The Collective Edge: Why Team Structure Beats Individual Talent

Episode notes

Learn how to diagnose and redesign team structure so your groups consistently outperform collections of individual talent.Most leaders coach the individual when the real problem is the group. Dr Colin Fisher, Associate Professor at UCL School of Management and author of The Collective Edge, argues that composition, goals, tasks, and norms determine team performance far more than the talent of the people in the room. If your meetings have fifteen people, your reward systems are zero-sum, and your team members are spread across too many projects, you already have a structural problem that no amount of individual coaching will fix. Colin draws on his background as a professional jazz musician and decades of organisational research to show leaders where the real leverage lies.This episode covers meeting size, the cognitive limits of multi-team membership, healthy versus destructive competition, and why the Hogwarts sorting hat is a warning for any leader who sorts people into boxes and leaves them there.