Dynamic Reteaming, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13. After Dynamic Reteaming: Transitions and Team Calibrations

After you’ve reteamed, the work is not over. In fact, it could very well be that even though your teams have changed structurally, the people are still emotionally transitioning over to their new team realities. Don’t forget that you’re dealing with humans. You can’t just snap them into place and expect them to adapt as quickly as you might want them to.

As with any organizational change, things take time. People need to get used to changes and settle in. This is not always easy. I’ve been reteamed without my input more than once, and sometimes it’s really hard to shift into the new reality.

On the flip side, imagine if you included the people in the reteaming decision-making process—like through a whiteboard reteaming or marketplace reteaming described in the appendices to this book. They would most likely feel greater ownership of the change and, I’d argue, would be further along in their acceptance of this change. In that case, some of this preliminary processing of transition might not be needed. You can probably jump ahead to the tactics described in “Team Calibration Sessions”.

In this chapter, I will first share some personal stories of times when I’ve been reteamed unexpectedly and had to transition over and deal with it. I give advice for others who are going through this, and I hope that leaders will glean some empathy about what might happen in their teams when they engage in a top-down reteaming ...