How To Use The 5 Stages Of Team Development And Build Better Teams!

For team members to garner a sense of another, their leader, and the goals of the project. Even if you haven’t watched a buddy cop movie, these steps will likely feel familiar to you. They are the narrative essence of the team development process.

Her work has been published in “Entrepreneur,” “Complete Woman” and “Toastmaster,” among many other trade and professional publications. She has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Arts in organizational management from the University of Phoenix. Even if you pick all the best people, you are not guaranteed to get a dream squad.

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.

Principles Of Management

Being conscious of the process is a great place to start, but it’s worth remembering that reaching the performing stage isn’t a given and many teams get stuck early on. You might start a new project and mix up your team make-up or try new things that result in some conflicts in perspective but also allow your team to grow. While it’s important to accept that remaining exclusively in the Performing stage – particularly for long-serving teams – is unrealistic, it’s also worth remembering that this is the ideal state. As such, it’s vital you document learning points and strategies that have worked for you and your team while Performing so you can apply them again in the future. When your team is performing well, it can be easy to get caught up in the moment and assume that things will remain at this high level indefinitely.

• At this stage, the team is high-functioning and its members are well aligned with a large amount of autonomy.
• MeetingsBuild collaborative agendas, record notes and action items in real-time, and never forget what was discussed.
• And although it may be slightly cliche, there’s a lot of truth to it.
• Most high-performing teams go through five stages of team development.
• Leaders must respond quickly to any signs of overt conflict and be alert to signs of covert conflict.
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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. Having fun together can be an often overlooked element of team development. Seeing your colleagues as more than their job roles is something that should happen in the early stages of the Forming process but it’s important to keep engaging these muscles. Even as a team improves in performance, it’s vital to keep improving and engaging these skillsets in the name of better cooperation and team development. Self-assessment is an important part of the team development process and using a structured framework can help ensure a productive conversation that doesn’t overspill or create further conflict. The learnings from this activity can then be used to resolve issues, strengthen the group and help move the team from Norming to Performing.

The leader must feel such negative trends within the team and efficiently manage conflicts. So, let’s examine the Bruce Tuckman’s stages of team development and the role of a true leader at each of these stages. As an ambitious leader, you have your eyes set on a brighter future for your organization. At NexLevel, we can help you bridge the gap from “good” to “great”. We are organizational health consultants, trainers and facilitators who help leaders like you build engaged employees, cohesive teams, and high-performing organizations. There is a possibility that teams may revert to a previous stage.

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She determined that Ameya would lead the database development design component of the project, working closely with Sarah so she can develop further experience in this area. She reviewed the schedule that Peter created with the team, making adjustments where necessary to address the concerns of Donna and Sarah. She reminded https://globalcloudteam.com/ Mohammed that this is a team effort and he needs to work closely with the others on the team. As the team begins to work together, they move into the “storming” stage. This stage is not avoidable; every team – most especially a new team who has never worked together before – goes through this part of developing as a team.

Team members feel an increasing acceptance of others on the team, recognizing that the variety of opinions and experiences makes the team stronger and its product richer. Members start to feel part of a team and can take pleasure from the increased group cohesion. Behaviors during the Storming stage may be less polite than during the Forming stage, with frustration or disagreements about goals, expectations, roles and responsibilities being openly expressed. During the Storming stage, team members may argue or become critical of the team’s original mission or goals.

Performance norms are very important because they define the level of work effort and standards that determine the success of the team. As you might expect, leaders play an important part in establishing productive norms by acting as role models and by rewarding desired behaviors. The Tuckman’s model of team development stages is the very basics of team management, and I believe most of you know them. But I don’t want to talk about team management, I want to discuss team leadership. Because I believe that a leader strives to realize the potential of his/her team members by achieving the project goal when a manager simply distributes tasks.

Stage 3: Norming

The leader’s role in team building during this stage is a significant one. It’s important to note that not all groups make it past this stage. The leader must stay positive and coach members in assertiveness and, where necessary, conflict resolution skills. American psychologist Bruce Tuckman said teams go through five stages in the team development process. These stages track the progress from a team’s first meeting to the completion of their project. Each stage plays a vital role in developing a functioning team.

The manager must go over again the agreements made by the team during the forming stage and ensure that the understanding is uniform across the team. The earlier in the storming stage this is revisited the better and this is where the aware coaching manager comes into his or her own. The unaware manager will tend to panic and blame and will be unable to control the behaviours of the team even though they may take a very authoritarian stance and start to order that people behave. All that achieves is compliance and team members will still have the same misunderstandings about what is going on. This is when a lot of talking goes on “behind the manager’s back” This is very unhealthy for a team.

They may feel deceptive overconfidence and therefore challenge your authority or jockey for position. If you haven’t defined clearly how the team will work, people may feel overwhelmed by their workload, or they could be uncomfortable with the approach you’re using. 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.

As the forming stage is the stage where cliques can develop, the coaching manager should be aware of this and should be aware of the various alliances that will occur at this stage. Not all alliances will be counter-productive to the team’s future success but it pays for the coaching manager to watch and observe the behaviours of potential cliques. The challenge for the manager is basically to give an inert group of people who hardly know each the best start possible as a new team. The manager should attempt to do the following in order to give the team the best possible start. The forming stage is a great time to get started with your team building.

Stage 5: Adjourning

Again, this is an area where I have seen managers lose the progress that they have made with their team. Instead of taking time out to bring a new member up to speed with all the rules, roles and goals, the manager lets the new member join the team without much of a briefing. One of the greatest challenges a manager has is in moving his or her team though the various team development stages. If a manager has no, or little experience of teams and team dynamics then taking over a team and then leading that team can be a very stressful experience. Every manager should know what the various growth stages are of a developing team and they should know how best to move the team through these stages with the minimum of fuss and stress.

The first four stages of the team development model was proposed and developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. In 1977, Tuckman teamed up with Mary Ann Jensen and added the 5th stage – adjourning. At this stage, the leader’s key task is to show the authority that other members are waiting for and formulate the rules of the game. The leader should ensure that everyone sees and understands the big picture; otherwise, employees will focus on their tasks, and the team will never gain synergy. In our reality, team development is a multistep process that requires particular actions of the leader at every stage and specific tools to streamline the process. Establishing ground rules from the get-go ensures they get followed as the group moves from one stage to the next.

Performing Stage

Team members start to push against the boundaries established at the forming stage. Older, well-established teams can also cycle back through the stages as their circumstances change. True interdependence is the norm of this stage of group development. The team is flexible as individuals adapt to meet the needs of other team members. This is a highly productive stage both personally and professionally.

Things will begin easily in the forming stage, where you establish ground rules, make introductions, and set team goals . After that, things will become tense, as team members learn to work together . Eventually, your team members will overcome their differences and transform into all-star performers . With the Tuckman model, you can begin strategizing ways to navigate and address the complexities and challenges of your team’s development process. Storming can be a difficult to manage part of the process, as it’s often where conflict, differences of opinion, and accepted norms can be challenged.

Team Development Stages

Crucially, you and your team should find some way to share learning points through reflection and then document them effectively. Reflecting on how perspectives and working practices have changed and been positively affected by individual and group effort can reveal great learning points for the future. Though this activity can be used as a debriefing exercise at the end of a project, it can also be effective at surfacing the positive outcomes of initiatives like moving a team from Norming to Performing. It’s also a great way of reinforcing how far you’ve come as a group and to celebrate how you’ve grown.

There should be an emphasis on idea generation as well as flexibility in anticipation of future events that may change a team’s methods or goals. A team identity should be emerging at this stage and a leader should be asking herself how the identity aligns with their vision for the future. Finally, there should be regular analysis of feedback data and performance indicators to continuously refine the team’s approach and keep things optimized. Be there for them and continue your coaching role with both team and individuals.

Articulate Team And Individual Needs

In the case of dispersed teams that must rely on technology for communication, role clarity, clarity of purpose, vision and goal setting become critically important to the team. There may be an overlap between the Storming and Norming stage. As new and more challenging tasks arise, the team may lapse back into the Storming stage. With time and as trust builds among the team members, the Storming behaviors eventually cease.

Illustration by Tatiana ShulginaTuckman’s model of team development stages is the very basics of team management, and I believe most of you know them. In this phase, where the group is starting to solidify and during the forming stage, what is the role of the team leader? make progress, it’s time for the leader to let off the reins a bit and focus on delegating responsibilities. With work becoming more streamlined, some team members are ready for more complicated assignments.

This makes it difficult to ever complete the project the team was brought together for. Individuals may begin to challenge authority, management styles, or even the team’s mission. Participants may feel overwhelmed by their workload or even frustrated with the lack of progress. Tuckman’s initial four stages focus on the way a team approaches a task from the initial creation of the team through the completion of the project. The fifth phase was added to cover the completion of the project.