Dynamic Reteaming, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Understanding Teams

We just looked into the nature of teams and how they change and evolve through time. As previously described, sometimes the changes emerge and happen naturally. Other times people try to catalyze the changes. This is a key concept to understand about dynamic reteaming.

This chapter details other basic concepts like the definition of team and how it relates to the concept of change in general. In addition, we discuss the base transformation of dynamic reteaming, which is the addition or removal of one person from the team. That’s the “smallest” type of reteaming, and it might sound easy; however, depending on the person who is either moving in or out, it can be quite disruptive.

Let’s take a look at the basics, then, and dig into some preliminary concepts.

What Is a Team?

If you read a definition of the term team, you might read that it is “a bounded and stable set of individuals interdependent for a common purpose.”¹ But what if the team composition is not stable? What if it is highly changeable, as in the case of a startup engaged in hypergrowth? Is this still a team? To this I say yes. Changeable teams are teams.

The smallest unit of a team is a pair, as depicted in Figure 2-1. The pair is defined as two people working together to build something valuable for their customers. They are thought partners.

Figure 2-1. The base unit of a team is a ...