A Reorg Makes Every Manager a New-Team Manager

Why a reorg lands so differently inside a team than it does at the top, and how to give your people solid ground.

When I was doing the initial research for my leadership program, I talked with a manager who said something I still think about.

"Jeff, I've been managing my team for three years, and everything was going great. Then we had a reorg, and my team size doubled. Now my whole week is 1:1s, getting up to speed on people I barely know, and people issues I've never had to handle before, including my first performance plan. I'm questioning whether I want to keep being a manager or go back to being an IC."

Three good years. One reorg. And a capable manager was ready to step out of management entirely.

That conversation shaped a lot of what I chose to focus on.

It's a common story in tech right now. A reorg lands, and a manager who was doing well suddenly has more people and more responsibility than ever. A bigger scope. A new boss. People on the team she's never worked with.

A reorg makes every manager it touches a new-team manager on the same day. Even if you kept your title, the team you lead now isn't the same one you had last month.

And every person on that team is carrying the same question you are: where do I fit now?

Same announcement, two different experiences

From the top, a reorg is a results move. Strategy, structure, efficiency. Leadership looked at the org, saw a problem, and redrew the lines to solve it. Often it's the right call.

Inside the team, it registers as a threat. That manager felt it. Your team feels it too.

What follows is a threat response, the same one humans have to any threat. People narrow their focus. They protect what's theirs. They wait to see which way things break before they commit to anything.

And your best people start taking recruiter calls.

They have the most options, so they're the first to test them. When the ground feels unsteady here, a known offer somewhere else starts to look like solid footing.

Meanwhile, output slows. Leadership sometimes reads that as resistance to change. More often, people are waiting for someone to tell them where they stand.

What the reorg supplies, and what it leaves out

Sustained high performance takes two things:

1. A focus on results. Goals, metrics, the scoreboard.

2. A meaningful connection to the work. Each person has their own reason the work matters, and the team shares a picture of who we are at our best.

A reorg supplies plenty of the first. New scope, new priorities, new numbers to hit.

The second gets left behind, and that's a problem. The second is what helps people come out of the threat response the reorg set off.

A threat response is physical. It narrows attention and puts people on guard. More goals and metrics won't settle it. A real connection to meaningful work is physical too. When people can see why the work matters to them and believe it's headed somewhere good, they get their energy back. Hope and optimism are what pull people out of protect-and-wait mode.

That connection works on two levels. Each person needs their own. And the team needs a shared picture of us at our best, so people back each other up.

In my program, I teach managers to lead a shared vision workshop with their team. One activity does both. Each person connects the work to what matters to them, and the team walks out with a picture they share.

A reorg breaks both. Each person's connection was tied to the old team, the old boss, the old work. The shared picture was built with people who may be gone now.

Last week I wrote about teams that don't share a picture of what winning looks like. A reorg erases that picture for every affected team in the org at once.

The new org chart doesn't come with a new one. Leaders have to supply it.

That's you, if you just took over a reorganized team. And if you're the senior leader rolling the reorg out, it's you one layer up. Your managers are carrying the same question as their teams, and they can't pass down a picture nobody gave them.

Start with solid ground

You won't rebuild all of that in week one. You can still give your team something to stand on.

Say what's changing, and say what's not.

People can handle a lot of change when they know where the solid ground is. Uncertainty is what keeps the threat response going. The more clearly people know what's changing and what isn't, the sooner they can stop bracing and get back to the work.

So be specific about both.

What's changing: who they report to, who's joining the team, what the team now owns, what it no longer owns, who the new partner teams are.

What's not changing: the customers they serve, the standards they hold, how you run your 1:1s, the work they're proud of that still belongs to them.

Only list what's true. If something is still undecided, say that, and say when you expect to know.

The thinking didn't travel with the org chart

Here's where managers get stuck. You can say what's changing. Explaining why is harder, because you weren't in the room.

The org chart gets announced. The reasoning behind it often doesn't make the trip. Somewhere between the leadership offsite and your inbox, the problem the reorg was meant to solve got compressed into a slide and a word like "focus" or "stability."

Your team will ask you why. If you don't know, you'll guess or shrug, and both cost you.

So go get it. Ask your boss directly:

"Why this structure? What problem is it solving?"

Then listen for words that sound clear but aren't. Stability. Focus. Alignment. When she uses one, follow up:

"Can you say a bit more about what that means?"

"Focus" might mean the team was spread across too many products. It might mean leadership wants fewer escalations landing on the VP's desk. Those lead to very different conversations with your team.

Every answer you get is raw material for the second half. Once you know what problem the reorg is solving, you can help each person see where they fit in solving it. That's the start of a new picture of your team at its best.

And if you're the senior leader, send the thinking down with the org chart. Every manager who has to reconstruct it on their own ends up with a slightly different version, and their teams inherit the differences.

One thing to do this week

Before your next team meeting, have the conversation with your boss.

Ask why this structure, and what problem it's solving. Write down what you learn.

Then write two short lists: what's changing for your team, and what isn't.

Bring both to the team. Tell them what you know, what you don't know yet, and when you expect to know more.

Your team is waiting to see which way things break. This week, give them solid ground to stand on. It's the first step in rebuilding their picture of what success looks like, and helping each person find where they fit in it.

Best,

Jeff

P.S. If a reorg just handed you a bigger team, a new boss, or people you're still getting to know, let's talk. Book a Strategy Session and we'll work through what the reorg is asking of your team, where your people stand right now, and how to give them solid ground. You will meet directly with me. Here's a link to my calendar.