It is a period marked by conflict and competition as individual personalities emerge. Team performance may actually decrease in this stage because energy is put into unproductive activities. Members may disagree on team goals, and subgroups and cliques may form around strong personalities or areas of agreement. To get through this stage, members must work to overcome obstacles, to accept individual differences, and to work through conflicting ideas on team tasks and goals. Failure to address conflicts may result in long-term problems. The norming stage of team development is the calm after the storm.
- Knowing where your team is currently in can help you understand how to work through your current challenges and get to the next stage.
- Your team is new and excited to learn about upcoming projects as well as about each other.
- Some teams move through this stage quickly, some never leave it.
- Strong communication skills are the backbone of conflict resolution.
- She reminds the team that all responses are valuable to the process.
- This is true whether your team works remotely or works in person.
Focus on building a shared understanding across your team and with stakeholders. Norming – where the team settles into an agreed work pattern and roles and responsibilities are clarified. To help individuals and teams reach their highest potential through 360 degree feedback. As a project progresses through different https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ phases some team members will leave the project, others will join and some will move into new positions within the project. This means the stages described above are always happening. You will know your team has made it out of the storm and into the norm when the clouds of discontent and conflict have cleared.
Navigating the “forming” stage
Members will generally be excited about their work and find satisfaction in the results. They’ll also trust each other and interact with a high degree of openness. Best of all, teams at this stage will largely be able to manage themselves, resolve their own conflicts and act collectively, as a whole. You may even be able to turn over some of the day-to-day leadership to a team member.
Relationships should have improved, disagreements caused by differences in behavioral styles clarified and interactions should be respectful. Your team members should be playing to their strengths and showing commitment to the team’s goals. As with any new situation, most people are on their best behavior. They are polite and a little reserved and may not share their true feelings or concerns.
If you are not a good listener, there is no way you can develop real mastery in any discipline. — C. Otto Scharmer
For example, a change in leadership may cause the team to revert to storming as the new people challenge the existing norms and dynamics of the team. The individual strengths each member brings establishes a sense of teamwork, as everybody plays a part. If you notice a few team members not participating, the easiest thing to do is to prompt them for their thoughts and ideas. As a team lead, it’s your goal to get your team to this stage as quickly as possible. We discuss more about how to get your team to this point below. In this stage, team members are in the process of learning how to work together.
They try to conform to norms because they want to maintain their relationships in the team and they want to meet team expectations. Teams with strong performance norms and high cohesiveness are high performing. Storming is the most difficult and unproductive of the five stages of development, but it is nevertheless vital to the team development process. When team members are upset with themselves, the task, or each other, they learn what causes the most dysfunction. With this information, the team can begin aspiring to a better team dynamic. It’s upon reaching this stage that a team can become high performing.
The Fourth Stage: “Performing”
When it’s time to celebrate meeting a milestone, consider indulging in a team dinner or day out doing something fun together. And, now that you’ve figured out established practices that help you collaborate effectively, share those with other teams. Alasdair A. K. White together with what are the 4 stages of team development his colleague, John Fairhurst, examined Tuckman’s development sequence when developing the White-Fairhurst TPR model. They simplify the sequence and group the forming-storming-norming stages together as the “transforming” phase, which they equate with the initial performance level.
At this point, leadership can shift among team members and is flexible to the situation at hand. During this stage, it’s important to write down goals and assignments to eliminate ambiguity. It’s also important to hold regular status checks, to assess progress, determine where people are stuck, provide help, and give regular effective feedback.
Signs and questions to look out for in the storming stage
Teams can often cycle back through, especially if conflicts arise, sending them back to Storming. If teams want to stay in the Performing stage, they have to continuously work on building trust and improving communication. Simply put, being able to recognize your team’s current stage will allow you to better cater to your team and, if you are the team leader, to lead them to the shared goals. Leaders need to be prepared to effectively coach team members by validating their concerns and providing tangible resolutions. They need to setup an effective process to resolve conflicts that will arise during this stage. If team members exercise understanding, tolerance, and patience, they have a great chance of making it through the most difficult stage.
Record and store the meeting in Teamwork.com so that team members can revisit it at any time if they need a reminder of the discussion. In the past, we would look to HR or our boss’ boss for guidance. While those people are still available when we need them, we usually don’t.
Signs and questions to look out for in the forming stage
How they trust each other to remain accountable for their tasks without dropping the ball. In fact, momentum doesn’t only seem high, it feels favourable. After the storming stage, they recognize behavioural patterns, strengths and develop foresight for upcoming roadblocks. In this meeting, you take notes from each team member and apply these to your team principles. This way, each employee knows they can trust you, and each other going forward.
Team learning is a behavioral process of seeking, gathering, discussing, and implementing methods of team success. Whether through training, group initiative, or innovative leadership, team learning is an action step that ensures healthy team development. When you can identify which development phase your teams are in, it’s much easier to provide exactly the direction they need so they feel more focused and connected. If you have ever been on a team, you’ve probably seen its fair share of ups and downs. All teams go through their high periods and low periods — it’s part of the natural progression and development of teams. But chances are that even if you have experienced the high and low periods of teams, you might not know exactly what they mean or why they happen.
Establish your team’s mission early
The transition between these various stages requires intentional guidance and facilitation by the team leader. It’s not uncommon for people to think or be told that they have a specific set of skills that allow them to be an above-average leader or an above-average team player. These skills are usually developed in early childhood and refined through high school. A leader’s role at this stage is to encourage cooperation, leverage the strengths of each individual and, again, identify and resolve conflicts before they get out of hand. Encourage members to roll up their sleeves and work collaboratively. At this stage, having the skills to facilitate open dialogue and enforce accountability is critical.