Teamership: Overcommitted and underdelivering

Overcommitted and underdelivering teams are not a new problem, but it feels like it’s getting worse. Photo from gabriel-carvalho of Unsplash.

Teams are overcommitted, but underdelivering.

That’s rarely what people call it, but it turns up in various ways. In some of the stories I have shared, it has looked like:

• A senior leader who had 11 weekly reports that took him a day and a half to complete…but when he decided to stop for a while he found out that nobody needed nine of them.

• A senior leadership team that had become bloated and misaligned as the organisation grew. Taking on lots of work, but not much progress being made until some tough decisions got made.

• A CPO who wanted the executive team to be having more conversations about the future and looking beyond their departments - instead of getting caught in the weeds.

• A COO who wanted things to be less exciting and more productive.

This is not a new problem, but it feels like it’s getting worse.

More commitments are being asked of teams, fewer resources are being provided, faster pace is being demanded. There is the BAU that's always due. The strategic work that is somehow expected to fit on top of that.

One question for you this week:

Where are you seeing this in your teams right now?

Hit reply. I’d love to know what your experiences are.