Steve Ritter

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.

It’s hardest to see the next stage of the cycle when we’re in the middle of some struggle. Energy is fully devoted to the tasks at hand. Despite our desire to be strategic, we’re forced to be operational. Planning is difficult when the future is unknown. Head down, eyes up is the mantra. Keep moving forward regardless of what life throws at us. So, how would today’s choices be different if we knew what tomorrow would bring? Predict the future.

Human Resources departments call it a workforce reduction. Describing the termination of a job as a lay off softens the blow. Getting furloughed suggests there might be a chance to return. Whatever the reason and however it is named, subtracting teammates alters the ecosystem. Because change is a form of loss, times like these move painfully through the classic stages of grief.

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?

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:

Every team is in a state of transition. Some are regrouping following a major change. Others are building a culture of trust and accountability. Still others are using that platform of trust to generate something new. Many teams are anticipating a transition and bracing themselves to cope. Whatever stage your team is managing, there are always three questions to ask.

Please enjoy this excerpt from The 4 Stages of a Team: How teams thrive… and what to do when they don’t.

The ideal team flows from challenge to challenge, moving over, under, around or through obstacles. Team members understand the purpose of their struggle and keep working on the problem. Because all living things move through predictable cycles, each transition provides an opportunity to get stuck.