The Flow of Great Teams

We love stories like David and Goliath, when the underdog upsets the giant. 

It’s why we love the NCAA men’s and woman’s basketball tournaments, even if we don’t enjoy the sport. The tournament provides us with underdogs, who fight the giants and sometimes come out ahead.

Powerhouse Kentucky loses to little Oakland University from Michigan.

Yale, known for more Pulitzer Prize winners than NBA stars, defeats Auburn.

Tiny James Madison from Harrisonburg, Va., beats the University of Wisconsin. 

The list goes on. 

When you factor in the “David-type schools” don’t have the funding to provide major financial help to their star players the way the powerhouses can, it makes their winning even more astounding. 

According to reports, Kentucky spent over $20 million on its men’s basketball program, while Oakland spent slightly over $2 million. 

Why do we love the David stories?

Steve Kotler, author of the Art of Impossible, believes “Pulling off the impossible — or, for that matter, significantly leveling up your own game — absolutely requires flow, but it also requires training up many of the same skills that flow amplifies motivation, learning, and creativity.” 

He adds, “Motivation is what gets you into this game; learning is what helps you continue to play; creativity is how you steer; and flow is how you turbo-boost the results beyond all rational standards and reasonable expectations.”

Our brains get excited when we watch these upsets because we witness everything that Kotler writes. Talented teams can be motivated to win; yet they aren’t always motivated to learn. 

Some talented players have been pampered for most of their careers, which stifles learning and creativity. According to Kotler, learning is the key to unlocking our full potential. 

When a player doesn’t crave learning, it then curtails his/her curiosity, passion and purpose.

This then eliminates the most critical part of doing the impossible: Getting into the flow state. 

As we have seen throughout the tournament thus far, money can buy talent. But It cannot buy the willingness to learn, accept coaching and fight off contentment. 

Experience matters, as does being coached over an extended period of time.

“The era of taking young talented players and beating older players in college basketball is over,” former Villanova Coach turned CBS studio analyst Jay Wright said.

“The guys playing for Kentucky will be far better pros than any of these guys on Oakland but they are too young. It’s not John Calipari’s fault, it because they are eighteen years old, they lack discipline, experience. There in this era of everyone telling them how great they are, just show up and you will win and it doesn’t happen that way.” 

In other words, what Wright is saying is that everyone needs to be coached and isn’t a ready-made product. Don’t count on winning any titles with those who believe they are.

All of us who admire great teams and great upsets really admire “Flow.” 

It’s what coaching and leading are all about. 

And when we see it, we love it. 

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