Meet Jon Levy — behavioral scientist and author of Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius and the NYT/WSJ bestseller You’re Invited. Jon has spent years studying human behavior and leadership mechanics, advising companies on how to build teams that actually perform—beyond leadership myths and buzzwords. We often hire “A-players,” roll out values, and assume great leadership traits will carry us. Then reality hits: strategy doesn’t execute itself—teams do. Jon explains why the smallest unit of performance is the team, why stacking stars backfires, and how culture and language shape what people actually do. If you’re trying to align leaders who don’t buy the data, this one’s for you. You’ll learn how to engineer collective intelligence—the practical habits, roles, and rituals that raise a team’s game, how to recruit and empower “glue players,” and how to make strategy felt when spreadsheets won’t persuade. In this episode we cover: Culture as operating system: the sayings, status cues, and rituals that drive behavior (Apple’s “surprise and delight,” LEGO’s “fireside”). Bursty communication: why teams should “work together, then work apart” to boost problem-solving. Glue players: high-EQ, team-first multipliers (and why too many stars tank performance). Make the implicit explicit: roles, skills, and “player cards” that speed decisions. Trust, not traits: honesty, competence, benevolence—and dealing with the dark tetrad at work. When data won’t convince: crafting a narrative that makes people feel the better future. Episode Timeline 00:00 Introduction 00:36 Coming Up... 01:47 Unpacking Team Intelligence with John Levy 02:47 Insights on Leadership and Team Dynamics 05:13 The Role of Culture in Organizations 13:49 The Impact of Language on Behavior 16:54 The Concept of Glue Players 18:14 The Key to Predicting Success in Basketball 19:02 Characteristics of Glue Players 21:25 The Importance of Team Dynamics 23:49 The Antwerp Diamond Heist: A Lesson in Teamwork 27:52 Making Implicit Knowledge Explicit 29:36 The Dark Side of Team Dynamics 31:29 Understanding Trust in Teams 34:06 The Role of Emotion in Strategy 35:02 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Additional Resources Jon Levy — Website: https://www.jonlevy.com Book: https://www.jonlevy.com/team-intelligence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonlevytlb Thank you to our guest, our executive producer Zach Ness, our editor James Pearce, and the Outthinker team. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, download, and subscribe. I’m your host, Kaihan Krippendorff—thank you for listening. Follow us at outthinker.com/podcast
