How we helped
a team adapt
to constant change
Client
International SaaS company in digital marketing, 1700+ employees
Context
We worked with
the Client Success department:
120 people, 9 team leads, split between the US and Europe. Distributed teams, high complexity.
What brought the client to us
The Head of HR for the Retention division was concerned: the team was overwhelmed, their efficiency was declining — and the emotional climate was increasingly tense.
Root cause
Frequent changes to business processes — driven by rapid company growth
and increased market volatility
— led to tensions between teams and rising anxiety among employees.
What we did
Conducted interviews and reviewed internal documents to map out business processes and identify communication bottlenecks.
Led alternating sessions with a time-management coach and psychologist for team leads — including homework and in-project experimentation.
Analyzed team leads’ schedules — including non-work activities — to get a full picture of workload and work-life balance
Observed leadership meetings and team-lead-to-team sessions, giving feedback and advice directly to facilitators.
What we discovered
  • Strategic tasks were on paper — but day-to-day work left no room for them.
  • Team leads were overloaded with manual tasks they could delegate.
  • Communication was mostly vertical — team members relied entirely on their lead for questions and decisions.
  • Burnout! Some leads hadn’t taken vacation in months. Many worked overtime on a regular basis.
  • Everything was urgent — which made urgency meaningless.
  • Feedback was scarce — both top-down and peer-to-peer.
Results
  • Improved effectiveness of team lead–to–team meetings

  • Engagement in teams grew, discussions became more meaningful, more decisions were made

    — and those decisions were actually implemented.

  • Based on our recommendations, team leads began to share agendas in advance, clearly separate updates
    from discussions, highlight decisions made, and assign responsibilities.

  • Facilitation became more distributed — different team members took the lead depending on the topic.

    Formal icebreakers gave way to warmer, more human connection.

  • Horizontal communication among team members increased — which reduced the load on team leads and encouraged bottom-up initiative.
  • Work–life balance improved for team leads.
  • Team leads learned to plan for the unexpected
    — without letting it derail the team’s overall rhythm.
  • They also developed and applied tools for managing uncertainty-related anxiety, which began to have less impact on day-to-day work.
  • Team leads became better at clearly communicating responsibilities — both individual and organizational. Expectations and boundaries became clearer.