Articles

Four diverse professionals—two women and two men—gather around a laptop in a modern office with exposed brick walls. All appear focused and engaged, suggesting a collaborative work session or team discussion.

| 2025-07-29

Leading Through Change

Leading Through Change explores how new and experienced managers can build team readiness during periods of uncertainty. Drawing on the Opportunities–Obstacles Quotient (QO2), a research-based tool from the TMS system, the article offers a practical framework for understanding how individuals respond to risk and change. Readers will learn how to interpret QO2 results, tailor their leadership style, and implement three evidence-based strategies to foster psychological safety, shared purpose, and change momentum. This is essential reading for leaders seeking to navigate transition with insight and impact.

A group of cheerful, diverse young professionals standing in a diagonal line, leaning playfully toward the camera and smiling. The setting appears to be a bright, modern office space, suggesting a positive and collaborative team culture.

| 2025-07-24

The New Manager's Guide to Leading Teams You Didn't Build

A comprehensive guide for new managers stepping into teams they didn't build. Learn how to decode invisible team dynamics, earn trust systematically, and transform inherited teams into high-performers using proven frameworks backed by 40 years of team science research. Includes a realistic 90-day roadmap and real-world strategies for navigating resistance, performance issues, and organizational politics.

| 2025-07-14

The Hidden Performance Gap

Most teams operate in a fog, focusing on outputs like deliverables while overlooking the invisible conditions driving success. This leads to unproductive meetings, disengagement, and performance declines that traditional metrics fail to catch. Research shows 25 billion hours are lost to inefficient teamwork annually. The root issue is a lack of visibility into team dynamics. Based on decades of experience, Team Signals identifies eight measurable dimensions that predict team success. Systematic, multi-perspective measurement of these conditions uncovers risks early and drives sustained improvement. Thriving teams don’t just act—they measure what matters before problems escalate.

| 2025-07-08

Purpose Isn't a Perk

The article explores a critical shift in what drives high-performance teams: a shared sense of purpose. Drawing on four decades of leadership and team development, it argues that traditional approaches like KPIs, performance incentives, and top-down management are no longer enough. Today’s best teams don’t just complete tasks, they understand and connect with the deeper meaning behind their work. Ultimately, the piece urges leaders to treat purpose not as a slogan but as a lived practice. It outlines actionable steps — like values-based retrospectives and strategic check-ins — to help teams rediscover meaning in their work. In today’s talent-driven landscape, purpose isn’t optional. It’s a competitive advantage.

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| 2025-07-07

Why High Performance Teams Fail

Most high-performing teams aren't just efficient, they're anchored in purpose. This article explores how meaning, not metrics, is becoming the defining trait of resilient, engaged teams. From Microsoft to Unilever, it shows how purpose-driven cultures outperform traditional models. When leaders align daily work with what truly matters to their people, retention, collaboration, and energy rise. TMS equips leaders with value-alignment tools and formative assessment frameworks to make purpose tangible and performance sustainable.