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I wanted to work with people smart enough to have independent thinking but strong enough to change their opinion when evidence or logic suggested it.

As her research continued, Edmondson found a handful of good norms that seemed to be consistently associated with higher productivity. On the best teams, for instance, leaders encouraged people to speak up; teammates felt like they could expose their vulnerabilities to one another; people said they could suggest ideas without fear of retribution; the culture discouraged people from making harsh judgments. As Edmondson's list of good norms grew, she began to notice that everything shared a common attribute: They were all behaviors that created a sense of togetherness while also encouraging people to take a chance.

There were, however, two behaviors that all the good teams shared. First, all the members of the good teams spoke in roughly the same proportion, a phenomenon the researchers referred to as "equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking." In some teams, for instance, everyone spoke during each task. In other groups, conversation ebbed from assignment to assignment--but by the end of the day, everyone had spoken roughly the same amount. "As long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well," said Woolley. "But if only one person or a small group spoke all the time, the collective intelligence declined. The conversations didn't need to be equal every minute, but in aggregate, they had to balance out."

It was the norms, not the people, that made teams so smart. The right norms could raise the collective intelligence of mediocre thinkers. The wrong norms could hobble a group made up of people who, on their own, were all exceptionally bright.

People want to believe they're part of something special, an organization that's exceptional. And that's the environment I was creating in the early months and years at San Francisco.

When there is a serious lack of clarity about what the team stands for and what their goals and roles are, people experience confusion, stress, and frustration. When there is a high level of clarity, on the other hand, people thrive.

TO MAKE TEAMS MORE EFFECTIVE: Manage the how, not the who of teams. Psychological safety emerges when everyone feels like they can speak in roughly equal measure and when teammates show they are sensitive to how each other feel. If you are leading a team, think about the message your choices reveal. Are you encouraging equality in speaking, or rewarding the loudest people? Are you showing you are listening by repeating what people say and replying to questions and thoughts? Are you demonstrating sensitivity by reacting when someone seems upset or flustered? Are you showcasing that sensitivity, so other people will follow your lead?

A small team of A-plus players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players. - Steve Jobs