Team Cycles

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.

What makes a great band? It’s more than good music that resonates with your feelings. That part is easy. You write and perform songs that use the principles of music theory to generate physical and emotional changes reflecting the mood and message of your audience. Rock, rap, blues, jazz and reggae appeal to certain people at certain times because of the visceral and cognitive response the music generates. But keeping the group that composes and plays the music together requires a much different set of skills.

My guitar teacher has been honing his skills as a musician and educator for about 25 years. I have been working on my chops for about 50. It has taken me twice as long to get half as good. Face it, practicing thirty-to-sixty minutes daily will never achieve the results of devoting three-to-six hours each day. Even if I step up to his pace, there aren’t enough years remaining in a human life span to learn to play at his level.

This is why I selected him for my team of two. I will always have new goals that seem nearly out of reach, yet attainable with hard work. This partnership has an unspoken recipe.

Beyond quarterly and annual performance goals, December 31st is an artificial renewal. New Year’s resolutions abound and businesses big and small reset strategic direction. Arbitrary markers of progress track movement but rarely refresh the system. Rebirth usually follows significant change. Norms are disrupted and teammates adapt. Other than calendar transitions, consider these drivers of team renewal.

Sports teams and schools measure their progression in seasons. The chance to regroup is built into the rhythm of the annual cycles. Players and coaches come and go. Teachers and administrators change roles. The off-season provides the opportunity to recover from the depletion of the past year and gear up for the beginning of the next round. Even if your team doesn’t have defined seasons, the need to refresh is just as important. Here’s why.

The easiest way to understand the value of cadence is to think about the steady, calming effect of rhythm. Cadence takes on a different meaning in music. It’s more about movement as notes, intervals, chord progressions, and syncopations transition from a state of tension to a state of resolution. What movement brings cadence to your team?

Take a snapshot of your team. Do you share closeness and connection or are teammates guarded and distant? Is your work built on collaborative interdependence or courageous independence? Depending on where your team falls in each of these quadrants, specific team dynamics are activated. This tells you both why you are struggling and what to work on. Let’s look at each quadrant.