The Boys in the Boat chronicles the highly challenging journey of the eight-person U.S. rowing team that won Olympic gold in 1936 with a mere 0.6-second lead over Italy’s crew and a 1.0-second lead over Germany’s. The book deals with perhaps the most difficult dilemma facing most modern organizations, corporations, sports teams or even families: creating a dual culture focusing on the team (“we, we, we”) and on the team’s individual performers (“me, me, me”). In many modern organizations, high-performing individuals work essentially for their own interests, yet the organization’s overall performance is far from guaranteed. Similarly, focusing on the team alone may result in an unsatisfactory performance. Organizational cultures that combine these perspectives, however, often gain energy and improved performance!
The Boys in the Boat came recommended to me by Mr. Carl Elsener, CEO of Victorinox. The book is not new, but it touches on fundamental dilemmas facing top executives. We can learn a lot from how the team of U.S. oarsmen handled this dilemma to achieve their top performance.
The Setting
The U.S. rowing team came from the University of Washington on the West Coast. All the crewmembers came from working-class backgrounds, and the Great Depression had just ended in 1936. The legendary Al Ulbrickson, of Danish descent, coached the team. The book describes how this group of eight gradually melded to form a superb rowing team that gradually mastered a combination of physical strength and technical superiority. It took a lot of training!
A series of tough races lay ahead, culminating with winning the U.S. qualifier at Poughkeepsie (ahead of the favourites from the University of Pennsylvania) and the introductory round at the 1936 Olympics (surprisingly ahead of the U.K. team). Finally, their ultimate triumph was winning the Olympic gold medal in rowing eight on August 13, 1936 at Grünau Lake in Berlin.
The Dilemma: “me, me, me” and “we, we, we”!
Why is balance so difficult to achieve? What might we learn from the U.S. rowing team’s experience? At least five critical success factors, all vividly exemplified and elaborated in the book, should be discussed:
A shared culture. The rowing crew’s members all had blue-collar backgrounds and were very tightly knit. The particular socioeconomic class the team members come from may not be critical, but I find their shared vision very important. Today, we rightly strive for diverse teams, but we must not forget the unifying force of a shared corporate culture, vision, and mission.
The coach. The coach matters! Al Ulbrickson, the coach of the winning U.S. rowing eight, didn’t just teach his team members the various technicalities of rowing—he also inspired them to handle setbacks and to “do best when it matters.” He was always available when it mattered, and he played a major role in orchestrating all aspects of his team´s preparations and performance. Thus, we see that the coach’s top-down emphasis allowed the rowers to achieve ambitious performance goals. A productive coach can clearly instill strong team performance!
Tough periods. The book details how the team confronted and coped with various problems, even crises; for instance, the difficult economic realities facing the eights rowing team included expensive travels, being away from work, and more. Most of today’s leading athletes do not face these issues, of course, because sports are generally much better funded today. But things were different in 1936! Paradoxically, overabundant funding often negatively affects teams. Easy funding may hamper creativity or induce sloppiness, for instance. The U.S. eight rowing crew of 1936 certainly did not have to deal with this issue; all the team members were facing the same challenging economic parameters. These hard times seem to have resulted in toughness—a fighting spirit. Tough rowing competitions helped further “harden” the team spirit. Such competitions included being confronted with superb coaches almost of the same caliber as Al Ulbrickson!
Standing up for each other. Reading about how close the team members were is remarkable. They stood up for each other as in a family. Furthermore, when the stroke, Don Hume, suffered a respiratory ailment during the Olympic competition in Berlin, teammate Joe Rantz was ready to step in. An eight rowing team consists of a coach—the equivalent of a Chairman of the board in a corporation—and on the boat, the cox is like the CEO and issues orders from the helm. The stroke, then, is second from the helm and acts as the President, implementing the orders, with the crew following the lead of the stroke. Hume was ultimately able to row, but he became so exhausted that he collapsed after the Olympic semi-final and seemed to black out during the final. Again, another team member was ready to take over as the stroke, but this was not necessary in the end as Hume recovered in time!
Social network. All the crew members found meaningful career opportunities after the team’s achievement. There was broad societal support and appreciation for the team; not only in the Seattle area, but across the nation. The team members must have felt this support, and a sense of security undoubtedly resulted. No one seemed to worry about what would come next!
Relevance Today
This book is relevant for most of us. As business people, we can learn from the extraordinary journey of nine working-class youths who exchanged sweat and tears for ultimate glory in the 1936 Olympics. This high-performing team can teach us several lessons on coping with the “me, me, me” vs. “we, we, we” dilemma and on coming up with a productive balance, which is the only way to ensure top performance!
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