Thriving vs Breaking: The Four Conditions That Will Decide
So check this out…I know a pretty important secret about you that your org may not even know. 👀
Normally, I’m supposed to keep this sort of stuff confidential, but since I brought it up, I guess I owe it to you to spill the beans!
Wanna know what it is???
Okay okay, I won’t drag it out anymore.
The secret is that you (yes, you) are a ✨remarkably patient person.✨
How do I know this with certainty, though?
Well, the simple answer is because you work in HR, and unfortunately, patience is pretty much a built-in prerequisite of this role.
TBH, if nothing else prepared me to have patience in HR, it would be the amount of time it takes to wash and clean my insanely thick hair.
It takes what feels like 3-5 business days to wash, shampoo, and detangle! IYKYK.
Does this feel like a wild way to start a newsletter about thriving teams? Maybe, but stay with me!
My point here is that HR is truly the function that knows how to wait.
We know how to untangle messes carefully, we know how to protect what’s fragile, and we’re incredibly good at being selfless about it.
(Almost too good if I’m keeping it 💯)
We spend our days worrying about whether our people are supported, developed, recognized, safe, engaged, and the list goes on.
We ask, “Are they thriving?”
But we almost never stop to ask ourselves what thriving actually means, how we define it, measure it, or experience it in real life, and too often we don’t even include our own wellbeing in that equation.
So today, we’re going to ask ourselves, how should thriving be defined?
Because if I had to guess, hardly anybody in HR feels like they’re thriving right now.
A lot of you may feel underappreciated or invisible. Like, when things go right, leadership assumes it happened by magic, and when things go wrong, suddenly HR is a strategic partner again.
Sure, it’s great that HR doesn’t attract selfish people, but that doesn’t mean we should martyr ourselves for sport, either!
So let’s give thriving a proper meaning. Not as a vibe or an outcome we hope for, but as something that can be designed for.
Quantum Workplace’s thriving teams framework is built around four deliberate conditions, not to add more to HR’s plate, but to help focus it. In a world where HR is constantly being asked to do more with less (more initiatives, more tools, more expectations), these conditions give us a clearer way to listen for the right signals and prioritize where time, energy, and resources actually belong.
Thriving teams aren’t an accident. They happen by design.
And being explicit about these four conditions is how we move from reacting to everything… to building what actually matters!!
Condition #1: No More Guessing Games
Thriving teams know where they’re headed and why it matters.
Alignment is one of those things leaders love to say they have…right up until you ask three employees what the priorities are and get five different answers!
True alignment only happens when people can clearly answer:
- What am I responsible for?
- How does my work connect to the bigger picture?
- How will we know if we’re winning?
Employees are 3.2x more likely to be engaged when their performance goals align with organizational goals, which confirms what HR has already known for a long time: confusion is exhausting, and clarity is a gift.
Clear performance goals create structure.
They guide coaching conversations and give people something concrete to work toward instead of guessing what leadership secretly wants this quarter.
This is why alignment absolutely has to be designed into the year without feeling like a decision made on a whim.
And, if you’re looking for a little help with that, Quantum Workplace’s HR strategy planner can help People Leaders intentionally anchor alignment early (especially in Q1) when priorities are being set and reset!
They have lots of free, useful resources, so keep reading, and expect more of them to be shared. 😇
Condition #2: Feedback That Goes Somewhere
Thriving teams have the clarity and authority to act.
To be crystal clear here, empowerment is NOT just telling people “you’re empowered” and then requiring six approvals, three meetings, and a Slack debate before they can actually do anything.
Empowerment lives or dies in the space between what leaders say people can do and what actually happens when someone tries.
For example, if initiative is punished, delayed, or ignored, then people stop caring, or at the very least, they’re conditioned to stop raising their hand once the cost of caring outweighs the reward.
Engaged employees are 3.3x more likely to feel ownership and take action, which can only come from trust and clarity!
Real empowerment only shows up when people know:
- What decisions they own
- That feedback actually leads to action instead of being ignored
- That speaking up won’t come back to haunt them later
This is where employee listening either becomes powerful…or performative.
This is also why listening without action is worse than not listening at all.
I know it feels like common sense, but maybe the simplicity of empowerment is ironically why it can be overlooked by so many orgs.
If you want a helpful way to turn these insights into a feedback loop of action, Quantum Workplace has an AFTER framework for keeping your people on track that may be of use to you!
Condition #3: Building Tomorrow, Not Just Today
Thriving teams are developing the skills and capacity to succeed long term.
Crushing it this quarter sounds wonderful, but are you building capability for the future, too?
Consistent employee growth is what keeps performance sustainable instead of something that happens in siloed moments.
Growth starts to break down once development is ambiguous or only treated like an optional may-or-may-not-happen side quest.
And unsurprisingly, the data that supports this is loud!
Employees perform better and stay longer when managers actively support growth through regular coaching that connects today’s work to tomorrow’s skills.
This can all be summed up in one word, which is INTENTIONAL.
This is also exactly why modern HR strategies are shifting away from one-off training and toward growth where development is aligned with your org’s goals, without the unnecessary guesswork that makes people question if the effort is even worth it.
What good is feeling busy at work without feeling capable too?
The days of relying on pizza parties and ping pong tables to keep teams engaged are long gone!
Condition #4: Appreciation You Can Feel
Thriving teams feel seen and rewarded for their contributions.
Employees who feel seen stick around, and sometimes, it really is that simple.
This is as true in our personal lives as it is in our professional lives!
Of course, none of this is shocking, and I’m probably preaching to the choir, but what is shocking is how often orgs still treat recognition like a nice-to-have instead of a non-negotiable.
Like, who doesn’t want their contributions acknowledged in some form?!
And what does acknowledgment look like?
Pay compensation is a form of acknowledgement, but I feel like that’s a given.
It’s also only a small part of the bigger picture here, because what feels like acknowledgement to one person may be completely different from somebody else.
Acknowledgment is ultimately about knowing that your work counts for something.
Usually, when everything is going great, engagement is off the charts, and retention is low, the credit often disappears into the org chart.
Then, as soon as something breaks? *POOF* HR is all of a sudden very visible again!
If you want a quick way to audit whether your people feel valued or not, this 5-minute video can fill some potential gaps for you.
Performance + Connection = 🚀
If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be this: thriving teams are never a coincidence.
They’re built when performance and connection are treated as inseparable and when managers have insight they can actually act on.
Because when performance exists without connection, teams burn out. And when connection exists without performance, teams drift.
But when both are strong? Teams deliver better results, stick around longer, and actually feel good doing the work. That’s the real win/win/win (according to Michael Scott that’s a thing).
This is also where Quantum Workplace deeply understands the assignment.
Their work is grounded in a simple truth: managers are multipliers of thriving. HR succeeds when managers are properly equipped and when insight connects engagement, performance, growth, and retention into one clear, cohesive picture.
If you want to go deeper on what that looks like right now, Quantum Workplace is hosting a live, AMA-style conversation: Thriving or Held Back? Key Talent Trends & How to Move Your Teams Forward on January 27 at 2:00 PM ET.
In the session, Anne Maltese (VP of People Insights) and Aaron Brown (Senior Manager, Insights) will break down the talent trends they’re seeing across data, research, and real HR conversations, especially the ones that look fine on the surface but quietly hold teams back.
They’ll help you spot the signals that show whether teams are truly thriving, drifting, or straining, and what to do about it!
👉 Register here to save your spot.
And I don’t know about you, but I like pretty pictures.
