One Thing at a Time: Why Teams Get Stuck Trying to Do Everything at Once

In today’s high-speed work environments, teams face enormous pressure to deliver—fast. Ironically, in the rush to be efficient, many teams fall into a counterproductive trap: 👉 trying to handle multiple things at once.

And that’s exactly when they get stuck.

🚧 The Invisible Block: Multitasking at Group Level

Picture this:

Your team meets to decide whether to launch a new product feature. You begin weighing the pros and cons. Midway through, someone asks about customer communication. Another shifts to budget concerns. A third starts planning who will do what.

Now, the group is juggling clarifying, deciding, and planning—simultaneously.

The result?

❌ No decision

❌ No action

❌ Growing frustration

What looks like productivity is actually a stuck interaction pattern. And it’s far more common than most teams realize.

🧠 Systems Theory Meets Team Coaching

I’m the founder of Empoweryourteam, and I’ve worked with many teams that unknowingly fall into patterns like this.

The multitasking trap feels active and engaged, but without a shared focus, the team fragments instead of progressing.

My approach is rooted in systems theory, inspired by the work of Yvonne Agazarian, and enriched by my training at Tachles in the System Intervention Method developed by Jobbeke de Jong. I also integrate insights and tools from other methods to help teams grow their collective effectiveness.

One of the key principles I work with is this:

✳️ A team is a living system. Team members’ behavior is not just personal—it reflects the dynamics of the group as a whole.

This means lasting improvement doesn’t come from fixing individuals, but from helping the team reflect and adapt as a system.

🔄 The Cost of Doing Too Much at Once

When a team tries to clarify while deciding while planning, it splits its energy and blocks its own momentum.

This isn’t a time management issue. It’s a group dynamic issue.

And to change it, teams need to first see the pattern.

🧭 The Leader’s Role vs. The Coach’s Role

As a leader, you might already be asking redirecting questions like:

“Are we still deciding, or have we moved into planning?”

That’s a great short-term move—it creates clarity and helps steer the conversation back on track.

But here’s the challenge: 🔁 You’ll likely need to do it again and again. Why? Because the underlying group pattern hasn’t changed.

That’s where team coaching comes in.

As a coach or systems interventionist, I support leaders and teams in making these patterns visible—so they can learn, grow, and shift their behavior together. The team begins to recognize what’s happening as it’s happening, and over time they develop the collective capacity to stay focused and aligned.

✅ From Stuck to Flow

Back to our example. This time, the team recognizes the pattern and agrees to shift:

First, we decide – Do we launch or not?
Then, we clarify – What needs to be communicated?
Then, we plan – Who does what, when?

One thing at a time. Each step builds on the last. 💡 Decisions lead to action.

⚙️ Two Types of Change: Immediate Fix vs. Lasting Growth

👟 When you need fast results

Try these simple moves:

Label the task: Are we clarifying, deciding, or planning?
Pause the shift: “Should we park that for later?”
Celebrate focus: Acknowledge finishing one thing at a time.

🌱 When you want long-term change

Build team awareness of the pattern:

Wait for the multitasking loop to show up naturally.
Describe the interaction pattern (non-personally!): “Do you recognize that you are discussing planning as well as deciding, at the same time?”
Ask: “Does this happen more often? And: What’s the effect on reaching your shared goal?

This allows the team to reflect, recognize patterns and adapt. This way the team will naturally co-create new habits that support clarity and flow. It takes the courage to add some reflection time in a meeting —but it’s a powerful shift. Not just to get things done once, but to build a team that knows how to get things done—consistently.

💬 A note to Leaders…

Trying to lead and coach your team at the same time can be a challenge. As a leader, you also can get things done better when able to focus. And you naturally part of the group dynamics of your team. Therefore, it can be helpful to, temporarily, get some support from a team coach

When you feel your team has more potential and can use some support or a sparring partner, let me know. With targeted interventions and a systems lens, we can uncover hidden patterns, build shared language, and grow your team’s collaborative capacity from the inside out.