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Abel James Show

How to Create High-Performing, High-Trust Teams with Dr. Colin Fisher

Abel James Show

Abel James Bascom

Alternative Health, Business, Entrepreneurship, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Have you ever sat in a pointless meeting wondering, "what am I even doing here?'

Imagine if meeting up with fellow humans felt less like a slow-motion train wreck… and more like a great jam session—where everyone’s locked in, connected, and creating something truly inspirational none of you could have created alone.

Some call this concept the mastermind, when your group becomes more than the sum of its parts, creating something altogether much more expansive and, at its best, transcendent.

On today’s show, we’re here with Dr. Colin Fisher, professor, jazz trumpet player, and author of The Collective Edge, talking about the real science of group dynamics, creativity, and leadership. Dr. Fisher has spent his career studying why some teams become far more than the sum of their parts… while others spiral into dysfunction, groupthink, and soul‑sucking meetings that could have easily been an email.

If you’ve ever watched a brilliant team of superstars underperform and fail spectacularly, this conversation will give you a totally new lens on how human dynamics actually work, and how to build teams that launch you into the stratosphere.

In this episode, we dig into:
  • How to handle the person who sucks all the air out of the room (without making it personal)
  • Why 60% of a team’s performance is decided before the first meeting even happens
  • What jazz improvisation can teach us about flow, trust, and spontaneous collaboration at work
  • Why the “lone genius” is a myth of marketing
  • Why we desperately need to talk about what AI is already doing to our teams
  • And much more..
Find Dr. Colin Fisher and his work at: 
Please take a moment to make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts, and to stay up-to-date, sign up for my newsletter at AbelJames.com.

You can also join Substack as a free or paid member for ad-free episodes of this show, to comment on each episode, and to hit me up in the DM’s. Join at abeljames.substack.com. And if you’re feeling generous, write a quick review for the Abel James Show on Apple or Spotify. You rock.

This episode is brought to you by:
Tonum Health – Go to Tonum.com/WILD and punch in code WILD for 10 % off your first order.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, this is Abel James, and thanks so much for joining us on the show.

0:04.0

Have you ever sat in a pointless meeting wondering, what are we even doing here?

0:09.0

Imagine if meeting up with fellow humans felt less like a slow motion train wreck

0:13.0

and more like a great jam session where everyone's locked in, connected,

0:17.0

and creating something truly inspirational that none of you could have created on your

0:22.2

own. Some call this concept the mastermind where your group becomes more than the sum of

0:26.8

its parts, creating something altogether more expansive and at its best transcendent. On today's show,

0:32.9

we're here with Dr. Colin Fisher, Professor Jazz trumpet player, an author of The Collective Edge,

0:38.6

talking about the real science of group dynamics, creativity, and leadership.

0:43.2

Colin has spent his career studying why some teams become far more than the sum of their

0:47.6

parts, while others spiral into dysfunction, group think, and soul-sucking meetings that could

0:52.5

have easily been an email.

0:58.8

If you've ever watched a brilliant team of superstars underperform and fail spectacularly,

1:03.6

this conversation will give you a totally new lens on how human dynamics actually work and how to build teams that launch you into the stratosphere.

1:06.9

Now, there have been a lot of exciting things going on here in Austin, Texas.

1:10.2

I am completely underslept, but also full of energy. I've been playing a lot of live shows, lots of music, and we have more events coming up soon. So if you'd like to come join, and thanks to all of you who have, it's been so much fun the past few weeks, make sure to follow me on my newsletter at abeljames.com. That's abeljames.com.

1:28.3

You can also find me on substack, abeljames.substack.com.

1:32.3

And it may surprise some of you to learn that I did start another Instagram after Instagram got rid of our large account that we had for like 10 years.

1:40.8

I finally started up another one, mostly just for music.

1:43.1

So if you'd like to follow some of my music, make sure to follow Abel James Bascom at Abel Jams on Instagram. I'm also on

1:50.6

X, Abel James, Primal, Noster. Make sure to check that out. I'm Abel on there or Abel James, and

1:57.5

lots, lots more coming soon. If you'd like to join our upcoming challenges and community meetups and all of that,

...

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