Dynamic Reteaming, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12. Plan Your Dynamic Reteaming Initiative

It’s no small feat to plan a large-scale reteaming event that spans multiple teams. You might be changing the organizational structure and moving the people around within that new structure. Or, it could be that you are keeping the structure the same, but you’re just moving around the people within it.

It could get even more complex. Maybe your company has acquired another company and you are blending together, as described in Chapter 8.

Or, maybe hierarchies are emerging in your context, and there are many shifts related to people management and structure. Peers might be promoted to manage their former peers, and the familiar, flat structure you knew before is now getting reshaped into a top-down triangle.

It could also be that your company priorities have changed, and because of that, some work must be paused or cancelled altogether, and the people need to be reassigned to different, higher-priority efforts elsewhere in the organization.

Whatever the case, doing larger reteamings takes careful planning and consideration for the people.

Even with the best intentions, we can be unskillful with this type of situation. Sometimes it feels like no matter what you try, someone is still upset and is feeling that things should have been done differently. This stuff isn’t easy, and it often garners a lot of fear. People fear the loss of role, status, or their jobs—even when they are as safe as they can be. Change triggers fear.

So what ...