Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/112426
Feature Shining a Light on the Dark Side of Teams: Seven Lessons the Business World Can Learn from the Downfall of Lance Armstrong Teams are more than the sum of their parts. Yet when the ���dark side��� is allowed to flourish���as in the case of Lance Armstrong���great harm can result. Here, bestselling author Bruce Piasecki explains how to make sure your team is working from a positive place and focused on the good of all. O JOBS for TEAMS ver the past few months, sports fans around the world have watched the downfall of the most celebrated cyclist of all time: Lance Armstrong. Just last week his televised confession interview with Oprah Winfrey���where he admitted to doping, using blood transfusions, and more���riveted the public. But what interests Bruce Piasecki most about the Armstrong story are the lessons it offers the business world about the nature of teams. ���Over the years I���ve come to realize a truth that has permeated every aspect of my work and my life,��� says Piasecki, author of the upcoming book Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning (Wiley, March 2013, ISBN: 978-1-1184849-5-1, $25.00, www.brucepiasecki.com). ���The team is more powerful than the individual. Teams expand the human experience. They extend our wings in practical, pragmatic, and measurable ways. People who would not normally be able to succeed alone���the planners, the doers, those who lack the internal spark to market themselves���can reap the bene���ts of success in the context of teams. ���Yet many teams have a dark side,��� he adds. ���When these darker impulses are allowed to eclipse the joyful transcendence that teamwork can bring, great harm can result. Evil deeds ���ourish. People get hurt. Lance Armstrong is just one very dramatic and very visible example of what can go wrong with teams.��� In his book, Piasecki has much to say about Armstrong. He cites the 200-pluspage report that was published and released in 2012 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency about this most favored athlete. Twenty-six competitors (including a deliberate mix of direct teammates and key opposing team riders) veri���ed the claims of what the New York Times called ���a massive doping scheme, more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history.��� In particular, eleven world-class teammates from the Lance Armstrong teams documented how all the doping was centered around and for Lance. Most damning, George Hincapie, Armstrong���s closest friend and fellow teammate during each of his seven Tour de France victories, confessed to doping with Armstrong. The U.S. | 22 JobsForTeams0113_Feature.indd 1 www.jobsforteams.com 2/4/13 8:45 AM