Regardless of the organization, industry, field of profession or trade you are in, one way or the other you may have come across these phrases; Teamwork, Team Spirit, Team Success, Team Player, or Team Approach. All of which have one thing in common – working together as one unit of people to accomplish a common goal. For a group of individuals to be considered a team, they must have shared values, share goals, share accountability, and share understanding of what success or failure is. Whether it was in school – working on a class project, playing on a sport team, collaborating with family members to start a new business, in your current or past workplace, at some point we have all experienced what it feels like to be part of a team whether the event turn out to be a success or failure. Especially for those of us working in the professional environment, we begin to call out the phrase “Teamwork” from the first day of our job interview. It is an approach to organization success that cannot easily be avoided but to be embraced. But how do your team members' behaviors contribute to the success of their projects or the overall business goal?
As you read this blog, I hope that you get a good understanding of your team behaviors and how you identify the traits for success. All teams go through four stages of development which are Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. These stages of development were first developed in 1965 by Bruce Tuckman who was an American Education Professor and an Author and later revised in 1977 when he added the fifth stage called Adjourning. These five stages of team development have established a framework of how teams are established and how each member as well as the organization leaders could contribute to the team success. Though there have been many interpretations and explanations of what these stages are, the fact remains the same that all teams develop through maturity, understanding their abilities, building positive working relationships, and supported by good leadership. Let's dive into these stages of team development.
Forming
This first stage is the pre-mature stage of the team development process. There is little to no information about the team members or the team goals. In this stage, the team is coming together to meet for the first time and getting acquainted with each other. There is a lot of excitement as well as uncertainties among team members. The thoughts of being part of something big or unique would show signs of positivity and the fear of the unknown will show some signs of pressure. Members may have concerns such as where do I fit, who is in this group or how will I be treated by others. The activities in this group are introduction of members, establishing team goals, establishing expectations, setting core values, setting up a structure and assigning roles. This can happen through an in-person or virtual meeting where all team members are available and able to communicate freely.
Some project team may want to do after hours at a location that provides a more social atmosphere, play some fun games, eat, drink and network. This gives people the opportunity to express themselves freely in their own unique way. Regardless of how and where they choose to meet, the goal is to bring everyone in one place to know the reasons why they are part of the project team and to share goals and expectations that everyone will be carrying. The leaders of the organization can help the team move through this stage by establishing trust and respect among the team members, creating an environment of open and sincere communication, and keeping everyone focused on the team goals.
Storming
This second stage of team development is where tension builds up among team members. In this stage, members' interactions may increase, but also there could be a growing conflict among them that pose some levels of uncertainties to the team's success. But a team of good people will pull through this stage successfully. In this stage, members are more settled in, but still haven’t fully developed team morale. There may be some confusion about the actual tasks, the tasks may seem overwhelmed, different from what they expected and begin to question the organization or question the reasons why they are there. Other behaviors may include power struggle among team members which is normally identified in this stage. Members may be testing the tolerance and knowledge capacity of each other by being objective, critical or pessimistic towards other people’s opinion or suggestions on how the work should be done.
On the other side of things, some members may feel uncomfortable sharing ideas because they are not sure what others may think of them, which limits productivity. This leads to some serious conflict among team members. The leaders of the organization could support the team in getting past this stage by continuously reinforcing the team goals and core values. He or she could continue to establish trust and respect among team members and make them understand how each one is significant to the project. These conflicts could also serve as opportunities for improvement, where members' strengths and weaknesses are identified and exploited to enhance the team values and success. Considering in this stage, the team is racked by many uncertainties, the leader must be strong to ensure the team roles and structure are sustained. There could be manner changes based on what has been identified among team members, but these changes should be considered only to enhance the team effectiveness and efficiency.
Norming
This is where the fun stuff begins to happen. In this third stage, the team begins to understand each other better and establish some form of working relationship among each other. There is more clarity of their common goals and how each member plays a part in the success. They also begin to develop trust and respect for each other. Team structure is well defined, and everyone understands their assigned roles. Team members who object or critique other members are more recessive to others’ opinions, ideas, and suggestions while passive team members begin to show signs of involvement. By this time, they are collectively establishing the criteria for team success.
In this stage, you will see team members showing support for each other, communicating with each other effectively, standing up for each other, protecting their team values, accepting constructive criticism, and willing to learn from each other as they collectively work towards a common goal. The leaders of the organization can now be assured that uncertainties towards team success are low and could use the extra time and effort to help their team continually build positive relationships and consensus.
Performing
In this stage, there is an active participation of all team members towards accomplishing their goals. Their productivity and deliveries increase by a high percentage, and everyone is well vested in the project with a personal commitment to team success. The team is strengthened as progress skews upward. They can avoid conflicts and resolve their own issues while keeping a positive mindset and outlooks. Trust, respect, open communication, and acceptance become common shared values among team members. Team members are active in their roles, mitigating risk by creating flexibilities and focus on delivering quality results. Their strengths, weaknesses and shared expertise or knowledge combine to become an instrument of success and they all get the feeling of being part of something special or unique. Moreover, they become a high-performing team, feeling appreciation for each other, relying on each other, setting new goals, accepting challenges, and feeling satisfied with their progress.
Being in this stage and surrounded by people with the same mindset towards success is an amazing feeling. Leaders of the organizations could support the team by advocating on their behalf for resources needed to get their job done, focus on removing any barriers that may hinder their success, providing feedback and showing appreciation. Appreciation in this form could be taking the team out for an after hour treat in a social environment where they can release work stress and engage each other on common personal issues or conversations about work-life-balance. Though the team may have a much better working relationship, the leader should be prepared for setbacks and have a response strategy in place to tackle any issue that is identified that could put the team's success at risk.
Adjourning
There is a saying that goes by “All Long Indian Movie Must Come to an End”. This saying is emphasizing how Indian/ Bollywood movies have these long tales of love and romance which sometimes begins with high tensions or conflicts but ends with love and unity. This relates to how the team journeys through the stages of development, overcoming all the challenges and now comes the better-sweet moment. In this stage, the team has successfully completed the project, scope is validated, customer sign-off on the deliverables and the project is closed. The team who has worked through all the challenges to build a positive working relationship as well as becoming a high performing team with shared values, must now dissolve. In this stage, the project team is disbanded, and every member returns to their original department, functionality, country, state, province or wherever they came from prior to the team establishment.
Though some organizations may see it fitting to keep this high-performing team together as an asset for successful project deliveries, in some or most cases, they dissolve after the project is complete. The tale of a small group of people from different works of life, with different cultural backgrounds, skills sets and expertise coming together to work on a project, but first experiencing high tension, conflicts, and uncertainties and later towards to the end, establish friendship, trust, respect, support for each other and, commitment to one goal, now must have to go their separate ways at the end of their endeavors – Adjourned.
Conclusion
Whether your project team is collocated, geographically disbursed, or communicates virtually, these stages of team development are significant to understand. These stages can easily be identified by common observation of the team interactions and their performances. Leadership plays a unique role in ensuring that their project team is successful by first and foremost developing confidence in their project team, then providing consistent support, reinforcing trust, respect, and open communications among members. Moreover, allowing the team to build through their own journey towards maturity and acceptance, while keeping them focused on their common goals. Nothing starts easy when it comes to working with people or managing people. The goals should be being able to build positive relationships, building tolerance, compromising personal egos, and creating balance where shared values are commonly recognized. This creates a level of empowerment for team members, establishing the attitude that would drive the success of the project and positively impact the business goal.
Sources West Chester University & Judith Stein, MIT.
Thank for Reading!
