book covers dream teams

A 5 Minute Overview Of

Dream Teams

Working Together Without Falling Apart

About the Author


Shane Snow is a business journalist and self-confessed geek. He is a cofounder and chief creative officer of Contently Inc., a web-based platform which empowers freelance journalists to do what they love. He is also an adviser to Visual.ly and a published contributor to Mashable, WIRED Magazine, Fast Company, The New Yorker, Time, The Washington Post and New Scientist. He is the author of Smartcuts and The Storytelling Edge and was previously the founder of Brave Media LLC and assistant editor at Scroll Newspaper. Shane Snow is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and Brigham Young University - Idaho.

The Main Idea


Why is it some groups of people become spectacularly successful when they work together but most do not?Logically, humans should excel at collaboration but studies show unambiguously that talented individuals consistently outperform teams. There are, however, some exceptions to the rule – a small number of "Dream Teams" which defy the odds and achieve something spectacular.

So how do you put together and run a dream team? New discoveries in psychology and neuroscience have decoded what the real secret sauce is in running a dream team. There are eight principles involved. Use them and excel.

Our greatest moments in history—not just in sports, but in business and art and science and society—happened when humans defied the odds by coming together and becoming more than the sum of their parts. When they linked arms, stood on the metaphorical shoulders of the giants who came before them, and saw further together. There's science behind this kind of magic. Dream Teams are not just random. They’re the result of subtle interactions, and ones that are not obvious. Once we understand how it works, the science of Dream Teams is something that we can apply to everything. From our personal relationships, to our everyday work, to our businesses and causes, to our communities, and to a world itself that desperately needs us to stop breaking down because of each other, and start breaking through together.
Shane Snow

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