I’ve written a few times previously about how you should manage a so called ‘star player’ in your team, including whether it’s justified to pay them extra and whether they function well in cooperative environments.

It’s a field that’s showing no shortage of interest, with a recent paper from INSEAD explores the collaborative performance of both stars and non-stars, and the benefits each bring to a team.

“We wanted to understand, if by working with a star, you would be more likely to become a star; we found that indeed you would, ” the authors explain. “ The interesting question is how does this happen and why does this happen? What happens when you work with a star that is different from when you work with other people? ”

The research examined the performance of designers who had been awarded design patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office over the last 35 years.  The data suggests that collaborating with star designers did indeed increase one’s chances of being a star oneself.

Key skills

This is because creative stars were found to be much more likely to have crucial skills required to make breakthrough innovations, that are then transferred to the people they collaborate with.  These skills include the ability to understand new innovations and the ability to connect seemingly disparate fields.

These are all skills that are highly tacit and therefore not something that can be easily learned in a classroom or via a book.  The researchers believe that most stars pick up these abilities from close working proximity with someone who already has them.  This process of observation is the best way to learn and practice these skills.

“ It is important to note that collaborating with stars doesn’t preclude collaborating with others who are non-stars ,” the researchers explain. “Both types of collaborators benefit the innovator’s creative performance and increase the likelihood of creating a breakthrough innovation .”

The research suggests that attempting to have an egalitarian workforce with no standout performers is not always a good thing.  Instead, star performers can bring with them both data and experiences alongside the kind of creative skills that aren’t easily found.  This combination can be incredibly powerful from an innovation perspective.

The team went on to explore whether there are certain conditions that help stars emerge, and there did indeed appear to be so.  For instance, when non-stars collaborate and share their expertise, it can often converge into group think that limits their creative output.  The key, therefore, is to mix stars and non-stars together so they have a diversity of expertise that boosts creativity.

What’s more, this close collaboration helps to ensure the spread of skills and expertise from the star to the non-star, as such tacit knowledge transfer requires close collaboration.  So if you want your teams to improve, adding a bit of star power could be just the trick.