What is it?

This is a 120-minute interactive workshop that uses the story of the 1936 US Olympic rowing team to explore what makes teams perform at their peak. Participants will discover the concept of "swing" - the rare state where individuals move as one and results exceed what anyone could achieve alone. Through assessment, discussion, and practical exercises, teams will identify what's helping and hindering their own swing, and commit to specific actions to strengthen their collective performance.

Why is it useful?

Most teams focus on individual performance and hope collaboration follows. This workshop flips that approach. Drawing from Satya Nadella's favourite leadership book (Satya is Microsoft's CEO), participants will explore how trust, ego surrender, shared rhythm, willingness to sacrifice, and honest communication combine to create exceptional team performance. They'll leave with a shared language for discussing team dynamics and concrete commitments to improve how they work together.

Target Audience

• Intact teams wanting to improve their collaboration
• Newly formed teams building their working relationships
• Teams recovering from conflict or poor performance
• Leaders wanting to facilitate honest conversations about team dynamics
• L&D professionals seeking fresh approaches to team development
• Consultants working with teams on effectiveness

Workshop Objectives

• Understand the conditions required for exceptional team performance
• Honestly assess where the team currently stands across five key dimensions
• Identify the specific behaviours helping and hindering the team's "swing"
• Create shared commitments to strengthen team collaboration
• Establish accountability mechanisms for follow-through

Summary

Duration: 120 minutes
Group Size: 8-16 people
Format: In-person, highly interactive

Materials Needed

• Flipchart paper and markers (multiple colours)
• Printed Swing Assessment Cards (one set per participant)
• Printed Finding Swing Framework handout (one per participant)
• Printed Boat Challenge Scenario Cards (one per small group)
• Printed Team Commitment Charter (one per team)
• Sticky notes (one colour)
• Pens for all participants
• Timer or phone for activity timing
• Masking tape for creating a floor scale

Process

Step 1: The Impossible Victory (10 mins)

Goal: Hook participants with the story and introduce the concept of swing.

Activity:

1. Open with this context: "In 1936, nine working-class boys from the American West did something impossible. They beat the elite rowing teams of the world and won Olympic gold. None of them were wealthy. None were privileged. Most had never been in a boat before university. When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft, this wasn't the business book he reached for. This was. He called it 'a wonderful illustration of the importance of teamwork.'"
2. Share this key concept: "The rowers discovered something called 'swing.' It's the moment when nine individuals stop being nine individuals and become one. The boat lifts. It glides. Everything that felt like grinding effort suddenly feels effortless. But here's the thing: swing cannot be forced. It only emerges when ego disappears and trust takes over."
3. Pose this question to the group: "Think about a moment when your team was in swing - when everything clicked and you performed beyond what seemed possible. What did it feel like?"
4. Allow 30 seconds of silent reflection, then invite three or four people to share briefly.
5. Transition: "Today we're going to explore what creates swing, honestly assess where this team stands, and commit to specific actions to help us find it more often."

Debrief Questions:

• What do the moments of swing have in common?
• How often does your team experience this state?
• What seems to trigger it or prevent it?

Step 2: The Five Conditions for Swing (15 mins)

Goal: Introduce the framework that will structure the rest of the workshop.

Activity:

1. Distribute the Finding Swing Framework handout to each participant.
2. Introduce the five conditions that the 1936 crew demonstrated and that research on high-performing teams confirms:
   • Trust: Each rower must trust that every other rower will give their full effort on every stroke. Without this, people hold back or compensate.
   • Ego Surrender: The moment a rower thinks about their individual performance, they disrupt the boat. Swing requires letting go of personal recognition.
   • Shared Rhythm: Every oar must enter and exit the water at exactly the same moment. This requires acute awareness of everyone else.
   • Willingness to Sacrifice: Rowing at elite level is physically brutal. Each rower must push through pain for the sake of the crew.
   • Honest Communication: The coxswain calls what they see, even when uncomfortable. Problems are named and addressed, not ignored.
3. For each condition, give a brief example from the book or from workplace teams.
4. Ask participants to look at the self-assessment questions on their handout. Give them 2 minutes to read through and reflect individually.
5. Take a quick temperature check: "Without discussing specifics yet, raise your hand if you think this team has room to grow in at least two of these dimensions." Acknowledge the response.

Debrief Questions:

• Which of these conditions resonates most with your experience of great teams?
• Which condition do you think is hardest to achieve?
• How do these conditions relate to each other?

Step 3: The Honest Assessment (25 mins)

Goal: Create a clear, shared picture of where the team currently stands across all five dimensions.

Activity:

1. Distribute the Swing Assessment Cards to each participant.
2. Explain: "You're each going to rate our team on each of the five dimensions, from 1 to 10. Be honest. This only works if we tell the truth about where we are. There are no wrong answers - we're trying to get a real picture, not a flattering one."
3. Give participants 8 minutes to work through all five assessment cards individually, rating the team and jotting notes on each dimension.
4. Create a visual display on flipchart paper: draw five columns, one for each dimension. Label them clearly.
5. For each dimension in turn:
   • Ask everyone to call out their score simultaneously on the count of three
   • Record all scores in the relevant column
   • Calculate and note the range and rough average
   • If there's significant variation (more than 3 points between scores), pause and ask: "We see different things here. Without judgment, what might explain that difference?"
6. Once all scores are displayed, stand back and look at the pattern together.
7. Ask: "Looking at this picture, what do you notice? What surprises you? What concerns you?"
8. Identify the dimension with the lowest average score or the greatest variation. This becomes the focus for the next exercise.

Debrief Questions:

• Where did we agree most strongly?
• Where do we see things differently, and why might that be?
• If we could only work on one dimension, which would have the biggest impact?

Step 4: The Boat Challenge (25 mins)

Goal: Apply the swing concepts to realistic team challenges through structured discussion.

Activity:

1. Divide participants into groups of four or five people.
2. Distribute one Boat Challenge Scenario Card to each group. Each group gets a different scenario.
3. Explain: "Each scenario describes a team facing a challenge to their swing. Your job is to discuss the situation using the framework we've learned. Consider: What's really going on here? What would help this team find swing? What would a crew of rowers do in an equivalent situation?"
4. Groups discuss their scenario for 12 minutes.
5. Bring everyone back together. Each group has 3 minutes to:
   • Briefly describe their scenario
   • Share their key insight about what would help the team find swing
   • Connect it to their own team's situation if relevant
6. After all groups have shared, facilitate a brief discussion: "What patterns do you notice across these scenarios? What keeps showing up?"
7. Capture the key insights on flipchart paper.

Debrief Questions:

• What made these scenarios difficult to solve?
• How did the swing framework help you think about the problems differently?
• Which scenario felt most relevant to challenges your own team faces?

Step 5: Our Swing Blockers and Builders (20 mins)

Goal: Get specific about what's helping and hindering this team's swing right now.

Activity:

1. Return to the assessment results from Step 3. Identify the one or two dimensions where the team scored lowest or showed most variation.
2. Create two flipchart sheets side by side. Label one "Swing Blockers" and the other "Swing Builders."
3. Give each participant three sticky notes.
4. Ask participants to write one thing per sticky note:
   • One specific behaviour, habit, or pattern that blocks our team's swing
   • One specific behaviour, habit, or pattern that helps our team find swing
   • One thing we're not doing that could help us find swing more often
5. Give 4 minutes for individual writing.
6. One at a time, participants place their sticky notes on the appropriate flipchart and briefly explain their thinking (30 seconds each).
7. As patterns emerge, group similar sticky notes together. Name the clusters.
8. Once all notes are placed, review together: "Looking at this picture, what's the most important blocker we need to address? What's the most important builder we need to protect or strengthen?"
9. Use dot voting if needed: give each person two dots to place on the items they think are most critical. One dot for the most important blocker, one for the most important builder.

Debrief Questions:

• Were there any surprises in what people shared?
• How honest were we able to be?
• What would it take to address our top blocker?

Step 6: The Team Charter (25 mins)

Goal: Create concrete, shared commitments with built-in accountability.

Activity:

1. Distribute one Team Commitment Charter to the group (or display on screen if working with one team).
2. Based on the assessment and discussion, the team now selects one dimension to focus on strengthening over the next month.
3. Facilitate a discussion to complete the charter together:
   • Which dimension will we focus on? (Take a vote if needed)
   • Why did we choose this dimension? (Capture the reasoning)
   • What will we START doing? (One or two specific behaviours)
   • What will we STOP doing? (One or two specific behaviours)
   • What will we CONTINUE doing? (One or two things that are already working)
   • How will we know it's working? (Observable signs of progress)
4. Agree on a check-in date (suggest 3-4 weeks out) and who will call the check-in meeting.
5. Have each team member sign the charter as a visible commitment.
6. Close with this thought: "The 1936 crew didn't find swing by accident. They built it through deliberate practice, honest feedback, and absolute commitment to each other. You've just made a commitment to do the same."

Debrief Questions:

• How confident are you that we'll follow through on these commitments?
• What might get in the way, and how will we handle it?
• What support do we need from each other to make this work?

Secret Sauce

• The story matters: Don't skip or rush the opening. The narrative of working-class kids beating the world's elite creates emotional resonance that makes the concepts stick. If participants seem sceptical, mention that Satya Nadella chose this book specifically for its teamwork lessons.
• Protect the honest assessment: Some participants will be tempted to score high to avoid difficult conversations. Emphasise that inflated scores waste everyone's time. Consider having people write scores before revealing, to reduce groupthink.
• Score variation is data: When scores differ significantly on a dimension, resist the urge to average them away. The variation itself reveals something important about different experiences or perspectives within the team.
• Watch for blame: In the Swing Blockers exercise, some people will write about what others do wrong. Gently redirect: "What could you personally do differently?" The goal is shared ownership, not finger-pointing.
• The charter must be specific: Vague commitments like "communicate better" are useless. Push for observable behaviours: "We will start each meeting with a 2-minute check-in on how people are actually doing."
• Signatures create accountability: Don't skip having people sign the charter. The physical act of signing increases psychological commitment.
• Name the elephant: If there's obvious tension or conflict in the room, acknowledge it. "I'm noticing some discomfort when we discuss [dimension]. That's actually useful data. What's going on?"
• Ego is the hardest topic: Teams often struggle with the ego dimension because it feels personal. Frame it as systemic: "This isn't about anyone being egotistical. It's about whether our systems and habits encourage individual recognition over team success."
• If one person dominates: In a rowing crew, one person pulling too hard throws off everyone else. Use this metaphor if someone is dominating the discussion.
• If the group is too polite: The 1936 crew gave each other brutally honest feedback. If your group is avoiding difficult truths, say: "We're being very nice to each other. Is that helping us or holding us back?"
• Follow up matters: The check-in date isn't optional. Without it, the charter becomes wallpaper. Offer to send a calendar invitation before the session ends.