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Eliminate Friction

Strategy #8
Step up to conflict—and deal with the things that slow you down.

When I was in graduate school, a professor related an interesting story about a potential research pitfall. During World War II, as the story goes, the U.S. military wanted to determine the optimal placement of armor on aircraft. Their approach involved studying planes returning from bombing missions over Europe, then recording the location of shrapnel damage and bullet holes. It seemed logical that additional armor should be placed where the damage was the greatest.

A group of operations researchers were called in to confirm the military's findings. After studying the problem, the researchers came to a surprising conclusion: The areas of the bombers that were not damaged should have the highest priority for armor.

The researchers realized that the returning bombers represented a biased sample. Aircraft that made it back may have been riddled with bullet holes, but the damage was survivable. The aircraft that really needed help were the ones that didn't make it back. They were the ones that had been hit in the most vital parts of the aircraft—the sections containing the most critical components needed to keep the bombers flying.

If I had focused only on successful ocean racing crews such as AFR Midnight Rambler, this same sort of sampling error problem might have led to other mistakes. On the best boats, for example, unresolved conflict and other destructive interpersonal problems were relatively rare. But when the sample included the entire fleet, a different picture emerged.

Accounts of the 1998 race, for example, illustrate what can happen when the crew is not aligned—and when conflicts fester unresolved. I would never presume to make a direct connection between failure to manage conflict and any specific outcome or consequence. There were many forces at play in the storm, and there were cohesive teams that still ran into problems.

But I am confident in this assertion: Boats that consistently win do not have chronic problems with alignment and conflict. They win because they have eliminated anything and everything that slows them down. Whether the drag is created by interpersonal problems or mechanical issues, winning boats find and fix the underlying cause.

Tactics for Teamwork at The Edge

Fix the problem, not the blame

I asked Rosebud's Malcolm Park if he could think of an example where seamless teamwork had made a difference in a memorable race. Park said that he could think of numerous instances where teamwork wasn't visible because it was seamless. From start to finish, decision after decision, and from watch to watch, people worked together so well that teamwork produced results. But nobody thought about teamwork, because it was so smooth that it was virtually invisible.

There was rarely one momentous event where seamless effort resulted in a victory. But there were numerous examples of teamwork falling apart. These were cases where a crew didn't work together smoothly, and the result was a failure in a race. When I probed further and asked Park for an example, he had no trouble coming up with illustrations of things that he had seen go wrong.

The example that Park came up with involved two identical boats battling for position at the finish of the Sydney to Hobart Race. They couldn't sail directly to the finish line, so they needed to zigzag toward the destination. Park saw the action from his hotel room, and, though the boats were some distance away, he was in a perfect spectator's seat:

I was watching the boats coming across the finish line. And they were jibing [zigzagging with the wind from behind] across from each other. On one jibe, one boat was ahead. The next jibe the other boat was ahead. And from about a mile out I said, “I bet you anything I can guess which boat is going to win.”

I saw that one boat was having constant breakdowns in teamwork on every one of their jibes. The crew would make an error, and then compensate with good tactical decisions. But the crew work was falling apart. I could see the guys yelling at each other and arguing with each other, fingers pointing. And sure enough they didn't win. It all fell apart. But you could see the breakdown from a mile and a half from the finish line.¹

I know what it's like to sail on a boat where people are more concerned with fixing blame than fixing problems. Things would go wrong, and the skipper would naturally be frustrated. But because we never took the time to figure out how or why something went wrong, we repeated the same mistake on numerous occasions. Each time, there would be yelling, shouting, and blaming, but the problem remained.

Winning teams direct their energy to dissecting problems and figuring out how to keep them from happening again. Losing and mediocre teams spend time blaming individuals and shouting.

Confront differences in ability

Previous chapters emphasized the importance of selecting people who have the right skills and who are committed to the challenge. Then, when the team is configured, individuals need to be given a chance to demonstrate their capabilities in as many roles as they might reasonably be expected to fill. This systematic process helps to ensure that the team will be composed of motivated people who are fully capable of doing their jobs.

There are times, however, when shortcomings surface later in the game. In spite of everything that has been done to choose the right people and give them a chance to try their skills, people can wind up in the wrong positions. And when that happens, the team suffers.

These situations can be awkward, especially when individuals are oblivious to their limitations. And it can be especially difficult when people have been in their roles for some time, and they feel comfortable and secure. But for a team to reach its potential, fundamental performance problems need to be addressed and resolved.

This is not a question of blaming an individual for a specific mistake or problem. It is a more fundamental question of long-term team effectiveness. And confronting a capability problem does not automatically mean that an individual needs to be removed from the job. It means that performance issues need to be clearly identified and fixed.

The corrective action starts with an honest conversation about performance. The next step can involve training, coaching, or education designed to develop the required skills. Team members who want to perform in a role should be given every opportunity to excel. But people who can't develop the skills to perform need to find another role—or another boat. Teams at The Edge rely on everyone's ability to perform at the highest level. Shortfalls need to be confronted and corrected.

Count the bolts and lighten the boat

In preparing for the Sydney to Hobart Race, I accumulated quite a collection of equipment and special-purpose clothing. I left the States for Australia with a large suitcase and a big sea bag, thinking that I would take the sea bag with me when we sailed south to Hobart.

A few days before the start of the race, the skipper, Goldy, gave everyone on the crew a small waterproof bag. He made it quite clear that everything that we would be allowed to take on the boat had to fit into these standard issue bags.

The bags we were authorized to use were about one-tenth the size of the bag I had thought I would be taking. In retrospect, it was pretty funny that I could have ever imagined fifteen people taking full-size sea bags on this race. Even though this was a 60-foot boat, there just wasn't that much space in the cramped quarters below.

There was room for the things needed to sail the boat, and some of the equipment was heavy. I hesitate to guess how much the giant Anaconda sail weighed. But everything aboard the boat was functional, and crew comfort was not a primary concern. On race day, I stood in line with the other sailors to check in both my suitcase and my sea bag. I wasn't sure how they would get to Hobart, but I knew it wouldn't be aboard the boat that I was sailing on.

Having spent time with the crew of AFR Midnight Rambler, I should have realized long before that speed was good—and excess weight was bad. According to Bob Thomas:

We stripped as much weight out of the boat as we could…. Weight's crucial, and we count the nuts and bolts. We go through everything in that toolbox. We scour the whole boat, looking everywhere. It's amazing how much weight we can get off the boat each year, even though we've owned it for years.²

The fanatical commitment that the Ramblers have to reducing weight holds a lesson for teams. Just as polishing the stove symbolizes the Ramblers’ dedication to careful preparation, counting the bolts represents their commitment to removing anything that might slow them down.

The responsibility for eliminating excess weight belongs to every member of the crew. Teams that aspire to the highest levels of performance need to be on the alert for anything that might hold them back. Even one extra bolt can make a difference.

Use humor to defuse tension

Ed Psaltis is the first to admit that he can get overly excited with the pressure of the race—and he becomes frustrated when things aren't happening fast enough. Although this can lead to some shouting, everyone understands what's going on. Ed's passion to win energizes the team, but he gets carried away. Over time, the crew has learned to handle Ed's outbursts in a good-humored way.

Some of Ed's excited expressions have become standing jokes. Give me 60 feet of rope! is a particular favorite. As Gordo tells it:

Ed will occasionally ask for a sail to come down at the speed of light, and he'll scream “Mix, give me 60 feet!” Mix will be doing his best to manage the process. We'll go around the mark and we'll pack the sail away. Then we'll be sitting up on the rail and Mix or Arthur or I will imitate Ed's performance from a couple of minutes ago. It's a good way to settle the crew down, get everyone back on the same plane, and away we go.³

Give me 60 feet of rope eventually became an all-purpose phrase that, in Ed's vocabulary, translates to Do it now!

Though humor can defuse tension under many circumstances, it can be especially important when the stakes are high. When the Ramblers were fighting constantly changing winds in the Derwent, the pressure was exceptionally intense. They were exhausted from battling the waves and the winds in the Bass Strait, and from incessant sail changes. Pressure was building and frustration was growing.

They had started the race with four winch handles—an essential piece of equipment on a sailboat. Mix had dropped three over the side—or, at least he was alleged to have lost them. So they were left with only one winch handle for the remaining part of the race.

Mix recalls that at one point:

Gordon, the court jester, looked me in the eye said, “Just chuck this one over the side, will you, Mix?” And it made everyone burst into laughter because it was the worst thing I could've possibly done. If I had thrown the last winch handle over the side, we would have had to grind with our fingers—and that would have been a disaster.⁴

Gordon remembers the incident somewhat differently:

It was a good moment because it really reflected how important that winch handle was and yet, we were having a little bit of a joke about it as well. I would state for the record that I don't believe Mix had tossed any winch handles over the side during that race. They just fell over by themselves.⁵

Regardless of whose recollection is more accurate, the point remains: Humor can help alleviate anxiety and mitigate conflict, two strategies necessary for winning teams. As Arthur observed, “You need people on a boat who can recognize the seriousness of a situation, but still be lighthearted. It realigns their concentration!”

Navigation Points

1.  When something goes wrong, does your team focus on solving the problem or finding someone to blame?

2.  Does your team have the right people in the right positions? If there are performance problems, are these issues confronted and addressed?

3.  Does everyone on your team look for things that could slow you down or interfere with performance? Do you count the bolts and lighten the boat?

4.  Is your team able to lighten up and use humor to diffuse tension?