Leading Collective Endeavour

Bowling Alone, Robert D. Putnam's seminal work of social analysis, recognized that people in the developed world had become disengaged from community involvement. Far removed from the nineteenth century’s plethora of associations (social and political clubs, mutual aid societies, Christian associations, etc.), in our century, with self-expression and self-actualization being de rigueur, the focus is on our individual needs and behaviour.

People today spend little time thinking about how to get the most out of groups or teams—that is until they are thrust into a leadership role when understanding group psychology is a key to success.

In his new book The Collective Edge, Colin M. Fisher, a professor at University College London School of Management, draws on decades of research to explore how groups shape our thoughts, behaviors, and outcomes, often without us realizing it. He argues that seeing the world through a collective lens, while recognizing and paying attention to invisible group dynamics, gives leaders and teams a decisive edge in performance, innovation, and resilience.

This matters because in an era of rising individualism, remote work, and fragmented organizations effective teamwork is under threat, and solving today’s most complex problems—from AI integration to climate change—requires collective intelligence, not lone heroes.

The book’s core message is that groups are the real engines of human progress. If we want better outcomes in work and society, we must stop overvaluing individual genius and instead learn to create the right conditions for groups to thrive. The secret to building and leading a high-performing team, Fisher contends, comes from learning how to work with the invisible forces of group dynamics instead of being mindlessly pushed around by them.

The book’s first lesson is that leadership is not about a single charismatic figure but a distributed function across a group, where different members step up at different moments to provide structure, motivation, support, and constructive dissent. The second insight is that cooperation makes great things possible, but conformity can stifle creativity and ethical courage. A third is that while competition can sharpen performance it can also become destructive if unchecked. Leaders must learn to manage these and other tensions rather than trying to eliminate them.

Fisher also identifies these six critical conditions that determine whether a group succeeds or fails:

Composition: The right mix of people, skills, and perspectives;

Goals: Clear, meaningful, motivating targets;

Tasks: Designed for interdependence and challenge;

Values: Behavioral rules that support openness and accountability;

Psychological Safety: An environment where dissent and risk-taking are welcomed;

Coaching: Team members guiding their peers through challenges and transitions.

But this is far more than just a ‘how to’ book it is deeply reflective and thought-provoking. It is also a very enjoyable read, drawing as it does on a wide range of highly illustrative case studies from the discovery of DNA’s double helix, where Watson, Crick, Franklin, and Wilkins each held different pieces of the puzzle; to The Rolling Stones, where longevity and shared learning created sustained cooperation; through the IDEO design consultancy, famous for team-based creativity; and, for Fisher’s fellow jazz enthusiasts, the true synergy of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue band which fused contrasting styles into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Fisher’s concluding hope is that by paying greater attention to how groups work “that group thinking won’t sound like bad words anymore, synonymous with dysfunction. It will be the way we make the world better. It will give us all a collective edge.”

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The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups, Colin M. Fisher. Published by Penguin Random House, 2025, ISBN 978-0-59371-534-5