Talking about Bad Apples and teamwork and leadership: 

What damage comes from bad apples on teams?
  • 5 good to 1 bad – the magic relationship ratio, 5 good interactions for every 1 bad interaction.
  • Bad apples decrease managerial effectiveness by ~40% – think and measure all the time you spend with the bad apple, all the meetings about the bad apple, and all the other people who have to work around the scheduling and damage done. Dealing with 1 bad apple is a lot of your time as a manager! 
  • Bad team member removes ~$3000 of value from a team, while a high performer adds ~$1200. It takes 2.5 high-performers for 1 bad apple to break even! 
What can you do about bad apples on teams?
  1. Remove or marginalize bad apples. 
  2. Put all the bad apples on one team if you can’t remove them. Don’t try to dilute their toxicity by spreading them over several teams. 
  3. Work on team dynamics, not just getting things done. 
  4. Encourage team members to talk to each other, not the person at the head of the table. 
  5. Send team members out to learn from other organizations. 
  6. Divide teams into small groups that talk to each other. 
  7. Prepare quiet people to make contributions.