Doc Rivers, coach of the National Basketball Association’s world champion Boston Celtics, has a prescription for people management that applies both on the court and in cubicles.

Last year, Rivers introduced his players to Ubuntu, an African concept that translates roughly as “I am because we are.”

This collectivist principle was key to the Celtics’ success last season. The team had just added stars Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join longtime Celtics leader Paul Pierce. For the “big three” to succeed, Rivers needed them to focus on team achievement rather than personal glory.

The Celtics—including other role players on the team—clearly bought into the philosophy. Garnett, Pierce and Allen all rose to the occasion at different moments during the championship series against the Los Angeles Lakers in June. And the Celtics derailed the Lakers and their superstar Kobe Bryant with a smothering, swarming defense.

None of the big three—or Rivers himself—had won an NBA championship before this year, despite long careers of individual accomplishments. The relief, joy and camaraderie they expressed after winning proved again the power and promise of true teamwork. “Anything is possible!” an emotional Garnett shouted.

The possibilities of teamwork, though, have been largely overlooked by companies in recent years. Corporate stars have been the focus. Companies have obsessed about identifying and grooming high-potential employees and paid close attention to pay schemes that reward top performers.

But separately shining stars fail to give the most brilliant business performance.

“It is not enough to have talent alone,” University of Michigan professor Dave Ulrich points out. You need “talent that works well together.”

That lesson can get lost in America, where we focus so much on personal feats and imagine ourselves to be rugged individuals triumphing alone against tough odds.

But perhaps this myth is wearing thin. The recent financial crisis and ongoing global warming threat remind us that we live in an interdependent, connected world.

A study published last year by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found increased public support for the social safety net and signs of growing
public concern about income inequality. Today, those communal impulses are growing stronger, I suspect, as jobs get cut, homes are foreclosed upon and our economy teeters.

Don’t be surprised if Rivers and the Celtics advance the cause of the collective again this year. Training camp opened last week, and Rivers kept giving out spoonfuls of Ubuntu-flavored medicine.

According to William Rhoden of The New York Times, Rivers asked a rookie to read a passage before practice last Thursday. Its theme was that the strength of a team is its players, and the strength of the player is the team.

“You can’t do it by yourself,” Rhoden quotes Rivers as saying. “Individuals don’t win, teams win.”

Are our companies—indeed our country and our world—finally ready to hear that wisdom?