The Lagging Team

Commitment and compliance get used as if they mean the same thing. Commitment persists when nobody is paying for it. Compliance persists exactly as long as the reward does. This Sidebar takes one idea from Tuesday's conversation with Jeff Burstein (he/him), that when a team that was improving slows down, something in its environment changed, and follows it all the way in. Why "we didn't get real buy-in" is the wrong argument. Why commitment and compliance look identical on a dashboard right up until the reward moves. Why the team is where a problem shows up and almost never why it happened. And why done is not holding: the declaration is the moment the tending ends. And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: build a two-column timeline, read one person's objectives against what you're asking them to do, and name one thing you declared done, then find out who is still holding it. The full conversation with Jeff Burstein, "It Never Sticks": https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0013-it-never-sticks Jeff Burstein (he/him): Founder, Advanced Enterprise Agility and L-EAF.org · Co-founder, L-EAF Lab. https://www.L-EAF.org Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0014-nothing-changed-but-the-reward&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nothing-changed-but-the-reward

A transformation can look done and be gone six months later. The deck was fine. The team drifted back to the old way of working, and the signs showed up there months before anyone upstairs wrote them down. Jeff Burstein has spent more than 20 years coaching enterprise transformations. His argument: when a team that was improving slows down, the question is rarely what the team is doing differently. Something in the environment changed: a new rule, a new policy, a reward that no longer supports the way the team works. And no change in mindset ever simply sticks. You let it go, and the pen comes back to your hand. Along the way: why people come before process and tools, what velocity is for and what happens when a leader demands it doubled, rote work versus knowledge work, why breakdown comes before breakthrough, and what to tell a leader whose team is behind right now. Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0013-it-never-sticks&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=it-never-sticks Jeff Burstein (he/him) is an innovator, founder, consultant and enterprise transformation coach. He is the founder of Advanced Enterprise Agility and L-EAF.org and a co-founder of L-EAF Lab. L-EAF: https://www.L-EAF.org L-EAF Lab: https://www.L-EAFLab.org Advanced Enterprise Agility: https://www.AdvancedEnterpriseAgility.com L-EAF on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/L-EAF

Informed and included get used as if they mean the same thing. Informed means a decision reaches you. Included means you were there while it could still go a different way. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Melanie Shires (she/her), accountable for work she wasn't invited to help shape, and follows it all the way in. Why "the new leader just needs to communicate more" is the wrong argument. Why a well-informed team can still be behind. Why title and standing move independently, and only one of them is written down. And why shielding a team doesn't spare it: the consequences land anyway, with the cause taken out. And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: name the last decision that changed your team's work and who was in the room, move one person from informed to included, and say the cause out loud once. The full conversation with Melanie Shires: https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0011-new-boss-same-team Melanie's free Inner Authority Alignment Assessment is on her website: https://www.positivelymelanie.com/ Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0012-in-the-loop-is-not-in-the-room&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=in-the-loop-is-not-in-the-room

A new boss walks in and nothing changes on paper. Same title, same duties, same team. But the agreements the team was operating under quietly evaporate, and nobody says a word. Melanie Shires has sat in both chairs. She kept her title as a marketing director while losing her place in the conversations that shaped her work, accountable for work she was no longer invited to help shape. And she has been the new executive walking into a culture built long before she arrived. Her argument: a change in external authority shows how much of your footing was borrowed from it, and you can assess what is happening around you without putting everything you know about yourself on trial. Along the way: what the team experiences while its leader works through it, why high achievers' boundaries dissolve instead of stretching, the glass balls and rubber balls every leader is juggling, the first agreement a new leader should make with a team, and where protecting people turns into keeping them in the dark. For any leader sandwiched between the people they lead and the people they report to. Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0011-new-boss-same-team&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=new-boss-same-team Melanie Shires (she/her) is the founder of Positively Melanie and M Studio and the creator of the Inner Authority™ Framework. Her free Inner Authority Alignment Assessment is on her website. Positively Melanie: https://www.positivelymelanie.com/Melanie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanieshires/

Every team says fine. On a survey, in a one-on-one, in a stand-up, it looks the same whether the team is thriving or gave up months ago. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Katrina L. Coker (she/her), "We're fine, everything's fine," and follows it all the way in. Why "any problems?" measures what feels safe rather than what is wrong. Why nothing wrong and something's right are different sentences. Why a team that gets along can still be a team that isn't okay, and why fine gets worse every time a team is asked and hears nothing back. And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: retire "any problems?", read the fours like twos, and close one loop out loud. The full conversation with Katrina L. Coker: https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0009-nobody-asked-the-team Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0010-fine-is-not-a-status&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=fine-is-not-a-status