Colin Fisher

Colin M. Fisher has been fascinated by how people make sense of real-time group interaction since his days as a professional jazz trumpet player. Inspired by a question about how to teach team leaders to act with better timing, he has been studying processes underlying team leadership and group dynamics for over a decade. As an associate professor at UCL School of Management, his teaching and research focus on how teams and individuals doing complex, creative, or improvisational work can get the leadership, advice, and help they need.

Colin’s research highlights the importance of temporal issues (e.g., timing, rhythm, development over time) in collaborative processes and has been published in leading journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Negotiation Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Organizational Dynamics, and Small Group Research, as well as in several edited book chapters. He serves on the editorial boards of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Small Group Research and Psychology of Creativity, Aesthetics and the Arts. Previously, Colin served as an Assistant Professor and Peter Paul Career Development Professor at Boston University’s School of Management. Colin has also engaged with organizations such as BARBRI, BP, Cambridge Health Alliance, IDEO, NHS, and P&G to provide lectures or workshops on teamwork, creativity, and leadership. His research has been profiled in prominent media outlets, including BBC, HBR’s IdeaCast, The Times, and NPR.

Colin received his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and M.A. in Social Psychology from Harvard University/Harvard Business School. He also studied improvisation in the arts at New York University (M.A.) and jazz trumpet at New England Conservatory of Music (B.Mus.). In his work as a professional jazz trumpet player, Colin was a long-time member of the Grammy-nominated Either/Orchestra, with whom he toured the U.S., Europe, and Africa and recorded several critically acclaimed albums.