A team is a like a living organism

And like any living organism it changes constantly with time and experience.

As all living things, the team life cycle includes birth, growth, maturity, decay and death

The goal of most people and most teams is to grow quickly and efficiently, maximize the benefits of maturity, grow again in the face of change, and hold off decay and death.  If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

An overview of a Team's Life and Death

All teams can be seen through two dimensions-- Cohesion and Effectiveness. 

At birth of the team, both cohesion and effectiveness are near zero—no connection/cohesion and no effectiveness.

At the death of the team, the same is true.

Team Birth

For example, let’s say your executive team is formed to achieve specific strategic business objectives.

When the selection process is done correctly, team members are chosen based on their individual abilities to contribute to achieving those goals and objectives.

In the first few months of the team's life, its cohesiveness is low and its effectiveness is low. 

Team Childhoood

There is likely much uncertainty about how the team will work together, what each member can and/or will contribute, and how the team will do as it interacts with the outside world.

Team members have limited commitment to the team, and are still strongly engaged and influenced by their external environments.

At the same time, there are many challenges and a sense of excitement and fun.

There is uncertainty and anxiety about whether and how the team will succeed.

The team's energies are concentrated on bringing about future successes.

This is akin to the team's childhood, a time of maximum learning by team members, and maximum sensitivity to the world outside the team.

It is a great time for teambuilding/training.  Here, an investment in training can increase knowledge, improve connection and communication and maximize the ability of the team to coalesce around common goals and values.

Team Adolescence

As team members learn from one another and take successful actions together, the team's effectiveness and cohesiveness increase. This increases the members' enthusiasm and commitment to the team. For a while there is a positive feedback loop in which success increases cohesiveness, which increases effectiveness, which generates more success. This is the team's adolescence.

This is a time to train in order to leverage that momentum and intensify that cohesion.  An experience together that engages team members and requires you to actively work together and succeed without real world consequences allows you to really test your limits in a risk free environment.

Team Adulthood

Eventually the team accomplishes its first major success, the strategic objective for which it was formed. That strategic success marks the point at which the team is considered to be highly cohesive and highly effective.

But cohesiveness has a dark side: lack of openness to the world outside the team or to new team members. 

Success also has its dark side. The team changes its attitude about its relationship to the outside world. It succeeded, therefore it has the formula! It potentially loses the very anxiety and sensitivity to the external environment, which contributed to its success.

The team also develops a team memory based on past successes and previous communications. The team memory now defines each member's role, the team's knowledge of the outside world, and how the team operates in that world. The team memory enables the team to perform like an experienced adult, able to quickly handle challenges in previously learned ways. But the team succeeds only as long as the team memory of how things were accurately reflects how things are.

In other words, the team has learned how to succeed in one particular way.  If it faces the same or similar challenges, it will dispense with them quickly and efficiently.

Preventing Decline & Decay

When the outside world changes, however, or the challenges they face are dissimilar to the past successes, the team will begin a slow or quick decay and will eventually meet its end unless its members focus on becoming more flexible and learning new team skills to be effective in the face of change.

It is now when teambuilding is critically needed, either to maintain and reinforce cohesiveness (which leads to flexibility) or to increase effectiveness (through acquisition of new skills, abilities, knowledge or tools) or both.

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