Heidi Helfand gave a presentation about “Coaching Teams Through Change” at the June event of the agile100. She gave an overview about different theses of team dynamics and the derivations on success and failure of these changes. Especially the initial team composition was analyzed by her.
The main focus was on the fact that teams in companies have different levels of co-determination about who joins the team and who doesn’t. This lack of co-determination can lead to restlessness and disagreements, but above all to a loss of trust (see also Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team).
In addition, she showed the effects of staff turnover on the different team compositions and how long it can take until these teams can deliver resilient results again.
In each case, the presentation was a call for more self-determination in the company and an illustration of the negative effects of a top-down approach on the performance of teams.