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A sprinter stumbles in the qualifying race for the 1988 Olympics and brings two others down with him. So begins “Cool Runnings,” the 1993 Disney comedy directed by Jon Turteltaub. Three dreams shattered in a few seconds – and of all people, these three end up in the same sled not long afterward. An example of the Team Principle of Identity.
Four Men with Nothing in Common
Situation
Jamaican Derice Bannock (Leon) wants to compete in the Olympics as a sprinter. In the decisive race, Junior Bevil (Rawle D. Lewis) falls and brings down Derice and Yul Brenner (Malik Yoba). Derice learns that the American Irv Blitzer (John Candy) lives on the island – a former bobsledder and an acquaintance of his late father. Blitzer was disqualified for cheating at the 1972 Winter Olympics. Derice talks him into coaching a Jamaican bobsled team. They are joined by Derice’s friend Sanka Coffie (Doug E. Doug), a pushcart racer, as well as Junior and Yul. Yul mainly wants to get off the island and is still angry with Junior about the fall.
Connection to the team principle
It starts as a marriage of convenience. The ambitious one, the joker, the shy rich kid and the tough guy share a goal, but nothing else. The Team Principle of Identity says: shared values turn “I” and “the others” into a “we.” A goal answers the question of where you are headed. It doesn’t yet say who “we” are.
The First Contribution to the Common Cause
Situation
The sports federation refuses to fund them for fear of embarrassment. The four try in vain to fund the trip themselves. In the end Junior sells his car. In Calgary, Blitzer gets hold of an old, worn-out sled from a former teammate. The other teams don’t take the Jamaicans seriously. Over the course of the film, the adversaries Yul and Junior become friends: Junior stands up for Yul when Sanka mocks him, and Yul teaches Junior to stand up for himself.
Connection to the team principle
Junior’s car is the first sign that one of them values what they share more than what is his own. A “we” often begins with a sacrifice like this rather than with a heart-to-heart. The friendship between Yul and Junior, too, grows out of one standing up for the other. Here cohesion follows from what one person does for another.
Copying the Swiss
Situation
Derice admires the highly efficient Swiss team and starts adopting its techniques. In the first competition run, the Jamaican sled finishes last. Sanka is unhappy with this approach. He argues that the team has to find its own rhythm instead of imitating the Swiss. On the second day of competition, the team does much better.
Connection to the team principle
This is the film’s turning point, and it is a question of identity. Derice looks for the “we” outside the team: he wants to be like the best. Sanka counters that they can only be good if they race as themselves. Learning from others is smart. Borrowing another team’s identity doesn’t work, because you will only ever be a second-rate copy of the original. Only once the four know what defines them do they stop being four individuals who happen to share a sled.
The Bobsled on Their Shoulders
Situation
On the final run the old sled fails; it flips over and comes to a stop short of the finish. The four climb out, lift the bobsled onto their shoulders and carry it across the finish line to the applause of the other teams and the spectators.
Connection to the team principle
There is no medal. The film measures the team by something else: together, it finishes what it started together. In the final image, four men who could barely stand one another at the start carry a load together. If you know who you are, you can see even a failure through with dignity.
Film and Reality
Situation
The film is only loosely based on the true story. The real 1988 Jamaican team consisted of Devon Harris, Dudley Stokes, Michael White, Freddy Powell and Chris Stokes, coached by Howard Siler. The four-man bobsled really did crash. Afterward the athletes walked to the finish alongside the sled; they did not carry it. They were never considered medal contenders. Six years later, in Lillehammer in 1994, a Jamaican four-man team finished 14th. The film grossed about $154.9 million worldwide.
Connection to the team principle
The characters, the coach and the plot are invented, and the film trades in clichés about Jamaica. It is no history lesson. As an image of the Team Principle of Identity it works all the same, because it poses the one question clearly: do you race as a copy or as yourself?
Key takeaways
Key Lessons
- Distinguish between learning and copying. Adopt methods from the best, but not their identity.
- Ask your team: What do we have that no other team has? That is where your own rhythm comes from.
- Watch for the first person who gives something of their own to the common cause, and recognize it. That is where the “we” begins.
- Listen to the person who says, “That’s not us.” They are asking the most important question.
- Agree on how you want to fail: together, and all the way to the finish line.
Summary
“Cool Runnings” tells the story of four very different men who only become a team once they stop imitating another one. As long as they copy the Swiss, they trail behind. When they find their own style, four men who had merely been sitting in the same sled grow into one – visible in the way they carry the bobsled together. The film captures the Team Principle of Identity in a single image: a “we” grows out of what makes a team who it is.