They will waste time and lose their focus if they have to answer frequent, unscheduled questions about what they’re working on. Encourage team members to develop a schedule filled with large blocks of time that are free from interruptions like meetings or check-ins. In this world of constant notifications, it’s easy for people to get derailed and forget which goals are really important. When teams work in the same space, it’s easy to see what everyone’s doing.
One possible misconception is that to move a group through the Storming stage, you have to prevent differences in opinion from emerging. The ideal situation here is not to avoid discussions and conflicts from happening entirely, but to ensure they are productive, respectful, and result in practical takeaways. Broadly, team development can be understood as a framework or series of actions designed to improve the way a group works together. I assembled a list of quick tips of my own and advice from experts that will help managers, leaders, and teams ensure that each stage plays out as it should.
How will you know when teams are ready to move on?
They tend to move through a number of stages – forming, storming, norming, and performing – as group members establish roles, relationships and figure out how to work together. Establishing ground rules from the get-go ensures they get followed as the group moves from one stage to the next. A critical rule to emphasize is that team members should always listen to each other and feel free to consult and raise concerns. No idea is too stupid to raise, and no question is too silly to ask. That can only happen if a solid foundation gets laid and communication channels are kept open.
However, I always find it encouraging when my team members start conflicting with each other. It’s an essential step that all teams must go through as they mature. As a leader, your primary objective during the forming stage is to provide clarity to your team. Continually remind them of the vision you’re striving toward, the goals that lie ahead, and why these objectives are significant.
Learn
According to our Project Management Statistics 2021, an astonishing 92% of people believe that collaboration with their teammates could be improved. A kanban board gives you a visual overview of all of the tasks for your project, so you can keep an eye on any bottlenecks or areas of pressure. Tasks can be assigned to team members, departments, and also dates to ensure your project stays on track. These short daily – or even weekly – meetings give everyone on the team the opportunity to air any issues or doubts they’re having, and help keep people on the same page. People begin sharing ideas and differing opinions come to light, which can result in clashes. In Tuckman’s original 1965 paper, 50% of teams actually jumped directly from stage 1 to stage 3, but for those that did not, the duration and intensity of the “storms” were varied.
Each stage relates to a project phase and establishes roles and mutual goals. Below, the theory is applied to the lifecycle of a project and the role of the project manager. The principal work for the team during the Forming stage is to create a team with clear structure, goals, direction and roles, so members begin to build trust. During the Forming stage, much of the team’s energy is focused on defining the team, so task accomplishment may be relatively low. Four stages of team development are a helpful framework for recognizing a team’s behavior patterns, according to Stein.
The Tuckman Model
A large part of moving from Norming to Performing is empowering the members of your team to do work that excites and engages them individually as well as a group. Even when a team is performing at a high standard, there are often opportunities for individual action and proactivity that can help maintain growth and keep everyone in a group happy. Remember that a group is strengthened as its individual members do more of what matters to them and are engaged in creating the change they want to see. In this method, invite participants to write a few words of what they most value about their colleagues on a piece of paper before passing it along to the next person. After going around the circle, invite each person to share which comment they liked the most. By sharing what everyone values about each other, you can build self-confidence and team bonds that can help the group move from Norming to Performing effectively.
However, once that’s explained, they’ll adjust to the roles that await them. As the name suggests, team development entails training and supporting a group of individuals so that they work as a cohesive unit to realize the intended outcome. An excellent example of team development is when colleagues from different departments partner to work on a project. At the end of the project, the team will begin to wrap up their tasks and start to disband and move onto other projects. Although norming is a calm stage of team development, there are still things that you can and should do to help things run more smoothly. You can expect an increase in productivity at this stage as everyone understands their role better and can get stuck into their individual tasks, instead of being bogged down by internal conflict.
Forming — Getting projects started
It just gives us a common language and enables everyone to work more effectively before tackling the five stages of team development. Identifying each of the 4 stages of team development helps you underscore your team’s needs during each one. After reading everything above, you have a pretty good idea where your team is at – but does the rest of the team agree?
Crucially, you and your team should find some way to share learning points through reflection and then document them effectively. When your team is performing well, it can be easy to get caught up in the https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ moment and assume that things will remain at this high level indefinitely. As teams grow and change they can move back into the Norming, Storming or even Forming stages of the group development process.
Adjourning — Success! You made it
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. Choose a project management software that lets you plan the entire project and assign deadlines and responsibilities so everyone can see what tasks need to be accomplished. During the Ending Stage, some team members may become less focussed on the team’s tasks and their productivity may drop. Alternatively, some team members may find focussing on the task at hand is an effective response to their sadness or sense of loss. The main purpose of this activity is to remind and reflect on what group members or participants have been through and to create a collective experience and shared story. Every individual will gain a shared idea of what the group has been through together.
- While conflict may still arise in this stage, it no longer spirals into dysfunction.
- Now, when this team development was originally put together, Performing was the final stage.
- You and your teammates trust each other enough to get a little creative and innovative, while still delivering top-notch work on time.
- At the end of the project, the team will begin to wrap up their tasks and start to disband and move onto other projects.
- All teams are made up of individuals with varying skill sets, perspectives, and needs.
Team performance increases during this stage as members learn to cooperate and begin to focus on team goals. However, the harmony is precarious, and if disagreements re-emerge the team can slide back into storming. Team Tasks during the Storming stage of development call for the team to refocus on its goals, perhaps team stages of development breaking larger goals down into smaller, achievable steps. The team may need to develop both task-related skills and group process and conflict management skills. A redefinition of the team’s goals, roles and tasks can help team members past the frustration or confusion they experience during the Storming stage.
What are the stages of group development?
In all honesty, some teams may skip this step altogether, hoping to avoid unpleasant conflict and the clash of ideas. Similarly, she has established that teams should use warm-up activities — like physical exercise and mind games — to ensure a smooth transition from the Forming Stage to the Norming Stage. At this initial stage, a glimpse of a future project leader may emerge. For illustration, the person with the largest knowledge about the project’s subject takes unofficial charge. In other words, any team setting that requires high performance can benefit from using this model. Furthermore, Rebecca Stroud Stasel cites that people have natural, deeply seated tendencies for either leadership or following leaders.
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