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What are the qualities of a great team? Youve probably been taught that team success requires building trust, fostering psychological safety, and cultivating a unified mindset. Seems logical. You might have learned that consensus is important and hierarchies are bad. Okay. Youve undoubtedly been given that old chestnut, Theres no I in team. A classic. Team building 101. Its conventional wisdom, and yet it completely misses the paradox of teams: While companies often focus on merging everyone into a single homogeneous entity, truly great teams embrace the distinct, diverse roles and talents of their team members. Every high-performing group in an organization will have someone who takes the lead on making decisions (the Director), somebody who produces work and achieves results (the Achiever), another who keeps the group on track and on schedule (the Stabilizer), another who keeps the relationships healthy (the Harmonizer), and someone who challenges the group with ideas outside the norm (the Trailblazer). Whats the ideal mix of roles on a team? To answer that all-important question, we asked thousands of executives and managers to measure their best and worst teams. And we uncovered some fascinating patterns. A whopping 97 percent of the best teams had all five roles filled. On the flip side, only about 21 percent of the worst teams filled every role. Theres a reason why great teams have someone in every role: Its tough to be successful without each of those talents being represented. Youve probably experienced teams with a bunch of Directors, all competing with each other to be the decision-makers, and no Achievers to actually do the work. You might have experienced the opposite: a team with no Directors and a striking inability to make any decisions. Maybe youve seen a group without a Trailblazer, a team where creative ideas go to die. And the list goes on. Of course, not every team is going to contain exactly five members, so where can you have more people and still be wildly successful? The short version is that the best teams in our research were able to easily handle more Harmonizers and Achievers, and too many Trailblazers was rarely a problem. And heres more detail about the distribution of people for all five roles: Harmonizers Having more than a few Harmonizers, a role that focuses on fostering collaboration and resolving conflicts, can help a team with improved communication and teamwork, reducing internal conflicts and enhancing cooperation. As long as all of the other roles are covered, having too many Harmonizers isnt typically a problem. Without coverage of the other roles, however, having a group that prizes interpersonal harmony over achieving results, hitting deadlines, etc., could quickly become a recipe for what former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns called terminal niceness. You might experience a lack of healthy debate, potentially leading to groupthink or a failure to consider diverse perspectives. While cohesion is important, too much emphasis on harmony could hinder the teams ability to innovate or tackle challenging problems effectively. Achievers When it comes to an abundance of Achievers, again assuming that all the other roles are covered, having a bunch of people who want to do great work without needing to be in charge seems like a dream. More people identify as Achievers than any other role, so its likely your team will have more than a few. If youve got a team of Achievers and nothing else, youll likely excel in executing tasks but lack in other areas like decision-making, innovation, or interpersonal dynamics. Theres also a risk of competition rather than collaboration, as multiple Achievers vie to demonstrate their individual productivity, potentially at the cost of overall team cohesion and effectiveness. But when balanced with the other roles, loading up on Achievers wont typically be much of a problem. Trailblazers Its not hard to imagine the problems that would occur with a team replete with Trailblazers and no one else: brilliant, out-of-the-box ideas and absolutely no execution. Such a team might struggle with follow-through, jumping from one innovative concept to another without fully developing or implementing any of them. And an excess of Trailblazers might create an environment thats too chaotic or unpredictable, lacking the stability needed for consistent performance. In reality, however, there just arent that many Trailblazers walking the halls of the typical organization, so youre more likely to struggle finding one than you are to grapple with an overabundance. Stabilizers That brings us to Stabilizers, a role that appears frequently in most organizations, so you do face some risk of overload. The risk you face concerns, well, risk specifically the avoidance of it. A team with too many Stabilizers might become overly rigid, focusing excessively on processes and procedures at the expense of innovation and quick responses to changing circumstances. This could lead to a team thats highly organized but slow to adapt, potentially missing opportunities or failing to address evolving challenges in dynamic environments. Many innovations require some risk- taking and deviating from existing protocols, not something that Stabilizers love, so youll need a Trailblazer to offer some counterweight to the Stabilizers natural risk aversion. Directors This is another role that appears often in organizations. Too many Directors can result in power struggles, conflicting decision-making processes, and a lack of unified direction. This can create an environment where there are too many cooks in the kitchen, leading to constant debates over strategy and leadership, potentially paralyzing the teams ability to move forward effectively. The absence of followers in a Director-heavy team can also mean that decisions, once made, may lack the necessary support for successful implementation. The takeaway here is clear: diversity in roles is key to providing the right balance. You need a mix of skills and perspectives to really make your team shine. All things being equal, on a team of eight people, you might want one Director, one Stabilizer, one Trailblazer, two Harmonizers, and three Achievers. Of course, all things are rarely equal, so if your Director and Stabilizer are a bit meeker, you can have two of each and be fine. The same goes for your Trailblazer. Ultimately, its less about the number of people in each role and more about ensuring that the talents and voices of the Director, Stabilizer, Achiever, Trailblazer, and Harmonizer are well represented. Excerpted from TEAM PLAYERS: The Five Critical Roles You Need to Build a Winning Team. Copyright 2025 by Mark Murphy. Available from Basic Venture, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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E-Commerce
The AI boom is driving an explosive surge in computational demands and reshaping the landscape of technology, infrastructure, and innovation. One of the biggest barriers to widespread AI deployment today is access to power. Some estimates suggest AI-driven data centers now consume more electricity than entire nations. The World Economic Forum projects a doubling of energy use by data centers from 2024 to 2027, driven by the energy-intensive nature of AI workloads. This surge in electricity demand is transforming the utilities industry and redefining how and where data centers are builtpower is no longer a given. In the U.S, electricity usage is growing for the first time in over a decade largely because of data center consumption. Meanwhile, big tech is even turning to nuclear power to fuel their long-term AI strategy, while data center builders are searching for land parcels in areas with excess power or resorting to building their own power infrastructure, often relying on natural gas generators. ENTER QUANTUM COMPUTING Quantum computers could be the key to reducing AIs rising energy consumption, offering a more efficient, scalable solution. Unlike traditional computers that evaluate one possibility at a time, quantum computers are designed to explore complex problem landscapes more efficiently, making them well-suited for tackling certain challenges that can be difficult, time-consuming, or costly for classical systems. This enables them to potentially provide solutions faster, at higher quality, and with greater efficiency. While AI excels at uncovering patterns and predictions, quantum computing identifies the most efficient solutions, making these two powerful technologies complementary. Quantum computers address problems that AI and classical methods struggle with, such as factoring large numbers and solving hard optimization challenges like vehicle routing and supply chain structuring. Here are three ways quantum computing could help mitigate the expected disruptive impact of AIs rising computational demands: Optimize data center placement and utility grid management Quantum computing could be used to identify optimal data center locations based on power availability or assist utility companies in streamlining grid planning and management to support both consumer and data center needs. GE Vernova, a global energy company, is using quantum computers today to identify weaknesses in the power grid and optimize responses for potential attacks on the grid. E.ON, a European multinational electric utility company, is now using annealing quantum computing to explore energy grid stability. Unlock opportunities for greater energy efficiency Early research shows the potential for quantum computing to reduce the amount of computational power needed to run AI workflows. A breakthrough published in Science demonstrated that our D-Wave quantum computer solved a magnetic materials simulation problem in minutes using just 12 kilowatts of power. This task would have taken one of the worlds most powerful exascale supercomputers, a massively parallel GPU system, nearly one million years to solve, consuming more electricity than the world uses annually. Applying these quantum computing techniques to blockchain hashing and proof of work could also result in substantial enhancements to security and efficiency, potentially reducing electricity costs by up to a factor of 1,000. Quantum computers are very energy efficient and may soon perform complex computations like those needed for blockchain or AI at a fraction of the power required today.Some of the worlds largest supercomputing facilities are now actively exploring how GPUs and quantum processing units could work together to improve problem solving and reduce energy consumption. In February, Forschungszentrum Jülich, a leading supercomputing center in Germany, purchased an annealing quantum computer to integrate with the Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing (JUNIQ). This integration is expected to enable JUNIQ to connect to the JUPITER exascale computer, potentially enabling breakthroughs in AI and quantum optimization. JUPITER is anticipated to surpass one quintillion calculations per second. This will likely be the worlds first pairing of an annealing quantum computer with an exascale supercomputer, providing a unique opportunity to observe the technologys impact on AI computational challenges. Boost model efficiency and performance with quantum AI architectures Early evidence suggests that annealing quantum computers can be integrated into quantum-hybrid AI workflows, which could potentially enhance model efficiency and performance. Japan Tobaccos (JT) pharmaceutical division recently conducted a project that involved using a quantum-hybrid AI workflow to generate new molecules. Using this hybrid approach, JT enhanced the quality of its AI drug development processes, demonstrating that the quantum AI workflow generated more valid molecules with better drug-like qualities compared to classical methods alone.TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator center, recently published a paper in npj quantum information demonstrating the first use of annealing quantum computing and deep generative AI to create novel simulation models for the next big upgrade of CERNs particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Colliderthe worlds largest particle accelerator. Traditional simulations of particle collisions are time-consuming and costly, often running on supercomputers for weeks or months. By merging quantum computing with advanced AI, the team was able to perform complex simulations more quickly, accurately and efficiently. HOW TO ADDRESS AIS POWER DRAIN WITH QUANTUM INNOVATION As AI adoption continues to accelerate, its insatiable demand for computational power is upending industries and straining global power resources. We need a better solution for addressing AIs power demands than simply adding more GPU clusters or building nuclear power plants. From optimizing energy grids and data center placemet to reducing GPU power consumption and enhancing AI model performance, annealing quantum computing offers a promising path forward. Tools like PyTorch plug-ins are even making it easy for developers to incorporate quantum into AI workflows to explore how the technology could address computational challenges. For business leaders navigating the energy-intensive AI era, adopting annealing quantum computing could unlock transformative efficiencies today and tomorrow. Alan Baratz, PhD is CEO of D-Wave.
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E-Commerce
Snapchat rankled some of its most loyal (and heavy) users when it announced last week it will begin charging for storage plans for Memories, its version of a digital archive for Snaps and stories. Even though the Santa Monica, California-based social media company promised that nothing will change for the vast majority of Snapchatters, who have less than 5 gigabytes (GB) of Memories, it will begin rolling out paid storage plans at a yet undisclosed date. A Snapchat spokesperson told Fast Company that a 100 GB storage plan will cost $1.99 per month, with prices varying by market and local currency. The company also told TechCrunch that plans will range up to $15.99 per month, depending on the amount of data of Memories. The company indicated you could have thousands of Snaps saved before youre bumped into a paid plan. But there is a work-around: You can download your data for free. Heres what you need to know if you want to download your Snapchat data. How to save your Snapchat Memories The popularity of the Memories feature, which was introduced by Snapchat in 2016, will now come at a cost. The company said that users have saved more than 1 trillion Memories since 2016, which is why its rolling out the storage plans. Its never easy to transition from receiving a service for free to paying for it, but we hope the value we provide with Memories is worth the cost, the company said in a blog post last week. While Snapchat will provide 12 months of temporary Memories storage for any Memories that exceed the 5GB storage limit, it hasnt specified when that free period will begin. Thats why you may want to be proactive if you really want to hang onto some Memories and download them to your device now. Luckily, thats really easily accomplished. After opening the Snapchat app, navigate to the Memories section, then choose select at the top of the page, and select up to 100 Memories at a time that you want to export. Then select a destination and tap download. If you have more than 100 Memories, youll need to repeat this process. How to save your Snapchat data If you want to squirrel away more data than your Memories, Snapchat is required by laws in various jurisdictions to allow its users to download their personal datawhich is true of other social media platforms, as well. If youve never downloaded this type of data in the past, a slight caveat: Depending on what information youre after and how active a Snapchatter youve been, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data at your disposal. While you may opt for the kitchen sink approach and download everything you can, those files may include minutiae you dont care about (like your login and search histories), along with more sentimental information you likely do care about (like your Memories and saved chat history). The good news is, you can also select the specific categories of data you want to download. Snapchat doesnt provide all of your information in a single neat filerather, youll receive a zip fileso youll want to be sure you have sufficient storage for the data. Heres the step-by-step process to download whatever Snapchat data you fancy: Open the Snapchat app, go to your profile and navigate to the settings icon Scroll to select My Data Select the specific you want to include in your data download Specify a specific data range of data youd like to download or receive all available data Confirm the email address where youd like to be notified Click submit to officially submit your data request Once your data is ready to be downloaded, youll receive an email from Snapchat with a link where you can access your information. As the company notes, this process can take time to complete, which users report can range from several hours to several weeks. Griping about Snap’s plan What Snapchat is doing, in essence, is transferring the cost of storage over to users. Download all those Memories onto your iPhone, for example, and that will just ratchet up the amount of data you have saved in your iCloud. Nearly two-thirds of Apple customers paid for iCloud storage in 2024, making it Apples most popular paid service, according to CIRP data. But unlike some of its rivals, including Instagram and TikTok, Snapchat is testing the waters of whether its users are willing to pay for storing social media posts. As people have lamented online, this may be the future of all social media platforms, or just another example of so-called subscription creep, in which were all paying for more and more subscriptions for things that once were free. But no matter their gripe, some people see these sorts of moves by social media giants as an excuse to bail. Now give me reasons why I should continue using Snapchat in 2025, one person wrote on Reddit. Oh wait, there arent any except my friends. Added another user on a different subreddit: It would be a shame if we just deleted social media.
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