Identify problems of Team Dynamics

Do you feel like your team is stagnant and in need of a refresh? It's completely normal for teams to require the occasional course correction, even in smooth waters. In today's uncertain climate, you may need to navigate a whole new path as we navigate returning to the workplace and hybrid work arrangements. The good news is that resetting your team is simpler than you might think.

Your first move is to identify what isn't working. You can divide it into two broad areas. Is the issue that your team has lost sight of its purpose and objectives? If that's the case, your reset should focus on realigning your goals. Alternatively (and it could be both), your team members may feel disconnected, unsupported, or irritated — to the point where even minor issues cause tension. If that's the case, your reset should focus on revitalizing your team dynamic. Here's how to approach both of these strategies:

When resetting a team, prioritize realignment over revitalization. This helps to clear up misunderstandings and discrepancies in goals, priorities, or expectations that may be causing trust issues. Realignment also allows for tying the reset to external shifts, making it less likely to trigger defensiveness. When realigning, focus on evolving to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate emerging risks. Choose anchor points that match the team's situation.

Revamp Your Team's Mission and Goals

If you're looking to improve your team's performance, consider resetting their mandate and goals. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Reset Your Team's Mandate:

• What external trends require us to adapt?
• Consider the most significant changes in the external environment and how they impact your team's context. For instance, if you're a content marketing team, how does ChatGPT change your team's value?
• How does a shift in company strategy affect your role?
• Does your organization have a new vision, strategy, or KPI that alters what your team needs to deliver? For example, if you're an HR team, does opening other offices require new capabilities or activities?
• How is your value within the organization evolving?
• As organizations evolve, team roles can change. How will changes in your organization structure require you to refocus? For example, how will you tailor your offerings if you're an R&D team now supporting two units instead of one?

Reset Your Team's Goals:

If your mandate has changed, you'll certainly need to revisit your goals, but even if your purpose is unchanged, your goals might need a refresh. Consider these reasons to move the target:

• How will you build on prior results?
• Evaluate progress made in the last quarter and how that affects the trajectory you want for the next few quarters. If you've been achieving your goals, are they ambitious enough? Conversely, if you've been missing consistently, do you need to lower your goals or risk demoralizing everyone?
• How will external factors affect your goals?
• Is there anything external that might suggest a goal change? For example, do you need to temper expectations in light of an economic downturn, supply chain backlogs, or labor shortages? Alternatively, if your team benefits from new technological advances, could you accomplish more than planned?
• What can you do to improve your measures?
• Are your goals or metrics unclear? Tighten your definitions or tweak your metrics to ensure alignment and track your team's progress more effectively.
• Alignment with Mandate:

• Are your strategies aligned with your mandate? If your mandate or goals have shifted, how must your strategy change in response? For example, if your team has been assigned to add professional services to your software offering, what will it take to make that business model successful?

Revising Tactics:

• Where do you need revised tactics? If you're still working toward existing goals, what's been working, and where could you change your approach? Conversely, what do you need to abandon? Where could you double down?

Contingency Planning:

• What contingencies might emerge? Even if you're sticking with your existing mandate, goals, strategies, and tactics, you can reset by considering new scenarios and preparing your contingency plans. What assumptions are embedded in your current plan? What would negate those assumptions? What would be the leading indicators that something is changing?

Resetting Roles: Your team may be on the right track, but you're not optimizing the energy and talents of team members. In that case, consider these questions about individuals' accountabilities.

Role Changes:

• Do people need a change in role? Are there any changes in roles or responsibilities that would make the people in your team more effective? Do you need to change someone's portfolio? Could you shake up who's in what role for multi-skilling, development, or succession advantages? Who might be reinvigorated by a new challenge?

Accountability:

• How could you make accountabilities more straightforward? Are there opportunities to fine-tune people's responsibilities to make them more compelling? Are there spots where shared accountabilities are diluting people's sense of obligation? How could you increase alignment, efficiency, and effectiveness by clarifying who owns which decisions?

Revitalization: The second type of reset is to revitalize your team dynamic. Does it feel like you've devolved from being a true team into a loose collection of people where the whole is no more than the sum of the parts? Or worse, is mistrust or unhealthy conflict making it feel like teamwork is a net negative? In that case, your reset might need to focus less on what your team needs to do and more on how you do it.

Resetting Communication Habits:

Over time, teams can become lazy and fall into communication patterns that dilute connection. Revisiting your communication habits can help you reconnect.

Channels of Communication:

• Can you reset your communication channels? Do you default to certain modes of communication that aren't optimized for the content? For example, if you're using Zoom to inform and email to debate, you've got it backward. Can you use richer communication vehicles for more novel content, contentious discussions, and unfamiliar participants? Can you shunt informational items to email?

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Communication:

• Which types of information could you share asynchronously instead to allow people more control over their schedules? Research shows that the average person has more than double the hours of meetings than before the pandemic.

Blackout Periods:

• How could you implement blackout periods? In addition to the deluge of meetings, most people are also inundated by a torrent of emails. How could your team enforce blackout periods where people can turn off notifications and work without communication obligations? How can you increase the opportunities for people to work without distractions?

Optimizing Standing Meetings:

• Meetings tend to be more effective when they have homogeneous content. Could you clean up your meeting structure to separate content that requires different mindsets and behaviors?

Participant List:

• One way to reset the conversation is to change who's party to it. Is it time to step out of some meetings and let your team take the reins? Would new voices and new perspectives bring some productive conflict?

Preparation:

• Inefficient meetings are infuriating meetings. How could you use better primer documents to prepare team members to contribute in evidence-based and thoughtful ways?

Resetting Your Team Dynamics:

• What would be your new ground rules? Maybe you've had ground rules and stopped respecting them, or you never had any. What behaviors have you been tolerating that need to stop? What would be a welcome addition? Revisiting the principles for how team members behave can be an excellent way to reset.
• How could you resolve conflict debts? If your team has been avoiding difficult conversations about priorities and trade-offs or trust and disrespect, you need to get the issues out in the open to move beyond them.
• What activities would foster insight into each other? If your team dynamics are suffering, you might want to enlist outside help with formal team development activities. For example, psychometric tools or group coaching could foster trust and promote candor.

If your team is accomplishing plenty but finding it’s harder than necessary, these different approaches will jump-start a new, healthier, happier team dynamic.

And finally, a personal note. While you ponder your team reset, it’s an excellent time to consider whether you need to reset your own approach. For example, has work started consuming more time and energy than is healthy? Are you taking on too much and delegating too little?

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