The Championship Secret That Sports Teams Know and Businesses Ignore
- Russell Kern
- Oct 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 13
“This team has always got my back.”
Watch Any Championship Interview
Ask a winning player how they feel in that moment, and you’ll hear some version of the same phrase: “This team always has my back.”
It’s not just athletes being gracious — it’s the fundamental truth about what separates winners from everyone else.
When the New York Liberty won their first WNBA championship, Breanna Stewart didn’t talk about her individual performance. She said:
“I just know my team has my back. Whether it was in Game 1 or missing two shots earlier, it was just a moment, an opportunity that I couldn't let pass by. When your team trusts and believes in you, it gives you even more confidence.”
Now contrast that with the typical business team meeting: Ten talented people around a conference room table. A critical problem to solve.And silence so thick you could cut it with a knife.
What Championship Teams Understand About Collaboration
The Wright brothers didn’t invent flight because they were smarter than everyone else — they collaborated in ways their competitors didn’t.
When they argued over technical issues, they would switch sides, each arguing the other’s viewpoint to test its merit. That wasn’t just a debate — it was intellectual humility in action.
Their complementary skills created a balance neither could achieve alone:
Wilbur provided theoretical direction.
Orville translated concepts into working mechanisms.
Both were stubborn, but their stubbornness was aimed at problems, not each other.
When their 1901 glider failed, they didn’t blame one another — they questioned the data everyone else trusted and built their own wind tunnel to test over 200 wing shapes.
SpaceX operates the same way. When a Starship rocket exploded during testing, they called it a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” — and treated it as a learning opportunity.
The pattern is clear:
Great achievements come from teams that trust each other enough to experiment, fail, learn, and try again — without fear.
The Neuroscience Your Competitors Don’t Know
Here’s something most CEOs miss: Physical proximity triggers neurological changes that make collaboration more natural.
When teams huddle in close proximity, their brains release oxytocin — the trust and bonding molecule. It’s why football teams circle up before every play. It’s why volleyball teams touch hands after every point.
Research shows:
People sitting within 25 feet of high performers improve their own performance by 15%.
Face-to-face teams generate 15–20% more ideas than virtual teams.
Companies that promote collaboration are 5x more likely to be high-performing.
This isn’t about forcing everyone back to the office — it’s about recognizing that our brains evolved for connection, and fighting that biology comes at a cost.
At the Mayo Clinic, cross-disciplinary morning huddles improved:
Patient outcomes
Satisfaction
Cost efficiency
Burnout rates
Because those huddles build trust, clarify communication, and create shared accountability.
The Hidden Cost of Low Collaboration
Research by David Grossman found something staggering: A survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each revealed an average loss of $62.4 million per year due to inadequate communication.
That’s not a rounding error — it’s the cost of teams that can’t collaborate effectively.
Only 7% of U.S. employees strongly agree that workplace communication is effective. That’s not isolated — it’s systemic failure.
The consequences:
Innovation stalls — people won’t share ideas
Problems fester — teams won’t raise concerns
Decisions slow — trust is missing
Talent leaves — engagement suffers
The advantages of high collaboration:
73% higher employee engagement
43% faster problem-solving
50 minutes saved per day, per person
60% increase in innovation
67% more knowledge sharing
When Ideation Meets Collaboration
Joretha Johnson, former president of the OD Network, taught me something crucial: Great leaders know when to shift between ideation and collaboration.
Ideation
Use when pieces of the solution are missing. Encourage wild ideas, use structured brainstorming, and focus on quantity over quality.
Collaboration
Use when the team has resources and clarity. Refine ideas, align strategies, and execute.
The mistake most leaders make? They collaborate when they should ideate — or ideate when they should collaborate.
Knowing which mode your team needs separates good leaders from great ones.
What This Means for Your Business
If your competitors are pulling ahead while your teams struggle to innovate, the answer isn’t different people — it’s different conditions.
Start here:
Create proximity opportunities — even hybrid teams need face time.
Build psychological safety — start small before expecting big breakthroughs.
Know when to ideate vs. collaborate — match the method to the moment.
Measure collaboration quality, not just quantity — are your teams working together or just meeting together?
When the Dodgers won the 2024 World Series, it wasn’t because they had the most talented roster. It was because Dave Roberts built a culture where players completely trusted each other.
He communicates with each player differently. He makes it about the team, not himself.
That’s the secret championship teams know — and most businesses ignore:
Trust and collaboration aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re the foundation everything else is built on.
Russell M. Kern is the CEO of Kern and Partners. A workforce consultancy expert in Human+AI Collaboration skill development. Russell is the author of TRANSFORM or DIE: How to build teams that outthink, outpace, and outprofit the competition in the AI Age. He can be reached at russell@kernandpartners.com.
