2.3 The Team-Lifecycle

The Life Phases of a Team

In the previous sections, we’ve already looked at what’s happening within teams, in leadership circles, and out in the world — and how these factors impact team dynamics:

• Overload

• New leadership

• Remote work

• New products and strategies

• Sustainability

• ...and more

It helps to visualize all of this along a timeline to create awareness — for yourself and your team — that change is completely normal.
What matters most is simply learning how to deal with it in the best possible way.

Let’s walk through the phases and their related organizational changes:

01 Foundation

When a new team is established, the first step should be to clearly define its purpose – that is, the team’s goal and mission. Based on that, the required roles and skills, as well as the workload in hours or person-days, can be determined. Then, the right people need to be found, work must be distributed accordingly, and this distribution should be regularly optimized.
What makes this phase unique: these people have never worked together before. This presents a great opportunity to do things better from the start, but also holds the risk that the team needs time to get to know each other before things run smoothly.

02 Growth

If the team is doing well, it will soon enter a growth phase, welcoming new colleagues. This can happen because there is more of the same work that now needs to be distributed across more people, or because new tasks are being introduced that require skills and roles which existing team members do not (or no longer) possess.

03 Downsizing

In the current (2025) economic climate, teams are unfortunately often forced to downsize. The work previously done by departing team members must either be reallocated or deprioritized. If someone else takes over that work, they will also need to hand off some of their own tasks.
This is a phase of prioritization: What truly needs to get done despite fewer available hours? And what can be put on hold for now?

04 New Leadership

A new leader usually doesn't come without reason. The chances are high that this person is expected (or intends) to do things differently.
This “doing things differently” must be reflected in skills, roles, team structure, topics, and responsibilities, in order to help the team move from point A (current state) to point B (desired state).

05 New Strategy

The same applies when top management introduces a new strategy. Usually, it’s the leader’s job to translate that strategy for their team.
This is best done by breaking down the new strategy into skills, roles, tasks, teams, and responsibilities and aligning it with what already exists within the team.

06 Merger

A merger means two teams are being combined. In this case, the roles from Team A and Team B need to be compared, and it must be clarified where there is overlap and what needs to be restructured.

07 Reorganization

A major corporate reorganization is typically a combination of all the above points. New teams are formed, others are merged, and many new leaders and strategies are introduced.