Over the years, I’ve worked alongside teams that went from barely surviving to thriving in ways no one expected. Whether it was a startup emerging from stealth or a Fortune 100 undergoing reinvention, the pattern is always the same—transformation begins with belief, but is sustained by systems.
That’s why McKinsey’s latest article, “Worst to First: What It Takes to Build or Remake a World-Class Team,” caught my attention. It isn’t just another leadership think piece. I’s a framework you can actually run with.
🧭 Five Steps That Echo the Real World
McKinsey boils it down to five core elements that help leaders lift teams out of the “meh” and into the exceptional:
- Aspiration – Think big. Not “let’s improve by 10%” but “let’s become the benchmark.”
- Assessment – Brutal honesty. Look in the mirror and get real about the team’s actual health.
- Architecture – Redesign how your team works, communicates, and decides.
- Action – Take the wheel. Pilot changes, build momentum, and lock in early wins.
- Alignment – Sync strategy, structure, and incentives.
It’s not rocket science, but it is the science of performance—and it applies equally in SaaS, sports, and special ops.
⚡ Talent Isn’t Enough
This is the drum I’ve been beating for years. Whether you’re running a marketing agency, working inside a telco, or scaling a cloud-native SaaS product, raw talent without clarity and culture is a waste.
And to the founders and C-suite execs who think hiring A-players is the cheat code: it’s not. A-players in a B-minus system become frustrated benchwarmers. I’ve seen it too many times.
🧩 Culture Is the Multiplier
Psychological safety, shared mission, trust—McKinsey nails it. The best teams aren’t afraid to call BS on each other or praise good work on the fly. That kind of trust isn’t built overnight. But once it’s in place, it becomes the unseen force behind performance.
I’d argue that culture eats strategy and structure for breakfast, but all three are still part of the meal.
🛠️ From Framework to Field Use
If you’re leading a turnaround, here’s how to translate this into real-world action:
- Run a team health diagnostic – Don’t just guess how your team feels; get the data.
- Declare a bold goal – Something bigger than OKRs. Something that raises eyebrows.
- Fix the friction – Look at where decisions get bottlenecked or messages get lost.
- Find a quick win – Then over-communicate it. Make your team feel momentum.
- Coach the coaches – Invest in your team leads. Their tone becomes the culture.
⚠️ Not Without Resistance
Don’t expect this journey to be smooth. You’ll run into legacy mindsets, process protectors, and those “but we’ve always done it this way” folks. That’s normal. As McKinsey suggests, leaders have to model the future, not just talk about it.
Real leadership today means taking feedback in public, showing the work, and leaning into uncomfortable truths.
🎯 My Take: This Applies Everywhere
Whether you’re working on a strategic partnership in the telco space, integrating AI into your customer ops, or scaling a globally distributed team—this McKinsey model has legs. It’s not just for HR or transformation consultants.
If I were running an offsite tomorrow, I’d make this article mandatory reading—and build exercises off each of the five pillars.
🧠 Want a Thought Starter?
Ask your team this:
“What’s the ONE belief holding us back from world-class execution?”
Then shut up and listen.
You might just learn more in 5 minutes than in the last 5 all-hands meetings.
🔗 Read the full McKinsey article here