In our last post on Parish Team Development we stated, “Much has been written about team development but the scenario for how teams form over time follows a fairly predictable pattern.” In this post we will continue to look further into the stages of team development. We will go into more detail and commentary on each stage.
We may tend to believe that teams just come together one day and start performing, as expected, to complete the task or project assigned to them. This is not an automatic process but one that occurs for most in a similar pattern over time. Bruce Tuckman was an educational psychologist who studied group dynamics and first identified and characterized the five stages of team development.
Forming Stage
This is the “getting to know you” phase. People on the team are getting acquainted so uncertainty is high. Most of the interaction is social and polite as people seek to better understand the function of the team and their role. Little progress is made against the assigned project.
Storming Stage
This stage is the most difficult, but it is also the most critical if the team is to succeed. Individual personalities of team members start to be expressed and this can obviously lead to differences of opinion and conflict. It is actually the most unproductive stage as disagreements and cliques will form. Conflict needs to be addressed, individuals with different ideas need to align and obstacles must be overcome. We will discuss conflict management in future posts.
Norming Stage
IF a team gets through the difficulty of the previous stage, some degree of unity will happen in this stage. There is general agreement on leadership and individual roles. Once this occurs, there arises a sense of “team” as cohesiveness leads to progress. Performance of the team improves, and progress is made.
Performing Stage
This would be the stage of peak performance for the team. They are functioning as a unit in an organized and cohesive manner. They understand the mission, become dedicated to it and are prepared to accomplish it. Problems and conflict may still occur, but they have learned to work through them for the greater goal of success of the team.
Adjourning Stage
The goals of the team have been met and the mission is accomplished. Jobs begin to wrap up and the workload decreases. Meetings are less frequent, and the team will eventually disband as individuals move to new roles and projects. It is also at this stage that some teams may continue to address long standing issues but new members will replace old members and the process begins again.
In our next post, we will go into a bit more detail on forming norms for teams and the critical role the leader must play to ensure success of the team.