Misalignment. Unclear expectations. Decision making chaos. These issues don’t announce themselves. They sit beneath the surface, quietly draining momentum.

The worst part? Leaders often don’t see the problem the same way their teams do.

In today’s email

• Why most team dysfunctions go unnoticed until it’s too late.

• How a structured CP Scan can reveal misalignment before it causes real damage

• The difference between quick fixes (painkillers) and long-term solutions (vitamins).

Things that caught my eye

• If you a long time reader of the newsletter you will know am a fan of experimentation, i’ve wrote about various times so when Seth talk about it I listen here

• Speaking of experimenting here a great article from Anne-Laure Le Cunff asking what type of experimentalist are you here

• I bang on about listening to your people a whole lot, having set up various continuous discovery & listening strategies so when I read there’s a increase in employee thinking their leaders are lying to them of course I was gonna geek out here

^{Want to design better products, services, and experiences for your customers and employees? Want to move faster from problem to product? The People Product OS digital deck is perfect for you, its all my tips and tricks for designing services, products Interactions and experiences for the likes of Dyson, HSBC, and TalkTalk}

My Approach to Diagnosing and Treating Teams

Every team operates as a living, breathing system, constantly reacting to external pressures, internal frictions, and the behaviors of those leading it.

Like any system, teams can suffer from chronic stress, misalignment, or dysfunction. Left unchecked, these issues erode trust, slow decision-making, and turn work into an exhausting grind rather than a productive flow.

To prevent this I turn to my TeamOS: CP Scan a diagnostic-first approach, much like a doctor would when assessing a patient's health

(Playing the part and dressing up is a non negotiable as its a clear signal to the team this is something different and meaningful and links to the tricky trio mentioned here) 

The Diagnosis - The CP Scan

Before prescribing any treatment, I begin with a comprehensive CP scan. This isn't just a casual observation. I run structured health assessments, first with the manager and then with the team, without the manager present.

Why? Because teams don't always share the same symptoms their leaders see. More importantly, some issues remain unspoken when leadership is in the room.

In the past when running different version of my CP Scan I have found having a manager there may help later on maybe in their 3rd of 4th health check when fear of consequence has gone but at the start I isolate them

I assess fifteen key health markers, critical indicators of how well a team functions and where potential breakdowns might occur.

Some of the most common markers include:

• Psychological Safety. Do people feel safe enough to speak their minds without fear?

• Decision-Making Clarity. Does the team know how and where decisions are made?

• Accountability Health. Is there a culture of ownership, or do responsibilities get lost?

• Resilience Levels. Is the team running on fumes, or do they feel engaged

• Managerial Awareness. How aligned is the leader's view of the team's health compared to reality?

• How the team spend time together and so on

Once both assessments are complete, I cross-compare the results, identifying where the manager's perspective diverges from the team's lived experience.

below is a snap shot of how widely different a team feels compare to the manager

It's here that the burning platforms start to reveal themselves for example on Q5 which is focused on ownership both the team and the manager are aligned, however on Q2 which is focused decision making they couldn’t be future apart if they tried.

Its here where we focus and look at the misalignment we can start to diagnose deep rooted issues that, if left untreated, will continue to weaken the team's performance, culture, and morale

Important note: throughout the whole CP check, we are constantly capture verbatim, because their hidden insight into the words and emotion shared in the health check that often goes unidentified

The Treatment Plan

Once we understand the symptoms, it's time to treat them.

It here where we take a consultant-like approach, tailoring recommendations based on the specific challenges the team is facing.

Like any good treatment plan, the prescription is a mix of painkillers and long-term health solutions.

Painkillers offer immediate interventions that address urgent dysfunctions. Think of these as instant relief solutions to stop the bleeding. This could be targeted behavior experiments, specific TeamOS tactics, or Culture Crafters interventions designed to quickly stabilize the team.

Vitamins and minerals focus on longer-term strategies designed to strengthen the team's resilience, alignment, and performance. These include embedding new team rituals, refining decision making frameworks, and reinforcing psychological safety mechanisms so the team doesn't just recover but thrives.

Through this approach, we ensure teams don't just survive today's challenges but become more resilient against future disruptions.

Top Tactic

Nearly every time I run a heath check thats part of TeamOS, a common ailment emerges: misalignment and direction

Teams often assume they are on the same page. But when we look under the hood, we find disconnects in vision, values, decision-making, and expectations that cause friction, slow progress, and create unnecessary tension. I mean look at the misalignment mentioned above.

You can't improve what you don't measure. Yet, most teams only measure outcomes, not effectiveness.

Performance metrics like sales numbers or project completion rates are important, but they don't tell the full story.

A team might hit its goals while experiencing burnout, conflict, or disengagement behind the scenes.

To get the real picture, teams need to track both qualitative and quantitative factors.

For that, I turn to one of my many tools in TeamOS: A modified version of the Team Canvas. But let’s be clear this isnt the solution. Its just one of several ways we help teams surface issues and align on how to fix them

Rather than imposing solutions from the outside, The Team Canvas allows the team itself to co-design a shared agreement on how they will work together. It does this as a great workshopper, though just a heads up your going to need a mix of a great workshopper, consultant and coach to run this effectively.

Top tips: never have a team member run it

This isn't a theoretical exercise. It's a practical, structured conversation that reveals blind spots, aligns expectations, and ensures that every team member has a voice in shaping how they operate.

The result is a team that not only understands its challenges but is actively engaged in solving them.

When teams co-create their own working agreements, buy-in is no longer an issue. Ownership is.

The Team Canvas is a structured framework designed to align teams, surface hidden tensions, and create shared agreements on how to work together.

It's a practical tool, not just a theoretical exercise. It helps teams uncover misalignment, set clear expectations, and build a strong foundation for collaboration.

Lets breakdown each section

• People & Roles: This section isnt just about titles, it about actual contributions, who owns what

• Common Goals: This asks what are we building, success needs to be clear else it all becomes a guessing game

• Personal Motivations: This needles into what drive the people in the team, what their purpose and yes we are not just talking about their work

• Values & Principles: This pushes you to answer how you operate, it anchors you together and with clear expectations, without them you get chaos creep. This can often end up opening a whole different conversation around have you identified them already or not. if you havent then, you need to pause the canvas and look at what is your values how do you codified them how do they show up day in day out (This often ends up being a whole different piece of work)

• Strengths & Weaknesses: Where are the gaps, having self awareness fuels how the team means, however if there blindspot the drive friction

• Needs & Expectations: What is it we are need to drive us, your team will need different thing, a sheep dip approach helps nobody but farmers… so dont be a farmer get specific now to avoid resentment later

• Rules & Activities: This asks how do we do we work together whats the cadence, how do we communicate this is where team patterning and ways of working comes in this is all about clarity across the team

• Purpose & Impact: Why does it all matter is the question asked here, without meaning and purpose work can start to feel pretty empty pretty quick

Why it works

The Team canvas isn’t a silver bullet and in many of my TeamOS workshops it never actually comes out, however when it does the power of The Team Canvas is in its ability to surface what is often left unsaid.

By working through its sections, teams gain clarity, alignment, and stronger working relationships.

It moves teams away from assumptions and toward intentional collaboration, shared ownership, and mutual accountability.

For any team struggling with misalignment, confusion, or unclear expectations, The Team Canvas is one of the many ways to do this in the fastest time possible to reset and create a stronger foundation for success.

Immunisation & Resilience - Verbatim

A quick note on why capturing verbatim comments in the health check and workshops while doing the canvas is one thing, the conversations are another, when you start to truly listening to the words used, tensions shared you can start to create something much richer than just a canvas.

Over time ive tried and tested many different ways to share this back, in the end I found the best way is to do it through ha culture mirror playback shows

Showing the business other unidentified MOOs (Moments of opportunity) along with potential conflicts in whats been identified

Ultimately when you run the team canvas, if the only thing you get coming out of it is a canvas you left a lot untapped insight and opportunity on the table.

Unfortunately, I cant share client details due to confidentiality. But at the end of a CP Scan, you won’t just have a canvas, you’ll have a full medical scan report that includes

• A misalignment report (where leadership and team views differ)

• Verbatim insights that expose hidden tensions and blockers

• A playbook of tactics and interventions (not just discussions, but actions)

• A burning platform analysis—identifying critical issues before they escalate

• Practical, tangible next steps that ensure follow-through

If you walk away with only a canvas, you’ve focused too much on output and the the real outcomes that matter

Thanks for reading if you’ve got thoughts to share just hit reply I always enjoy hearing from you Speak soon, Danny

Psst...whenever you're ready, there are a few ways I can help you: