How to unlock the power of successful groups: An interview with Colin Fisher

Issue 185: The COLLECTIVE EDGE explains why you're probably looking in the wrong direction when it comes to troubleshooting groups

When things fall apart in a team, we tend to blame a few bad apples for dragging it down. But what if we were looking in the wrong place the whole time? In The Collective Edge, organizational psychologist Colin M. Fisher invites us to stop thinking of success and failure as products of individual effort and to start seeing them as consequences of group structure. The book explores the basics of group dynamics for a general audience and highlights the invisible forces that shape how we collaborate, make decisions, and achieve (or derail) goals altogether.

“(T)he group(s) literature has silly terms like “group entititativity.” It inherently lacks heroic protagonists and villains. So our science doesn’t have the impact it should. I hope this book helps more people learn about and use the decades of fabulous science we have about understanding and harnessing the tremendous power of group dynamics.”

In our interview, Colin explains how group structure dictates results more than most people think. When grou…