691: Dr. Ron Friedman - The Science of High-Performing Teams, Chevy Chase, Toxic Teammates, The Succession Writers' Room, Deleting Recurring Meetings, Why Side Hustles Are Good, and Why Only 8% of Teams Make the Cut

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

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New Book - The Price of Becoming

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Ron Friedman is a psychologist and researcher who has spent his career studying what separates great teams from average ones. His research, which has surveyed thousands of professionals across dozens of industries, became the second most-read article in Harvard Business Review history. He is the author of three books, including his latest, Superteams: The Science and Secrets of High-Performing Teams.

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Key Learnings

Ron's dad threw himself into impossible challenges and taught his family the dignity of hard work. A physician in Israel, he didn't want his son in the army, so he picked up the phone and started dialing hospitals in New York City until he landed a job at NYU. He pulled his family out of a country he knew, didn't speak the language fluently, and succeeded anyway. Ron dedicated Super Teams to him. He recently passed away.

Only 8% of teams qualify as super teams. Ron's team polled thousands of workers and asked two questions: How effective is your team at meeting its goals? And how does it compare to others in your industry? Super teams hit the perfect score.

The only office amenity that statistically drives performance: quiet space for focused work. Not the gym. Not the ping-pong table. Most offices are an attentional war zone. That's why people prefer working from home.

How a team works matters more than where a team works. Remote, hybrid, in-office. The data shows none of those predict performance. Intention does.

Don't make meetings the default. Make them the last resort. Super teams are 50% better at avoiding unnecessary meetings and 54% less likely to schedule recurring ones.

Recurring meetings are insidious. Once they're on the calendar, removing one feels like breaking up with someone. So they just live there forever.

Ron's rule: no decision, no meeting. Have a question? Pick up the phone. Have an update? Record a video or send an email. Don't pull people away from their work.

The average worker loses 18 hours a week to meetings. And another 11 hours to messages. That's three-quarters of the week gone before they've achieved a single task.

Meeting-free days cut stress in half and increase productivity by 71%. People go home feeling satisfied because they were able to actually do the work.

Three pillars of super teams:

• They get more done by managing time, energy, and attention.
• They don't just collaborate. They actively make each other better.
• They're never satisfied. They're constantly building skills and improving.

Recovery isn't passive. Scrolling Instagram or binging Netflix helps you wind down, but it doesn't restore your energy. Mastery experiences do. Learn a new song. Try pickleball. Cook a new recipe.

When leaders recover, their teams perform better. A well-rested leader shows up in a positive mood. That mood lifts the team. Investing in your own recovery isn't selfish. It moves your team forward.

The best leaders support their people's side hustles. Not because they assign them, but because their people feel they have permission to grow outside the job. That's a signal you care about the person, not just the output.

Three factors predict trust in a leader: competence, caring, consistency. Any one of them breaks down and trust breaks down.

"How was your weekend?" is lame. Be specific. Ask about the kid's soccer game by name. Specificity proves you actually thought about the person.

People need to be appreciated for who they are, not just what they do. That's how they feel cared for.

The top three characteristics of toxic teammates: unreliable, bad attitude, and arrogant.

The top three characteristics of the best teammates: knowledgeable, dependable, and a good communicator. Notice what's not on the list. Funny. Good listener. Caring. Those are nice-to-haves. They don't move the team forward.

The best teammates make excellence the norm. On super teams, 94% say their teammates motivate them to do their best work.

On super teams, 82% say they feel worse about letting down their teammates than their manager. When people know their teammates are counting on them, they work harder.

Constant togetherness is not collaboration. The Succession writers' room cycled between solo writing and group critique. Real collaboration protects focus time first.

Brainwriting beats brainstorming. Have people generate ideas alone first, then bring them to the room. You get higher quantity and higher quality ideas.

97% of feedback fails to lift performance. Over a third actively makes it worse. What does the 3% do differently? Focus on one thing at a time. Future-oriented, not past-oriented.

Top performers want to know what they did wrong. Confidence allows them to absorb criticism and correct it. Most people aren't there. Gauge the feedback to the person.

Great football coaches give feedback differently to the quarterback than the lineman. Know your people. Adjust your approach.

Comedians get better at the Comedy Cellar because of what happens next door. Seinfeld, Chappelle, and Schumer gather at the Lemon Tree Cafe after sets to critique each other. Ryan calls it the "see it, say it" mentality, an ethos his teammate Geron Stokes brings every day. Great compliment, say it. Falling short of the standard, say it. The best teammates care enough to tell you how you can improve.

Ron's champagne moment a year from now: his 19-year-old daughter landing a finance internship she earned on her own.

Reflection Questions

• What's your recurring meeting that should be a breakup conversation?
• When was the last time you asked a teammate something specific about their life, by name? Or are you defaulting to "how was your weekend?"
• What's your version of the Comedy Cellar's Lemon Tree Cafe? Who do you go to for the candid feedback that makes you better?

More Learning

#422: Ron Friedman - How to Reverse Engineer Excellence

#535: Geron Stokes - Maximizing People

#647: Tim Ferriss - Effectiveness Over Efficiency

Podcast Chapters

00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now!

01:09 Meet Ron Friedman

02:41 Ron's Dad and the Dignity of Hard Work

03:47 Two Workplaces, Two Cultures, One Lesson

06:01 The Super Teams Methodology

07:13 The Only Office Amenity That Drives Performance

08:50 How a Team Works Matters More Than Where

13:06 The Three Pillars of Super Teams

16:11 Meeting Guidelines That Actually Work

18:42 The Power of Meeting-Free Days

22:23 Why Guidelines Beat Rules

23:40 Side Hustles, Recovery, and the Goldman Sachs CEO Who DJs

28:53 The Three Factors of Trust: Competence, Caring, Consistency

30:13 Why "How Was Your Weekend?" Is Lame

31:02 Get Specific or Don't Bother

31:22 The Manager Who Asked About Miranda by Name

32:08 The Spreadsheet for Remembering People

33:09 What Makes a Toxic Teammate

35:05 Chevy Chase and the Cost of Burning Bridges

35:52 The Best vs. Worst Teammate Traits

37:08 How Tom Brady Lifted an Entire Organization

38:06 Why Super Teams Hold Each Other Accountable

39:39 Inside the Succession Writers' Room

40:46 Brainwriting Beats Brainstorming

41:41 The Candid Feedback Culture That Drives Improvement

43:06 Painting in Red: The Power