Team Collapsing? 6 Warning Signs That Don't Look Like Warning Signs

David Burkus argues that a collapsing team rarely looks dramatic, and that some of the earliest warning signs look like good news. He lists six: everybody agrees with you, which is conflict avoidance, not psychological safety; nobody says "I don't know"; the real meeting happens after the meeting; people check each other's work instead of relying on each other; arguments become about the person; and one resignation becomes three, the pattern Will Felps and his colleagues called turnover contagion. Each comes with a remedy, from asking "What's the strongest argument against this?" to holding the exit interview before anyone leaves. The common root, he concludes, is that the truth stopped being told in the open, and a leader's real job is to make it safe to tell it early enough to act on.