Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams

Heidi's wisdom will change how you think about, form, re-form, and participate
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. Helfand
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

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 fundamental
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 professional
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 paradigm
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 follow.
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


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 development
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

For organizations building software-enabled services today, the team is the
fundamental means of delivery. But a team is not a loose collection of individuals
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