This week I attended the EMEA launch of Microsoft Teams, a group chat in the Office 365 suite, Microsofts answer to Slack. The demos and workshops around the digital workplace have been nothing special . What made the event memorable was a keynote on teamwork from Hans-Dieter Hermann, the sports psychologist of the German national soccer team.
He shared some stories on teamwork experienced by his work with sports teams and athletes. I want to share two stories with you.
Source: Pixabay
His first story was on courage and motivation. He talked about German Bundesliga teams coming to Allianz Arena to play Bayern Munich. You hear „We never won at Allianz Arena“ or „Hope it won’t be a blowout like last year“. Now imagine yourself in the hospital and you hear the doctor saying to his assistant: „It never went well in operating room 3“ or „Hope it won’t be a disaster like last time“. I’m sensitized to my pessimistic thoughts now and try to avoid self-fulfilling prophecy.
The second story is again from football. But this time about American football. It is about Benjamin Watson from the New England Patriots, but see yourself:
Video-Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsZCTzYNBQE
Like in American football we are often so hung up in business on „tactical moves“ and „playbooks“. But Ben Watson proves that it just takes courage and going beyond his „job description“. Do you know somebody like Ben Watson in your organisation? You are a Ben yourself? Share your stories in the comments!