Change with Confidence: Answers to the 50 Biggest Questions that Keep Change Leaders Up at Night

Chapter 31

How Do I Avoid Losing Team Members?

Autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward . . . [are] the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

—Malcolm Gladwell

As your project progresses, team members will become more and more integrated. They will have accumulated knowledge on the intricacies of the change, developed relationships with fellow team members, and gained a rapport with other colleague groups also in transition. Losing a team member partway through your project means losing knowledge and skills, never mind the “lost” time that it takes to get a new team member up to speed and integrated—and there's always the chance that the new person will not perform well. To safeguard against ...