Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork

by Dan Sullivan

We already talked about Phil Jackson, the legendary basketball coach who oversaw all six championships in the Michael Jordan era of the Chicago Bulls and all five championships of the Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal–led Los Angeles Lakers. He said that his Bulls were primarily a Stage 4 team. It’s the reason they made history and changed the basketball world forever. There were phases where the Lakers were Stage 4, and during those phases they won championships. But often, his Lakers were a Stage 3 team, competing with each other for who got the ball or who would take the final shot. Kobe and Shaq often struggled to work together, each wanting to be the lead man. The competition between them ultimately drove Shaq to another team. And although they won three championships together in three years straight—the years they operated as a Stage 4 team—it is speculated that had they been able to remain a team, Kobe and Shaq had the potential to win several more championships together, and become the most dominant duo of all time.