#573 How to build a super team

**Sarah** (0:00)
These teams get more done because they manage their time, energy and attention effectively.
We are Boring Brilliance from an article by Ron Friedman, which is called How to Build a Super Team that Keeps Getting Better. Who doesn't want to be a super team that keeps getting better?

**Helen** (0:20)
I don't think I've been in that many super teams. I've been in some good teams, but that criteria, constantly building skills, actively making one another better, getting more done because they manage their time, energy and attention. I don't think I've been in many that ticked all those boxes. Building a super team feels more important than ever because super teams can respond to the change and challenge that lots of us are experiencing.

**Sarah** (0:41)
Oh, you know, what are you finding frustrating? Use those frustrations as energy for experimenting. What does that sort of old phrase, which I do I still think is true, which is what gets measured gets done.

**Helen** (0:56)
Hi, I'm Helen.

**Sarah** (0:57)
And I'm Sarah.

**Helen** (0:58)
And this is the Squiggly Careers Podcast, a weekly podcast where we borrow some brilliance from things we've been reading, watching, listening to, just discovering in the world. And we try and connect that to your work so that we have some new insights and ideas to help us improve in our careers. And today's episode is another one that we are proud to be doing in partnership with Post-It Notes. So we have taken Post-It Notes and incorporated them into what we're going to be talking about today to make it super, super practical and easy for you to apply.

**Sarah** (1:28)
And I think this one, given the topic, is one to do together as a team. Because we are borrowing brilliance from an article by Ron Friedman, which is called How to Build a Super Team That Keeps Getting Better. Who doesn't want to be a super team that keeps getting better?
Which is featured in Harvard Business Review. If you go on the HBR website, you can usually get, I think it's three articles for free. So hopefully, you'll have the chance to read it. But even if you don't, we're going to summarize it today. We're going to talk a bit about what a super team is and why we want to be in one.
What's better because you're in a super team? And then there are these seven features that Ron Friedman found in his research. And so for each feature, we're going to describe a question that you could ask each other, and then an action that you could take together to again, try and make this very practical.

**Helen** (2:16)
And Sarah got really excited because you read this first.
And then I think on WhatsApp, you were like, this article, I think you screenshotted the pages. Are we allowed to do that? I don't know.

**Sarah** (2:24)
Sure.

**Helen** (2:25)
Maybe we did do that. Maybe we didn't.
Perhaps I got some WhatsApp messages. I don't know what copyright is anyway. We didn't share it beyond that. But I remember reading it and I was trying to zoom in because I hadn't got my copy of the magazine yet. And then I just read it online. So it's the easiest way for me to do it.

**Sarah** (2:41)
So I think the three better because is, in terms of why you want to be a super team, and it not just being a sort of shiny title that draws people in, which is a good title, is that these teams get more done because they manage their time, energy and attention effectively. I also particularly like the word attention there. We talk about time and energy, like we talk about energy a lot, but I like this idea of attention. What are you paying attention to? So that was the first point. The second one is that you actively make each other better, which I really liked. The whole is bigger than the sum of the parts rather than just a collection of individual superstars.
Then the final one, which is very Learn Like a Lobster, and I think this is actually why I got excited and sent you the screenshots maybe, is they consistently and constantly build new skills and improve. They have this sense of always learning and feedback and continual improvement, and that's always in the pursuit of growing and developing.
There's lots in here about learning.

**Helen** (3:45)
Other than your current team, what is the superest super team you think you've been in to date?

**Sarah** (3:52)
I was in one team at Sainsbury as part of a leadership team that I think does stand out for me in my career as a bit of a super team.