high performing teams case study

Teams That Changed The World (Team Case Studies)

Written by Victoria Allen

Apr 13, 2018  - Last updated: Aug 30, 2023

During our lifetime there are an abundance of occasions in which we are required to work as part of a team; most notably in the workplace, and because of this, organisations are habitually faced with complex problems, sometimes in higher levels of pressure circumstances.

Team development is more than just running team meetings and ticking of boxes. It involves making hard decisions, and working for the good of others even when the end is not in sight. Great teams cultivate a sense of psychological safety across the organization— from senior executive all the way down to entry-level colleagues.

What it Takes to Build a Top-Performing Team

The proper formation and careful maintenance of a team is crucial to the team's performance and success. Establishing a diverse team with mixed skills and strengths can improve team effectiveness and productivity. They also have a positive effect on the team's dynamics and help everyone achieve key goals individually and together.

Another vital element is communication. By communicating with one another and understanding each other’s communication styles and preferences, a shared culture is created.

Disagreements can be avoided (or easily resolved), with people understanding their individual and group roles in order for each team member to be striving for the same collective goal.

Research lead by Google  has concluded that the best teams included team members who listen to one another and show sensitivity. Studies have also shown that when people work in high performing teams, in contrast to working alone, they are more productive and report greater job satisfaction.

Working in a team results faster innovation, quicker mistake detection and correction, better problem-solving, and greater performance according to research findings.

History is littered with top performing team case studies, and in this article we will look at the three top performing teams that we believe changed the world as we know it.

Before we dive into the case studies, if you're wanting to build a high performing team then you should take a look at QuizBreaker . It's an all-in-one team engagement platform that helps brings teams closer together through a variety of great tools. They offer a 7 day free trial too.

NASA’s Apollo 11

A huge milestone for science and for mankind, NASA’s 1969 Apollo 11 mission is a great demonstration of high-performing teams.

Televised across the world, three astronauts made the revolutionary journey toward the moon and two of the three astronauts stepped foot onto the moon’s surface, creating history.

Whilst Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins are the well-known faces of this prodigious achievement, they wouldn’t have made it to the history books without the efforts of their supporting team - years of previous research and expertise allowed this mission to take place and succeed.

For two years prior to the operation, mission planners studied the moon’s surface using photographs from satellites and the Surveyor spacecraft, to find the best place for Apollo 11 to land. They needed to consider the geography of the surface, factoring in craters, boulders and cliffs, as well as the best time to land due to the positioning of the sun.

NASA has estimated that more than 400,000 people made the moon landings possible; scientists, engineers and technicians, who had never worked in aerospace before, were given contracts to design a machine capable of transporting humans safely to out of space.

The astronauts visited the laboratories in order to create a human connection to foster a more cohesive team – the workers met the men whose lives were in their hands. In the operations control room, during each flight, there were numerous technicians guiding and supporting those heading into outer space. Essentially, each step of the way, communication was paramount, enabling the team behind NASA’s Apollo 11 to achieve a historical milestone.

The Manhattan Project

The American-led mission to develop the world’s first atomic weapon during WW2 was code-named the Manhattan Project .

It was and still is, thought of as a highly controversial assignment, though it is hard to dispute that it is an excellent example of a top performing senior leadership team.

The task began in 1942 after authorisation from U.S. President Roosevelt. Utilising the minds’ of some of the world’s leading scientists and military personnel, the Manhattan Project started as an attempt to beat the Nazis in a race against time to build a nuclear weapon. However, with hindsight, we now know that the Nazis would not be successful in their attempts to build an atomic bomb.

Involving over 130,000 individuals, spread across 13 locations in the United States of America and Canada, and all sworn to secrecy, this mammoth of a project had a huge risk of exposure and sabotage and therefore communication and coordination would be vital to this mission’s success.

One of the reasons why the Manhattan Project is considered one of the greatest examples of the top performing team case studies is that often, within the realm of research and invention, scientists have a desire to compete against others in order to gain notoriety for their work.

However in this instance, scientists (and other specialists) worked within a team and adopted a group mentality in order to achieve a shared goal.

The Royal Society of London

The Royal Society of London is a classic and old example of a top performing team. Granted a royal charter by King Charles II, the Royal Society of London was the first national scientific institution in the world.

Founded in 1660 and often referred to as “the invisible college”, the society was orchestrated by its team leaders in order to encourage the exchange of scientific and philosophic ideas and theories. The society’s motto “Nullius in verba” is translated as “take nobody’s word for it”. The motto was upheld as a manifest of the members’ drive to verify all statements by the means of scientific facts and experimental research findings.

Notable members over the years have included the legendary Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking.

When the society was formed, during a time dominated by prejudice, war and political unrest, the group prided itself of the fact that it accepted members of all backgrounds.

Papers were exchanged between the scientific scholars, and within the space of just 70 years the science we employ in everyday life today was developed. This includes the sciences of anatomy, astronomy, botany, chemistry, physics and zoology.

The team’s achievements were established on a foundation of trust, support and respect, as well as a collective goal – the advancement of science.

Many of us use Wikipedia on a regular basis and do not stop to think what a great example of teamwork the website portrays.

Volunteer writers and editors contribute by inputting knowledge and facts about the world onto the website in order to create an accessible and easily understood encyclopedic database. Without an army of regular employees, the team worked together to build the biggest database of information of all time.

Wikipedia is one of the most viewed websites in the world and is the result of the cumulative efforts of a vast, and somewhat anonymous, team.

In the world of sports, when thinking about top performing team case studies, one famous team in particular comes to mind.

The New Zealand national rugby union team

The All Blacks , are considered to be one of the greatest performing international teams in history.

Representing a country of just 4.5 million inhabitants, the All Blacks appear to be an untouchable team. They have won the title in 3 World Cups and accomplish a better ratio of wins than other sports teams, making them the foremost sports franchise in history.

In their 125 year long history, the All Blacks have won more than three-quarter of the games they have participated in which is a statistic unsurpassed by any other national sports team. Despite the frequent long periods of time spent away from family whilst touring for matches internationally, the team have a strong determination and drive to achieve a common goal - to win every game and maintain their reputation. All Black team players, including the coach, are seen as equal and as important components in the creation and maintenance of a successful team.

Nature - Birds

There are even examples of effective team performance in nature; think of geese, for example, each winter the flock work together in order to achieve their common goal - reaching their seasonal destination. Communicating by honking at one another, they encourage those who appear to be losing momentum or getting tired.

Or, by flying in a v-shape formation, the geese reduce the drag for those behind them. The same principles could be implemented in an organisational team. Or, by nurturing a team mentality, all members share a common goal and feel supported by one another.

History teaches us that in order for teams to be successful, the conditions must be right. Nurturing management styles, and awareness of others working styles are just some of the contributing factors that aid the creation of a high performance team.

Google’s " Project Aristotle " has highlighted the fact that when individuals join an organisational team, they do not want to leave their individuality and personality at home. People want to be their true selves and feel that they are free to share ideas and thoughts in a psychologically safe environment.

Communication, empathy and mutual understanding all create a productive environment for increased performance and job satisfaction.

By understanding each other’s work styles, strengths and attributes, work stops becoming an act of labour and becomes a collective goal or mission.

No man is an island. Business is a team sport!

About the author

Victoria is a Psychology Masters graduate and works in psychology research/copywriting. She has a background in marketing and has previously worked within the NHS in the Mental Health services. Victoria loves animals and is a self-confessed Pinterest-addict. She is always dreaming of her next travel adventure.

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How leaders can support team resilience and momentum

Manager, EY Lane4, EY Professional Services Limited

Specialises in human performance with a focus on applied psychology. Translates academic thinking and research into practical solutions for business. Visiting lecturer at Bath University.

Dominic Mahony

Organisations need more than exceptional individuals, they need high-performing teams. team edge is a core ingredient of such teams..

• High-performing teams are critical for organisations to survive today’s volatile business environment; relying on exceptional performers isn’t enough.
• To build high-performing teams, leaders must actively build their teams’ resilience and maintain psychological momentum.

W hilst talented employees can facilitate high performance, they aren’t guaranteed to. It’s important to attract and retain talented employees, it’s also incredibly important that they come together to form high-performing teams.

According to performance and organisational psychology research, high-performing teams 1, 2, 3 :

• Consistently satisfy the needs of customers, employees, investors and others in their area of influence
• Frequently outperform other teams producing similar products and services under similar conditions
• Produce the most effective outcome with the greatest efficiency
• Take full advantage of all the task-related knowledge within the team

Research from areas ranging from sport to the military has taught us that high-performing-teams differ from those that simply function 1, 2, 3 . This is attributed to team edge, one of the key characteristics of such groups. Team edge refers to a team’s ability to perform under pressure, create and build on positive momentum, or change the direction of momentum when the team is in a downward spiral. It encompasses two main factors: team resilience and team momentum.

Download the full report: What gives teams the edge (PDF, 3.1MB)

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Developing team resilience

Team resilience refers to a team’s ability to absorb, cope with and recover from pressures, challenges or adversity. 4  Resilient teams outperform those who are not, because of their ability to both handle and thrive on pressure. 5  To build team resilience, leaders should:

• Get clear on your team’s ‘why’ Creating a team’s reason for existence involves connecting to people’s purpose, cause or belief that inspires them to do the work they do. 6  When a team is clear on its purpose and inspired by why it exists, they can make better decisions under time pressure, information overload and ambiguity. As a leader, work with your team to create a purpose which energises and mobilises them. This clarity will inspire your team to push on in difficult moments and move forward in the face of setbacks.
• Role model and celebrate ‘back-up’ behaviours Back-up from teammates and the team leader is critical for helping the team to perform under pressure. 7  This involves recognising the signs that a colleague is stretched and offering support with their work. These gestures not only help individuals who are struggling, but also boost team morale and make the team more efficient. As a leader, role model the actions you want to see and go out of your way to acknowledge other team members when you see them doing the same.
• Make the debrief part of the routine The most resilient teams view disruptive or challenging events as opportunities for learning, and failures as a chance to evaluate how they approach tasks. 8,9,10  This perspective allows teams to confront their failures head-on, with the knowledge that the experience they gain will help them aim higher in the future. 13  Teams that debrief outperform those who don’t by 20-25%. 4  To develop a culture of team learning, facilitate meetings so that your team reflect on what went well and what didn’t.

Building team momentum

Achieving success as a team isn’t easy, but maintaining that success is even more difficult. High-performing teams consistently achieve their goals when experiencing psychological momentum.  Psychological momentum refers to the sensation teams experience when they feel like things are going from strength to strength, granting them a heightened sense of confidence, control, competence and self-belief. 12 13 To kick-start a team’s psychological momentum, leaders should:

• Generate a quick win and make sure it’s down to team performance Psychological momentum hinges on a critical shift in a team’s belief about their potential to succeed. Instead of hoping for the best, when psychological momentum takes hold, team members have a solid belief that they will succeed which creates a virtuous cycle of self-belief.  Leaders must celebrate any quick-wins early, and make sure the success is clearly linked to the team’s abilities and efforts rather than luck or the environment. This will get the psychological momentum ball rolling.
• Sustain success by chasing the next goal After a success there is always a risk of complacency, often fuelled by motivation running low after a big effort. Or, if teams feel like they are having to defend their past successes in their next pursuit, they risk experiencing increased pressure and anxiety. To avoid these pitfalls and maintain psychological momentum after a success, set aside some time for your team to agree on an inspirational goal as your next team pursuit. To maintain the right team mindset and focus during this process, watch out for the warning signs of complacency or anxiety and address them openly.
• Find the balance between challenge and skill Flow refers to a state that people experience when they feel effortless concentration, enjoyment and motivation to perform, and is closely linked to psychological momentum. 14 Flow can be experienced as a team, each member working as a cog in a smooth-running machine. To encourage team flow, set each member a personal challenge to match their level of skill so they feel challenged yet determined they can succeed. This will help maintain team psychological momentum.

How EY can help

Team development.

Great teams are the foundation of great organisations. We help teams become more empowered by overcoming obstacles and barriers, and finding new, improved ways of working.

Show article references#Hide article references

1. E. Kur, “The Faces Model of High Performance Team Development”, Management Development Review , 1996.

2. S. Weaver, J. Wildman, & E. Salas, “How to build expert teams: best practices”, In: R.J. Burke & C.L. Cooper, The Peak Performing Organization (Routledge, 2009).

3. E. Salas, M. Rosen, C. Burke, G. Goodwin, & M. Fiore, “The Making of a Dream Team: When Expert Teams do Best”, In: K. A. Ericsson, N. Charness, R. Hoffman, & P. Fletovich, The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

4. G.M. Alliger, C.P. Cerasoli, S.I. Tannenbaum, & W.B. Vessey, “Team resilience”, Organizational Dynamics , 2015.

5. G. Jones & A. Moorhouse, Developing Mental Toughness: Gold Medal Strategies for Transforming Your Business Performance (Spring Hill, 2008).

6. S. Sinek, Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action (Penguin, 2009).

7. C. Bowers, C. Kreutzer, J. Cannon-Bowers, & J. Lamb, “Team Resilience as a Second Order Emergent State: A Theoretical Model and Research Directions”, Frontiers in psychology , 2017.

8. C.K. Barnett & M.G. Pratt, “From threat-rigidity to flexibility-Toward a learning model of autogenic crisis in organizations”, Journal of Organisational Change Management, 2000.

9. S.E. Jackson & J.E. Dutton, “Discerning threats and opportunities”, Administrative Science Quarterly , 1988.

10. K.E. Weick, & K.M. Sutcliffe, “Mindfulness and the quality of organizational attention”, Organisational Science , 2006.

11. P.B. Morgan, D. Fletcher, & M. Sarkar, “Understanding team resilience in the world’s best athletes: A case study of a rugby union World Cup winning team”, Psychology of Sport and Exercise , 2015.

12. S.E. Iso-Ahola, & C.O. Dotson, “Psychological momentum: Why success breeds success”, Review of General Psychology , 2014.

13. P. Smith, A. Blandford, & J. Back, “Questioning, exploring, narrating and playing in the control room to maintain system safety”, Cognition, Technology & Work , 2009.

14. M. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience , (Harper and Row, 1990). 

Teams today need more than exceptional individuals to weather the volatile business context; they need high-performing-teams. One way of achieving this is developing team edge, which encompasses team resilience and team momentum. Leaders must deliberately develop both in their teams for sustained success. 

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Putting the Fizz Back Into Flattening Performance: Creating High-Performing Teams at a Coca-Cola Hub

When the numbers arrived in late 2015 at Coca-Cola’s Turkey, Caucasus, and Central Asia (TCCA) hub, it set off alarm bells. While still profitable and achieving acceptable levels of engagement, the regional unit was in a downward trend month over month. Engagement had dropped along every measurement. And it had become clear that the leaders of TCCA’s disparate regions had goals and missions that were not productively aligned.

At this point, many organizations might wait out the numbers, hope for a market change, or throw some interventions at the wall to see what sticks. After all, the regional unit was still profitable and solutions like cultural and organizational change can be painful and complex. But, instead, they made the bold and courageous move to act immediately.

Coke’s regional marketing director recommended McKinney Rogers (MR), a division of GP Strategies®, an innovator in performance improvement, to partner and work through strategies to reverse the downward trend. The director knew MR for having a distinct talent for initiating cultural mind shifts that permeate every level of an organization, close the gap between strategy and execution, and establish lasting change.

Improving engagement and performance by aligning and closing the gap from strategy to execution.

Take responsibility for shaping your own destiny. Coke’s regional unit desired to shape change, not react to it. The unit’s goal was to reverse their performance and engagement trends, and bring the leadership into alignment. The overarching goal was to set up the company for long-term, sustained success.

But is there something else that can form the root of that change? Something everyone can rally around, thereby inspiring engagement, performance, and alignment? Together, the regional unit and MR would find out.

Agree upon a goal that sparks the imagination.

The work started by initiating a workshop with company leaders to develop goals and performance metrics to reduce and ultimately improve the trend in profitability. They discussed challenges and strategies, roadblocks and opportunities, and processes and implementations. They also honed in on a vision everyone could get behind. This vision was to win the Woodruff Cup.

Each year, Coca-Cola global identifies a regional hub with the best performance over a 3-year period and awards them their most distinguished prize—the Woodruff Cup. To be eligible, hubs have to enter and present their case. The winner is announced at a huge gala and has bragging rights within Coca-Cola for the year. Named for Robert Woodruff, a Coca-Cola president who served more than six decades of active leadership in the company, the award is the envy of everyone who works for this ubiquitous brand. Although not the main purpose of the project, the Woodruff Cup would symbolize the achievement. So it was determined that, in 3 years, Coke’s regional unit would transform from an underperforming hub to the top performer in the company; winning the Woodruff Cup.

Reach beyond what you imagine possible.

Many may consider the Woodruff Cup goal to be lofty to achieve in just 3 years, since it is based on 3 years of performance. That means they had to start turning around immediately in order to achieve that goal. But part of what they learned in their workshop is that if you limit your goals to, say, a certain number, then the best you will achieve will be that number. But if you create goals without limits or set conditions, you can achieve beyond what you might imagine possible. You can surprise even yourself with what you can achieve.

The results of reaching beyond your comfort zone include elevated performance, inspired action, extreme confidence, and profound engagement. So the goals you choose create a foundation for the excellence you want to achieve. Ask yourself if you’d be more inspired by a goal of increasing revenue by 50% or a goal of winning the Woodruff Cup. Both may result in heightened performance, but the former limits your potential results, and the latter sparks the imagination and sets the salivary glands in motion.

Do the important work of culture change.

It is not enough to know where you are going. You need to have the right culture in place to get you there. A high-performance culture is one that has the ability to run at the pace of the fastest person, with excellent behaviors and operating standards. It is not so much about team building as it is about instilling the behaviors needed to achieve extraordinary results.

Based on MR’s proprietary ASPIRE® methodology at the heart of their High-Performing Teams workshops, 2016 was spent cascading a new philosophy of what performance means to everyone within the hub. ASPIRE gives employees a way to be both inspired leaders and courageous followers who understand and embrace their unique role and importance in the process. ASPIRE reminds each individual to consider:

• What is the A im or goal I’m reaching toward?
• What is the S ituation we’re working to correct?
• What is my P lan for achieving those goals?
• How do I I nspire myself and others along the way?
• How can I R einforce the established goals through my actions?
• How do I E valuate my progress and achievements?

Tie your new behaviors to your goals.

Once the high-performing teams were established, 2017 brought the new behaviors together with the Woodruff Cup goal. What would that require of the marketing team? The financial team? The operations team? And so on. How would each group be accountable to that goal?

The workshops cascaded down from leadership to the front line, defining how each individual was empowered and responsible to the team. Alignment and interdependency were the main objectives at every workshop. Once complete, it was up to Coke’s regional unit to operationalize what they learned.

See your organization in context.

As much as this is a story about McKinney Rogers, Coke’s regional unit, and the Woodruff Cup, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. Coca-Cola corporate was also undergoing change. The regional unit’s transformation dovetailed perfectly with that, making it one of the first hubs to adopt a more agile, inclusive, resilient mindset.

In early 2018, a big celebration was held within the business unit and the new president of Coca-Cola TCCA was there. She asked an intriguing question: “What is TCCA’s identity within Coca-Cola?” Although a seemingly simple question, this proposed a fresh take on TCCA’s challenge, and they turned back to MR to help them define that. Two years earlier, their identity might have been different, but in 2018 they decided their identity was “fluid”—agile, inclusive, curious, resilient, and adaptable.

Achieve goals you never thought possible.

By the end of 2018, TCCA’s performance had dramatically turned around. The hub had become more tightly united through the transformation process, despite its disparate locations on the globe. Engagement was at a peak. The numbers beat the initial goals, and the mission and vision were achieved:

• Grew business KPIs double-digit year on year with outstanding top line/bottom line growth
• Grew significant double-digit value share
• Achieved significant increase in engagement with employees, customers, and bottlings partner

Then, in early 2019, the phones and emails blew up around Coke’s regional unit, TCCA, as they learned the news— they had won the Woodruff Cup! The most coveted recognition in all of Coca-Cola around the world now belonged to a hub that, 3 years earlier, had found themselves in a downward trend and far from a top performer.

Learn from the lessons of others.

At its root, lasting change relies on everyone from the president to the front-line workers understanding they are both an inspirational leader and a courageous follower. Transformation is not as much a destination as it is an ongoing process. Coke’s regional unit is no longer the organization they were at the beginning of this process.

The journey was not a success-only journey. Many lessons were learned and best practices were established along the way, including:

• Approach change holistically . From vision and strategy to process, culture, and behaviors, TCCA left no stone unturned. It was the first time they attempted to transform everything. It was also the first time they achieved lasting results.
• Be flexible . You have to be big enough to admit that something is not working. If you get too invested in your way, you’re going to get in your own way.
• Be prepared to take risks . Not everything is going to turn out the way you’d hoped. That’s OK.
• Plan everything . It’s not enough to have good thought processes. You have to know to take action.
• Get people on board . And you can’t just cascade your strategy once. You have to do it over and over again. There were times when Coke’s regional unit lost momentum. Those were opportunities to refresh their approach, establish a team of influencers, and innovate other solutions to keep the transformation moving.
• Put new eyes on your challenge . When the new president asked Coke’s regional unit about their identity, it inspired new ways of thinking. So don’t be afraid to seek a fresh take on your challenge.
• Stay calm . There are times the process may roll off the tracks. Remember that alignment and clarity are key. As senior leaders, it’s up to you to pull everything back together.
• Celebrate everything . Not only does frequent recognition keep motivation and morale high, the gatherings provide an opportunity to remind teams of the goal, how they align to it, and how everyone plays an important role in the process.

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Case study: Oppo's high performing teams

There’s ice cream – and then there’s Oppo Brothers ice cream. We were already fans of Oppo so when they called and explained that they were in another phase of rapid growth and needed some help with building effective and high performing teams, we were delighted to help. 

After meeting the team over morning coffee, we kicked off with a Belbin exercise - called ‘Team Write’. Working together, three teams competed to see who could write the most recognisable version of the word ‘Oppo’. Team Roles immediately showed in their behaviours and gave a perfect lead into talking about what works in teams, what doesn’t and how they can best work together to solve a problem.

From there, each person received their own Belbin Individual Report and Jo (the trainer and facilitator) talked the group through the pages, the observer inputs and how reports can be used to learn more about ourselves and how we work with others. 

The teams were divided again, to play Belbin Contribute - a Team Role-focused exercise, designed for team building. It demonstrates the strengths and contributions of each of the nine Belbin Team Roles, developing the team’s understanding of the roles within a learning environment. Made up of nine different tasks, involving everything from caption writing to guiding other members of the team onto a sheep pen, each exercise corresponds with a Team Role and the team must decide who should perform each task. The team’s objective is to collect all nine Team Role awards within a certain time limit. The video shows the two very different approaches taken – one team started quietly, reviewing the materials as a collective. The other divided up from the start to tackle individual tasks. It soon became apparent – to both teams – that changes were needed and it was fascinating to watch the use of the language of Team Roles coming into play. Their learning about Team Roles and high performing teams was invaluable in getting things done, within the time available.

Once the hour was up, the teams came back together, talked about what worked and where things could be done differently. They reviewed the number of jigsaw pieces which had been secured and considered what the impact and greater meaning was for Oppo as they continue to grow, disrupting established markets and creating their own new niche.

We’ve kept in touch with Oppo since our day together. We're talking to individual team members about their reports and how they feel they can use their learning to manage up and down, and make their best contributions to their teams. We’re also talking with managers about how they are enabling individuals to play to their strengths and supporting them as they recruit more new team members. We're delighted to see how quickly they've embedded the language of Belbin into their everyday work and look forward to the next update on their effectiveness. In the words of the Oppo Founders ‘watch this space’!

Whether you are a start-up looking for help with growth, or an established team looking to improve the ways you work together, get in touch to see how we can help!

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Food for thought: study links key nutrients to slower brain aging.

4 days ago · 4 min read

Food for thought: Study links key nutrients to slower brain aging

Scientists have long been studying the brain with a goal of aiding healthier aging. While much is known about risk factors for accelerated brain aging, less has been uncovered to identify ways to reduce cognitive decline.

There is evidence that nutrition matters, and a novel study from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign further signals how specific nutrients may play a pivotal role in the healthy aging of the brain. The findings were published in Nature Publishing Group Aging.

The team of scientists, led by Aron Barbey, director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, with Jisheng Wu, a doctoral student at Nebraska, and Christopher Zwilling, research scientist at UIUC, performed the multimodal study — combining state-of-the-art innovations in neuroscience and nutritional science — and identified a specific nutrient profile in participants who performed better cognitively.

The cross-sectional study enrolled 100 cognitively healthy participants, aged 65-75. These participants completed a questionnaire with demographic information, along with measures of body composition and physical fitness. Blood plasma was collected following a fasting period to analyze the nutrient biomarkers. Participants also underwent cognitive assessments and MRI scans. Analysis of this large set of measures revealed two types of brain aging among the participants — accelerated and slower-than-expected. Those with slower brain aging had a distinct nutrient profile.

The beneficial nutrient blood biomarkers were a combination of fatty acids (vaccenic, gondoic, alpha linolenic, elcosapentaenoic, eicosadienoic and lignoceric acids); antioxidants and carotenoids including cis-lutein, trans-lutein and zeaxanthin; two forms of vitamin E and choline. This profile is correlated with nutrients found in the Mediterranean diet, which research has previously associated with healthy brain aging.

“We investigated specific nutrient biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, known in nutritional science to potentially offer health benefits. This aligns with the extensive body of research in the field demonstrating the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” said Barbey, Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology. “The present study identifies particular nutrient biomarker patterns that are promising and have favorable associations with measures of cognitive performance and brain health.”

Barbey noted that previous research on nutrition and brain aging has mostly relied on food frequency questionnaires, which are dependent on participants’ own recall. This study is one of the first and the largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers and validated cognitive assessments.

“The unique aspect of our study lies in its comprehensive approach, integrating data on nutrition, cognitive function and brain imaging,” Barbey said. “This allows us to build a more robust understanding of the relationship between these factors. We move beyond simply measuring cognitive performance with traditional neuropsychological tests. Instead, we simultaneously examine brain structure, function and metabolism, demonstrating a direct link between these brain properties and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, we show that these brain properties are directly linked to diet and nutrition, as revealed by the patterns observed in nutrient biomarkers.”

The researchers will continue to explore this nutrient profile as it relates to healthy brain aging. Barbey said it’s possible, in the future, that the findings will aid in developing therapies and interventions to promote brain health.

“An important next step involves conducting randomized controlled trials. In these trials, we will isolate specific nutrients with favorable associations with cognitive function and brain health, and administer them in the form of nutraceuticals,” Barbey said. “This will allow us to definitively assess whether increasing the levels of these specific nutrient profiles reliably leads to improvements in cognitive test performance and measures of brain structure, function and metabolism.”

Barbey is also co-editing an upcoming special collection for the Journal of Nutrition, “Nutrition and the Brain — Exploring Pathways to Optimal Brain Health Through Nutrition,” which is currently inviting submissions for consideration, and articles will begin publishing next year.

“There’s immense scientific and medical interest in understanding the profound impact of nutrition on brain health,” Barbey said. “Recognizing this, the Office of Nutrition Research at the National Institutes of Health recently launched a 10-year strategic plan to significantly accelerate nutrition research. Our work directly aligns with this critical initiative, aiming to contribute valuable insights into how dietary patterns influence brain health and cognitive function.”

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Evaluation of the performance of satellite products and microphysical schemes with the aim of forecasting early flood warnings in arid and semi-arid regions (a case study of northeastern Iran)

• Original Paper
• Published: 24 May 2024

Cite this article

• Rasoul Sarvestan   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-6544-1405 1 ,
• Reza Barati 2 ,
• Aliakbar Shamsipour 3 ,
• Sahar Khazaei 4 &
• Manfred Kleidorfer 5  

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Flood early warning requires rainfall data with a high temporal and spatial resolution for flood risk analysis to simulate flood dynamics in all small and large basins. However, such high-quality data are still very scarce in many developing countries. In this research, in order to identify the best and most up-to-date rainfall estimation tools for early flood forecasting in arid and semi-arid regions, the northeastern region of Iran with 17 meteorological stations and four rainfall events was investigated. The rainfall products of satellites (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record, Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation, Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station, European Reanalysis (ERA5), Global Precipitation Measurement) along with the most widely used microphysical schemes of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model (Purdue-Lin (Lin), WRF Single-Moment class 3, 6, and WRF Double-Moment class 6. were used for rainfall modeling. The efficiency of each of these models to forecasting the amount of rainfall was verified by four methods: Threat Scores (TS), False Alarm Ratio, Hit Rate (H), and False Alarm (F). Analysis of research findings showed that the WRF meteorological model has better accuracy in rainfall modeling for the next 24 h. In this model, Lin's microphysical scheme has the highest accuracy, and its threat score (TS) quantity is up to 98% efficient in some stations. The best accuracy of satellite products for estimating the amount of rainfall is up to 50%. This accuracy value is related to the satellite product (ERA5). In this method, an 18 km distance from the ground station is the best distance for setting up the space station, which is used for input to hydrological/hydraulic models. Based on the results of this research, by using the connection of the WRF model with hydrology/hydraulic models, it is possible to predict and simulate rainfall-runoff up to 72 h before its occurrence. Also, by using these space stations, the amount of rainfall is estimated for the entire area of the basin and an early flood warning is issued.

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This Paper is a part of the elite soldier project of Iran, and it has been done with the financial support Regional Water Company of Khorasan Razavi.

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Department of Climatology, Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

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Applied Research Department, Khorasan Razavi Regional Water Company, Mashhad, Iran

Reza Barati

Climatology, Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Aliakbar Shamsipour

Irrigation and drainage, Office of basic studies of water resources, Regional water company of khorasan razavi, Mashhad, Iran

Sahar Khazaei

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All authors contributed to the study's conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Rasoul Sarvestan, Reza Barati, Aliakbar Shamsipour, Sahar Khazaei and Manfred Kleidorfer. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Rasoul Sarvestan and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Sarvestan, R., Barati, R., Shamsipour, A. et al. Evaluation of the performance of satellite products and microphysical schemes with the aim of forecasting early flood warnings in arid and semi-arid regions (a case study of northeastern Iran). Nat Hazards (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06689-9

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-024-06689-9

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High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

• Laura Delizonna

The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety — the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake. Studies show that psychological safety allows for taking moderate risks, speaking your mind, being creative, and sticking your neck out without fear of having it cut off — just the types of behavior that lead to market breakthroughs. So how can you increase psychological safety on your own team? First, approach conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary. When conflicts come up, avoid triggering a fight-or-flight reaction by asking, “How could we achieve a mutually desirable outcome?” Speak human-to-human, but anticipate reactions, plan countermoves, and adopt a learning mindset, where you’re truly curious to hear the other person’s point of view. Ask for feedback to illuminate your own blind spots. If you create this sense of psychological safety on your own team starting now, you can expect to see higher levels of engagement, increased motivation to tackle difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities, and better performance.

Six ways to build trust.

“There’s no team without trust,” says Paul Santagata, head of industry at Google. He knows the results of the tech giant’s massive two-year study on team performance , which revealed that the highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety, the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake. Studies show that psychological safety allows for taking moderate risks, speaking your mind, being creative, and sticking your neck out without fear of having it cut off — just the types of behavior that lead to market breakthroughs.

• LD Laura Delizonna is an executive coach, instructor at Stanford University, keynote speaker, and culture consultant at Delizonna.com . She specializes in equipping leaders of top companies with the frameworks and tools to build high-performance cultures.

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Quantification supports amyloid-PET visual assessment of challenging cases: results from the AMYPAD-DPMS study

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Several studies have demonstrated the high agreement between routine clinical visual assessment and quantification, suggesting that quantification approaches could support the assessment of less experienced readers and/or in challenging cases. However, all studies to date have implemented a retrospective case collection and challenging cases were generally underrepresented.

Methods In this prospective study, we included all participants ( N =741) from the AMYPAD Diagnostic and Patient Management Study (DPMS) with available baseline amyloid-PET quantification. Quantification was done with the PET-only AmyPype pipeline, providing global Centiloid (CL) and regional z-scores. Visual assessment was performed by local readers for the entire cohort. From the total cohort, we selected a subsample of 85 cases 1) for which the amyloid status based on the local reader’s visual assessment and CL classification (cut-off=21) was discordant and/or 2) that were assessed with a low confidence (i.e. ≤3 on a 5-point scale) by the local reader. In addition, concordant negative ( N =8) and positive ( N =8) scans across tracers were selected. In this sample, ( N =101 cases: ([ 18 F]flutemetamol, N =48; [ 18 F]florbetaben, N =53) the visual assessments and corresponding confidence by 5 certified independent central readers were captured before and after disclosure of the quantification results.

Results For the AMYPAD-DPMS whole cohort, the overall assessment of local readers highly agreed with CL status (κ=0.85, 92.3% agreement). This was consistently observed within disease stages (SCD+: κ=0.82/92.3%; MCI: κ=0.80/89.8%; dementia: κ=0.87/94.6%). Across all central reader assessments in the challenging subsample, global CL and regional z-scores quantification were considered supportive of visual read in 70.3% and 49.3% of assessments, respectively. After disclosure of quantitative results, we observed an improvement in concordance between the 5 readers (κ baseline =0.65/65.3%; κ post-disclosure =0.74/73.3%) and a significant increase in reader confidence ( M baseline =4.0 vs. M post-disclosure =4.34, W =101056, p <0.001).

Conclusion In this prospective study enriched for challenging amyloid-PET cases, we demonstrate the value of quantification to support visual assessment. After disclosure, both inter-reader agreement and confidence showed a significant improvement. These results are important considering the arrival of anti-amyloid therapies, which utilized the Centiloid metric for trial inclusion and target-engagement. Moreover, quantification could support determining Aβ status with high certainty, an important factor for treatment initiation.

Competing Interest Statement

DISCLOSURES DA, IB, DVG, ILA, AP, and GBF report no relevant disclosures. LEC has received research support from GE Healthcare and Springer Healthcare (funded by Eli Lilly), both paid to institution. Dr. Collij s salary is supported by the MSCA postdoctoral fellowship research grant (#101108819) and the Alzheimer Association Research Fellowship (AARF) grant (#23AARF-1029663). GNB is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project ID 431549029 - SFB 1451 and partially by DFG, DR 445/9 1. MB is employed by GE HealthCare. RW is employed by IXICO ltd. RG is employed by Life Molecular Imaging AWS is employed by Life Molecular Imaging ZW has received research support from GE Healthcare. PS is employed by EQT Life Sciences team. AN has received consulting fee from H Lundbeck AB, AVVA pharmaceuticals and honoraria for lecture from Hoffman La Roche. JDG has received research support from GE HealthCare, Roche Diagnostics and Hoffmann La Roche, speaker/consulting fees from Roche Diagnostics, Esteve, Philips Nederlands, Biogen and Life Molecular Imaging and serves in the Molecular Neuroimaging Advisory Board of Prothena Biosciences. AD has received research support from: Siemens Healthineers, Life Molecular Imaging, GE Healthcare, AVID Radiopharmaceuticals, Sofie, Eisai, Novartis/AAA, Ariceum Therapeutics, speaker Honorary/Advisory Boards: Siemens Healthineers, Sanofi, GE Healthcare, Biogen, Novo Nordisk, Invicro, Novartis/AAA, Bayer Vital, Lilly Stock: Siemens Healthineers, Lantheus Holding, Structured therapeutics, Lilly. Patents: Patent for 18F JK PSMA 7 (Patent No.: EP3765097A1; Date of patent: Jan. 20, 2021). SM received speaker honoraria from GE Healthcare, Eli Lilly and Life Molecular Imaging. CB is employed by GE HealthCare. VG is supported by the Swiss national science foundation (project n.320030_185028 and 320030_169876), the Aetas Foundation, the Schmidheiny Foundation, the Velux Foundation, the Fondation privee des HUG. She received support for research and speakers fees from Siemens Healthineers, GE HealthCare, Janssen, Novo Nordisk, all paid to institution. GF is employed by GE HealthCare. FB is supported by the NIHR biomedical research centre at UCLH. Steering committee or Data Safety Monitoring Board member for Biogen, Merck, Eisai and Prothena. Advisory board member for Combinostics, Scottish Brain Sciences. Consultant for Roche, Celltrion, Rewind Therapeutics, Merck, Bracco. Research agreements with ADDI, Merck, Biogen, GE Healthcare, Roche. Co-founder and shareholder of Queen Square Analytics LTD.

Funding Statement

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The project leading to this paper has also received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 115952. This Joint Undertaking receives the support from the European Union s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA. This communication reflects the views of the authors and neither IMI nor the European Union and EFPIA are liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.

Author Declarations

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

All participants gave written informed consent. The trial was registered with EudraCT (2017-002527-21). The study was approved by the CCER (Commission Cantonale d Ethique de la Recherche) in Geneva Switzerland (#2017-01408).

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Data Availability

Data is available upon request through the ADDI platform

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