The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret  Power of Groups
Colin M. Fisher
Avery/An Imprint of Penguin Random House (September 2025)

“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”  African Proverb

Long ago, Peter Drucker observed: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” How to make the best decisions? Enter Thomas Davenport and Brooke Manville. In their book, Judgment Calls, they explain how and why decisions made by a Great Organization tend to be much better than those made by a Great Leader. Why?

While conducting rigorous and extensive research over a period of many years, Davenport and Manville. discovered — as Laurence Prusak notes in the Foreword to Judgment Calls — “that no one was looking into the workings of what we term organizational judgment — the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.”

Colin M. Fisher wrote The Collective Edge in order to help as many executives as possible to unlock the “secret” (i.e. the under-appreciated, under-utilized) power of group initiatives throughout their organization. In the Introduction, he asserts that all organizations need much more effective groups — “groups that are solutions, not problems. It’s time to break out of individualistic mindsets that see groups as necessary evils. It’s time to tell a different story about the amazing, but overlooked power of groups to achieve great things — under the right conditions.”

Moreover, Fisher adds, those who read this book will discover how to use the science of group dynamics to live and work together better. “The secrets to getting the best from our groups — and from ourselves — are embedded within six conditions you can use to promote effective cooperation: composition, goals, tasks, norms, psychological safety, and coaching. Shaping these conditions allows you to unlock the power hidden in the overlooked science of group dynamics. Understanding them is the key to building effective, deeply rewarding groups.”

Colin M. Fisher carefully explains HOW to achieve these and other strategic objectives.

If you share my high regard for The Collective Edge, I urge you to check out three others: the aforementioned Judgment Calls as well as Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, 20th Anniversary Edition (2002) and Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz’s Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days (2016).