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The Indicator from Planet Money

Teamwork actually does make the dream work

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.79.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Behavioral scientist Jon Levy’s new book — Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius — argues that, in the workplace, leadership is overrated and teamwork is underrated. Today on the show: How super chickens and NBA All-Stars demonstrate the perils of individual performance.

Related episodes:
Why women make great bosses 
The Virtual Office 
The Science of Hoops

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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Transcript

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0:00.0

NPR.

0:11.7

When you're looking for a job, you put together a resume of your achievements.

0:16.4

I initiated this.

0:17.8

I led that.

0:18.9

I leveraged multiple synergies.

0:20.8

If you haven't leveraged multiple

0:22.6

synergies, I mean, what are you doing in the workplace? But the point is the workplace is all

0:27.9

about rewarding leadership and individual performance. Yeah, sure. You might get a question in a job

0:33.3

interview about working well with others, but being a quiet force for teamwork doesn't get as many

0:38.9

accolades. Behavioral scientist John Levy has a new book arguing exactly this, that leadership is

0:45.5

overrated and that teamwork is underrated. These days, we tend to focus completely on the leader,

0:51.6

if we have the right leader, then the team will perform. But when we look at the research that's out there, it tells a different story.

0:58.9

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods. And I'm Whelan Wong.

1:03.8

Today on the show, teamwork makes the dream work. We learn how important group dynamics are,

1:09.1

whether you're an NBA player or an egg-laying chicken.

1:13.4

Both are about getting round things into baskets. Is there a link there? We'll find out after the break.

1:19.4

Talk about a lay-up.

1:25.6

To explain why rewarding individual performance can lead us astray,

1:30.4

behavioral scientist John Levy gives us the example of egg-laying hands.

1:35.4

Several decades ago, a company called DeKalb produced a chicken that was like the Ferrari of chickens.

1:40.9

It could outlay any chicken out there. It was called the decalb X-L.

1:45.3

Okay, a Ferrari chicken just laying eggs everywhere. This was great for farmers because they were

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