I’ll save you the trouble of reading all the way down. You have more important things to do.
Your best team is the one you have now because it’s the one you’ve got. It’s not the one you want, it's not the one you’re building. It’s the one you have.
But, wait, you protest. Isn’t that like saying the body you have now, with its endearing bumpy bits, is the best one? That's some shoddy logic, you say. Honestly, I would think the same had I not seen these two pieces of evidence to the contrary.
- Joy’s Law: “no matter where you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else”.
- Psychological safety outranked all other behaviours -- like making sure teams had clear goals and creating a culture of dependability -- in high performing teams, according to Google’s data in their People Analytics Team.
Nothing is more difficult to dislodge than an idea and how often do we hear in discussions on the war for talent, to hire the best, the smartest, the whatever? But here's the thing, "smart" refers to the capability but not willingness to work for or with someone. Let's do a mental floss of the idea that the "best teams are made up of the 'best' people" because: