What your team can learn from ABBA

Benny and Björn didn’t write every note together. They developed musical fragments separately, brought them together, and then Björn went home to write lyrics. Collaboration mattered. So did time apart.

That distinction sits at the heart of The Collaboration Trap, our latest Spaces conversation with social psychologist Ron Friedman, author of Superteams.

The setup: Friedman once worked at a marketing agency where closing your office door sent the wrong message and every meeting had at least 10 people in it. It looked like a model culture. But nobody had time to think.

• His research surveyed more than 6,000 workers, including the roughly 8% whose teams earned top marks for effectiveness and performance against industry peers. What set those teams apart wasn’t constant togetherness.

Zoom in: Instead of jumping straight into a brainstorm, “superteams” gave people time to think independently before sharing ideas. Friedman calls this “brainwriting.” It gives everyone a chance to contribute before the first person to speak sets the direction.

ABBA’s songwriting offers a memorable example: develop something on your own, then see what others can add.

The distinction: Time apart works best when the team plans for it. Go dark on email for an afternoon and you might become a colleague’s bottleneck. Agree on a shared 90-minute focus block, with no meetings or email for anyone, and people can concentrate without holding each other up.

Why it matters: Leaders often ask for more collaboration and get more interruptions. Friedman’s research suggests that how a team works matters more than whether it’s in the office, remote or hybrid.

The useful question: when do we need each other, and when do we need room to think?