Have you ever noticed how some teams seem to lose their spark? How once innovative groups become cautious and dependent? Global instability, AI disruption, mass layoffs, and constant restructuring have made anxiety and fear our constant companions. These emotions don't stay at the door when we enter the workplace; they shape how we show up, how we interact, and how we make decisions.

In our first article, we explored why autonomy matters. Now, let's talk about one of the biggest barriers to achieving it: the powerful force of learned helplessness that's quietly taking hold in many workplaces.

In this article, I’ll show you how to spot the signs of learned helplessness, why it’s spreading, and, most importantly, how you and your team can break the cycle and build real resilience.

What is learned helplessness?

Learned helplessness sneaks into teams quietly, often as a response to fear and uncertainty.

I see it in agile teams whose daily standups have turned into dreary rituals. Instead of sparking collaboration, people just rattle off a list of tasks and Jira ticket numbers. No one challenges each other. No one questions. No one volunteers fresh ideas. No one even asks why. This is learned helplessness, this ‘tell me what to do’ mentality.

Since 2020, we've seen anxiety and depression rates skyrocket globally (Sources: European Commission, OSCD, CDC, Mental Health America, Australian Bureau of Statistics). People are showing up to work carrying the weight of these emotions. When we're in this state of heightened anxiety, our brains shift into survival mode. Creativity and innovation lose out against safety and security.

Another clear sign in Agile teams is overly detailed user stories. I come across meticulous backlogs with each step carefully spelled out, task by task, full of user stories that are just "cut up" requirement documents.

The impact of learned helplessness

When people are anxious, they don't have the mental capacity to be creative or think outside the box. They're too busy trying to stay safe. They stop making suggestions. They stop being creative. Instead, they passively wait to be told exactly what to do. This turns many workplaces into breeding grounds for what I've started calling "demanding helplessness."

"Demanding helplessness" is a particularly insidious form of learned helplessness. People not only accept micromanagement but actively seek it out. They sit back and demand that leaders solve their problems. They demand detailed instructions and constant oversight. It's a coping mechanism but it backfires big time.

At the organizational level, learned helplessness is contagious. Once it takes hold, it festers and slowly infects the rest of the organisation, spreading from team to team like a virus. The damage compounds quickly: high absenteeism, increased turnover, decreased engagement and declining performance become all too common as the culture of helplessness becomes entrenched.

On a leadership level, learned helplessness is draining. When teams stop taking initiative, leaders find themselves micromanaging and chasing tasks that shouldn’t be theirs. Frustration builds, burnout isn’t far behind and instead of working on the big stuff—like strategy or growth—leaders get stuck in the weeds.

On a personal level, the psychological toll is significant. Learned helplessness creates a vicious cycle: born from anxiety and stress, it perpetuates and amplifies these very emotions, often leading to depression and burnout.

How to develop resilience

Resilience isn’t about pretending everything’s fine or just “toughing it out.” It’s about what you do when life hands you lemons. Matt Fitzgerald’s framework is straightforward and genuinely helpful. Fitzgerald breaks resilience down into three clear stages:

Accept Reality - Embrace Reality - Address Reality

Step 1: Accept Reality: Admit there are lemons

First, you’ve got to acknowledge what’s actually happening. Don’t sugarcoat it. Don’t catastrophise. Just call it.

*“Life just gave us lemons.”*

I’ve seen this play out in real life with AI and layoffs. We can’t pretend AI won’t affect us (agile coaches, developers, managers). It *already* is - fewer people, more work, same expectations. I saw this with Barbara, the HR exec in Europe I was talking about in my first article "Doing More with Less: Why Simply Working Harder Isn't the Answer". Her organisation shrank from 17,000 to 7,500 people globally over four years. She didn’t pretend things were okay, but she also didn’t spiral into doom. She accepted the reality: radical changes, less job security, more with less.

And in teams, it’s the same. When we accept that “we have to do more with less,” we stop waiting for a miracle or for things to go back to normal. We see the lemons for what they are.

Step 2: Embrace Reality: Commit to making lemonade

Once you’ve accepted the lemons, you have to decide what you’re going to do with them. This means choosing to make lemonade. It’s about committing to the challenge, reframing it as something you *can* act on, not just something that happens to you.

In practice:

When I started experimenting with AI in my own work, I didn’t just dabble. I committed to integrating it into everything I do. I approached it with curiosity and an open mind despite the fear. It was uncomfortable at first but it opened new doors, gave me back time and let me focus on the work that really matters.

For teams, this step is about owning the autonomy you’ve been given. Yes, it comes with responsibility and uncertainty. But as I said in my talk, commit to having the courage to embrace the responsibility and freedom that come with autonomy.” No one is coming to save us or tell us exactly what to do. It’s up to us to take that freedom and “run with it”.

Step 3: Address Reality: Make the Lemonade — get to work, learn and experiment (in public!)

Here’s where you start making lemonade. Take action, even if you’re not sure it’ll be perfect. In my case, that’s meant using AI every day, signing up for new courses, and *learning in public*.

That last bit is key. Learning in public means failing in public. It’s scary, but in a world this uncertain, we need to share what’s working and what isn’t. That’s how we figure things out together, faster. For teams, it means running experiments, learning openly, and celebrating what works. It’s about shifting from “just tell me what to do” to “let’s figure this out and learn as we go.”

What next?

So, accept the lemons. Embrace making lemonade. And then start making lemonade in the open, with your team, learning and sharing as you go. That’s how we build resilience. Not by toughing it out alone, but by acting together, openly, and with a healthy dose of courage and curiosity.

What lemons are you and your team facing? Share your stories in the comments!

From Learned Helplessness to Autonomous Action: Building Resilience in Teams