Building Coherent Teams Through the Medicine Wheel
Every organization wants teams that trust, adapt, and perform under pressure. Yet despite more programs, policies, and perks than ever before, many workplaces still face burnout, disconnection, and fatigue. The solution is not another system. It is balance. Indigenous Knowledge has been teaching that truth for generations through the Medicine Wheel.
Learning Coherence Beside My Mosom (grandfather)
I first learned about coherence not in a meeting room but sitting beside my Mosom on our couch, watching the Oilers play. He watched with deep concentration and joy. He loved the game for its rhythm, its beauty, and the way players moved together with a sense of unspoken connection. He would point out the passes that seemed to appear out of thin air or that were mishandled, and the quiet trust between teammates who did not need words to understand one another. He would say that hockey, when played right, is about balance. That was his way of teaching me the Medicine Wheel long before I ever studied it.
I am a diehard Oilers fan to this day because of those game days beside him; those games were our classroom. My Mosom taught me that true excellence comes from harmony, not hierarchy. When the team was in sync, you could feel it through the television and across the nation….right up to the Northwest Territories. The team synergy is an energy pulse that reached right into our living room, especially on the nights Gretzky was on fire. That was Medicine Wheel balance in motion, the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual all working together as one.
Tonight, as I write this, the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens are about to face off once again. I can already picture the sea of orange, blue, and red filling the stands. It fills me with excitement and gratitude to see that kind of energy. It is passion, respect, and belonging existing together in one shared space. That unity in motion reminds me that competition does not have to come at the cost of connection. True greatness is grounded in balance.
As I celebrate the sea of orange, blue, and red tonight, my heart also turns toward another team that carries the Spirit of coherence beyond the rink, the Toronto Blue Jays. They are Canada’s only major league baseball team, and their unity on the field has become a thread that connects people from coast to coast to coast. The Blue Jays have found their balance this season, reclaiming their strength through discipline, trust, and the quiet confidence that comes from teamwork. Their success is not only about skill or statistics. It reflects what the Medicine Wheel teaches, that coherence begins within the individual and expands outward into the collective.
In the Blue Jays, we can see the four realms of the Medicine Wheel alive in motion. Physical execution through precision, endurance, and training. Mental clarity through strategy, focus, and adaptability. Emotional connection through trust, celebration, and shared energy. Spiritual or personal purpose that transcends into national connection, where players and fans alike feel part of something greater. Together, they remind us that excellence begins as an inner practice before it becomes an outer result.
Coaches and leaders in every sport know that maintaining this balance is an ongoing discipline. Performance building and performance maintaining both depend on recognizing which part of the circle needs attention each day. Some days call for more structure and strength in the physical. Others require mental clarity or emotional renewal. And always there is the spiritual dimension, the reminder of why they play and who they represent. The teams that stay mindful of these rhythms move with flow and resilience. They recover faster, connect deeper, and lift one another higher.
This is what the Medicine Wheel teaches us, whether in sport, business, or daily life. When we find coherence within ourselves, we bring that same balance into our relationships, our teams, and our communities. The Blue Jays, like the Oilers and the Canadiens, show us that when individuals align their purpose with collective harmony, something greater unfolds. Unity becomes medicine, and success becomes something we share, not something we chase.
The Wheel That Teaches Wholeness
Indigenous Knowledge offers a traditional yet profoundly modern answer through the Medicine Wheel, a sacred framework for understanding balance. Across many Nations, the Medicine Wheel represents the four dimensions of being: Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual. It teaches that wellness and performance, whether in a person or a team, depend on the harmony of all four. When one is overdeveloped or ignored, imbalance appears, and with it comes fatigue, conflict, and loss of direction.
The Medicine Wheel is not a metaphor. It is a living system that aligns beautifully with what science now affirms: the body, mind, emotions, and spirit are interconnected. A coherent team, like a coherent person, cannot thrive when one part dominates the others.
The Physical Realm | The Doing World
The Physical realm is where plans become action. It is structure, process, and accountability. It brings clarity to roles and reliability to results. When this aspect is strong, people know what to do and how to contribute. When it is overemphasized, teams become efficient but emotionally empty. Work becomes mechanical, and the heartbeat of purpose fades.
The Mental Realm | The Thinking World
The Mental realm is where strategy and ideas live. It fuels innovation, analysis, and clear decision making. When balanced, it brings focus and direction. When it takes over, logic overshadows intuition and the need to be right replaces the willingness to listen. Teams stop learning and start defending their positions.
The Emotional Realm | The Feeling World
The Emotional realm is the heart of human connection. It holds empathy, trust, and the safety to show up authentically. A balanced emotional space allows people to disagree respectfully, to express gratitude, and to celebrate each other’s gifts. When it is ignored, morale collapses and silence replaces creativity. When it dominates, clarity gives way to caution and progress slows.
The Spiritual Realm | The Meaning World
The Spiritual realm is purpose and shared values. It connects the individual to something greater than the task at hand. It brings meaning to effort and direction to ambition. When alive, it fuels resilience and hope. When neglected, disconnection sets in and work loses its sense of why.
What Leadership Looks Like When It Is Whole
The Medicine Wheel teaches that leadership is not only about managing performance, it is about restoring harmony. Western business models tend to focus on the Physical and Mental dimensions: structure, results, and measurement. Indigenous teachings remind us to give equal attention to the Emotional and Spiritual: belonging, meaning, and collective strength. When all four dimensions are honored, leadership becomes whole.
Whole leadership means sensing imbalance before it becomes conflict. It means knowing when to tighten structure and when to soften it. It is both head and heart, plan and prayer. It is the ability to guide with purpose and to listen with humility.
Anticipating Imbalance and Shifting with Intention
Balance is not static. It moves like the seasons. A company or team may need to focus on structure and efficiency in one season, then shift to connection and trust in the next. The wisdom lies in anticipating those shifts before imbalance appears.
A mindful leader looks ahead and asks: Which part of our circle will need more attention next? Are we grounded in purpose or running on process? Are people aligned or exhausted? The answers reveal where energy must flow.
This awareness can guide every area of business from strategy and procurement to talent management and governance. A procurement team that values only cost misses the meaning in relationships. A human resources team that overemphasizes policy may lose the pulse of compassion. Coherent leadership nourishes the entire circle.
Coherence in Motion Lessons from Sport
Sport makes coherence visible. Teams that find balance across all four realms create dynasties. They do not just win, they endure. The Montreal Canadiens of the 1970s and the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s embodied that balance. They were not only talented or tactical; they trusted, believed, and belonged. That is why they made history and why fans show up in every city they play in.
The dynasty teams lived the Medicine Wheel without naming it. Their strength came from discipline, focus, emotion, and spirit working in rhythm. That rhythm created resilience, the quiet force that made them rise together after every setback.
Today, teams in every sport could take this further. Just as corporations bring in Indigenous consultants to guide Reconciliation strategies, athletic organizations could bring in what I call a Two-Eyed Seeing coach. This coach would not replace traditional coaching but complement it. While head coaches manage skill and strategy, a Two-Eyed Seeing coach would nurture the emotional and spiritual dimensions, the trust, belonging, and purpose that sustain greatness.
That combination could redefine excellence. Teams that balance all four quadrants do more than compete. They create legacy. They perform with both intensity and joy. They win in ways that feel connected as much as they are celebrated.
The Medicine Wheel as a Path of Reconciliation
Using the Medicine Wheel in leadership, teamwork, or sport is more than a framework for performance. It is an act of Reconciliation. It honors Indigenous Knowledge as living wisdom that continues to guide us today. It invites every leader, coach, and organization to look beyond profit and process and to view success through the lens of wholeness.
A coherent team does not only achieve together, it heals together. The Medicine Wheel teaches that progress without harmony becomes exhaustion, while harmony without action becomes stagnation. Coherence is the movement between the two.
When leaders, coaches, and organizations learn to honor all four directions, Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual, they do more than meet goals or win games. They create circles of belonging that transform how we work, play, and live together. And when that happens, every team becomes a reflection of what my Mosom taught me long ago, that real strength is found not in power, but in unity.
Mahsi cho / thank you in Dene.