By Steven Cohen, Ph.D., Director of the M.S. in Sustainability Management program, School of Professional Studies
If you work as I do on issues of environmental protection and sustainability management, you know that individual expertise is insufficient when working to address these complex issues. Back in the late 1990s, when current Arizona State University President Michael Crow was Columbia’s Vice Provost, he created what at first was called the “Global Systems Initiative,” eventually evolving into the Columbia Earth Institute. Mike gathered experts in environmental science, engineering, law, health, economics, public policy, management, ecology, and other disciplines to work together to address what we eventually called sustainable development. Crow is that rare person who combines vision with management and street smarts and somehow managed to herd scores of academic individualists into a herd of problem solvers. Many world-class experts do not play well with others, but when leadership emphasizes mission and people learn to appreciate talents that they admire but do not possess, teamwork can flourish. Crow inspired and led the creation of that interdisciplinary community, a team with a world-saving mission.
Social science experts became natural science students, ecologists learned about the importance of global supply chains, and together we learned, researched, and taught together in common purpose. I learned about El Niño from Mark Cane and about the role of the ocean in global climate from Wally Broecker. Robin Bell explained polar ice sheets and advanced the role of women in science. I learned about the health impact of air pollution from Pat Kinney and about water infrastructure from Manu Lau. Vijay Modi explained how solar energy could be deployed in African villages. Shahid Naeem explained the interconnectedness of biodiversity, and Ruth DeFries explained how humans develop food systems. Scott Barret explained global environmental diplomacy, and Mike Gerrard provided all of us with a deep understanding of American environmental law. Jeff Sachs pulled it all together under an umbrella he called sustainable development. It took a village, a community, and a team.
Teamwork is not a new subject for me. I’ve noted on many occasions that collaboration is my own preferred mode of work. Most of the articles and books I’ve published are co-authored because I prefer to work as part of a team. I’ve enjoyed four decades of collaboration with Bill Eimicke, and in one of our early works, Tools for Innovators, we discussed “team management” as a central management tool alongside other tools such as total quality management, reengineering, benchmarking, strategic planning, and contracting out. My broader management argument is that modern public, nonprofit, and private organizations face problems too complex to be addressed by lone actors or rigid hierarchies. In Management Fundamentals, Eimicke and I frame management around how organizations work across sectors, distance, and challenges by working in problem-solving teams.
I also connect teamwork to diversity and anti-groupthink. Diverse boards and workers bring more brainpower and different life experiences to organizational challenges, while less diverse organizations tend toward insularity and groupthink. In global competition, a diverse team built from the best talent is likely to outperform a more homogeneous but less talented one. When different challenges are presented to the group, different individuals with unique life experiences and skill sets come forward and take the lead. In any given situation, someone different will take the lead and be the temporary star of the show.
For many years, I taught a case study about the “West Point Crew Team” and a strategic choice the team’s coach had to make for the “big meet.” (Snook, Scott A., and Jeffrey T. Polzer. "Army Crew Team, The." Harvard Business School Case 403-131, January 2003.) The Crew Team had an “A” team of big, burly starters, each stronger than the next. It also had a “B” team of smaller and weaker substitutes whose motto was “nothing to lose.” In practice sessions, the B team kept beating the A team. The B team worked in synch and perfect harmony and rowed as a single entity. The A team kept competing with each other and couldn’t row in a straight line. The case ended with the coach trying to figure out which team to start in the meet, and a generation of my management students had to help the coach make the big decision. The case is about the importance of working together. Another teamwork story I remember was a review of a concert by one of my favorite musical groups, “The Band.” The review noted how the group set up in a semi-circle so they could all face each other to ensure good communication during the performance. It also noted that on each song, a different band member seemed to be the star. On one song, it was “Rick’s (Danko) band,” on another, the band belonged to Levon (Helm). On other songs, the spotlight fell on Robbie (Robertson) or Garth (Hudson). Their concert was beautiful and inspiring to see and hear. The sum of the whole was far greater than the sum of the parts.
That, of course, brings us to the 2026 New York Knicks and particularly the incredible evening of game four last Wednesday evening at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks, given up for dead, engineered the greatest comeback in NBA finals history. There are many explanations for why this happened, but I’m most persuaded by my favorite sports columnist, Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal. According to Gay:
“It was as if San Antonio had not rented the movie all of us had seen before, about how these reborn Knicks are never really out of anything, how they will slowly crawl back into unwinnable games until they are somehow winnable. They seem to enjoy the riddle, the ritual of digging themselves out of self-inflicted trouble—the crowd roaring back to life, the panicked look in their opponents’ eyes as they grind down another double-digit lead. “Hit singles, get on base,” is how Knicks star Jalen Brunson explains it, borrowing a ballpark metaphor. “Make some plays.” The Knicks couldn’t do it again, could they? They did it again. This time the Knicks crawled all the way home to prevail in the final seconds, 107-106, in one of the craziest rallies in league history…. Most of the credit should go to Brunson and OG Anunoby—Brunson for again dragging New York’s carcass back into a contest, and the under-heralded Anunoby for leaping up for a rebound and put back for the winning bucket with less than 2 seconds left. I will credit that deep Knicks roster (New York played three centers) and that team ethos of chip, chip, chipping away. I will herald the expert coaching and composure from New York’s Mike Brown, who refused to let the bungee cord go.”
Just like The Band way back when: At one point, it was Brunson’s Knicks, then it was OG’s, later it was KAT’s, then Hart’s, and suddenly the spotlight is on Shamet, Robinson, Alverado, Bridges, Harper, Clarkson, or whoever Coach Brown sent in from the bench. Each member of the team was looking to help or be helped by their teammate. No one sought the spotlight, each player passing and passing the ball until someone found an opening. Even against the best young talent in the league, a seven-foot four-inch giant who at 22 years old is already dominating the game, this Knicks team figured out a way to defeat a transcendent star. That was never more apparent than during the final game, when the Knicks delivered their first championship in over half a century and the Spurs’ petulant superstar Victor Wembanyama walked off the court without congratulating the winning team.
While I hope that kids model their demeanor after Brunson rather than Wembanyama, I understand that this is a narcissistic and self-absorbed era, as pointed out by Conan O’Brien during his wonderful commencement address this year at Harvard. As reported by Christina Pazzanese of the Harvard Gazette:
“Your real education starts now, with friends you’ve made and friends you get to meet, with stunning successes and miserable defeats, and with a humble acceptance that your greatness comes from the mess around you, not despite it,” O’Brien said. He was quick to note that he was speaking from deep experience, crediting his own successes to help he’s received from “an infinitely packed clown car of multitudes” — and to luck. In that spirit, he urged his audience to resist the “extreme narcissism” of the times, with pointed reference to U.S. leaders and smartphone-fueled self-absorption. “Many people are happy to mistake the lucky poker hand for their own brilliance, and fighting that human instinct has kept me sane,” he said. “I honestly believe that community, spontaneity, and a real commitment to humility have helped me build a rich life.”
The value of community, teamwork, interdependence, listening, and learning can never be underestimated. There is this long-standing contradiction in human nature: we all want to be noticed and the center of attention, and we all want to be accepted members of the group, able to fit in with everyone else. I am not arguing against individual achievement and individuality: that should be celebrated. But in the complex modern world, individuality must be embedded in a sense of community best realized by diverse and well-coached teams. When I listened to the Knicks team in their post-game press conferences, I was struck by their affection for each other and their sincere humility. They refused to criticize their opponents and resisted premature celebration. We all have something to learn from this remarkable team.
Views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Columbia School of Professional Studies or Columbia University.
About the Program
The Columbia University M.S. in Sustainability Management program offered by the School of Professional Studies in partnership with the Climate School provides students cutting-edge policy and management tools they can use to help public and private organizations and governments address environmental impacts and risks, pollution control, and remediation to achieve sustainability. The program is customized for working professionals and is offered as both a full- and part-time course of study.
