Leading Team Effectiveness Under Sustained Disruption
Note: This is a simplified version of an existing case study to enable faster skimming of content. For a full narrative, please read the original here.
Executive Summary
Led a global team through a period of sudden operational disruption triggered by COVID by diagnosing performance challenges as capacity and workflow issues rather than individual shortcomings. Reset expectations, reduced friction, and preserved execution quality, retention, and leadership development in a regulated environment.
Context
Company: Elekta
Industry: Global medical devices
Function: Education & Training
Role: Manager, Learning Infrastructure & Governance
Scope: Global team responsible for mission-critical enablement and support
When COVID abruptly altered how work was performed, long-standing assumptions about capacity, coordination, and productivity no longer held. The team operated in a regulated environment where accuracy and reliability remained non-negotiable, despite rapidly changing constraints and no established playbook for sustained performance under these conditions.
The Leadership Problem
This was not a motivation or capability issue.
The real challenge was capacity distortion caused by sudden change:
Work patterns shifted overnight
Context switching and coordination overhead increased sharply
Cognitive load rose while margin for error narrowed
Existing productivity benchmarks no longer reflected reality
The leadership question became:
How do you preserve effectiveness, accountability, and trust when the operating model changes faster than expectations can be recalibrated?
Leadership Objectives
Maintain execution quality in a regulated environment
Preserve trust and psychological safety
Prevent burnout and avoidable attrition
Reset expectations without lowering standards
Create clarity around real capacity constraints
Leadership Approach
1. Reframed Performance as a System Signal
Rather than interpreting changes in output as individual underperformance, I treated them as indicators of system friction.
Shifted performance discussions from blame to diagnosis
Explicitly separated effort from output
Created space for honest reporting without penalty
2. Used Data to Identify Friction, Not Monitor People
Introduced lightweight time tracking to surface workflow bottlenecks
Analyzed aggregated patterns to understand context switching and rework
Avoided individual-level surveillance or punitive interpretation
3. Reduced Cognitive and Process Overhead
Paused or removed low-value work that consumed attention without impact
Simplified workflows where regulatory requirements allowed
Reduced unnecessary procedural burden that amplified fatigue
4. Reset Expectations Explicitly and Transparently
Acknowledged that pre-COVID productivity baselines no longer reflected reality
Reset expectations in a way that preserved accountability without denial
Communicated consistently to prevent silent pressure and erosion of trust
Results
Sustained approximately 80% of prior productivity during extended disruption
Maintained quality and reliability in a regulated environment
Achieved zero voluntary attrition
Developed leadership depth, with all direct reports later promoted into management roles
Strategic Impact
Team performance stabilized despite ongoing uncertainty
Trust and transparency increased across the group
Institutional knowledge and leadership continuity were preserved
The organization retained a resilient, high-functioning team