Is Your Team Stalled Out?

My family apartment move. Week 3. It’s been a fascinating study in the impact of change on a system.

This week the new neighborhood still feels foreign, and the lack of routine and familiarity is wearing thin. My To Do list is shattered into a million tiny pieces that don’t seem to move towards resolution.

I finally tracked down the carpet cleaning guy who came to take our carpet in the blur of moving day.  So I found the carpet. But I’m still using a stool as an office chair and my back feels like there’s a baseball under my right shoulder blade. We found an amazing Thai restaurant, so that’s good. But my daughter decided, after insisting she wanted the smaller room, that she does in fact want the room she willingly handed to her brother.

Oh, and when do I focus on work?

Deep breath…

This is the process of change. It’s what teams go through regularly. Lots of energy up front, then a no man’s land where nothing is settled, nobody seems to be operating in alignment, you are making the best decisions you can, knowing that some won’t be great, your original vision feels like a mirage, and your To Do list is like a game of whack-a-mole.

Here are my best tips for the way out (and if you have others, please send them!):

• Permission to step away. No kidding. These things that feel impossibly urgent can wait for a split second. You need to give your brain and spirit a rest so you can think
• Choose 3-5 things from your To Do list and schedule triple the time you think they’ll need. You’re probably working in slow motion and scheduling less will make you feel productive
• Talk out loud with your team, every day, about the small wins. Doing this alone is fantastic. Sharing it as a team makes the benefit exponential
• Gently call to mind the overarching vision. But also stay in the present and focus on interim goals. Remembering the big WHY is important, but not if it overwhelms
• Be patient. Our subconscious is working on solving problems all the time. I link this to the idea of Impermanence that I learned from my friend Pamela who teaches meditation
• See if you can go beyond self-care to do something that makes your heart sing. Alone, with one team member at a time, and as an entire team
• And finally, give each other a little grace. We can’t all be perfect under stress and a little forgiveness goes a long way