The Liberators Podcast
This is the podcast of The Liberators. Our mission is to unleash organizations and teams all across the globe from ineffective product development. We rely on insights from scientific research as much as possible so that you don't have to take our word for it.
In each episode, we look at the challenges faced by Agile teams, software teams, and product teams. We discuss relevant research, share our experiences, or challenge existing beliefs. Each episode ends with practical and actionable recommendations on what you can do with your teams.
Most episodes are written and presented by Christiaan Verwijs. Our music was written and performed by Jasper Huiskamp a.k.a. Basanite. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp. The music for episodes before 91 is licensed from Yummy Sounds.
The Liberators Podcast
In-Depth: Stable Or Fluid Teams? What Does The Science Say?
Recently, the concept of “fluid teams”, “dynamic reteaming” or “ad-hoc teaming” has gained traction in the Agile community. Although the concept has many different definitions, a characteristic they share is that members move in and out of a team during its lifetime.
However, decades of academic research into teams and workgroups have underscored the importance of team stability as a requirement for high performance. Although these studies did not compare stable teams versus fluid teams specifically, the most reliable theories we currently have to understand team development also seem to favor stability over fluidity.
In this episode, I explore the research in this area. Considering just how popular the notion of fluid teams has become, I think it is important to weigh the evidence that supports it or contradicts it.
Read the transcript of the episode here (including all references):
https://medium.com/the-liberators/in-depth-stable-or-fluid-teams-what-does-the-science-say-95833b0b91a2
Read an in-depth post about team cognition:
https://medium.com/the-liberators/why-great-scrum-teams-have-a-mind-of-their-own-2ba4d9d17918
Read an in-depth post about social cohesion:
https://medium.com/the-liberators/in-depth-how-coherence-and-cohesion-are-critical-to-scrum-f5ae1f3a1aef
Support the show, our research, and community offerings via Patreon:
https://patreon.com/liberators
We're building Columinity to help teams improve continuously based on scientific insights:
https://columinity.com
Check out our webshop for tons of powerful exercises and workshops to run with your team(s):
https://shop.theliberators.com
The music for episodes 91 and onward was written and produced for us by Basanite. The music for episodes 1-90 was acquired through Yummy Sounds. Post-production by Jasper Huiskamp.