How Great Leaders Build Teams That Never Stop Improving

Harvard Business Review (HBR)
Harvard Business Review (HBR)Jun 10, 2026

Why It Matters

Embedding a culture of experimentation and feedback turns ordinary teams into engines of innovation, directly boosting productivity and long‑term market relevance.

Key Takeaways

  • Super teams manage time, energy, attention to boost output.
  • They foster continuous improvement through experiments and feedback loops.
  • Leaders must reward intelligent failure to encourage risk‑taking.
  • Frequent, future‑focused feedback energizes teams and accelerates learning.
  • Innovation incentives, like 3M’s 30% rule, sustain long‑term performance.

Summary

The video explains how top‑performing “super teams” continuously improve, outlining the three core strengths that set them apart: superior time‑energy‑attention management, collaborative skill‑building, and an relentless drive to get better.

Research surveying thousands of workers shows that super teams achieve perfect goal‑meeting scores by experimenting daily, seeking abundant feedback, and rewarding innovation. They run low‑risk experiments, accept a roughly 85 % success rate, and treat failures as learning opportunities, which fuels ongoing skill growth.

Examples include a weekly review of all experiments, peer‑to‑peer feedback focused on one future improvement, and 3M’s famous 30 % rule that ties bonuses to new‑product revenue. Leaders who deliver motivating, conversational feedback and celebrate intelligent failure create an environment where risk‑taking thrives.

For business leaders, adopting these habits can transform average groups into high‑velocity units, driving faster product cycles, higher employee engagement, and sustained competitive advantage.

Original Description

For leaders, building a high-performing team may require embracing something counterintuitive: failure. Ron Friedman, psychologist and author of "Superteams: The Science and Secrets of High-Performing Teams," argues that the best teams learn faster by treating experimentation, feedback, and innovation as core team habits.
Drawing on surveys of thousands of workers, he challenges leaders to let go of perfectionism and adopt a "progress mentality," where intelligent risk-taking is rewarded. For ambitious teams, the lesson is clear: if nothing ever fails, you're not pushing hard enough, and you're probably falling behind.
0:00 The three key strengths of superteams.
1:47 Superteams conduct more experiments.
2:52 Superteams give and receive more feedback.
3:59 Superteams reward innovation (and failure).
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