Don’t «Trust the Team» if They’re Stupid!

Yes, that title is intended to ruffle a few feathers. "Trust the team," without context - is a slogan: unhelpful, misleading, and quite often the cause of, not the solution to, greater problems.
Many people associate "Stupid" with low intellect. If you do: let me change your mind. In business, stupidity is behaviour, not IQ.

This is stupid

Imagine you’re the CEO of a company in crisis. An old friend offers a deal that could get you back on your feet.
The only catch: they need to be convinced their contribution will be valued. You assure them it will.

You arrange for them to meet your team. You can’t be there, but they’re all professionals: they’ve got this.

Then your phone rings. There will be no follow-up. The deal is off. Worse: they’ll no longer offer introductions or recommendations; it would damage their own reputation.

What just happened? Your team's actions just cost you an ally and years of relationship-building. There was no malice or sabotage. It was just plain stupidity.

People do stupid things - even with every safeguard in place. And when it happens, your role shifts instantly: from shaping the future to cleaning up the mess.

Understanding Stupidity

Half a century ago, the economist Carlo Cipolla wrote a satirical, uncomfortable essay titled "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" ("Le leggi fondamentali della stupidità umana", 1976)

He determined the value of actions by two factors: impact on self and impact on others. Stupidity, he said, harms both.

You may ask, "Why would anyone do that?" Which is the point: There is no reason, yet it happens, far more often than we think. And - it's stupid.

The Leader’s Field Guide to Dealing with Stupid Teams

Executive Lens - the "CEO Method"

Stupid teams damage the company and themselves. Deal with them in three steps:

C

ontain - Contain the blast radius and do damage control.

E

ducate - Teach, guide and provide information. Tighten feedback loops.

O

bserve - Actively monitor for change. If there's no improvement, disengage or remove the team.

Below is the full, detailed guide to fixing "Team Stupidity."

Full Guide

Locate your team in the quadrant. Lead accordingly. With the exception of the Intelligent team, move them out of the quadrant.

Helpless Teams Indicators Say “yes” → drown → miss their own deadlines. Apologize to stakeholders for internal confusion they didn’t cause. Work hard, little leverage; impact diffuses into others’ wins. Contain Set a single owner and cap WIP; enforce trade-offs. Give permission & scripts to say “not now” without guilt. Pair with an assertive peer; protect calendar from drive-bys. Educate Boundary & negotiation training. Actively guide prioritization. Teach cost-benefit thinking Observe Check for signs of power slopes. Level the playing field. Create visibility into team outcomes.

Intelligent Teams Indicators Net-positive outcomes for team & stakeholders; few surprises. Double-loop learning: they stress-test their own ideas. Credit-sharing, clear handoffs, clean partner interactions. Grow Protect decision rights; remove bureaucracy and politics. Feed them high-leverage problems at their competence boundary. Use pre-mortems & lightweight decision logs to scale the pattern. Keep this! Don’t move them. Codify playbooks; mentor others; plan succession. Guide them to mentor others as well.

Stupid Teams Indicators Celebrate "wins" that produce more fallout than benefit. Repeat the same error after feedback; high confidence, low grasp. Create more problems than they resolve; eroding external trust. Contain Suspend outward-facing autonomy immediately. Enforce brief → act → debrief with decision logs & pre-mortems. Route external comms over an “adult in the room”; assign a fixer. Educate Provide context Teach about consequences. Coach forward-thinking. Observe Positive change: gradually grow autonomy. No measurable shift: redeploy or remove. Protect the company. Unsuccessful: disengage. Protect your reputation.

Bandits Indicators Local "wins" with systemic damage; stakeholders feel squeezed. Information hoarding, triangulation, credit theft. Success depends on optics, not durable outcomes. Contain Shift metrics to shared outcomes; add sunlight (public cause-effect dashboards). Rotate ownership; enforce conflict-of-interest disclosures. Close feedback loops; limit blast radius. Educate Remove incentives that put personal gain over systemic benefit Tether incentives to peer and stakeholder satisfaction. Redesign structure to face customer outcomes. Observe Aligned outcomes: anchor changes. Misaligned outcomes: modify incentives. Exploitation persists: disengage.

Stupidity is Contagious

Can't you just ignore Stupidity? No!

Uncontrolled stupidity sucks you into its blast radius at the worst moment.

And here’s the real danger: tolerating stupidity makes you stupid. Leadership turns into firefighting. Disastrous trade-offs become "pragmatic." Cut corners become "quick wins."

A single act of stupidity rarely remains alone. It triggers a domino cascade, and before long, you're no longer a leader - but cleaning up the debris.

The Leader’s Job: Damage Control

Stupidity is more dangerous to your organization than banditry. Bandits can be managed: Their moves are predictable, and can be redirected by adjusting incentives.

Stupidity, however, is an entirely different beast. It's chaotic and self-reinforcing. You can't predict what they'll do, when or how, and what it will cause. And worse: Stupidity compounds - a stupid move is often addressed by yet another stupid move.

With a stupid team, every day is risk. Challenge poor logic directly. Immediately intervene when "good intentions" cause damage. Invest in change. And when that fails, cut the ties.

Leadership doesn't mean suffering from stupidity - but to end it.

Trust the Right Teams

"Trust the team" is powerful - when the team has earned it! Trust intelligent teams. Give them space to think, act, and lead.

When you see stupid moves, stop "trusting" - actively fix it, fast and with consequence.

Stupidity has no limits. But the market's patience does.