How Uncertainty Drives Transformation

On a Wednesday last April, I sat in front of my computer with no less than fifty windows open. Browser windows, presentations, spreadsheets… each one had a bit of information. Each one a clue to the puzzle. Costs. Product roadmaps. Project trackers. Org charts. And goals. Forty-nine windows with overwhelming detail, and one window that had a presentation page with three simple goals. Serve more people. Get them more engaged. Serve the company. And as with all goals, they were big.

There’s an art to setting goals. Make them large enough to be motivating but not so big that they’re impossible. And there’s that moment where you buy in. In your head. “This is plausible. I’m in. It’ll be a challenge, but wow. If we can achieve these we’ll be kicking ass.” And when that happens, at least for me, reality sets in and I see things in a whole new light. The plausibility of achieving the goals immediately fades and I am left with the question: “Whoa. How are we going to do this?”

The answer, without fail, is that it will take bold new action. That’s the whole point, right?

In this particular case we were laying out plans for how Beachbody On Demand would grow into its expected role within the company. The bold new action was to completely redefine the organizational approach to technology, and there was no way around it. And that caused a small sense of dread within me, if I am honest. The dread was hidden somewhere behind the excitement of a new challenge, but it was there. And the dread had a name: Uncertainty.

Humans hate uncertainty.

And humans hate uncertainty. We quantify it in the form of risk calculations. We minimize it in the form of strategic plans. We try and take control of it by foisting disruption on others. We spend our entire lives stressing about saving up money to reduce it in our later years. But the fact is always there: Change introduces uncertainty into our lives and that comes with an emotional cost. This is particularly true when the change impacts something as central to our lives as our jobs.

So, what specifically was the small voice of dread about? I wasn’t so concerned about myself. It feels way better to be on the decision-making side of change, so that wasn’t my trouble. My concern stemmed from the process we were about to begin within the organization. The teams had already been under stress and had been in a near-constant state of reorganization for several quarters. Growth, followed by leadership changes had stressed the team to a troublesome level. And now I, as their new leader, had to do it again.

But in that challenge is a huge opportunity.

In 1965 an academic named Bruce Tuckman proposed a model for group development that has become the basis of team transformation. I learned it in college when I studied communication, and then again in business school in an organizational behavior class. This is one of the crazy things that is so simple it has never been substantially improved. It’s the Forming->Storming->Norming->Performing model of group development.

The idea is that every group (including work teams) go through a progression of experiences together that happen like clockwork. They come together, get to know each other and each other’s roles. Then they grind on each other as everyone figures out how they personally apply themselves to accomplish the team’s goals. While this is going on there is turbulence in the form of emotion and inefficiency. Then the team members work out how they will work together and, ultimately, they find their groove and get things done.

If you dissect that a bit, and do some conceptual algebra, you can derive the following quasi-mathematical equation: Uncertainty = Emotion = Creative Forge = Opportunity to create a performant team.

Here’s why it’s important: Emotion is GOING TO HAPPEN. It’s part of the process and it’s healthy. It will show up as passion and drive. It will show up as hesitance to participate. It will show up as frustration and anger. Some people become overwhelmed and will want to opt out altogether. Uncertainty hits us all in a profound way and brings out our underlying emotions. So it can be really bumpy.

But on the other side of the bumpiness is a healthy team that performs together. From a company perspective that’s fantastic, it is exactly what needs to happen in order to achieve new goals and adapt to the market. And from a personal perspective, it’s extremely rewarding for all involved.

The deeply personal way we all react to change, and the emotion that comes with it, are good.

There is one thing, though, that has to happen: Everyone – both leadership and the team itself – need to trust the process. And by trusting the process, I mean one very specific thing: Be patient throughout the bumps. There is a purpose to the Storming, and it is necessary for a healthy, productive team to emerge. The deeply personal way we all react to change, and the emotion that comes with it, are good. By bringing it to the table we can forge a quality team that is resilient, productive and satisfying.

And do you see what happened there? By being aware that there IS a process that works like clockwork if you trust it, you can replace the uncertainty of change with the certainty of the process. To say it a different way, by knowing exactly how to lead through the uncertainty, you can guide your team members on their individual routes through the Storm.

This is huge. Why? Because, in my experience, most organization transformations fail when leadership succumbs to the emotion of the storm and allows the team to degrade. By accepting the Storming as a necessary – even powerfully healthy – part of the process, we can provide the sense of purpose to the team that will move everyone on to the balance of Norming.

So on that day in April, the Beachbody Digital leadership laid out a plan through all of the change that was coming. It’s simple and easy to communicate:

• May: Preparation – Determine the org structure (Leaders prepare for Forming)
• June: Phase 0 – Share the purpose, reorganize the teams and introduce them to a new way of doing things. (Forming)
• July: Phase 1 – Realign projects and get the new teams operating together (Storming)
• August: Phase 2 – Refine the approach and evaluate emerging teams (Norming)
• Beyond: The company is operating at a new level of responsiveness and effectiveness (Performing)

By laying out this plan, sharing it and executing it, we’ve been able to walk patiently and deliberately through a traditionally bumpy time. August will tell whether we’re on track and if we’ve had a productive Storm.