team under performs

Underperformance is a symptom, not a diagnosis. The team usually senses something is wrong before the numbers confirm it — and the conversations the team is not having about that feeling are part of what holds the performance where it is.

Chasing the numbers directly rarely moves them. The numbers are downstream. What is upstream is how the team functions together — and that is something you can actually see and work on.

The work goes upstream. It gives the team a way to read its own dynamics, so it can track whether the things underneath the numbers are genuinely shifting — not just whether the numbers moved this quarter. 

Low engagement now accounts for roughly 9% of global GDP in lost productivity — underperformance is rarely a skills problem; it is most often an engagement problem wearing a skills costume.

Source: Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2025