means that the various sub-components will be strong and will contribute exponentially to the overall collective. Working with the sub-groups also helps to

identify and address issues that might become amplified and potentially detrimental to the desired culture of the overall team.

In this section we outline interventions that we have found to be especially useful with specific or separate teams (e.g., snowboarding, curling, basketball, hockey) within the overall Olympic team. Successful teams have athletes who work toward common goals (Carron & Hausenblas, 1998). The culture of the team will dictate these goals and whether or not they are accepted by all members (Bloom et al., 2003; Holt & Dunn, 2006). Therefore, the team vision and values must be carefully molded. Many methods can be used, however, any session designed to establish a team’s vision and values should include (i) the opportunity for all members of the group to contribute to the process and (ii) concrete examples and strategies that ensure that the vision and values will manifest themselves in the day-to-day operations of the team. We have developed a number of workshops/exercises that can be used to shape a team’s vision and values. Examples of some of these workshops/exercises are described below. The first author (Ken Hodge) used the exercises below to help the separate teams (e.g., curling, snowboarding teams) within the 2006 NZ Winter Olympic team to define their own unique vision and values.

The first exercise was termed the “Team Legacy Speech.” The team was divided into groups of four to five athletes. Each group was pre-selected so that senior team members were mixed with newcomers. Each group was then required to write a “team legacy speech.” The athletes were told that their speech should be the one they might give at the end of the upcoming Games. After “writing” and “practise” periods, one member of each group delivered the 2-minute speech to the whole team. Each speech had to include acknowledgement of (only) four important people and had to focus on “how” and “why” the team accomplished its ultimate goal of winning medals. The purpose of this exercise was to encourage the group to define success for themselves (vision) and examine the ways in which they could ensure success (values). Many of these speeches were humorous as well, but the key benefit was the group’s efforts to identify ‘how’ and ‘why’ the team, and the individual team members, succeeded at the Games.

The team then participated in an exercise called “Team Destruction.” New groups were formed and each was given the following instructions:

• Imagine you are part of the management team for our main opponents – your mission is to send a saboteur or spy into our Team in order to sabotage and destroy our campaign.

• What would your instructions be? What would you get the spy to sabotage?

• What would you get the spy to do in order to destroy our team and stop us achieving our goal(s)?

The sabotage plans of each group were pooled together and the entire team decided on the most “destructive schemes” (some were quite innovative and many were humorous!; e.g., laxatives in drink bottles, starting rumours about teammates, always being late for meetings/transport). The point of this exercise was for the team members to realise that the ‘spy’ could not succeed if the team had a strong set of values, because any negative actions (subtle or otherwise) would stand out as not being consistent with the team’s values (i.e.,

‘how we do things around here’). Each group was then encouraged to devise ways to “spy- proof” our team against the best efforts of the saboteur.

• What plans can be put into place to prevent the spy/saboteur from being successful or cope with problems if they arise? Agreeing on a solid set of team ‘values’ became an obvious solution for ‘spy-proofing’. So how do you develop a set of team values? The final exercise was termed “Build the Ideal Teammate.” New groups were formed and instructed to design the “ideal” teammate for the team. Athletes were asked to brainstorm about the behaviors / actions / values that they wanted this teammate to demonstrate. The ‘actions / values’ were outlined for each of the following team situations:

1. At fitness / individual skill training sessions. 2. At team / squad training sessions.

3. Before competition. 4. During competition.

5. After competition (social activities).

6. When we are “Off-Duty” together as a Team (away from competition). 7. Away from the ‘Team.’

The “Team Legacy Speeches,” “Team Destruction” and “Ideal Teammate” exercises resulted in a variety of ideas concerning the team’s vision and values. Overnight, the first author in his role as Mental Skills Trainer met with the management team to summarize the athletes’ responses on the above exercises, and to write a ‘draft’ Vision & Values statement for the team to consider. The next day the team discussed the draft statement as one large group – suggested revisions were debated and agreed upon. The purpose of the exercise was not only to establish the team’s vision and values, but to also encourage the athletes to identify concrete situations in which the team’s values were likely to be most important.

The Team’s vision was defined as the “why” of the team and questions such as “Why are we together?” and “What sort of team do we want to be?” were used as prompts. The Team’s values were defined as “how we do things around here” and the athletes were encouraged to think of their team values as a set of philosophies that could be used to help guide their behavior and decision making in the team environment.

For example, one team’s draft Values statement contained a list of 18 values so the athletes were then asked to prioritise this extensive list by identifying only four ‘core’ values as the most important. After some time, a list of the four core values emerged (e.g., Honesty, Trust & Respect; Positivity & Passion; Balanced Lifestyle; Commitment & Sacrifice). Groups were formed again and the athletes were asked to describe concrete examples of behaviors that exemplified each of the four core values (i.e., what does each value actually ‘mean’ in behavioral terms?; what behavior[s] does each value represent?). The seven broad categories from the “ideal team-mate” exercise described above were used as cues for identifying potential behavioral examples. The final version of the team’s ‘Vision & Values’ statement was signed by each athlete and a copy was then supplied for each team member’s training diary/logbook. In addition these values were referred to at numerous times throughout the Games by the coaches and management team.

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The main obvious effect for NZ Olympic teams from the team-building focus, overall and in the various sub-units, outlined above has been in terms of a clear and solid sense of team unity and togetherness. In terms of Carron and Spinks’ (1993) cohesiveness indicators, there has been a substantial increase in positive social interaction and communication, obvious team stability and acceptance of role responsibilities and a commitment to shared group norms.

A heightened sense of trust and security with each other has developed in our Games’ Teams, and athletes display a commitment to and enjoyment from being part of a unified team. In 2004, 2006 and 2008 those athletes and support personnel who had been to other Olympics commented very favourably on these features in contrast to their experience at previous Games. The Athens and Beijing Games were very successful for the NZ Team, both in terms of medal count and quality performances, but also in terms of satisfaction and enjoyment. Several athletes at both the Athens and Beijing Games publicly acknowledged the power of the One Team-One Spirit philosophy and experience in terms of their performance, but also in terms of having a greater understanding of what being a New Zealander actually means.

The vision is dynamic and evolving and at present planning is proceeding for Vancouver 2010 and beyond (London 2012) with the same fundamental principles driving things forward. The challenge now is to remain committed to this unifying orientation for future Games Teams. The groundwork has been laid and the challenge before us is to grow and develop this orientation, and seek the desired benefits both in terms of results (task) and social (people) processes.

For us as the Mental Skills Trainer/Sport Psychologist, the philosophy is very compatible with support and with the challenges of performance, and our involvement with the vision in proactive ways has paid a substantial dividend within the Games context itself. The skill needs outlined earlier remain as challenges, but the One Team - One Spirit environment within which these challenges are met is one that assists the work that we do.