Table Of ContentPraise for Dynamic Reteaming
Heidi’s wisdom will change how you think about, form, re-form, and partici-
pate in teams. Her stories, whether from the three successful startups she’s
guided through hypergrowth or the dozens of teams she’s interviewed
across the globe, delineate the power, intelligence, and joy of reteaming.
If you seek a healthier, happier, more harmonious approach
to teaming, study this book.
—Joshua Kerievsky, Industrial Logic,
author of Refactoring to Patterns
I used to think, in fact I was certain, that long-lived teams with very stable
membership were the best way for software development organizations to
deliver fantastic software. Heidi and her book encouraged me to challenge
and reevaluate this notion. She explains the many perspectives, virtues, and
advantages of deliberately and thoughtfully changing up teams. This book is
a must for software development leaders looking to create a development
culture of engagement, connectedness, resilience, and opportunity.
—Chris Smith, head of product delivery at Redgate Software
For most of us, our image of teamwork needs to be updated—the stable,
familiar groups of people who learn how to work together well are being
replaced by fluid, porous teams that have to work together in new ways. Hel-
fand provides inspiration and practical insights for how to do this well.
—Amy C. Edmondson, Harvard Business School,
author of Teaming and The Fearless Organization
Building effective teams is hard. A good team is a dynamic thing that
changes all of the time. Understanding this and using it to help to guide
your team is a cornerstone of any approach to continuous improvement.
Heidi’s book describes powerful, real-world patterns based on her extensive
experience that will help you to reflect on what is happening
in your team and give you a guide for what to do next.
—Dave Farley, coauthor of Continuous Delivery
If you want to weather the comings and goings, the hits and misses, the ups
and downs of team life, this book is the guide. If you want to understand a
more accurate and complex model of team life cycles, read deep from this
book. Drawn from experience with her real engineering and product devel-
opment teams, Heidi is the voice of engineers. She stands up for what they
need in team life and offers sage advice for organizations
who want to give it to them so they can create products that matter.
—Lyssa Adkins, coach of difficult problems,
and author of Coaching Agile Teams
High-performing teams are simultaneously powerful and fragile. Changes
to the team can quickly disrupt their flow, but can also bring new insights
and better ways of working in the long run. Dynamic Reteaming is a funda-
mental book for anyone involved in the fine art of balancing team evolution
with team health in the real world. The author’s immense experience is in
full display here, backed by meaningful examples and concrete patterns.
—Manuel Pais, coauthor of Team Topologies: Organizing Business
and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
Like it or not, knowledge work is a team sport. The essence of being a pro-
fessional knowledge worker, then, is the ability to be a good team player. But
how does one engage on a team when teams today are undergoing constant
change? Isn’t “change” the opposite of “team”? The established Agile para-
digm is to try and stabilize teams as much as possible, but this advice flies in
the face of the reality that most of us experience. That’s where Heidi comes
in. Rather than to resist team change, she teaches us to embrace it.
Recognize your context, apply appropriate patterns, and watch outcomes fol-
low. Especially here, in early 2020, the idea of what a team is and what it
means to be on a team is evolving. Thankfully, Heidi is here to help us.
—Daniel S. Vacanti, CEO of Actionable Agile, and author of When
Will It Be Done? and Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability
“Whether you like it or not, teams are going to change. You might as well
get good at it.” This is the premise of Heidi’s book, which is a treasure trove
of stories and anecdotes from practitioners from all over the world. The
author brings to life her extensive research coupled with deep personal
experience. I highly recommend this book as a source of inspiration and
guidance for anyone working with teams in a world of change.
—Sandy Mamoli, Nomad8, coauthor of Creating Great Teams
For organizations building software-enabled services today, the team is the
fundamental means of delivery. But a team is not a loose collection of indi-
viduals with the same manager; instead, a team has a shared goal, shared
working practices, and shared sense of purpose. Above all, a team needs to
nurture and develop its ways of working, its very being. This is where
Dynamic Reteaming by Heidi Helfand is so valuable: this book provides tried
and tested techniques for helping to nurture and evolve a team over time.
Changes to team composition can be disruptive, but the Dynamic Reteaming
patterns provide ways to turn these changes into positive experiences for
individuals, teams, and organizations. This team-first book
is vital for every organization today.
—Matthew Skelton, coauthor of Team Topologies:
Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow
There is no question that the future belongs to the curious learner. I can
easily say that the future belongs to Heidi Helfand and those lucky ones that
are her students. In Dynamic Reteaming, Heidi takes on some important big
ideas with great wisdom, humility, and curiosity.
We are all better for her efforts. Read, learn, experiment, grow!
—Richard Sheridan, Menlo Innovations, author of Joy,
Inc. and Chief Joy Officer
Dynamic Reteaming
SECOND EDITION
The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams
Heidi Helfand
Dynamic Reteaming
by Heidi Helfand
Copyright © 2020 Reteam, LLC. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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July 2020: Second Edition
Revision History for the Second Edition
2020-06-11: First Release
See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781492061298 for release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The cover image and related
trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Dynamic Reteaming is a trademark of
Reteam, LLC.
The views expressed in this work are those of the author, and do not represent the publisher’s
views. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the infor-
mation and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author dis-
claim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for
damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instruc-
tions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this
work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights
of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses
and/or rights.
978-1-492-06129-8
[LSI]
Contents
| Foreword by John Cutler ix
| Foreword by Diana Larsen xi
| Preface xv
PART I | What Is Dynamic Reteaming?
1 | The Evolution of Teams 3
2 | Understanding Teams 11
3 | The Power of Team Assignment 19
4 | Reduce Risk and Encourage Sustainability 31
PART II | Dynamic Reteaming Patterns
5 | One-by-One Pattern 39
6 | Grow-and-Split Pattern 69
7 | Isolation Pattern 91
8 | Merging Pattern 103
9 | Switching Pattern 123
vii
viii | CONTENTS
10 | Anti-Patterns 137
PART III | Tactics for Mastering Dynamic Reteaming
11 | Adapt Your Organization for Dynamic Reteaming
153
12 | Plan Your Dynamic Reteaming Initiative 177
13 | After Dynamic Reteaming: Transitions and Team Cali-
brations 187
14 | Reflect and Determine How to Shift 219
PART IV | Conclusion
A | Whiteboards to Enable Open Dynamic Reteaming
233
B | Team Choice Marketplace 237
C | Survey Template 245
| Bibliography 247
| Index 253
