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Kenneth Larsen
Kenneth Larsen

Posted on • Originally published at kennethlarsen.org on

Teams are not a constant, but a living and changing being

Dealing with team changes can be very frustrating. Sometimes, it leads to a lack of delivery, decreased team mood, or even people quitting. There are a few things to be especially aware of when your team is going through change. Being open-minded to these frameworks can make a difference.

A widespread mistake is to assume that your work is done once your team is delivering features. Teams are never in a finished or constant state but rather something living and ever-changing. Many events can cause a change in the team dynamics, productivity or mood:

  • New people joining the team
  • People leaving the team or the company
  • Changing priorities
  • Real-world events such as the Corona pandemic

Thankfully, there are also great frameworks to help you understand where your team currently is and how to help them move towards becoming a healthy and productive team:

To set up your team for success, you need to match the team changes with a change in expectations. Whether it is about changing the scope or team members, changes to a team should change expectations equal to the team change. This provides the much-needed space to get back on track to becoming a productive team.


References

Hogan, Lara; Resilient Management

Larson, Will; An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering

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