Shane Snow - Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart

When I was in third and fourth grade, my grandfather used to ask me, What will you do today to make the world a better place? Every morning when I saw him, I knew thats what he was going to ask me.

Growing up as a gay black kid in Massachusetts in the 1960s and 70s was not the easiest. I was in Roxbury, a rough part of Boston.

But every single time I saw him, Pops asked me the exact same thing.

Not: What will you do today to make your life better?

But: What will you do today to make the world better?

And Ive got to tell you, I remember thinking, Thats part of my job.

On my journey, I became very aware of the massive power that working as a team has to make something bigger and better than just myself. Because of how I grew up, I have always felt the need to be a leader and to help move things along, but I also realized that progress is not a solo journey.

That philosophy has been how Ive approached everything.

For example, when I started my latest company, my partner Cory and I sat down with an ambitious mission: What if we wanted to create the planets most interesting agency? we said.

When we sat down and mapped it out, the first thing that we worked on was not what clients we would go after, or what creative work we would do. Those are the typical things agencies start with.

Instead, the question we asked ourselves was, What team of people will be able to reach this vision?

We decided that if we got the right kinds of different people in the roomand we tapped into their unique points of viewthat would be what got us there.

We believed that ideas could be pushed forward in a more productive and innovative way if you have a team of people with diverse backgrounds. And not just culturally diverse, but also by discipline. I knew the research that shows that teams like these can be more successful because different people have to work harder to get their points across. When were with people who arent like us, we have to marshal more resources, brainpower, to help convince other people of why a different direction might be the right direction. And this helps us break through.

Over the years, we put this into practice. And weve built a team that is truly different, and truly does some of the planets most interesting work, furthering social causes while building businesses at the same time. When we pitched and won a Super Bowl campaign, for example, we werent successful just because of the idea. When we made a viral video showcasing Hispanic Americans taking pride in their work and heritage, it didnt go viral just because of the concept itself. There are a billion great ideas. It was how our team worked together that made these things happen. It was about how we brought that great idea to life by tapping into the zeitgeist of the people in our group.

Real innovation comes from our differences. Ideas get better when we challenge each other.

But heres the thing.

Its not comfortable. Its messy. Its like a Pollock paintingit looks like chaos. As humans, we want to avoid conflict. The tension points between us makes us better. But getting it to work right is hard.

Thats why Im excited about this book.

I think were much stronger collectively than we are individually. If you think about every great breakthrough in the world, its genuinely linked to when people have been working as a team, when we have been thinking about, What can we do thats going to make life better for someone else?

Am I naive to think that thats the way the world should work?

Were all trying to get to our mountaintop. And once we get to it, were looking for another mountain to climb. To make that journey, we need each other.

The answer to my grandfathers question will be different every day for each of us. The fact that we will need to do it together will not.

And when we win, well all win.