Leading a team can be a challenge, especially when there’s a big project and tight deadlines. Understanding the lifecycle of a team, however, can help you keep your team productive and happy. You can also ask the group for 360-degree feedback to reflect, learn, and better manage future teams. Get your team to bond further with face-to-face or virtual team-building exercises.

All the challenges, frustrations, and setbacks the team are facing? They’re clear indicators the team is in the storming phase. The storming phase is when things get…well, a little stages of team development team building stormy with the new team (we’ll dive deeper into this stage momentarily). Discover our templates Made to solve challenges quickly and build stronger relationships with your team.

Nonetheless, the conflicts can’t spiral into dysfunction because the team has gelled. Members have a more profound commitment to each other and the project’s completion, so it’s easier to handle conflicts. Alasdair A. K. White together with his colleague, John Fairhurst, examined Tuckman’s development sequence when developing the White-Fairhurst TPR model.

Storming — It’s inevitable, there’s going to be conflict

While not part of Tuckman’s original model, it is important for any team to pay attention to the end or termination process. All good things must come to an end, and at a certain point, the project will wrap up. When one person fails to complete a task, the rest of the group suffers. Early on, create an environment that is open and non-judgmental. Write down every idea that is offered, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs and inventors have had failed companies and ill-conceived ideas.

• With Toggl Track, team members can track the work that they do.
• At the Performing Stage, managers can expect the team to start delivering predictable results and meeting deadlines.
• In this stage of group development, individual members are just getting to know each other and don’t have a group process yet.
• Share a link to these meeting notes afterwards so that everyone has access and can review it later.
• In this post, we discuss Tuckman’s five stages of team development, including how they apply to a modern workforce and how managers can use them to build team cohesion.

Our discussion so far has focused mostly on a team as an entity, not on the individuals inside the team. This is like describing a car by its model and color without considering what is under the hood. External characteristics are what we see and interact with, but internal characteristics are what make it work. In teams, the internal characteristics are the people in the team and how they interact with each other. At the end of the project, set up an online meeting where team members come together to discuss the entire project, from the successes to the frustrations. Ask them to prepare examples beforehand outlining what worked and what didn’t, and then give each person five minutes to share their thoughts.

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It’s essential during the storming phase to reduce frustrations arising from your operations process. Slack integration for Clockwise brings the powerful scheduling tools of Clockwise right to your workspace. Your team members might be snippy at each other, but at least they won’t have the added frustration of dealing with multiple platforms. If any team members feel uncertain about what’s ahead, boost their confidence and career prospects by praising them at company meetings.

The team is able to churn out high-quality work at a fast pace. This is the stage where you will see the team taking ownership of their work and truly becoming a cohesive unit. Performing— The performing stage is when the team is firing on all cylinders. They’re working together smoothly, they have a clear vision and they’re achieving their goals.

Stage 3: Norming

Disagreements are unavoidable on teams, especially when each person on the team has a different perspective on how to approach the issues the team encounters. When you all work in the same location, it can be easier to hash out problems quickly. On a remote team, you need to be more thoughtful about the tools and the processes that you use to identify and deal with disagreements. In the forming stage, members feel unsure of their status on the team, and increasingly look to the leader for guidance.

The forming stage is often slow and casual since it primarily involves members getting acquainted. Trust is built, which plays a critical role in the team’s success. Getting everyone on the same wavelength sounds easy on paper, but that isn’t the case. It’s challenging to balance common and individual goals within a team especially during moments of discord, failure, or stress. In any team, members can’t work in tandem if there’s no chemistry between. A team’s effectiveness gets enhanced by a commitment to ongoing growth and development.

Mastering the Key Stages of Group Development

Every time a new team member joins the team, you are faced with new challenges, rapid learning, interpersonal skill test and many more. Team may cycle through storming, norming and performing multiple times. This is likely to happen whenever there are changes to project team, such as people leaving or joining the group. The team members have to reset and sort out their roles, relationships, and responsibilities within the new structure.

The forming stage is also about people getting to know one another. If you’re working remotely, try virtual onboard exercises to forge a group bond and establish buy-in to your vision. If powerful superhero and entrepreneur teams have taught us anything, it is that working with others can increase your strength and success.

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Given these conflicting feelings, individual and team morale may rise or fall throughout the ending stage. It is highly likely that at any given moment individuals on the team will experience different emotions about the team’s ending. 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.

With Toggl Track, team members can track the work that they do. This is especially useful if you have some people that are working remotely. But, you can point out areas of improvement or strengths to the group as a whole, without pointing fingers.

Confront conflict in a healthy manner

Of the five stages of group development, the forming stage requires the most meetings. Team members need frequent direction and feedback, so you should anticipate a lot of meetings between members and leadership. The group development process is important because the system allows leaders to identify the correct stage of development and accurately assess the level of teamwork. The leader can then concoct an improvement plan to move team members through the development phases. At the Performing stage, managers should keep encouraging team decision-making and problem solving as the team members have the knowledge, experience, and trust in each other.

No matter what, it’s important to celebrate the team’s achievements and give them the opportunity to say good-bye to each other. This stage is aptly named, as it is here that tensions first arise. Here, team members are starting to speak their minds and solidifying their places within the group, which means that power struggles may arise and cliques may form within the group.

To facilitate this group development, leaders should continue to give constructive feedback and support, and make collaboration as easy as possible. At this stage, things are going so well that team members might fear the break up of the team if further risks and innovations are taken. Encourage your team to continue to break out of their comfort zone to achieve better results. The norming stage of team development is like a months-old couple that accepts each other’s quirks and flaws. Team members adjust to teammate behaviors and devise strategies to overcome differences.

While remote teams may be just as productive as a team sharing an office space, it can be more difficult to facilitate cohesion and build rapport between team members. This paper became the groundwork for the stages of group development. Tuckman’s foundation helps team leaders understand how team dynamics change as a project progresses. By understanding the five stages of group development, you can support your team as they’re getting to know one another to quickly enable collaboration and effective teamwork. The first of Tuckman’s stages of team development is the forming stage. The purpose of this phase is to create a team with clear structure, goals, direction, and roles.

For this reason, motivation is usually high and team members have confidence in their ability to attain goals. In the performing stage, consensus and cooperation have been well-established and the team is mature, organized, and well-functioning. There is a clear and stable structure, and members are committed to the team’s mission.