What Hockey teaches us about Chaos and Control
Intensity without Structure is Chaos
The Mindset Shift: Intensity without Structure is Chaos
When a team is in a high pressure situation, it is common to demand more intensity. To push harder, move faster, and get more aggressive. Most teams in high pressure situations don’t need more intensity, they need structure and support. When a team can’t solve a problem skillfully, they start solving it emotionally. When we use emotions to drive our behaviors, it usually leads to choas. The team starts to lose its identity- not following processes, systems, or rules- just to feel like they are doing something- anything to succeed. That something, rarely leads to success, and more often leads to breakdown.
The Sports Story: Game 4 of Stanley Cup Playoffs
In Game 4 of the playoff series between the Ottawa Senators and the Carolina Hurricanes, we saw exactly what happens when a team’s skill and identity as successful breaks under extreme pressure and emotion.
In the second period with a loss meaning the end of their season, and early playoff exit, Ottawa was mentally drained. They hadn’t held a lead all series, their top “scoring line” (aka-players) were not scoring, and every time they tried to move the puck, they ran into the relentless and disciplined structure of the Hurricanes. They couldn’t figure out a way to get through the defensive system, so they instead, they got frustrated, and decided to break the players instead.
The play started with a clean breakout attempt by Carolina. Instead of using their positions on the ice to stop them, Ottawa players began getting closer to the players, chasing them earlier, hitting harder, finishing checks outside the view of the referee and long after the puck was gone. They were all in the gray area of hockey, and designed for full irritation. Small hooks and late shoves that the referees, in an attempt to “let them play” and not micro-manage the game allowed to slide.
But those unaddressed seemingly minor aggressions allowed the players to keep pushing the line, keep raising the emotional bar, testing limits of what is allowed. Then, during a seemingly usual battle near the goal, the usual, but elevated aggressiveness was there. That split second, that pushing of the boundary, was enough. An Ottawa player again delivered an extra cross-check and this time, the Carolina player pushed back. Suddenly, instead of a two-man scrum, a line of Ottawa players dove in. Not just to defend their teammate but to actively create chaos and to let their emotional behavior control their skills and tactics. A successful team hadn’t felt successful with their level of play, so they would do it with their level of fight.
The game turned into a full-on brawl, the kind that makes you call for your family in the other room, or in my case, my 9 year old son and his two buddies. The kind that ends with a full penalty box for both teams and too many penalties for the official to even list separately. And Unfortunately, also the kind that leaves a player concussed and confused on the ice. Also the kind where you take advantage of what you can’t do on the ice, and sneak in a sucker punch.
Ottawa wanted the chaos on the ice to disrupt the system that Carolina was destroying them with. In that chaos, they let the emotions take over their behavior, instead of letting it fuel their play. It was a second period for the ages, with 11 two- minute penalties issued in that period alone. Every single person on the ice in the big fight got a penalty.
How did they get there? To a fight that involves everyone? In one part because early on, the refs-the leaders on the ice, who hold standards and enforce rules- let the little things go early on.
3 Actionable Insights:
1. Establish radical accountability for your standards
As a leader, your primary job is to bring out the best in others by being clear about standards and enforcing them. By being firm and clear about what is and isn’t acceptable, gives your team has the freedom to be elite. Without accountability, they are in survival mode. Accountability isn’t restrictive, it provides the guardrails that allows for innovation and excellence.
Action: Address minor incidents, rule infractions, or inappropriate behaviors when they are still small
2. When teams can’t solve problems, they try to disrupt them
There is a difference between innovation and desperation. The difference between purposeful disruption and total chaos. When you abandon your tactics, strategies and systems to engage in XX you often deplete your own resources faster than the competition’s. When you transition from execution to just pure aggression, you are letting frustration be disguised as action.
Action: When your current strategy isn’t working, stop and evaluate the system. Where can you pivot based on your values, strengths, and capabilities. Don’t abandon who you are to chase a moment and allow the urgency to replace the strategy.
3. Emotion can either drive performance or destroy it
High pressure environments or high stakes moments naturally produce big emotions. Fear, Joy, Anger, Disgust (Sounds like a Disney movie I know) play in our heads over and over again. Successful leaders and teams are able to use that adrenaline to increase clarity, not to justify behavior. Controlled emotions allow you to channel the energy where it belongs, emotions without control become a liability.
Action: Teach your team how to channel emotion into execution, not let it dictate behavior. Be ok asking this question, “Are we making this decision because it is best, or are we making it because we are frustrated, happy, fearful, etc.?”
The Pep Talk:
“Own the little things. Hold the Standard. Trust your team’s ability to adapt. Use emotions to elevate performance, not control it.”
-Katie Beach