The Power of Super-Facilitators for PLC Teams
Guest Research Wednesday article by Allyson Apsey
In the September–October 2025 edition of Harvard Business Review, author and Harvard professor Jamil Zaki makes a compelling case for developing “Super-Facilitators” to drive team growth and performance. The idea resonates deeply with education, where the Professional Learning Community (PLC) movement has been evolving for decades. In the 1980s, Shirley Hord first defined PLCs as a structure for teacher collaboration and school improvement. In the 1990s, Robert and Rebecca DuFour and Robert Eaker brought PLCs into the national spotlight. Those who visited Adlai Stevenson High School during the height of the DuFours’ leadership witnessed firsthand the transformational power of collaboration. Yet, decades later, many PLCs still falter. Zaki’s insights into “Super-Facilitators” may hold the key to why some teams thrive while others fade.
Zaki shares the story of the “Chris Paul Effect”, aptly named because NBA player Chris Paul seems to have a golden touch with his teams. Every time he has moved to a new NBA team, within two years, the team has its best record ever. This has not happened just once or twice, but four times. Zaki writes, “Super-facilitators are architects of group performance who bring people together optimally. Super-facilitators integrate diverse expertise, promote equitable contributions, and cultivate trust. In doing so, they generate collective intelligence, or a group’s ability to reason, innovate, and solve problems. They are often team leaders but can also be teammates—like Paul—who bring out the best in their peers.”
This idea is reinforced by research from psychologist Anita Woolley and her colleagues (2010), who found that high-performing teams aren’t built from collections of geniuses. Instead, they excel because members recognize and rely on each other’s strengths, avoid duplicating efforts, and operate within a culture of trust and support rather than competition.
According to Zaki, super-facilitators consistently demonstrate three attributes:
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Learn and play to each other’s strengths
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Communicate belief in others
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Keep the ball rolling
These attributes align closely with what we know in education. John Hattie’s research identifies “Teacher Estimates of Student Achievement” as one of the most powerful influences on student learning, with an effect size of 1.20. Teachers who know their students’ current levels and believe in their capacity to achieve grade-level standards accelerate growth dramatically. The same principle applies to colleagues. When educators know and believe in each other’s strengths, the result is a culture of collective efficacy, a culture super-facilitators are uniquely positioned to create.
Super-facilitators have the power to transform PLCs into engines of collective intelligence, where collaboration fuels both teacher growth and student success. In practice, they are the ones who keep the ball rolling, making sure commitments don’t stall after the meeting ends, data cycles continue, and action steps turn into real impact for students. Imagine what could happen if every PLC had a Chris Paul at the table; someone who sees the brilliance in others, lifts it up, and keeps the momentum alive. That’s the promise of super-facilitators, and perhaps the key we’ve been missing all along.
Follow this link to access the full article: https://hbr.org/2025/09/every-team-needs-a-super-facilitator
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