Einstein's Boss by Robert Hromas

Author:Robert Hromas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2018-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Building a Nonlinear Team

A team of geniuses does not automatically make a genius team. Teams are not the sum of their parts. Achievements are not correlated with the average intelligence of the group. In addition, creativity is not correlated with the maximum intelligence of any given individual in the group. Only with a nonlinear team can you achieve a transformative advance.

To create teams for which nonlinear interactions are habitual, leaders cannot define interactions, either intentionally or unintentionally. Instead, they should mandate a continuously shifting leadership of the discussion, giving alternating opinions equal voice. Each team member has to feel safe to offer his thoughts.

The team must have a flat hierarchy, which means the leader is not seen above other team members. Little distance in power and in communication exists between the leader and the team members. A group’s intellectual achievements are correlated with the equality of taking turns in a conversation and the proportion of women on the team.6 Women are better at allowing others to speak, and this will lead to more innovation and creativity.

Figure 7.1 depicts the power of teams with flattened hierarchies and nonlinear communication. Linear communication, shown on the left, is hierarchical, like the military. The leader tells a few subordinates, who in turn tell the next level. With a linear team structure, the message can be changed from level to level, either on purpose or by mistake. This is slower than communicating in a team with a flat hierarchy, in which everyone hears the same communication at the same time.

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