Not all moments in a team are equal.
Some pass unnoticed.
Others quietly shape everything that follows.
A new person joins.
A decision is announced.
Someone is talked over.
A tough conversation is avoided.
A win goes unacknowledged.
Or a colleague leaves, and no one quite knows what to say.
We worked with a company where there was no real practice for endings. People just… disappeared. One day they were there, the next day, replaced. No message, no closure, no context. The result? A silent sense of unease.
People whispered.
“Did they quit? Were they pushed out? Will this happen to me?”
It started to feel like “we don’t talk about Bruno.” (nod to Encanto, the animation)
What helped wasn’t dramatic. Just a simple practice:
A short farewell email sent out by the manager. Acknowledgment of contributions. An open invitation for the team to share their good wishes.
The shift was immediate: less shame, fewer rumors, more dignity.
People leaving felt respected. People staying felt safer.
People arriving were no longer met with subtle resentment.
These are the moments that shape teams.
According to Sapien Labs’ research, the strongest predictor of performance is the quality of colleague relationships, more than even workload or flexibility.
But those relationships aren’t abstract.
They are built, or eroded, in how we handle small, meaningful moments like these.
At Samuh, we help leadership teams work intentionally with these moments of tension, transition, and potential. We draw from science and practice in fields such as Theory U, Liberating Structures, Systemic Leadership, Coaching Constellations, design thinking.
We’re curious: How does your team handle endings?
