<![CDATA[The Lagging Team]]>8cd47627-c157-556b-b300-d96c056ddf56Thu, 12 Nov 2026 15:22:05 +0000Captivate.fmDevon Morrishttps://artwork.captivate.fm/1315bbc8-4fdf-4fc8-9feb-0c5beb0af5ff/cover-art-3000x3000.pngThe Lagging TeamDevon MorrisDevon MorrisMost teams don't fall behind because people stopped caring. They fall behind because the job changed and the team's operating agreement didn't. The Lagging Team is for leaders whose teams got left behind — by a reorg, a new boss, a technology that rewrote the playbook overnight, or a change nobody explained. Host Dr. Devon Morris is a doctor whose research focuses on teams: goal commitment, learning agility, resilience, and how groups adapt when the ground moves. He's also a Certified Scrum Trainer, Board Certified Coach, and PMP, and he runs 8typical. Tuesdays — conversations with practitioners who were in the room when it happened. Thursdays — short research episodes. One finding, stated plainly, in under twenty minutes. No blame, no jargon, no pretending the team should have known. Just what changed and what to do about it. thelaggingteam.comhttps://thelaggingteam.com/falseepisodicnopodcastBehind Compared to What?Behind Compared to What?"Behind" is never a fact on its own. It's a comparison. Behind means you were measured against a fair benchmark, at a fair time, and came up short. Measured early means you were compared before the comparison was fair: before you had the time, the tools, the reps or the birthday. From the outside they look exactly the same. This Sidebar takes one question from Tuesday's conversation with Satyavrat Nirala, "Behind what? What is the benchmark?", and goes all the way into it.

The same move shows up three times. When the benchmark is the calendar, the youngest kids in a class get measured early, and it doesn't wash out the way you'd hope. When the verdict is wrong, it lands hardest on whoever got labeled first. And once a rank is on the page, the comments that follow stop working, most of all for the person ranked lowest. Then three things to try next week, and a simple check for whether your team is behind or just compared.

The full conversation: 0019, Behind What?, with Satyavrat Nirala https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0019-behind-what

Satyavrat Nirala (he/him): Chief author, the Agile Education Manifesto https://agileeducationmanifesto.org

Go deeper:

Behind vs. measured early

Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey, "The Persistence of Early Childhood Maturity: International Evidence of Long-Run Age Effects," Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(4), 2006, 1437–1472 https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/qjecon/v121y2006i4p1437-1472..html

Who pays when the verdict's wrong

Lee Jussim and Kent D. Harber, "Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies," Personality and Social Psychology Review 9(2), 2005, 131–155 https://www.researchwithrutgers.org/en/publications/teacher-expectations-and-self-fulfilling-prophecies-knowns-and-un/

The rank drowns the comment

Ruth Butler, "Enhancing and Undermining Intrinsic Motivation: The Effects of Task-Involving and Ego-Involving Evaluation on Interest and Performance," British Journal of Educational Psychology 58(1), 1988, 1–14. With caveats: Thomas R. Guskey, "Grades Versus Comments: What Does the Research Really Tell Us?" Education Week, June 2019 https://edweek.org/education/opinion-grades-versus-comments-what-does-the-research-really-tell-us/2019/06

The earlier study: Ruth Butler, "Task-Involving and Ego-Involving Properties of Evaluation," Journal of Educational Psychology 79(4), 1987, 474–482 https://cris.huji.ac.il/en/publications/task-involving-and-ego-involving-properties-of-evaluation-effects/

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0020-behind-compared-to-what&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-compared-to-what

]]>"Behind" is never a fact on its own. It's a comparison. Behind means you were measured against a fair benchmark, at a fair time, and came up short. Measured early means you were compared before the comparison was fair: before you had the time, the tools, the reps or the birthday. From the outside they look exactly the same. This Sidebar takes one question from Tuesday's conversation with Satyavrat Nirala, "Behind what? What is the benchmark?", and goes all the way into it.

The same move shows up three times. When the benchmark is the calendar, the youngest kids in a class get measured early, and it doesn't wash out the way you'd hope. When the verdict is wrong, it lands hardest on whoever got labeled first. And once a rank is on the page, the comments that follow stop working, most of all for the person ranked lowest. Then three things to try next week, and a simple check for whether your team is behind or just compared.

The full conversation: 0019, Behind What?, with Satyavrat Nirala https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0019-behind-what

Satyavrat Nirala (he/him): Chief author, the Agile Education Manifesto https://agileeducationmanifesto.org

Go deeper:

Behind vs. measured early

Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey, "The Persistence of Early Childhood Maturity: International Evidence of Long-Run Age Effects," Quarterly Journal of Economics 121(4), 2006, 1437–1472 https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/qjecon/v121y2006i4p1437-1472..html

Who pays when the verdict's wrong

Lee Jussim and Kent D. Harber, "Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies," Personality and Social Psychology Review 9(2), 2005, 131–155 https://www.researchwithrutgers.org/en/publications/teacher-expectations-and-self-fulfilling-prophecies-knowns-and-un/

The rank drowns the comment

Ruth Butler, "Enhancing and Undermining Intrinsic Motivation: The Effects of Task-Involving and Ego-Involving Evaluation on Interest and Performance," British Journal of Educational Psychology 58(1), 1988, 1–14. With caveats: Thomas R. Guskey, "Grades Versus Comments: What Does the Research Really Tell Us?" Education Week, June 2019 https://edweek.org/education/opinion-grades-versus-comments-what-does-the-research-really-tell-us/2019/06

The earlier study: Ruth Butler, "Task-Involving and Ego-Involving Properties of Evaluation," Journal of Educational Psychology 79(4), 1987, 474–482 https://cris.huji.ac.il/en/publications/task-involving-and-ego-involving-properties-of-evaluation-effects/

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0020-behind-compared-to-what&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-compared-to-what

]]>638df687-6263-4127-8c3d-2491e482a1aaThu, 12 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -060016:31falsefull120201Behind What?Behind What?There is a difference between a learner who is behind and a learner who is being measured against a benchmark nobody checked. Satyavrat Nirala learned that difference as a kid in a village in Assam with no electricity, in a school where reading was the hard part and his brother was the one at the top of the class. He never caught the benchmark. He invented his own ways to learn, and years later he wrote the Agile Education Manifesto: four values and six principles for students, teachers, professors and parents, so a classroom can run like a team instead of a ranking.

Satya's word for the kid everyone calls slow is slow-focused, not lagging. From there the conversation covers why values and principles have to come before any framework, why his classrooms use feedforward (a practice he credits to Marshall Goldsmith) instead of feedback, why competitiveness gives you tactical knowledge and only collaboration gives you strategic knowledge, the day a class connected the heart's principles to the value they serve, who resists first when a room stops ranking, and what to tell a leader whose team is behind right now. His one sentence for anyone who has been told they are behind: behind what? Who put that box?

Go deeper:

The manifesto: Agile Education Manifesto, four values and six principles for learning https://agileeducationmanifesto.org

Feedforward: Marshall Goldsmith, "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback" https://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/post/try-feedforward-instead-of-feedback

The original: Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001) https://agilemanifesto.org

Satyavrat Nirala (he/him): Chief author, Agile Education Manifesto · https://agileeducationmanifesto.org/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-what

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0019-behind-what&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-what

]]>There is a difference between a learner who is behind and a learner who is being measured against a benchmark nobody checked. Satyavrat Nirala learned that difference as a kid in a village in Assam with no electricity, in a school where reading was the hard part and his brother was the one at the top of the class. He never caught the benchmark. He invented his own ways to learn, and years later he wrote the Agile Education Manifesto: four values and six principles for students, teachers, professors and parents, so a classroom can run like a team instead of a ranking.

Satya's word for the kid everyone calls slow is slow-focused, not lagging. From there the conversation covers why values and principles have to come before any framework, why his classrooms use feedforward (a practice he credits to Marshall Goldsmith) instead of feedback, why competitiveness gives you tactical knowledge and only collaboration gives you strategic knowledge, the day a class connected the heart's principles to the value they serve, who resists first when a room stops ranking, and what to tell a leader whose team is behind right now. His one sentence for anyone who has been told they are behind: behind what? Who put that box?

Go deeper:

The manifesto: Agile Education Manifesto, four values and six principles for learning https://agileeducationmanifesto.org

Feedforward: Marshall Goldsmith, "Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback" https://www.marshallgoldsmith.com/post/try-feedforward-instead-of-feedback

The original: Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001) https://agilemanifesto.org

Satyavrat Nirala (he/him): Chief author, Agile Education Manifesto · https://agileeducationmanifesto.org/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-what

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0019-behind-what&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=behind-what

]]>ec63c981-454a-4505-9f3b-21ea6d6d5c9bTue, 10 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -060001:08:02falsefull119191The Courage to CareThe Courage to CareDiscomfort is what the truth costs the person hearing it. Harm is what it costs them when you don't say it, or when you say it with pressure. When a team is behind and tired, the kind instinct is "now's not the time to push." This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Bart Bailey, "I don't have any problem with discomfort. I do have a problem with harm," and goes all the way into it.

The same move shows up three times. Urgency is attention on the process; pressure is attention on the person, and it raises the error rate even on work you do every day. Teamwork is having somebody's back; collaboration is letting an idea you didn't have change your plan. Then three things to try this week, and one test for whether your hard conversations land as discomfort or as harm: do people speak up more afterward, or go quiet?

The full conversation: 0017, Fear Is Data, with Bart Bailey https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0017-fear-is-data

Bart Bailey (he/him): Owner, Courage to Care LLC · Author, It's in Our Bones

Go deeper:

Discomfort vs. harm

Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey, "What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety," Harvard Business Review, May–June 2025 https://hbr.org/2025/05/what-people-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety

Julia Rozovsky, "The five keys to a successful Google team," Google re:Work, Nov. 17, 2015 (180+ teams; archived copy) https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdhhs/Google-and-Psychological-Safety_684425_7.pdf

Kim Scott on Radical Candor and ruinous empathy, Stanford GSB Insights, Sept. 5, 2023 https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/radical-candor-communication-shift-can-transform-your-career

Urgency vs. pressure

John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency (Harvard Business Press, 2008); excerpt: "Complacency and False Urgency Impede Change" (AMA) https://www.amanet.org/articles/complacency-and-false-urgency-impede-change/

Teresa M. Amabile, Constance N. Hadley and Steven J. Kramer, "Creativity Under the Gun," Harvard Business Review, Aug. 2002 (9,000+ daily diary entries) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=12846

U.S. Department of Energy, Human Performance Improvement Handbook, Vol. 1 (DOE-HDBK-1028-2009) https://www.energy.gov/documents/doe-hdbk-1028-2009volume1pdf

Teamwork vs. collaboration

Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex Pentland, Nada Hashmi and Thomas W. Malone, "Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups," Science 330 (2010), 686–688 (699 people in 192 groups) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147

Google re:Work, as above: "Who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact."

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0018-the-courage-to-care&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-courage-to-care

]]>Discomfort is what the truth costs the person hearing it. Harm is what it costs them when you don't say it, or when you say it with pressure. When a team is behind and tired, the kind instinct is "now's not the time to push." This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Bart Bailey, "I don't have any problem with discomfort. I do have a problem with harm," and goes all the way into it.

The same move shows up three times. Urgency is attention on the process; pressure is attention on the person, and it raises the error rate even on work you do every day. Teamwork is having somebody's back; collaboration is letting an idea you didn't have change your plan. Then three things to try this week, and one test for whether your hard conversations land as discomfort or as harm: do people speak up more afterward, or go quiet?

The full conversation: 0017, Fear Is Data, with Bart Bailey https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0017-fear-is-data

Bart Bailey (he/him): Owner, Courage to Care LLC · Author, It's in Our Bones

Go deeper:

Discomfort vs. harm

Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey, "What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety," Harvard Business Review, May–June 2025 https://hbr.org/2025/05/what-people-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety

Julia Rozovsky, "The five keys to a successful Google team," Google re:Work, Nov. 17, 2015 (180+ teams; archived copy) https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdhhs/Google-and-Psychological-Safety_684425_7.pdf

Kim Scott on Radical Candor and ruinous empathy, Stanford GSB Insights, Sept. 5, 2023 https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/radical-candor-communication-shift-can-transform-your-career

Urgency vs. pressure

John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency (Harvard Business Press, 2008); excerpt: "Complacency and False Urgency Impede Change" (AMA) https://www.amanet.org/articles/complacency-and-false-urgency-impede-change/

Teresa M. Amabile, Constance N. Hadley and Steven J. Kramer, "Creativity Under the Gun," Harvard Business Review, Aug. 2002 (9,000+ daily diary entries) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=12846

U.S. Department of Energy, Human Performance Improvement Handbook, Vol. 1 (DOE-HDBK-1028-2009) https://www.energy.gov/documents/doe-hdbk-1028-2009volume1pdf

Teamwork vs. collaboration

Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex Pentland, Nada Hashmi and Thomas W. Malone, "Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups," Science 330 (2010), 686–688 (699 people in 192 groups) https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147

Google re:Work, as above: "Who is on a team matters less than how the team members interact."

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0018-the-courage-to-care&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-courage-to-care

]]>c270a9c4-bd15-4ef1-b8ed-16a45517925dThu, 05 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -060020:50falsefull118181Fear Is DataFear Is DataMost leaders reach for fear when a team falls behind, and then call it urgency. Bart Bailey has led people where a mistake doesn't just cost a deadline. It costs somebody's safety, on a production line, a plate floor, or a crew restoring power after a storm. His read is that fear isn't a lever. It's data. When a team reports zero near misses, that isn't a clean record. It means fear is present, and people have stopped speaking up.

This conversation pulls apart three pairs that leaders blur. Urgency is healthy when it means more attention to the process, and dangerous when it means shortcuts, because the error rate goes up under pressure even in work you could do in your sleep. Teamwork is having somebody's back; collaboration is combining two ideas without diminishing either one. Discomfort is fine; harm is not. And Bart's question for any leader whose team is behind right now: what is your next step?

Go deeper:

Near misses and safety culture: National Safety Council, "Near Miss and Hazard Reporting," Position/Policy Statement #131 (2016) https://nsc.org/getattachment/89915b18-ca6e-430d-8eb6-583593cbc0ec/W-Near-Miss-Hazard-Reporting-131

Time pressure and the three performance modes: U.S. Department of Energy, Human Performance Improvement Handbook, Vol. 1 (DOE-HDBK-1028-2009) https://www.energy.gov/documents/doe-hdbk-1028-2009volume1pdf

Speaking up: Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey, "What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety," Harvard Business Review, May–June 2025 https://hbr.org/2025/05/what-people-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety

The book Bart cites: Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands (Central Recovery Press, 2017) https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781942094470

Bart Bailey (he/him): Owner, Courage to Care LLC · Author, It's in Our Bones

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0017-fear-is-data&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=fear-is-data

]]>Most leaders reach for fear when a team falls behind, and then call it urgency. Bart Bailey has led people where a mistake doesn't just cost a deadline. It costs somebody's safety, on a production line, a plate floor, or a crew restoring power after a storm. His read is that fear isn't a lever. It's data. When a team reports zero near misses, that isn't a clean record. It means fear is present, and people have stopped speaking up.

This conversation pulls apart three pairs that leaders blur. Urgency is healthy when it means more attention to the process, and dangerous when it means shortcuts, because the error rate goes up under pressure even in work you could do in your sleep. Teamwork is having somebody's back; collaboration is combining two ideas without diminishing either one. Discomfort is fine; harm is not. And Bart's question for any leader whose team is behind right now: what is your next step?

Go deeper:

Near misses and safety culture: National Safety Council, "Near Miss and Hazard Reporting," Position/Policy Statement #131 (2016) https://nsc.org/getattachment/89915b18-ca6e-430d-8eb6-583593cbc0ec/W-Near-Miss-Hazard-Reporting-131

Time pressure and the three performance modes: U.S. Department of Energy, Human Performance Improvement Handbook, Vol. 1 (DOE-HDBK-1028-2009) https://www.energy.gov/documents/doe-hdbk-1028-2009volume1pdf

Speaking up: Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey, "What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety," Harvard Business Review, May–June 2025 https://hbr.org/2025/05/what-people-get-wrong-about-psychological-safety

The book Bart cites: Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands (Central Recovery Press, 2017) https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781942094470

Bart Bailey (he/him): Owner, Courage to Care LLC · Author, It's in Our Bones

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0017-fear-is-data&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=fear-is-data

]]>05ea019f-86b7-428a-b6dc-90e460972faeTue, 03 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -060001:04:39falsefull117171Admitting It Isn't Agreeing With ItAdmitting It Isn't Agreeing With ItAcknowledging and agreeing get used as if they mean the same thing. Acknowledging is about a situation: that could be true, let's check. Agreeing is about who you are: we're the behind team. This Sidebar takes one idea from Tuesday's conversation with Nicole Morris (she/her), that the first move when the label lands is to acknowledge it, and follows it all the way in.

Why "is it fair?" is the wrong argument while nobody checks whether it's true. Why the team busy proving it isn't behind has stopped checking whether it is. Why defensiveness is a rational move when admitting something sounds like a verdict. Why the Strong One is the leader least able to separate the two words. And why a team that's always behind is usually telling you something about its leadership.

And three things to do before you get back to work, none of which cost money or need permission: say "that could be true, let me check" out loud in the room, write down what you're checking, and turn one flat status statement into a question.

The full conversation with Nicole Morris, "What Are You Carrying Into It?": https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0015-what-are-you-carrying-into-it

Nicole Morris (she/her): Founder, Labels Be Gone™ · Author, It's Not Me, It's You: Take Their Labels Off · Host, The Permission Slip. https://permissionfromwho.com

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0016-admitting-it-isnt-agreeing-with-it&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=admitting-it-isnt-agreeing-with-it

]]>Acknowledging and agreeing get used as if they mean the same thing. Acknowledging is about a situation: that could be true, let's check. Agreeing is about who you are: we're the behind team. This Sidebar takes one idea from Tuesday's conversation with Nicole Morris (she/her), that the first move when the label lands is to acknowledge it, and follows it all the way in.

Why "is it fair?" is the wrong argument while nobody checks whether it's true. Why the team busy proving it isn't behind has stopped checking whether it is. Why defensiveness is a rational move when admitting something sounds like a verdict. Why the Strong One is the leader least able to separate the two words. And why a team that's always behind is usually telling you something about its leadership.

And three things to do before you get back to work, none of which cost money or need permission: say "that could be true, let me check" out loud in the room, write down what you're checking, and turn one flat status statement into a question.

The full conversation with Nicole Morris, "What Are You Carrying Into It?": https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0015-what-are-you-carrying-into-it

Nicole Morris (she/her): Founder, Labels Be Gone™ · Author, It's Not Me, It's You: Take Their Labels Off · Host, The Permission Slip. https://permissionfromwho.com

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0016-admitting-it-isnt-agreeing-with-it&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=admitting-it-isnt-agreeing-with-it

]]>9800ee67-fa26-4709-a2a3-4a4655873eafThu, 29 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050022:11falsefull116161What Are You Carrying Into It?What Are You Carrying Into It?A team gets called behind long before anybody proves it, and once that word lands, people start working like it's true. Nicole Morris has spent more than twenty years in corporate leadership, strategy and transformation, much of it running large implementations, and she has watched what teams and leaders carry into a room before anyone says a word.

Why behind means something different in every room. Why the Strong One is the most expensive leader to work under. Why a team that is always behind is usually telling you something about its leadership. What lagging teams are actually waiting for permission to do. And why the first move, when the label lands, is to acknowledge it could be true, then check.

Full disclosure: Nicole is Devon's wife. Then it's an interview like any other.

Nicole Morris (she/her): Founder, Labels Be Gone™ · Author, It's Not Me, It's You: Take Their Labels Off · Host, The Permission Slip. https://permissionfromwho.com

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0015-what-are-you-carrying-into-it&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=what-are-you-carrying-into-it

]]>A team gets called behind long before anybody proves it, and once that word lands, people start working like it's true. Nicole Morris has spent more than twenty years in corporate leadership, strategy and transformation, much of it running large implementations, and she has watched what teams and leaders carry into a room before anyone says a word.

Why behind means something different in every room. Why the Strong One is the most expensive leader to work under. Why a team that is always behind is usually telling you something about its leadership. What lagging teams are actually waiting for permission to do. And why the first move, when the label lands, is to acknowledge it could be true, then check.

Full disclosure: Nicole is Devon's wife. Then it's an interview like any other.

Nicole Morris (she/her): Founder, Labels Be Gone™ · Author, It's Not Me, It's You: Take Their Labels Off · Host, The Permission Slip. https://permissionfromwho.com

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0015-what-are-you-carrying-into-it&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=what-are-you-carrying-into-it

]]>469cc1a7-fd03-4304-8044-812d4e80f384Tue, 27 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050001:12:25falsefull115151Nothing Changed But the RewardNothing Changed But the RewardCommitment 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

]]>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

]]>d3518c30-8bb8-45c8-96ba-8830fa57167bThu, 22 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050023:06falsefull114141It Never SticksIt Never SticksA 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

]]>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

]]>5f72aeb2-6003-49c1-a555-224577d7b395Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050001:11:10falsefull113131In the Loop Is Not in the RoomIn the Loop Is Not in the RoomInformed 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

]]>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

]]>6a300046-b063-4a72-acf2-c165260dd40fThu, 15 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050025:42falsefull112121New Boss, Same TeamNew Boss, Same TeamA 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/

]]>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/

]]>6a58ce1c-d2a6-49e2-9802-1abd25ce2a7bTue, 13 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050001:12:37falsefull111111Fine Is Not a StatusFine Is Not a StatusEvery 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

]]>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

]]>3dbd5150-8793-44b8-b18e-cb91352e288eThu, 08 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050019:58falsefull110101Nobody Asked the TeamNobody Asked the TeamKatrina L. Coker has walked into team after team where the job had already changed: a new tool nobody chose, a lift-and-shift that turned into a full rebuild, a timeline handed down without a conversation. The people got along. The work kept moving. What was missing was anyone asking the team what it actually thought.

Katrina, known as The Scrum Mother, walks through what she does in her first weeks with a team: the questions she asks everyone, why she takes the answers to leadership before she takes them back to the team, and why she pushes back on calling a team "behind" at all. Along the way: voluntelling, what a defeated team looks like before anyone says so, how she got her name, and when helping a team turns into making it depend on you.

For the leader who inherited a team mid-change, and for anyone on a team whose job description stopped matching the job a while ago.

Added after the recording: Katrina is clear that tight, immovable deadlines are part of business. Her concern is expecting more velocity when the tools, the people and the processes all stay the same.

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0009-nobody-asked-the-team&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nobody-asked-the-team

Katrina L. Coker is "The Scrum Mother" — CEO of The Scrum Mother, LLC, and the author of ScrumMaster Application and Interview Process (2024) and Scrum Master First 90 Days: The Scrum Mother Approach (2026), available on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardback. She holds an M.S. in Conflict Management and a B.B.A. in International Business from Kennesaw State University, and lives in Georgia with her two cats, Avery and Fiona.

Find her at scrummother.com, on LinkedIn at /in/katrinalcoker-thescrummother, and as @TheScrumMother on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

The Scrum Mother: https://scrummother.com/Katrina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinalcoker-thescrummother/

]]>Katrina L. Coker has walked into team after team where the job had already changed: a new tool nobody chose, a lift-and-shift that turned into a full rebuild, a timeline handed down without a conversation. The people got along. The work kept moving. What was missing was anyone asking the team what it actually thought.

Katrina, known as The Scrum Mother, walks through what she does in her first weeks with a team: the questions she asks everyone, why she takes the answers to leadership before she takes them back to the team, and why she pushes back on calling a team "behind" at all. Along the way: voluntelling, what a defeated team looks like before anyone says so, how she got her name, and when helping a team turns into making it depend on you.

For the leader who inherited a team mid-change, and for anyone on a team whose job description stopped matching the job a while ago.

Added after the recording: Katrina is clear that tight, immovable deadlines are part of business. Her concern is expecting more velocity when the tools, the people and the processes all stay the same.

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0009-nobody-asked-the-team&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nobody-asked-the-team

Katrina L. Coker is "The Scrum Mother" — CEO of The Scrum Mother, LLC, and the author of ScrumMaster Application and Interview Process (2024) and Scrum Master First 90 Days: The Scrum Mother Approach (2026), available on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardback. She holds an M.S. in Conflict Management and a B.B.A. in International Business from Kennesaw State University, and lives in Georgia with her two cats, Avery and Fiona.

Find her at scrummother.com, on LinkedIn at /in/katrinalcoker-thescrummother, and as @TheScrumMother on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

The Scrum Mother: https://scrummother.com/Katrina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinalcoker-thescrummother/

]]>a91f6e76-b726-4089-bae7-9d3f4a3fd715Tue, 06 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050001:10:18falsefull1991Nobody Checked Who Set The DateNobody Checked Who Set The DateSlow and behind get used as if they mean the same thing. Slow is a fact about a team: how long it takes to turn an idea into something somebody uses. Behind is a comparison, the distance between where the team is and a date somebody picked, usually at the start, when everyone knew the least.

This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Chris Sims (they/them), somebody set them up to fail, and follows it all the way in. Why a recovery plan quietly produces months of evidence against the team. Why busy is visible and moving isn't. Why the move that got a leader here feels identical to the one now holding them back.

And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: trace the date to a name and a reason, put last month's work in two columns, and slow one thing down on purpose.

The full conversation with Chris Sims: https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0007-the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0008-nobody-checked-who-set-the-date&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nobody-checked-who-set-the-date

]]>Slow and behind get used as if they mean the same thing. Slow is a fact about a team: how long it takes to turn an idea into something somebody uses. Behind is a comparison, the distance between where the team is and a date somebody picked, usually at the start, when everyone knew the least.

This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Chris Sims (they/them), somebody set them up to fail, and follows it all the way in. Why a recovery plan quietly produces months of evidence against the team. Why busy is visible and moving isn't. Why the move that got a leader here feels identical to the one now holding them back.

And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: trace the date to a name and a reason, put last month's work in two columns, and slow one thing down on purpose.

The full conversation with Chris Sims: https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0007-the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0008-nobody-checked-who-set-the-date&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nobody-checked-who-set-the-date

]]>6ace19cd-6b18-4976-8402-c1e21d50a065Thu, 01 Oct 2026 05:00:00 -050029:39falsefull1881The Harder You Work, The Behinder You GetThe Harder You Work, The Behinder You Get"Behind" is not a measurement. It is a judgment somebody made against a standard somebody set, and the first useful question is who set it.

Chris Sims has spent a career watching teams answer that badly. The founders whose own strengths quietly became the company's bottleneck. The engineers whose hardest-won expertise stopped being the valuable thing. The leaders whose answer to falling behind was to stay later. They have a line for it, from a mentor who was trying to get them to see it about themself: the harder I work, the behinder I get.

This is a conversation about why the obvious response makes it worse, what slowing down actually buys you, and which skills quietly changed places while everyone was watching the code get written faster. For anyone leading a team through a shift they did not pick.

The Satir change model Chris walks through: https://tlt-clips.b-cdn.net/0007/Assets/Satir-2026-04.pdf

Pendo's 2019 Feature Adoption Report: https://go.pendo.io/rs/185-LQW-370/images/2019%20Feature%20Adoption%20Report%20Digital.pdf

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0007-the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get

Chris Sims (they/them) is an agile coach, a Certified Scrum Trainer, and the founder of Agile Learning Labs. AgileLearningLabs.com

]]>"Behind" is not a measurement. It is a judgment somebody made against a standard somebody set, and the first useful question is who set it.

Chris Sims has spent a career watching teams answer that badly. The founders whose own strengths quietly became the company's bottleneck. The engineers whose hardest-won expertise stopped being the valuable thing. The leaders whose answer to falling behind was to stay later. They have a line for it, from a mentor who was trying to get them to see it about themself: the harder I work, the behinder I get.

This is a conversation about why the obvious response makes it worse, what slowing down actually buys you, and which skills quietly changed places while everyone was watching the code get written faster. For anyone leading a team through a shift they did not pick.

The Satir change model Chris walks through: https://tlt-clips.b-cdn.net/0007/Assets/Satir-2026-04.pdf

Pendo's 2019 Feature Adoption Report: https://go.pendo.io/rs/185-LQW-370/images/2019%20Feature%20Adoption%20Report%20Digital.pdf

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0007-the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-harder-you-work-the-behinder-you-get

Chris Sims (they/them) is an agile coach, a Certified Scrum Trainer, and the founder of Agile Learning Labs. AgileLearningLabs.com

]]>d5447a0f-b310-4510-ae73-0d6a8a04fa6eTue, 29 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -050001:05:23falsefull1771Somebody Takes the First HitSomebody Takes the First HitResilience isn't a trait; it's a resource, something a person spends and something that can run out. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Apriel Biggs (she/her), Chief Transformation Architect at Blagile, about the person who catches the first impact when change hits, and goes all the way into it. The teammate who went quiet is usually depleted, not disengaged, and the two look identical from the outside while needing opposite fixes. This one is for leaders who think someone on their team has checked out, and for the person on that team who has been catching it.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=somebody-takes-the-first-hit

Apriel Biggs is @AprielBiggs on socials. Her full conversation is episode 0005, Left Behind Isn't Evenly Distributed:

https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0005-left-behind-isnt-evenly-distributed?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=somebody-takes-the-first-hit

]]>Resilience isn't a trait; it's a resource, something a person spends and something that can run out. This Sidebar takes one line from Tuesday's conversation with Apriel Biggs (she/her), Chief Transformation Architect at Blagile, about the person who catches the first impact when change hits, and goes all the way into it. The teammate who went quiet is usually depleted, not disengaged, and the two look identical from the outside while needing opposite fixes. This one is for leaders who think someone on their team has checked out, and for the person on that team who has been catching it.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=somebody-takes-the-first-hit

Apriel Biggs is @AprielBiggs on socials. Her full conversation is episode 0005, Left Behind Isn't Evenly Distributed:

https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0005-left-behind-isnt-evenly-distributed?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=somebody-takes-the-first-hit

]]>22740516-91e8-4f83-82db-37b3095bb33bThu, 24 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -050018:54falsefull1661Left Behind Isn't Evenly DistributedLeft Behind Isn't Evenly DistributedWhen a team falls behind, everybody doesn't fall the same distance. Somebody catches the first hit, and whether the rest of the team feels a stumble or a collapse depends on who that person is and what they do next. Apriel Biggs has led teams of 160+ through deployments three weeks from a date they'd already promised, and she makes the case for skip-level conversations, for leaders who go get their own data, and for a one-page exercise she calls the 2% Truth. This one is for leaders whose team is behind right now, and for the people on that team waiting for someone above them to notice.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=left-behind-isnt-evenly-distributed

Apriel Biggs is @AprielBiggs on socials. Connect with her on LinkedIn and tell her you heard the episode.

]]>When a team falls behind, everybody doesn't fall the same distance. Somebody catches the first hit, and whether the rest of the team feels a stumble or a collapse depends on who that person is and what they do next. Apriel Biggs has led teams of 160+ through deployments three weeks from a date they'd already promised, and she makes the case for skip-level conversations, for leaders who go get their own data, and for a one-page exercise she calls the 2% Truth. This one is for leaders whose team is behind right now, and for the people on that team waiting for someone above them to notice.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=left-behind-isnt-evenly-distributed

Apriel Biggs is @AprielBiggs on socials. Connect with her on LinkedIn and tell her you heard the episode.

]]>c8477e60-0844-47f2-b68c-eb1b110d4dc9Tue, 22 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -050052:15falsefull1551They Delivered. Nobody Saw It.They Delivered. Nobody Saw It.A leader says the team hasn't shipped anything in months. The team has been quietly preventing disasters nobody asked them to name. Both are telling the truth.

This is a sidebar — I take one thing from Tuesday's conversation and go all the way into it.

This week: the capability audit. The moment a team falls behind, the meeting becomes an audit of whether the team is good enough. Skills matrices. Do we have the right people. Should we bring somebody in. And while everybody argues about that, the actual gap walks straight past the room.

Here's the tell, and it's why this is worth twenty minutes: a capability gap and a clarity gap produce the exact same status report. Red. Behind. Slipping. Identical on the page. Opposite fixes.

A capability problem is they can't. A clarity problem is nobody said.

I also correct something. I called Tuesday's episode "Stop Blaming the Team," and I was wrong about it — that conversation defends leaders, and I put a title on it that wagged a finger before anyone pressed play. It's called The Theory Is Usually Wrong now. That's Brandon's line.

Three things you can do Monday: ask three people what the goal is and count the pauses · write down what your team has actually delivered, including the things that only prevented something · say it out loud, together, until somebody can say it back to you.

Before Tuesday, one job: ask three people on your team what the goal is and who it's for. Separately. Then count the pauses.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=they-delivered-nobody-saw-it

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=they-delivered-nobody-saw-it

]]>A leader says the team hasn't shipped anything in months. The team has been quietly preventing disasters nobody asked them to name. Both are telling the truth.

This is a sidebar — I take one thing from Tuesday's conversation and go all the way into it.

This week: the capability audit. The moment a team falls behind, the meeting becomes an audit of whether the team is good enough. Skills matrices. Do we have the right people. Should we bring somebody in. And while everybody argues about that, the actual gap walks straight past the room.

Here's the tell, and it's why this is worth twenty minutes: a capability gap and a clarity gap produce the exact same status report. Red. Behind. Slipping. Identical on the page. Opposite fixes.

A capability problem is they can't. A clarity problem is nobody said.

I also correct something. I called Tuesday's episode "Stop Blaming the Team," and I was wrong about it — that conversation defends leaders, and I put a title on it that wagged a finger before anyone pressed play. It's called The Theory Is Usually Wrong now. That's Brandon's line.

Three things you can do Monday: ask three people what the goal is and count the pauses · write down what your team has actually delivered, including the things that only prevented something · say it out loud, together, until somebody can say it back to you.

Before Tuesday, one job: ask three people on your team what the goal is and who it's for. Separately. Then count the pauses.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=they-delivered-nobody-saw-it

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=they-delivered-nobody-saw-it

]]>42e1727b-9ffb-4c76-b4c6-b29aaabe95abThu, 17 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -050023:17falsefull1441Falling Behind Is a Position, Not a VerdictFalling Behind Is a Position, Not a VerdictHe drove four hours to get to work. He hadn't been to a training in seven years. And that same year, the company he worked for was named one of the best places in America to work — partly because almost nobody ever left.

Both of those things were true at the same time. Only one of them was on a plaque in the lobby.

This is the first episode of The Lagging Team, and it's the story that gave the show its name. A man who wasn't complacent, wasn't checked out, and wasn't a bad employee — he was a person who couldn't leave, in a market with no door in it. Every tool I had assumed he was the variable. He wasn't. His position was.

Then the part that should worry you: right now there are more than seven million open jobs in this country, and people are leaving at almost exactly the rate they left when there was nowhere to go. The door is open and nobody's walking through it.

In 2010, a frozen team looked frozen. Today it looks like a team that chose you.

One question to take with you this week: who on your team can't leave? Not who won't. Who can't.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=falling-behind-is-a-position

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=falling-behind-is-a-position

]]>He drove four hours to get to work. He hadn't been to a training in seven years. And that same year, the company he worked for was named one of the best places in America to work — partly because almost nobody ever left.

Both of those things were true at the same time. Only one of them was on a plaque in the lobby.

This is the first episode of The Lagging Team, and it's the story that gave the show its name. A man who wasn't complacent, wasn't checked out, and wasn't a bad employee — he was a person who couldn't leave, in a market with no door in it. Every tool I had assumed he was the variable. He wasn't. His position was.

Then the part that should worry you: right now there are more than seven million open jobs in this country, and people are leaving at almost exactly the rate they left when there was nowhere to go. The door is open and nobody's walking through it.

In 2010, a frozen team looked frozen. Today it looks like a team that chose you.

One question to take with you this week: who on your team can't leave? Not who won't. Who can't.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=falling-behind-is-a-position

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=falling-behind-is-a-position

]]>bb210085-9496-476d-aa18-bc4dce4340fcTue, 15 Sep 2026 05:10:00 -050022:18falsefull1111Staying Isn't ChoosingStaying Isn't ChoosingTurnover is down. Nobody's quitting. Every leadership team in the country is reading that as good news.

This is a sidebar — the Thursday format, dropping early for launch week. Sidebars take one thing and go all the way into it.

Today: I take something back. Last episode I said nothing worked. That's wrong, and I want to be precise about why — because what I actually meant was that nothing I was trained to do worked. That's a different sentence, and the difference is the whole show.

Then the part that matters for your team. We use two words like they mean the same thing and they don't: stayed and chose. Stayed is a fact about the exits. Chose is a fact about the work. Every retention number you have only knows about the first one.

You didn't win the retention war. It was called off.

Also in this one: why trapped and frozen aren't the same problem, why stable and stuck look identical on a headcount report, and the one question to ask that you don't already know the answer to.

Before the next episode, one job: ask one person on your team what would make them turn down an offer. Then notice whether you got an answer or a pause.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=staying-isnt-choosing

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=staying-isnt-choosing

]]>Turnover is down. Nobody's quitting. Every leadership team in the country is reading that as good news.

This is a sidebar — the Thursday format, dropping early for launch week. Sidebars take one thing and go all the way into it.

Today: I take something back. Last episode I said nothing worked. That's wrong, and I want to be precise about why — because what I actually meant was that nothing I was trained to do worked. That's a different sentence, and the difference is the whole show.

Then the part that matters for your team. We use two words like they mean the same thing and they don't: stayed and chose. Stayed is a fact about the exits. Chose is a fact about the work. Every retention number you have only knows about the first one.

You didn't win the retention war. It was called off.

Also in this one: why trapped and frozen aren't the same problem, why stable and stuck look identical on a headcount report, and the one question to ask that you don't already know the answer to.

Before the next episode, one job: ask one person on your team what would make them turn down an offer. Then notice whether you got an answer or a pause.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team:

https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=staying-isnt-choosing

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=video-description&utm_campaign=staying-isnt-choosing

]]>46364afb-22fa-4924-838a-d665a146965cTue, 15 Sep 2026 05:05:00 -050019:29falsefull1221The Theory Is Usually WrongThe Theory Is Usually WrongWhen a team falls behind, the leader almost always has a theory about why.

I asked Brandon Raines how often that theory turns out to be wrong. He didn't hesitate: "It's wrong most of the time."

Brandon has spent nearly three decades walking into rooms with frustrated leaders and teams that have stopped talking to each other. In this conversation he describes a gap so wide he compared himself to a Martian — looking down on a planet, seeing something almost familiar, and realizing the people living in it saw a completely different reality. The leader thought he wasn't getting everything out of the team. The team had been quietly shipping maintenance work that kept a license from expiring and a system from going down — work nobody ever heard about.

Nobody was lying. The information just never crossed the room.

We get into why blaming the person is the easy move ("I'm going to give you an answer that always makes me sad"), what the misdiagnosis actually costs — Brandon's line is that you can't put a price on reduced morale — and how he tells a clarity problem from a capability problem when they look identical from the outside.

Also: reaction versus response, why clear is kind, what the biggest tell really is, and what to do when the leader is the gap.

Brandon closes with three questions to ask yourself first:

1. Have I articulated to the team what the goals are and what success looks like?

2. Have I positioned the team in a successful way?

3. Are the skill sets really, truly there for the team to succeed at the goals I just set?

"And if the answers to those things are no, you have your starter list for your homework to do."

About Brandon Raines

Brandon is a professional certified coach and the founder of Shokunin Advisors, where he works with leaders and teams navigating change.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-theory-is-usually-wrong

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-theory-is-usually-wrong

]]>When a team falls behind, the leader almost always has a theory about why.

I asked Brandon Raines how often that theory turns out to be wrong. He didn't hesitate: "It's wrong most of the time."

Brandon has spent nearly three decades walking into rooms with frustrated leaders and teams that have stopped talking to each other. In this conversation he describes a gap so wide he compared himself to a Martian — looking down on a planet, seeing something almost familiar, and realizing the people living in it saw a completely different reality. The leader thought he wasn't getting everything out of the team. The team had been quietly shipping maintenance work that kept a license from expiring and a system from going down — work nobody ever heard about.

Nobody was lying. The information just never crossed the room.

We get into why blaming the person is the easy move ("I'm going to give you an answer that always makes me sad"), what the misdiagnosis actually costs — Brandon's line is that you can't put a price on reduced morale — and how he tells a clarity problem from a capability problem when they look identical from the outside.

Also: reaction versus response, why clear is kind, what the biggest tell really is, and what to do when the leader is the gap.

Brandon closes with three questions to ask yourself first:

1. Have I articulated to the team what the goals are and what success looks like?

2. Have I positioned the team in a successful way?

3. Are the skill sets really, truly there for the team to succeed at the goals I just set?

"And if the answers to those things are no, you have your starter list for your homework to do."

About Brandon Raines

Brandon is a professional certified coach and the founder of Shokunin Advisors, where he works with leaders and teams navigating change.

If you want to talk about what this looks like on your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-theory-is-usually-wrong

More at https://thelaggingteam.com?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=the-theory-is-usually-wrong

]]>ddb4fd96-a302-4307-a6a9-8f2f80de8c8cTue, 15 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -050001:04:44falsefull1331The Lagging Team — TrailerThe Lagging Team — TrailerThe Lagging Team is a weekly video and audio podcast for leaders whose teams got left behind by change. Hosted by Devon Morris. Interviews on Tuesdays, sidebars on Thursdays. First episodes September 15, 2026.

More at https://thelaggingteam.com

]]>The Lagging Team is a weekly video and audio podcast for leaders whose teams got left behind by change. Hosted by Devon Morris. Interviews on Tuesdays, sidebars on Thursdays. First episodes September 15, 2026.

More at https://thelaggingteam.com

]]>8affb675-9566-482f-8b49-547d639be92eSat, 05 Sep 2026 21:40:00 -050001:09falsetrailer