How do you define “team?” Your workplace colleagues? Your romantic partnership? Your book club? Your neighborhood? Your recreational sports buddies? Your family? Perhaps all of the above? Defining teams is both simple and complex. The complex view is an interdependent ecosystem of complementary roles advancing a common mission through shared values toward a clear vision. The simple view is two or more people collaborating on a goal. Let’s break down the simple definition into its key parts.

Ground delivery services and retail outlets ramp up manpower during the holidays. Sports teams begin each campaign with new rosters. Educational institutions make transitions based on the academic calendar. Corporate teams recalibrate when quarterly or annual goals are not met. Like families, team dynamics get refreshed every time you add or subtract a member. What holds everything together when membership is always changing?

As the primary driver of team trust, accountability is elusive. Meeting deadlines, keeping promises and behaving in a way that is true to company values are examples of the daily contributions we all make to team wellness. In a culture of accountability, only exceptions to these behaviors are noticed. When getting a pass is the norm, following through with commitments gets celebrated as special. So, how do you build a culture of accountability?

While change is often experienced as a loss, transitions usually become the fuel for renewal. The disruption is simply the trigger stage for the differences that are about to unfold. Because change causes emotional depletion, most teams devote their energy to coping and refueling. Thriving teams see this stage as the launch point for innovation. Answering these five questions will help your team move to action.

Every challenge has two elements – naming the source of the pain (crisis) and deciding how you’re going to deal with it (opportunity). The second stage requires the first. Teams must acknowledge what hurts before they can embrace new circumstances. As quickly as you can finish trumpeting how awful a change is, commit to the task of figuring out what to do about it. Here’s a simple roadmap to get you started.

When we are able to be our best selves, we manage change with maturity. We acknowledge what has been lost and wrap our brains around the new conditions. We take some time to lick our wounds and then figure out what to do about the transition. We bring our best coping skills to the team and try our best to do nothing that might get us stuck or set us back. In a perfect world, the stress of the change doesn’t turn us into a child. Occasionally, these best intentions break down. Here’s what that looks like.

The teamclock.com website was originally designed as a tool for teams. With a few clicks, you could easily find best practices on team effectiveness and a path to diagnose your organization’s wellness. That was a decade ago and, like most tools, we’ve needed to refresh our approach a few times. Like all living things, the Center for Team Excellence has evolved through many cycles of change. Our new website reflects today’s focus: helping our partners know what stage of growth they are managing, why they are in that stage and what to do next to move forward. We encourage you to take a self-guided tour after enjoying this preview.

How do you know if your team is operating in a healthy workplace culture? Measurement seems subjective, at best. The task of capturing reliable metrics on team effectiveness involves knowing what to measure and how to measure it. Consider the ways teammates interact and evaluate those exchanges on a scale from function to dysfunction. Now, take a snapshot of the pervasiveness of the wellness or the sickness. Does everyone on the team feel this way or just a few outliers? Is the team unified or split into factions? How do we acquire this data?

Teams have personalities. Some are tired and worn out from managing constant change. Others are frustrated by having to navigate conflict and differences of opinion. Still others are basking in the glow of trust while fearing what happens if they push their magic to the next level. A few teams figure out how to stay in the innovation mode all the time. Here’s their formula.

Schools are back in session and professional football teams are beginning the chase for a Super Bowl ring. Education and sports provide lessons in the seasonal cycles of teams. There is a time-limited window to accomplish a specific set of goals. Teams ramp up in the offseason and try to get off to a good start when the campaign begins. They navigate midseason challenges and attempt to finish with strength as the year comes to an end. Whatever the outcome, they commit to another round of growth when the next opportunity resumes. What season is your team enjoying. Choose from these four:

Crisis has a way of bringing teams together. The urgency of the moment defines roles and creates a common objective. The medical profession treats a crisis as a normal event by moving into triage mode. More than just setting priorities, triaging assumes the problem is bigger than the resources. Waste and politics are subtracted from the process. It doesn’t have to be an emergency to enter this mode. Consider these five ground rules.

More than ever before, teams don’t share the same space. The challenge of getting everyone aligned is more difficult when face-to-face exchange is limited. Monthly or quarterly check-ins are barely enough to cover the myriad topics that arise between contacts. Often, the result is teammates heading in different directions. They may be running fast and working hard but they are not necessarily in synchrony. Products get sold and services delivered but not at the level that would be possible with full coordination of efforts. Here are some basics for remote teams.