QuoteProject
To get important work done, most leaders organize people into teams. They believe that when people collaborate toward a common goal, great things can happen. Yet in reality, the whole is often much less than the sum of the parts.
Adam Grant
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Effective leaders create teams to harness collective effort, but teamwork can sometimes yield disappointing results.

This quote by Adam Grant highlights the paradox often encountered in team dynamics: while leaders aim to foster collaboration in pursuit of shared goals, the outcomes of such teamwork can sometimes fall short of expectations. Efficiency and effectiveness can diminish when individual contributions fail to integrate well, suggesting that simply putting people together does not guarantee superior results.

Themes

LeadershipTeamworkCollaborationGoalsTeam Dynamics

In practice

Example use cases

In a corporate workshop focusing on team building, this quote could be used to discuss the importance of effective collaboration.

More from Adam Grant

No one wants to hear everything that's in your head. They just want you to live up to what comes out of your mouth.
Adam GrantRead
In the eyes of many people, giving doesn't count unless it's completely selfless. In reality, though, giving isn't sustainable when it's completely selfless.
Adam GrantRead
When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.
Adam GrantRead
We have many identities, and we can't be authentic to them all. The best we can do is be sincere in our efforts to earn the values we claim.
Adam GrantRead
We all have thoughts and feelings that we believe are fundamental to our lives but that are better left unspoken.
Adam GrantRead
You want people who choose to follow because they genuinely believe in ideas, not because they're afraid to be punished if they don't. For startups, there's so much pivoting that's required that if you have a bunch of sheep, you're in bad shape.
Adam GrantRead

Similar quotes

If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who's very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that's a very tricky business. We've got to know his background... I'm saying these things because they are real, and if I don't think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn't think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy.
Lee Kuan YewRead
And here one must not that hatred is acquired just as much by means of good actions as by bad ones; and so, as I said above, if a prince wishes to maintain the state, he is often obliged not to be good; because whenever that group which you believe you need to support you is corrupted, whether it be the common people, the soldiers, or the nobles, it is to your advantage to follow their inclinations in order to satisfy them; and then good actions are your enemy.
Niccolo MachiavelliRead
In other words, don't expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say 'we have a problem, let's go and get it'.
Colin PowellRead
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.
Warren BennisRead
In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it.
Robert M. GatesRead
Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.
Margaret HeffernanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Adam Grant | QuoteProject