Building a Successful Team: The Complete Guide

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform summary of "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Shortform has the world's best summaries of books you should be reading.

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How do you build a successful business when the direction isn’t fully clear yet? Start by putting the right people on the team first. Research on great companies shows that who you hire matters more than which strategy you choose at the outset.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins explains why assembling the right team lays the groundwork for building a successful business. Below, you’ll learn how strong team dynamics support change, encourage healthy debate, and help leaders move faster by relying on people who are aligned, capable, and committed.

Originally Published: December 25, 2019
Last Updated: January 24, 2026

Editor’s note: This article is part of Shortform’s guide to success. If you like what you read here, there’s plenty more to check out in the guide!

Assembling the Right Team

One principle behind good-to-great companies is that they recruit and retain the right people before embarking on any specific program. Collins argues that when good people come on board before a new direction is unveiled, they’re signing on because of who else is on board. This means that if the company has to change direction down the road, these team members will stick with you—because it was never about the direction in the first place.

(Shortform note: Like Collins, entrepreneur Dan Sullivan says that building a successful team is crucial to success. In Who Not How, he writes that putting the right people in place saves you time and energy by allowing those with the right expertise to tackle specific tasks. However, while Collins says that you should have people in place before starting a program, Sullivan argues that you should first have a clear vision and purpose before building a team. Additionally, other experts say that if you do have to change the company’s direction, it’s not enough to rely on team dynamics to carry you through—you should also clearly communicate changes, recognize how they affect your team, and make an effort to motivate and retain top talent.)

Collins adds that a good-to-great team is composed of people who care deeply about the company and will argue passionately for the decisions they believe are right (but will come together to support whatever decision is eventually reached). At all costs, avoid the “genius with a thousand helpers” model; management teams should be composed of independent and critical thinkers, not “yes people.”

(Shortform note: In The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondson says many companies rely on a fear-driven management approach that discourages employees from speaking up or, as Collins says, turns them into “yes people.” To address this, Edmondson says you should establish a psychologically safe culture that encourages people to speak openly and honestly. To create a psychologically safe workplace, she advises building employees’ trust, communicating the value they bring to the company, redefining failure as an opportunity to improve, having forums where employees can speak up, and listening and responding thoughtfully to their input.)

How to Achieve It

To assemble the right team, Collins offers the following tips:

1) Don’t hire until you’re sure you have the right person. (Shortform note: In Built to Last, Collins and Porras say that the “right person” is someone who’s aligned with the company’s core philosophy and has a good cultural fit.)

2) Recognize when you need to make a change (whether by shifting a role or letting someone go) and act swiftly. (Shortform note: The authors of First, Break All the Rules agree that it’s necessary to move or let go of poor performers to keep them from dragging down the group. However, they also acknowledge that doing so isn’t easy and that it requires “tough love”: Being tough means having high standards and consistently holding people to those standards. Showing love means setting people up for success, which includes recognizing when they’re not well-suited to a role and letting them know that their talents are a better fit for another position.)

3) Assign your best people to your biggest opportunities rather than your biggest problems. That might mean taking a top performer away from a thriving division and transferring them to one you’re aiming to grow. (Shortform note: Amy C. Edmondson offers a different perspective, saying you should make use of the best people for your biggest problems through teaming. In her book of the same name, she says that “teaming” means bringing people together in temporary groups that can collaborate effectively and flexibly, tapping into their expertise to respond to specific challenges. She says it’s an alternative to traditional teamwork, which can be too rigid for today’s fast-changing environment.)

Building a Successful Team: The Complete Guide