By Ken Siegal

A co-worker had a birthday the other day (Happy birthday to-o-o-o you-u-u!) and was clearly a little off-balance as a result of the impact of aging (over-30, home, new baby). I tried to give comfort by telling him that "31 is the new 50", but that didn't appear to work.

Growing into new roles is a process that many people seem to struggle with. There's the mid-life crisis, the quarter-life crisis, the aging boomer crisis, the Gen Y crisis -- and of course, the Gen X / middle child crisis. The rolling effect of these crises is that roles in the workplace continue to be elusive. Mentors are as tough to come by as apprentices.

In the midst of all this personal turbulence, how do you find an appropriate path to teamwork? A lot of the old, gold standards for lines of authority and responsibility are getting fuzzy -- and yes, you can point to the economy for that one as well. If a thinned-out organization is going to function effectively without classic structure based on generational hierarchy, how will that all come together?

We're just guessing here, but our guess is that flexible, cross-functional teams will straddle departmental organizations. They'll tackle strategic objectives and attack tactical needs as well. And don't discount the intervention of outside contractors to bolster some of these.

The traditional departments will feel much of the pain, and there'll be a lot of juggling going on. And figuring out how and where those people fit best will be the biggest challenge of them all.

See what happens when just one person has a birthday?