Forming, storming, norming & performing with your sailing team

Forming, storming, norming & performing with your sailing team © Bruce Durkee

There are many kinds of sailing teams – junior summer travel teams, Opti teams, high school teams, college teams, doublehanded teams, team race teams, keelboat teams, big boat teams, Olympic teams, America's Cup teams, and so on. All kinds of teams go through stages of development: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.

Forming

In forming your sailing team, you literally grow. You are now two, instead of one (or, you are many more). You each bring different factors to the table. Not only do you have different skill sets (e.g., helmsperson, trimmer and bow), you possess different values (e.g., integrity, having fun, family and winning), you have different personalities (e.g., extroverts and introverts), and you may come from different cultures (e.g., age cohorts or different countries), and you possess different psychophysiological tendencies.

Skill Sets: Rationally, a combo of different skill sets is needed for team success. But insecurities can slip into the mix, especially when competing for certain roles. Jealousy, envy, "imposter syndrome," or other forms of feeling threatened can pop up, but shared values make it easier to let these emotions pass, and to focus on what's important to the collective you.

Values: If you value success, you might put that value ahead of others. An interesting (though evolving) thing about the sailing culture, is that having a good time sometimes ranks higher for some folks than performing up to one's capabilities. Perhaps it's self-handicapping, but how often have you heard, "well at least we won the party!" In fact, I remember a (foreign) friend recounting his experience at the '96 Olympics, telling me it was the most amazing party, noting that he "was not going to podium, and sailing doesn't typically lead to making money, so why wouldn't you party while you were there?" Some sailors value money, comradery, or feeling good above success. But if you value sailing success over other values, then it might be important to find other people who also value success. Similarly, if you value civility above sailing success, this might be another important selection consideration (and these values do not have to be incompatible).

Personality: Teams consist of different personalities and Myers Briggs (a popular personality inventory) can help us characterize them, according to four scales. The Extroversion/Introversion scale suggests that one naturally attends to and is energized by either the outside world or their inner world. For instance, an Introvert might manage to spend much of their day tuned into shifts way up the course (without over-analyzing in his/her head), and then act social at the party, but then also need their "alone time" to re-energize. The Sensing/Intuiting scale helps us understand how information is processed. Your teammates might tune heavily into their Senses (e.g., smelling the salty sea breeze filling in and feeling the cool air) or they might Intuitively zip to the big picture (e.g., "go right"). Considering the Thinking/Feeling scale, a Thinker might make carefully calculated tactical decisions, whereas a Feeler might move forward with a decision because it "feels right." Finally, the Judging/Perceiving scale is a way to categorize one's planning style. "J's" might plan regatta schedule/flights/accommodations in advance, whereas "P's" may keep their options open till the last minute. There is no one "right" personality style, or team of different styles, but personality combinations will certainly affect your group dynamic!

Culture: Team culture can be hugely impacted by age cohort and country of origin. Ask sailors of different age groups, "what's fast?" and they may either share everything that has been tried since the 1970's or want to cut to the chase and describe the mast bend they achieved today, or perhaps avoid answering right away, or respond indirectly by tuning into relevant material on social media. With recent America's Cups campaigns being composed of international teams, culturally based communication challenges have arisen. Many sailors have come from individualistic countries where folks tend to believe that people control what happens to them, by taking steps like working hard and standing out. This trait differs from a collectivistic perspective, where people may be more apt to value conformity, harmony, and fitting in.

Views on power structures can also differ. Some cultures value hierarchical power structures, whereas others prefer egalitarian structures where everyone has a voice. Even here in the U.S. with different American teams, I have noticed that some boats like tacticians to unilaterally make decisions, whereas others like to make decisions by committee. There are pros and cons to each style, but no one "right" approach.

Finally, cultures may be more "masculine" or "feminine." Masculine cultures value assertiveness, toughness, and wealth among men, while expecting modesty and tenderness among women. Feminine cultures, on the other hand, lean towards having men and women embracing tenderness. No question, a team member's cohort and origin will factor into your team dynamics.

Psychophysiology: One more team factor to consider are different physiological profiles coming together. Some people perform better calm, while others perform better amped up. If you picture an "inverted U" graph where the Y-Axis is performance and the X-Axis is how amped you are, most people perform best when they are somewhat amped but not extremely amped; everybody's profile looks different and it can depend on factors such as breeze (look carefully at profile examples below to make this more concrete).

How amped you are? - photo © Tim Herzog

How amped you are affects attention and, in turn, performance. Not amped enough, and attention may wander all over. Too amped up, and attention may be narrowly focused, likely on the wrong thing (e.g., what happened last race, or your partner's imperfect performances).

Storming

Different skill sets, values, personality, culture and psychophysiology will inevitably play into some degree of "storming," tension or even conflict, as the team works towards establishing its collective identity and a set of norms.

Teams ultimately develop norms for communication, ideally with intentionality. Too direct can feel aggressive and too cooperative can feel passive. Optimally, a balance is struck between being direct and cooperative. This "true" assertiveness requires practice plus emotional intelligence, being able to empathically tune into (not necessarily agree with) your team member's perceptions. Pressures play into the nuances of how this is achieved; it requires being able to quickly tune inwards and self-regulate, while also tuning outwards to your teammate, the boat, and beyond.

One Thinker/Feeler Olympian team I've worked with could experience tension because the Feeler sometimes cannot explain decision rationale. However, they're both seasoned enough to know that gut instincts can be incredibly fast... unless instincts are clouded by dysregulation (on the right side of the inverted U) and impulsiveness. With this team and others, communication plays a role in where they each are on their inverted U. Awareness of self, partner(s), and the bigger picture is key. A nmemonic I developed to help guide focus is "USODA." This is not a reference to Optimist Dinghies; remembering USODA is a way to repeatedly steer attention to five useful domains: 1) Inverted U; 2) Boat Speed; 3) Offense (Strategy); 4) Defense (Tactics); and 5) Agility.

I recall a time when my college coach had me sailing with an ex-girlfriend shortly after break-up; both of us were on the right side of our respective "U's" going into a team race event. My other teammates were pulling off 1-2 finishes while we consistently got smoked. Dialogue went something like: "Your pinching!" and "I know, because you're not hiking!" Both of us dysregulated, it felt impossible to focus on boat speed, offense, defense, or agility. During a break, I focused on my breathing and cleared my thoughts; we headed back out. Again she said, "you're pinching!" This time, I responded, "Okay." She looked back in shock; I smiled because I'd let go of the power struggle. Instantly, we stopped pinching, hiked harder, looked outside the boat, sailed faster, and were consistently in first. I've worked with other teams who developed cues to let go of power struggles to resume attention on USODA. One team enjoyed yelling, "banana peel!" as if to say, "we're triggering each other but I'm going to stop throwing (metaphorical) banana peels for you to slip on; I'm done with the blame game."

On the one hand, Olympians and other elite athletes often perform, in part, because they allow themselves some self-absorption. But, best coaches are often good partly because of selflessness. When you get two or more elite athletes together, it gets complicated; each will thrive with a little self-absorption, and each also needs to step it up somewhat, as the selfless coach.

Norming and Performing

Ultimately, your team will settle into a set of behavioral norms. Periodically, norms should be re-examined so adaptive norms are intentionally cultivated. Is there any harm in talking about your communication patterns? What can shift? I have been on boats where people initially looked at me like I had three heads when I brought up our communication dynamic as part of the debrief ritual, and then they got used to it... and excelled because of it. This stuff doesn't have to dominate all conversations, but you shouldn't be afraid of these conversations. Good teams talk about values and the process of functioning as a team, dealing with their own insecurities, making space for different personalities, embracing other cohorts and cultures, and contributing to everyone's psychophysiological functioning and performance. Optimal performance for your team can become a trained habit, not a coincidence.

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