The Dangers of ‘Us Against The World!’

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   Teams  

In the sports arena, the language of teams can be fairly confrontational. The very concept of team sports is based on victory and defeat, winners and losers. It’s therefore understandable that to motivate those teams, coaches talk in similar language—ideas of the team “uniting against a common enemy” or of “defeating the opponent.”

I see a lot of project managers try to motivate their own teams in the same way, and for the same reasons. We all know projects often succeed or fail based largely on the strength of the team. Given that the “us against them” or “us against the world” mindset works in a sports setting, then surely it can also work in a business setting for project teams.

And it can. But there are some dangers with it that don’t exist—or at least aren’t as important—in a sports setting.

Who or what is “the enemy”?
Firstly, project managers have to be very careful when framing the concept of an enemy. In a sports environment, at least on the field or arena of play, it’s acceptable to think of the opposing team as an enemy. There is still a degree of respect that should drive a minimally acceptable standard of behavior, but it really is a confrontational environment. In business projects though, the opponent or enemy is a little harder to define.

It’s…

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