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02/05/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 02/05/2026 13:06

The Patriots Went from Worst to First. Can Businesses and Organizations Turn Around Too

The Patriots Went from Worst to First. Can Businesses and Organizations Turn Around Too?

Boston University professors teaching about team culture and sports psychology on replicating the Patriots' success off the field

New England Patriots Head Coach Mike Vrabel congratulating quarterback Drake Maye after a touchdown during an NFL divisional playoff game at Gillette Stadium January 18, 2026. Photo via Getty Images/Winslow Townson

Organizational Behavior

The Patriots Went from Worst to First. Can Businesses and Organizations Turn Around Too?

Boston University professors teaching about team culture and sports psychology on replicating the Patriots' success off the field

February 5, 2026
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Edson Filho. Photo courtesy of BU Wheelock

A year ago, the New England Patriots were one of the worst teams in the National Football League, finishing the season 4-13. This year? They finished 14-3, and on Sunday, February 8, they will play in Super Bowl LX against the Seattle Seahawks.

That's no gradual turnaround. That's an overnight reversal, going from worst to first in one year.

It happens occasionally in the sports universe. But what about in the business world-can an organization turn itself around in a short period, not just going from a mediocre year to a great year, but going from dismal results to gangbusters? On a larger scale, Disney just hired a new CEO. How quickly can Josh D'Amaro help a company with $36 billion in annual revenue and 185,000 employees?

Kristin Smith-Crowe. Photo courtesy of the Questrom School of Business

BU Today spoke with two Boston University faculty with fresh, and unique, perspectives on this idea of turnaround culture, Edson Filho and Kristin Smith-Crowe. Filho is a Wheelock College of Education & Human Development associate professor of sport, exercise, and performance psychology and director of the Performance, Recovery & Optimization (PRO) Lab, whose research centers on performance optimization in individual and team settings. Smith-Crowe is a Questrom School of Business associate professor of management and organizations, whose research focuses on behavioral ethics, emotions, and organizational behavior.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q&A

with Edson Filho and Kristin Smith-Crowe

BU Today: The Patriots' biggest change in the last year was hiring a new head coach, Mike Vrabel. One of his immediate catchphrases became "No naps!" his way of telling his players not to get complacent. How important is the leadership position for an organization seeking to turn itself around quickly?

Edson Filho: Leadership matters. When you hire a good leader, you're able to establish higher-level goals because of how that new leader establishes a motivational climate. They establish confidence, and when they model confidence, it impacts motivation, impacts confidence, and impacts cohesion.

BU Today: But an old leader can model confidence, too, right?

Filho: There is a life cycle perspective on group dynamics. It starts with a period of growth, a period of maturation, and they go through a life cycle as a leader. Bringing in a new leader resets the cycle, helps establish new goals, and you go from there. The short answer is yes, a new leader can help set new goals. That life cycle is not only in sports, but in organizations, in relationships. You grow, hopefully to your potential, but there is a point where you reach maturation and maximum potential and then there is a natural decline.

BU Today: But a new coach still has to win over team members to be effective, doesn't he?

Filho: Team members usually embrace turnaround. To bounce back, and to bounce forward, something needs to happen. Cohesion is about coming together and sticking together. We need to have a real belief in our goals and our values. If cohesion is there, when things get tough, we stick together. That's cohesion by definition.

BU Today: Kristin, you teach a class where this conversation we're having is particularly relevant.

Kristin Smith-Crowe: I teach a class called People, Teams, and Organizations, and we use the Olympics in 2008 as a model. The US men's basketball team had won the gold medal every year. But then in 2004 they famously did not win. So they brought in a new coach, Coach K [Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski], and he did a couple of things. He focused them on a specific goal-to win a gold medal. It was suggested that previously, the players were not as focused. He made the goal meaningful to them-to do it for your country-and by playing together, you are going to be a better player. What's important about that is the players are so elite, so high-status, what can you offer them? He gave them meaning and purpose.

BU Today: Are there other team examples, maybe outside of sports?

Smith-Crowe: GM [General Motors] was troubled in the 1970s and 1980s-poor cars, their market share was slipping in the US, foreign cars were rising, the US factories were not run well. Toyota approached them. It wanted to understand the US market and manufacturing, and GM agreed to a deal, to learn how Toyota efficiently and cost-effectively produced high-quality cars. GM reopened a plant, the NUMMI plant in California, and Toyota ran it. There was a team-based model, with the common goal of producing high-quality cars.

BU Today: Why was this important?

Smith-Crowe: No one at Toyota previously had set a goal of producing high-quality cars. Previously they rewarded employees based on tenure and quantity. But Toyota gave the common goal of quality and gave workers more autonomy. A worker could stop the assembly line if there was any problem whatsoever. GM workers never had that authority. So it was about giving everyone a common goal to work toward. Organizations can get that really wrong. It's not easy to have everyone aligned.

BU Today: Can a big turnaround happen quickly in business, like the Patriots did?

Smith-Crowe: For teams, one thing you can do is a relaunch. You say, this endeavor we've been on isn't working. Let's clear the slate, and start again. What's our goal? A leader can do that and provide direction. At some point a team needs specific goals to work toward. If they didn't change the people, there are things they can change. What is the hierarchy, who has status, and who is calling the shots. Communication is key. Are problems being communicated?

BU Today: Is there something else a new leader can do to turn around results quickly?

Filho: Another thing that helps is role clarity. Role acceptance. Think about performance potential. If you give an organization all the things to excel, that's one thing. How much time pressure do you have? Are there quick fixes? You have to look at the team, the players' roles. The star player or leader can sometimes be a negative player. Which ones do I have to bring with me and which ones do I have to let go? Think about their values and their goals. Leaders establish the climate, establish new norms, new goals. That is important.

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Boston University published this content on February 05, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on February 05, 2026 at 19:06 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]