The We-Perspective on the Racing Sailboat

Abstract

Successful sports teams are able to adopt what is known as the we-perspective, forming intentions and making decisions, somewhat as a unified mind does, to achieve their goals. In this paper I consider what is involved in establishing and maintaining the we-perspective on a racing sailboat. I argue that maintaining the we-perspective contributes to the success of the boat in at least two ways: (1) it facilitates the smooth execution of joint action; and (2) it increases the chance that individual crew members will exert their best effort in fulfilling their particular roles on the boat.