From Rock Bottom to Rising: How Struggling Teams Really Turn It Around

The real reason teams fail

Sep 23, 2025

It’s easy to think a team fails because the strategy is wrong. Or the processes are broken. Or the leader didn’t have the right plan.

But failure is simple to pick up. Anyone can spot it.

Turning it around? That’s the real test.

And the hardest part isn’t the process. It isn’t the strategy. It’s the people.
The culture.
The pulse of the team.

That’s where the real work begins.

A broken team

I’ve been deployed into plenty of failing teams in the MOD.

You walk in, you don’t know half the people, the pressure’s high, the frustration is bubbling. Everyone has their own habits, their own doubts.

You can always build a process.
You can always set a direction.

But none of that matters if the people don’t believe.

Closer to home, my son’s U13 football team is the same story.

Last season they won just one game. One. By the end, they weren’t only losing matches, they were walking off the pitch. The culture had cracked wide open.

Little mini groups formed. Some kids showed their frustration so clearly it became protest. Parents could see it, and soon enough the negativity spread into the sidelines as well.

The coach had enough. I don’t blame him. It looked beyond repair.

But this is the point where change has to happen.
Not always a change in coach. Not even new players. Not even a brand new playbook.

It’s the culture that has to shift.

What really makes the difference

Every team has a goal.

A football team wants to win.
A business team wants results.
A personal team (yourself included) wants progress.

The strategy matters. The tactics matter. But the culture decides if you actually get there.

Here’s the truth:

You can rewrite processes in a day.
You can design a strategy in a week.
But changing how people think and feel takes persistence.

People lean towards the strongest signals.

If negativity runs through the group, they move there.
If belief pulses, they’ll follow that instead.

I’ve seen it in lean six sigma too. You tweak a process, it highlights waste, you gain efficiency. But underneath every process is human behaviour.

It’s always about how we:

Communicate
Connect
Share information
Share instruction

Shift the culture and everything else follows.

Funny enough, I wrote recently about [The 3 things resilient people always get right]. That’s exactly what struggling teams forget: resilience isn’t about never failing, it’s about shifting the culture so you can come back stronger.

How you rebuild from the bottom

So how do you change the pulse of a team that’s broken?

Reset the story
Teams need a reason to believe. Reset the narrative. Remind them what’s possible.
Start with small wins
Don’t chase the big turnaround on day one. Build momentum. A single goal. A strong shift. Something that proves progress is happening.
Shut down the negative loops
Negativity spreads quicker than anything. Address it straight away. Don’t let it become the loudest voice.
Bring everyone back into one culture
Mini groups destroy progress. Create one team, one voice, one identity.
Stay consistent
Broken teams don’t need hype speeches. They need consistency. Keep showing up, set the standard, repeat.

Over time, consistency builds trust. Trust builds belief. Belief builds momentum.

That’s how you lift from rock bottom.

Your team right now

Think about the team you’re in.

At work
At home
Even just you on your own journey

Ask yourself: is the culture pushing me forward or holding me back?

Because when a team is failing, the answer isn’t always to rip it apart. The answer is to shift the culture that drives it.

Do that and the wins follow.