The Secret to Building a Successful Team According to Malcolm Gladwell: The Law of the Magic Third
There is a certain mysterious magic when it comes to building high-performing teams. Science shows you can’t just gather the highest performers and throw them together. The individual skill of each team member matters, but that alone doesn’t predict how well either athletic or professional teams will perform.
Instead, teams need to gel. The best bring together different perspectives and skill sets, and then ensure the psychological safety needed for each person to offer their unique contribution.
Whether you’re a coach, a manager, or an entrepreneur, how do you do that? That’s one of the trickiest questions in leadership. But in his new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point, best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell explains one fundamental law everyone putting together a team needs to understand.
For successful teams, proportions matter.
It’s 2024, so pretty much every enlightened leader understands that teams benefit from diverse viewpoints. Having folks from different backgrounds and with different skill sets brings fresh ideas and perspectives to the work. (If you still need convincing, here is some of the copious research proving this is true.)
