The Moment You Realize Your Team Isn’t Resilient

A while back, I walked into a team meeting, and before I could even sit down, someone sighed dramatically and said, “Alright, what’s the bad news this time?”

Not exactly a sign of a thriving, engaged workforce.

It wasn’t that my team wasn’t capable—they were some of the smartest, most hardworking people I’d ever worked with. But they were done. Done with the endless uncertainty. Done with shifting priorities. Done with a workplace where “resilience” was basically code for “brace yourself and keep your chin up.”

That’s when I realized: resilience isn’t about pushing through—it’s about how teams are built, supported, and led.

Most companies get resilience wrong. They think it’s about hiring “gritty” people who can take a hit (or 20). Or giving a pep talk about bouncing back. Or offering free snacks and yoga classes (which, let’s be honest, no one has time to use).

But real resilience? It’s about designing teams that don’t constantly feel like they’re in survival mode.

And the best teams? They don’t just get through tough times. They actually thrive in them.

So, how do you build a team that can handle uncertainty—without burning everyone out? It started with the 6 Team Conditions*.

First, Get the Basics Right (Or Watch Everything Fall Apart Later)

You wouldn’t build a house on quicksand and expect it to hold up in a storm. Same goes for teams. If you don’t have these core elements in place, resilience won’t happen—no matter how many motivational speeches you give.

1. If No One Knows Where They’re Going, Don’t Be Surprised When They Get Lost

A resilient team needs a clear, compelling purpose—not just a bunch of vague corporate fluff.

If your team doesn’t know why their work matters, how it challenges them, and why it has real consequences, they won’t be resilient—they’ll be confused.

Resilient teams have a purpose that is:
✅ Clear. If you ask 10 people what the team’s top priority is and get 10 different answers, you have a problem.
✅ Challenging. Work should push people just enough to be exciting—but not enough to make them question their life choices.
✅ Consequential. People need to know their work actually matters. Otherwise, why bother?

Example: A climate nonprofit we studied had a deeply passionate team. But there was no shared direction—some focused on policy, others on outreach, others on research. Everyone was working hard, but no one was rowing in the same direction. Deadlines slipped, frustration built, and eventually, people stopped caring.

💡 A clear purpose doesn’t just inspire people—it prevents chaos.

(Shoutout to the 6 Team Conditions framework for this one—turns out, science agrees.)​

2. The Best Teams Aren’t Just Smart—They’re Built Right

A team full of talented people won’t get you resilience if the team itself isn’t structured well.

You need:
✅ The right mix of skills. Too many big-picture thinkers? Nothing gets done. Too many executors? Nothing new gets built.
✅ Diverse perspectives. If everyone on your team thinks the same way, congratulations—you’ve just created an echo chamber.
✅ A manageable size. Keep it small enough to function but big enough to have what you need.

Example: A healthcare startup led only by doctors struggled when they expanded. They had zero expertise in finance, sales, or regulations. Did they have smart people? Absolutely. Did they have the right team? Not even close. Their growth stalled—not because they weren’t talented, but because they were missing key perspectives.

💡 The best teams don’t just have smart people—they have the right mix of people.​

3. A “Team” That Doesn’t Work Like a Team Isn’t a Team

Too many teams are just a bunch of people who happen to work near each other—but not actually together.

Resilient teams have:
✅ Clear roles. If no one knows “who owns what,” confusion reigns.
✅ Interdependence. If people don’t rely on each other to get things done, they aren’t a team—they’re just sharing a Slack channel.
✅ Stable membership. If your team feels like a revolving door, accountability disappears.

Example: A tech company launched a high-priority task force to fix a major issue. But the team kept growing with no structure. People joined and left without handoffs, meetings were a mess, and six months later—the problem was still a problem.

💡 A strong team needs structure, not just good intentions.​

Now, Set Them Up for Long-Term Success

Once you’ve got the foundation, resilience isn’t about reacting to problems—it’s about designing systems that help teams adapt, recover, and grow.

4. Confusion Wastes Time—Structure Saves It

A team can be full of great people, but if their workflows are a disaster, resilience disappears.

🚩 No one knows who makes decisions.
🚩 Everyone wastes time chasing approvals.
🚩 There’s no feedback loop, so mistakes keep repeating.

Want a resilient team? Fix the structure.
✅ Make decision-making clear. Who has input? Who decides? Who executes?
✅ Establish team norms. People need agreed-upon ways of working and regular check-ins to improve how they operate.
✅ Build in feedback. If no one talks about what’s working and what’s not, things won’t get better.

💡 Teams that have strong systems spend less time firefighting and more time actually working.​

5. If You Don’t Support Your Team, They Will Burn Out (And Then Leave)

It doesn’t matter how talented your team is—if they don’t have the resources to do their job, they will burn out.

Resilient teams have:
✅ The tools and information they need. If they have to hunt for basic resources, you’re slowing them down.
✅ Leadership that removes roadblocks. If leadership is an obstacle instead of an enabler, that’s a problem.
✅ Recognition that actually matters. If the only rewards go to short-term wins, long-term resilience won’t happen.

💡 Resilience isn’t just about pushing through—it’s about having supportive systems with what you need to succeed.​

6. If Your Team Is Afraid to Fail, They’ll Never Be Resilient

If your team avoids risk, they’re not resilient—they’re just scared.

🚩 If mistakes keep happening, it’s probably because no one talks about them.
🚩 If failure is punished, people won’t take risks.
🚩 If learning is an afterthought, growth will stall.

Want a resilient team? Make learning part of the workflow.
✅ Normalize learning from failure. If no one admits mistakes, no one is actually learning.
✅ Encourage peer coaching. Learning shouldn’t just come from the top down.
✅ Build learning into the process. It shouldn’t be an afterthought—it should be how the team operates.

💡 Resilient teams don’t avoid failure. They have coaching to learn from it and come back stronger.​

The Bottom Line: Resilience Isn’t a Pep Talk—It’s a Design Choice

Telling your team to “be resilient” without actually setting them up for success is like handing someone a snorkel and shoving them into a hurricane. It’s not helpful.

Resilient teams don’t magically appear because you hired “gritty” people or sent out an inspiring all-staff email. They’re built—intentionally, thoughtfully, and with the right foundations in place.

So, let’s stop treating resilience like some mystical quality people either have or don’t. Fix the structure. Clarify the purpose. Get the right people in the right seats. And for the love of everything, stop throwing them into chaos and expecting them to thrive.

Because resilience isn’t about surviving the storm. It’s about building a team that knows how to problem-solve together—no matter what weather comes next.

And if you’re looking around your team right now, thinking, Wow, we might be in the snorkel-and-hurricane scenario, you’re not alone. We’ve helped plenty of leaders figure this out—and we’re happy to talk about how to make it work for you. Let’s figure it out together.

End Note: This piece is inspired by the 6 Team Conditions Framework, a research-backed approach developed at Harvard, Yale, and MIT. Because science matters.​ The 6 Team Conditions framework is based on decades of research by Dr. Ruth Wageman, Dr. Richard Hackman, and Dr. Erin Lehman, focusing on the essential conditions that drive team effectiveness. More details can be found at www.6teamconditions.com.