Ron Friedman, a social psychologist, defines "superteams" as groups that not only perform exceptionally well but also enjoy the process. He identifies three learnable strengths: superior time management, active mutual improvement, and continuous skill development. Leaders cultivate these teams by fostering a culture of experimentation, proactive feedback, and psychological safety, enabling purpose-driven performance.
Summarized by Podsumo
Superteams, representing only about 8% of the workforce, are identified by perfect scores in both effectiveness and performance compared to other teams in their industry.
They possess three core, learnable strengths: superior management of time, energy, and attention; actively making one another better; and continuous skill building and improvement.
Superteams run nearly 48% more experiments than average teams, normalizing mistakes and prioritizing progress over perfection, with leaders encouraging calculated risks.
Feedback on superteams is frequent, motivating (future-focused, not critical), and significantly driven by peer-to-peer feedback seeking, where members proactively ask for input.
They are 50% better at avoiding unnecessary meetings and 54% less likely to schedule recurring ones, implementing 'get things done days' to minimize distraction and maximize focus, thereby preventing burnout.
"On the best teams, perfection isn't the goal. Progress is the goal. And the only way to achieve some progress is to make some mistakes along the way."
"What are you stuck on?"
"Minimize distraction, maximize focus."