WEBVTT

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An evolutionary biologist
at Purdue University

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named William Muir studied chickens.

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He was interested in productivity --

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I think it's something
that concerns all of us --

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but it's easy to measure in chickens
because you just count the eggs.

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(Laughter)

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He wanted to know what could make
his chickens more productive,

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so he devised a beautiful experiment.

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Chickens live in groups, so first of all,
he selected just an average flock,

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and he let it alone for six generations.

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But then he created a second group

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of the individually
most productive chickens --

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you could call them superchickens --

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and he put them together in a superflock,

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and each generation, he selected
only the most productive for breeding.

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After six generations had passed,

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what did he find?

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Well, the first group, the average group,
was doing just fine.

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They were all plump and fully feathered

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and egg production
had increased dramatically.

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What about the second group?

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Well, all but three were dead.

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They'd pecked the rest to death.

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(Laughter)

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The individually productive chickens
had only achieved their success

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by suppressing the productivity
of the rest.

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Now, as I've gone around the world
talking about this and telling this story

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in all sorts of organizations
and companies,

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people have seen
the relevance almost instantly,

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and they come up and they say
things to me like,

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"That superflock, that's my company."

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(Laughter)

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Or, "That's my country."

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Or, "That's my life."

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All my life I've been told that the way
we have to get ahead is to compete:

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get into the right school,
get into the right job, get to the top,

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and I've really never found it
very inspiring.

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I've started and run businesses
because invention is a joy,

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and because working alongside
brilliant, creative people

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is its own reward.

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And I've never really felt very motivated
by pecking orders or by superchickens

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or by superstars.

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But for the past 50 years,

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we've run most organizations
and some societies

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along the superchicken model.

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We've thought that success is achieved
by picking the superstars,

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the brightest men,
or occasionally women, in the room,

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and giving them all the resources
and all the power.

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And the result has been just the same
as in William Muir's experiment:

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aggression, dysfunction and waste.

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If the only way the most productive
can be successful

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is by suppressing
the productivity of the rest,

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then we badly need to find
a better way to work

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and a richer way to live.

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(Applause)

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So what is it that makes some groups

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obviously more successful
and more productive than others?

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Well, that's the question
a team at MIT took to research.

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They brought in hundreds of volunteers,

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they put them into groups, and they
gave them very hard problems to solve.

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And what happened was exactly
what you'd expect,

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that some groups were very much
more successful than others,

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but what was really interesting
was that the high-achieving groups

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were not those where they had
one or two people

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with spectacularly high I.Q.

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Nor were the most successful groups
the ones that had the highest

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aggregate I.Q.

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Instead, they had three characteristics,
the really successful teams.

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First of all, they showed high degrees
of social sensitivity to each other.

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This is measured by something called
the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.

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It's broadly considered
a test for empathy,

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and the groups that scored highly on this

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did better.

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Secondly, the successful groups
gave roughly equal time to each other,

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so that no one voice dominated,

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but neither were there any passengers.

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And thirdly, the more successful groups

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had more women in them.

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(Applause)

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Now, was this because women
typically score more highly on

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the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test,

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so you're getting a doubling down
on the empathy quotient?

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Or was it because they brought
a more diverse perspective?

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We don't really know, but the striking
thing about this experiment

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is that it showed what we know, which is
some groups do better than others,

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but what's key to that

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is their social connectedness
to each other.

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So how does this play out
in the real world?

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Well, it means that what happens
between people really counts,

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because in groups that are highly
attuned and sensitive to each other,

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ideas can flow and grow.

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People don't get stuck.
They don't waste energy down dead ends.

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An example: Arup is one of the world's
most successful engineering firms,

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and it was commissioned to build
the equestrian center

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for the Beijing Olympics.

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Now, this building had to receive

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two and a half thousand
really highly strung thoroughbred horses

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that were coming off long-haul flights,

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highly jet-lagged,
not feeling their finest.

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And the problem
the engineer confronted was,

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what quantity of waste to cater for?

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Now, you don't get taught this
in engineering school -- (Laughter) --

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and it's not really the kind of thing
you want to get wrong,

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so he could have spent months
talking to vets, doing the research,

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tweaking the spreadsheet.

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Instead, he asked for help

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and he found someone who had designed
the Jockey Club in New York.

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The problem was solved in less than a day.

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Arup believes that
the culture of helpfulness

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is central to their success.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, helpfulness sounds really anemic,

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but it's absolutely core
to successful teams,

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and it routinely outperforms
individual intelligence.

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Helpfulness means I don't
have to know everything,

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I just have to work among people
who are good at getting and giving help.

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At SAP, they reckon that you can answer
any question in 17 minutes.

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But there isn't a single
high-tech company I've worked with

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that imagines for a moment
that this is a technology issue,

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because what drives helpfulness
is people getting to know each other.

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Now that sounds so obvious, and we think
it'll just happen normally,

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but it doesn't.

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When I was running
my first software company,

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I realized that we were getting stuck.

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There was a lot of friction,
but not much else,

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and I gradually realized the brilliant,
creative people that I'd hired

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didn't know each other.

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They were so focused
on their own individual work,

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they didn't even know
who they were sitting next to,

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and it was only when I insisted
that we stop working

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and invest time in getting
to know each other

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that we achieved real momentum.

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Now, that was 20 years ago,
and now I visit companies

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that have banned coffee cups at desks

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because they want people to hang out
around the coffee machines

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and talk to each other.

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The Swedes even have
a special term for this.

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They call it fika, which means
more than a coffee break.

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It means collective restoration.

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At Idexx, a company up in Maine,

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they've created vegetable gardens
on campus so that people

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from different parts of the business

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can work together and get to know
the whole business that way.

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Have they all gone mad?

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Quite the opposite -- they've figured out
that when the going gets tough,

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and it always will get tough

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if you're doing breakthrough work
that really matters,

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what people need is social support,

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and they need to know who to ask for help.

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Companies don't have ideas;
only people do.

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And what motivates people

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are the bonds and loyalty and trust
they develop between each other.

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What matters is the mortar,

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not just the bricks.

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Now, when you put all of this together,

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what you get is something
called social capital.

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Social capital is the reliance
and interdependency that builds trust.

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The term comes from sociologists
who were studying communities

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that proved particularly resilient
in times of stress.

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Social capital is what
gives companies momentum,

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and social capital
is what makes companies robust.

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What does this mean in practical terms?

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It means that time is everything,

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because social capital
compounds with time.

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So teams that work together longer
get better, because it takes time

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to develop the trust you need
for real candor and openness.

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And time is what builds value.

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When Alex Pentland
suggested to one company

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that they synchronize coffee breaks

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so that people would have time
to talk to each other,

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profits went up 15 million dollars,

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and employee satisfaction
went up 10 percent.

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Not a bad return on social capital,

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which compounds even as you spend it.

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Now, this isn't about chumminess,
and it's no charter for slackers,

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because people who work this way
tend to be kind of scratchy,

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impatient, absolutely determined
to think for themselves

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because that's what their contribution is.

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Conflict is frequent
because candor is safe.

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And that's how good ideas
turn into great ideas,

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because no idea is born fully formed.

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It emerges a little bit
as a child is born,

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kind of messy and confused,
but full of possibilities.

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And it's only through the generous
contribution, faith and challenge

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that they achieve their potential.

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And that's what social capital supports.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, we aren't really used
to talking about this,

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about talent, about creativity,
in this way.

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We're used to talking about stars.

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So I started to wonder,
well, if we start working this way,

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does that mean no more stars?

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So I went and I sat in on the auditions

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at the Royal Academy
of Dramatic Art in London.

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And what I saw there really surprised me,

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because the teachers weren't looking
for individual pyrotechnics.

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They were looking for what happened
between the students,

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because that's where the drama is.

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And when I talked
to producers of hit albums,

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they said, "Oh sure, we have
lots of superstars in music.

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It's just, they don't last very long.

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It's the outstanding collaborators
who enjoy the long careers,

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because bringing out the best in others
is how they found the best

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in themselves."

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And when I went to visit companies
that are renowned

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for their ingenuity and creativity,

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I couldn't even see any superstars,

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because everybody there really mattered.

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And when I reflected on my own career,

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and the extraordinary people
I've had the privilege to work with,

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I realized how much more
we could give each other

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if we just stopped trying
to be superchickens.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Once you appreciate
truly how social work is,

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a lot of things have to change.

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Management by talent contest
has routinely pitted

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employees against each other.

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Now, rivalry has to be replaced
by social capital.

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For decades, we've tried
to motivate people with money,

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even though we've got
a vast amount of research that shows

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that money erodes social connectedness.

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Now, we need to let people
motivate each other.

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And for years, we've thought that leaders
were heroic soloists who were expected,

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all by themselves,
to solve complex problems.

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Now, we need to redefine leadership

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as an activity in which
conditions are created

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in which everyone can do their most
courageous thinking together.

NOTE Paragraph

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We know that this works.

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When the Montreal Protocol called
for the phasing out of CFCs,

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the chlorofluorocarbons implicated
in the hole in the ozone layer,

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the risks were immense.

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CFCs were everywhere,

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and nobody knew if a substitute
could be found.

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But one team that rose to the challenge
adopted three key principles.

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The first was the head of engineering,
Frank Maslen, said,

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there will be no stars in this team.

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We need everybody.

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Everybody has a valid perspective.

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Second, we work to one standard only:

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the best imaginable.

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And third, he told his boss,
Geoff Tudhope,

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that he had to butt out,

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because he knew
how disruptive power can be.

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Now, this didn't mean Tudhope did nothing.

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He gave the team air cover,

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and he listened to ensure
that they honored their principles.

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And it worked: Ahead of all the other
companies tackling this hard problem,

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this group cracked it first.

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And to date, the Montreal Protocol

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is the most successful international
environmental agreement

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ever implemented.

NOTE Paragraph

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There was a lot at stake then,

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and there's a lot at stake now,

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and we won't solve our problems
if we expect it to be solved

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by a few supermen or superwomen.

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Now we need everybody,

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because it is only when we accept
that everybody has value

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that we will liberate the energy
and imagination and momentum we need

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to create the best beyond measure.

NOTE Paragraph

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Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

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(Applause)