Team Cycles

School districts and sports teams are examples of teams that evolve in seasons. Every year, they have a new blend of talent and a different flavor of customers. The offseason (summer for schools and winter for baseball teams) allows a chance to reboot culture and reenergize spirit. When the new season kicks off, most everyone is optimistic and, fortunately, mostly recovered from what went wrong last year. The chance to start fresh is real, yet the likelihood of regression to last year’s unhelpful themes is high. Here’s a roadmap for a true restart.

At the Team Clock Institute, we are fortunate to be in a position to observe the lifespan of many teams. There are up years and down years. Some teams achieve nirvana and unintentionally become complacent. Others get stuck in a rut and decide that the labor of repair is more painful than staying the same. Still others find a sustainable rhythm of continuous improvement and invest in the next generation. When we take a snapshot of the current state of the team, stories unfold that enable the data to make sense. No struggle – or growth – occurs without precipitants.

The end is the beginning. 12:00am lasts less than a second, as today becomes tomorrow and last year becomes this year. We’ll take stock in the accomplishments of the past and make promises for the future. The clock keeps turning.

After nearly five decades of ‘Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing’ theory, it’s time to throw out the recipe. Of course, the sequence makes sense. Your team comes together (you ‘form’). You experience some conflict (you ‘storm’). You set some ground rules (you ‘norm’). Amazing things happen (you ‘perform’). Because your team is populated by well-adjusted humans, everything goes as planned. Or it doesn’t.

The cycle of the seasons is a valuable reminder that living things require fresh fuel, reliable nurturance, space to grow, and an occasional reset. Just as the falling leaves provide spring fertilizer to plants awakening from a winter’s dormancy, teams harness the energy of change to recalibrate goals and direction. Fortunately, nothing stays the same. A shift in the business landscape or the addition/subtraction of a teammate alters the course. Some of these changes come unexpectedly. Most, however, are predictable. The key is knowing where you’re at in the cycle, why you’re there and, therefore, what comes next.

Boomers see it all the time. A friend or colleague retires or decides to scale back. Seemingly overnight, they grow old. Somehow, the vibrancy of creating work disappears and the indulgence of the golf addiction sparks grey hair, slumped posture, and conversations about medical concerns. They turn the ‘old’ corner. Variations of this theme, unfortunately, happen in every generation. It all boils down to the choice to stop growing.

Locate your nearest clock, whether it’s on the wall or strapped to your wrist. Look at its features. Numbers from one to twelve form a circle and hands sweep around and around, passing the twelve twice daily for eternity. Now imagine that each number is a stage of your team’s development. Where on the clock is your team? Why? Let’s slow down and take a look at what is happening as your team evolves in these predictable cycles.

Teams always move through cycles. For reasons coming from both within and outside the team, sometimes they get stuck. Getting unstuck is much easier when you know what has disrupted the cycle and what will get things moving again. Usually, the culprit is one of four issues. A few questions in each category will shine a light on what to do next. Let’s explore.

Pre-Traumatic Stress. At one time or another, almost everyone suffers from this behavioral health condition. The better-known Post Traumatic Stress is the mind’s way of coping with the aftermath of trauma. The lesser-known P (Pre) is the psyche’s way of anticipating adversity. It’s the form of anxiety that tells you there’s danger ahead. It is the insidious wearing down of the immune system that comes from prolonged stress. Bracing for a loss can consume more energy than enduring one. If this feels familiar, read on.

A year ago, a typical work day included face-to-face conversations, small groups seated around conference tables, and larger gatherings in auditoriums. While the geography of interaction has become socially distant, the volume of exchange has grown for many working professionals. Many spend their days in back-to-back virtual meetings in front of a screen. Change of this magnitude is best managed when something tangible is staying the same. What hasn’t changed is the fundamental principle of teamwork. Let’s take a closer look at the infrastructure that anchors teams during periods of disruption.

Teams often evolve like the arc of a crescendo in music. There’s a specific time in the team’s lifespan where the tension is supposed to build and, eventually, give way to resolution. In most songs, it happens near the end. In teams, the buildup is experienced as dissonance. When differences get worked out, it feels like harmony. The tension is the work and the resolution is the play.

Athletes routinely predict a strong offseason promising to come back in tiptop shape for the next campaign. When preseason training begins, only an elite few have actually put in the work needed to fulfill the prediction. The others scramble to catch up and the team’s overall readiness is impacted by this odd blend of physical and mental preparedness. The team’s success rests on a collection of individual commitments. So, which teammate are you going to be when the whistle blows?