What is a Perpetual Team?

Do you recall hearing of “perpetual motion” or “perpetual motion machines”?
Perpetual Motion generally refers to any closed system that produces more energy than it consumes.
When the industrial age was in it’s infancy, several inventors attempted to create “perpetual motion machines”—devices that completely eliminated friction and maintain motion forever through mass inertia.
It was an interesting idea, but unfortunately, the laws of physics made their success impossible.
However—lucky for us—the laws of physics have no effect on the creation of Perpetual Teams.
Think of your team as a machine, where each member is a moving part, constantly pushing the other moving parts forward. As long as each part continues to push the other forward, the whole of the parts will produce more energy than was consumed.
If each team member is constantly pushing the other towards a goal—routinely asking: what can we do to deliver better, faster—then two or more heads will not only be better than one. They will be better than teams triple their size.
Of course, there is one caveat…
When one of those parts stops working, that part must be replaced, before the corrosion contaminates the other parts.
I know that sounds harsh, but it is a reality.
To believe anything else is to fool yourself and damage the morale—and the throughput—of your team.
This is not to say that a part cannot be repaired. The team itself should work to oil and adjust its parts to keep them from failing, and the mechanic—the manager—shouldn't be called until such repairs are beyond the abilities of the team.
Everything starts with a truly motivated, self-managed team.
Successful teams lead themselves, and within each team, there are strong members that will push for improvements.
However, those leaders must not be allowed to dominate, as one persons improvement is often another persons impediment.
You must have strong leaders that counter other strong leaders, ensuring the team is always moving forward and weighing options based on everyone's input, in order to find the optimal solutions to all problems.
Any who sees a problem with current processes should lead the team to improve it, just as they would any other problem.
If a member cannot identify a problem with current processes, it is that member's responsibility to support those processes—continuing to move forward and to push other members to move forward.
Those old tried-and-true words of Thomas Paine are still alive and well today: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way" of those who are trying to improve and/or support the team.
Yea, I know what you are thinking—and you are wrong.
There is nothing negative about this perspective for two simple reasons:

• REASON ONE: The process is a fair one. Everyone has the opportunity to support the team as is or help change the team and its processes for the better. Finding a team where you are a better fit is truly a last resort.
• REASON TWO: The process has proven time and time again that it works!

Here’s something else to keep in mind. If you can build one Perpetual Team, you can build many. Just as one member can push another member forward, one team can push another team forward—creating a Perpetual Organization—an organization that produces five times more than it consumes.
You’ve heard consultants babble on about company’s crossing the chasm from good to great? The only way you’ll really do that is with Perpetual Teams.

Perpetual Teams deliver Perfection

The Japanese word Shibumi translates roughly to "effortless perfection", but this is not the definition of Shibumi as much as it is the goal of Shibumi.
Shibumi is an ancient discipline that disallows stress when obstacles appear—“Worrying is a sin”, grandmother used to say.
Students of Shibumi inspect problems, then improvise and adapt to the best solution presented. If a better solution presents itself later, the students inspect, then adapt again. This cycle continues until one reaches the infinite goal of effortless perfection.
For years, I have described what I termed "The Perpetual Team" and considered this methodology to be my own, but Japanese artists and Jujitsu masters have been teaching the fundamentals of this philosophy for centuries.
If an idea works, you stick with it.
On the Perpetual Team, office politics and the blame game are non-existent. Team-members are committed to the same goals, enabling each member to hold themselves—and each other—accountable for missteps. Each admits mistakes and weaknesses immediately in order to get team advice and address problems by leveraging the collective wisdom of the team.
For a team to achieve Shibumi, they must become Perpetual Teams.
Members of Perpetual Teams push each other to deliver on their commitments. Members are constantly inspecting team makeup and processes, diligently asking, "What can we do to deliver better, faster?"
Like the disciples of Shibumi, Perpetual Teams are constantly identifying inefficiencies and adapting to improve.
If you are reading this and thinking that Shibumi actually translates to "pie in the sky", then you have much to learn about the potential of Perpetual Teams in an organization or even in a family.
If everyone on a team is truly committed to the goal, that team can move mountains.
Commitment happens when team meeting attendance actually synergizes team members.
This synergy manifests when goals are clear and prioritized, and when everyone on the team trusts everyone else to do their best to achieve those goals.
This kind of trust develops when the team believes that everyone else—management included—is being truthful about motives, goals, and obstacles as they arise.
Establishing transparency throughout the team is the key to fostering truthfulness. Everyone must clearly see who is doing what, where, and when, and what problems have or may arise. Teams with fewer than a dozen members achieve transparency with little effort, but dividing larger teams into multiple Perpetual Teams works just as well, if the goals of each team support the goals of the organization.
To ensure this support, Leaders form Perpetual Teams of their own. Just as each member of a team pushes the other to reach the goal, leaders of teams can push other leaders, driving the organization to reach the organizational goal.
The trust introduced by transparency solidifies when leaders stop punishing teams for missteps and learn to improvise, working with teams to find solutions that correct mistakes and to define processes that prevent those mistakes from reoccurring. As Akio Morito, co-founder of Sony Corporation, once said, “Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but make sure you don't make the same mistake twice.”
Does Shibumi translate to “Pie in the Sky”?
At Decade Software, the Perpetual Team concept originated in the Development Department, and then spread to the Design Team and Customer Service. Our company tripled production and elevated quality to the fourth power in less than two years. Where we once released a product annually, today we release new features eight times per year, and we release every product upgrade with zero known defects—a feat previously unheard of in the software industry.
Seriously evaluating the rewards of effortless perfection, a stress-free work and home environment, together with committed trust and transparency between peers and management, another definition of Shibumi becomes clear.
Shibumi is little more than “common sense”.