Business

Tuesday Buzz: Don’t Put Too Many Stars on the Same Team

Many leaders load up their top performers on one team, but research suggests that could be holding back creativity. Also: Meet Facebook’s print publication aimed at business leaders.

When you put all your office stars on one team, you think you’d wind up with a super group that’s bursting at the seams with creativity. But scientific research shows that different skill levels and statuses actually help to boost a team’s creativity in contrast to loading up on highest-ranking employees.

“If a team includes too many high status people—‘stars’ or ‘a-players’ as they are more commonly known—they will compete for social standing and fail to consider others’ ideas,” write David Rock and Mary Slaughter in a new article for Quartz.

The post goes on to discuss research that shows teams made up of high-status members often come up with the weakest ideas. “In one experiment, people assigned to the leader group were rated by independent judges as being far less creative in coming up with new product ideas than worker groups,” they write. “Their work was considered the ‘least innovative and most uninspired.’”

Facebook’s Print Publication

Oh, the irony. Facebook, one of the central figures to blame for the decline of print, has itself launched a quarterly print publication as part of its “thought leadership platform” targeted toward clients.

The publication, Grow, is currently being distributed in the United Kingdom for free in the first- and business-class lounges of train stations and airports, reports Vice News. The company explained that the print publication was an alternative to digital offerings of the content.

“We know that business leaders have limited time for long reads at work, so we’ve also created a physical version with journeys in mind,” the social giant says on its Grow by Facebook website.

Other Links of Note

What’s holding back your membership growth? Here are 5 common association habits that may be hurting you, according to The Joy of Membership.

Don’t settle for plain old meeting badges. The Event Manager Blog shares 100 ways to do badges differently.

A better company culture doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Inc. shares 12 things bosses can do today.

(alexis84/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Raegan Johnson

By Raegan Johnson

Raegan Johnson is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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