583: The Four Pillars of Elite Teams (with Colin M. Fisher)

583: The Four Pillars of Elite Teams (with Colin M. Fisher)

In this rigorous and insight-rich episode, Dr. Colin Fisher, author of The Collective Edge, deconstructs high-performing teams using decades of organizational research and field-tested frameworks. If you lead, manage, or influence teams, the insights here can recalibrate how you build and guide collaboration.

We explore four foundational elements (Composition, Goals, Tasks, and Norms) and dismantle prevalent myths that often derail even experienced leaders.

Key insights include:

  • Composition: A team’s effectiveness begins with clarity. In a landmark study, only 7% of top management teams agreed on how many people were actually on their team. “We can’t compose the team thoughtfully unless we agree on who’s in the team in the first place.” The ideal team size? 4.5 people. Why? It balances task performance and member satisfaction, minimizing coordination cost while maximizing cohesion.

  • Goals: Most teams fall apart not because of conflict, but because “members don’t share the same understanding of what the group’s goals are.” Dr. Fisher emphasizes that goals must be clear, challenging, and consequential, repeated often, and refined constantly.

  • Tasks: Don’t assign group work to solo tasks. Effective team tasks must require interdependence and diverse expertise. Leaders must provide “clear goals but autonomy over process.” Micromanagement erodes both accountability and innovation.

  • Norms: Often invisible yet decisive. Norms around psychological safety and information sharing distinguish resilient teams from dysfunctional ones. Without them, even the most capable groups collapse under miscommunication or fear of speaking up.

Dr. Fisher’s core thesis is deceptively simple: The secret sauce is sustained attention to the basics. His research confirms that elite leaders are not mystical intuitives but methodical questioners and attentive listeners.

If you care about sustainable performance and intelligent team design, this conversation delivers a precise blueprint.

📚 Get Colin’s book, The Collective Edge, here: https://shorturl.at/91Khp

Here are some free gifts for you:

Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/OverallApproach

McKinsey & BCG winning resume free download: www.firmsconsulting.com/resumepdf

Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

Episoder(499)

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

133: The single biggest strategy shift for the next few decades (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #16)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#16), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

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132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

132: Apple car & Amazon's core strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #15)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#15), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

15 Feb 202135min

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

131: Defense is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #14)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#14), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

8 Feb 202132min

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

130: How to create a career strategy for an executive (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #13)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m. (#13), a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

1 Feb 202137min

129: The nuances of a private equity strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #12)

129: The nuances of a private equity strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #12)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

25 Jan 202130min

128: How to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and bad excuses, with Martin Lindstrom

128: How to eliminate bureaucratic red tape and bad excuses, with Martin Lindstrom

Martin's book THE MINISTRY OF COMMON SENSE: https://amzn.to/3962pE9 Meet New York Times bestselling author Martin Lindstrom (one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People). We interviewed Martin about his new book THE MINISTRY OF COMMON SENSE: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS. Doesn’t your workplace drive you crazy when you get cc’ed on irrelevant email chains, invited to unnecessary meetings, or forbidden by company policy to do the exact thing your boss commands you to do?  These and many other frustrations stem from the same underlying cause: a lack of common sense! In an interview Martin discusses the most typical roadblocks to common sense: (Bad) customer experience Politics Technology Meetings and Power Points Rules, Regulations, and Policies Compliance and Legal And has remedies for all.  Martin Lindstrom is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, a global branding & culture transformation firm, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries. TIME Magazine has named Lindstrom one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People,” and for three years running, Thinkers50, has selected Lindstrom to be among the world’s top 50 business thinkers. Among the companies he advises are Burger King, Lowes, Boar’s Head, Beverly Hills Hotels, Pepsi, Nestle and Google. Lindstrom is the author of seven books including several New York Times bestsellers that have been translated into 60 languages. The Wall-Street Journal praised his book Brand Sense as “one of the five best marketing books ever published,” and his book Small Data as “revolutionary,” and TIME called his book Buyology “a breakthrough in branding.”

21 Jan 20211h 17min

127: Fear is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #11)

127: Fear is not a strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #11)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

18 Jan 202130min

126: One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #10)

126: One of the biggest strategy shifts ever in the next 10 to 20 years (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #10)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we’re going to focus on four major themes from last week’s news.    To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

11 Jan 202128min

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