Whatever the name or type may be, every team starts somewhere. And its success or failure very much hinges on the knowledge and skill of its leadership. When leaders allow teams to form and develop with unrealistic expectations or too little oversight, bad things can happen. Conversely, when leaders recognize that every team needs some time and TLC to grow into a functional unit, good things tend to follow. Rina, the leader of the Bug Banisher Team, comes to Mr. Marcus thirty days after the initial meeting. She has a laundry list of issues to discuss, and none of them is pleasant.
- The enthusiasm is high, and people are excited about the new venture and the prospects that await.
- This gives them insight into the bigger goal but also breaks down the timeline into smaller increments.
- The storming stage is the most difficult and critical stage to pass through.
- Rina, the leader of the Bug Banisher Team, comes to Mr. Marcus thirty days after the initial meeting.
- Establish an effective engagement plan and regular communication with critical senior stakeholders, site leaders, and a cross-functional core team.
- The danger here is that members may be so focused on preventing conflict that they are reluctant to share controversial ideas.
So, you host a meeting where your team can get to know one another, their work style, and the way they feel appreciated. Your team is new and excited to learn about upcoming projects as well as about each other. You outline the work, as well as key milestones, deliverables and objectives.
Company Culture
The meeting environment also plays an important role to model the initial behavior of each individual. Members attempt to become oriented to the tasks as well as to one another. To grow from this stage to the next, each member must relinquish the comfort of non-threatening topics and risk the possibility of conflict. Team Tasks during the Storming stage of development call for the team to refocus on its goals, perhaps 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.
Often there can be overt pushes by people to assert their importance and authority. For the team leader, this can be challenging – and requires a deft touch. The team leader may also find that key skills are missing, or that people aren’t committed to being on the team.
Signs and questions to look out for in the performing stage
The Bug Banisher Team begins to hold weekly meetings to share and track progress with all of the members. They have created a channel on the mobile app Slack so the team can instant-message all or some of the members. Communication is flowing in all directions, everyone is engaged, and it looks like they will meet the launch date originally set by Mr. Marcus at the first meeting. The cost of the Banisher is within the profit target, and production has assured everyone that they can produce the required number of Banisher canisters. “With group norms and roles established, group members focus on achieving common goals, often reaching an unexpectedly high level of success.”[4] By this time, they are motivated and knowledgeable.
They decide to use the round-robin approach this time and everyone eagerly participates. I avoid them if I can.” All team members voice agreement about their reluctance to attend safety training. Chris feels a sense four stages of team development of camaraderie as group members unite around a common issue. They decide how communication should take place between meetings. Chris emphasizes the importance of attendance and that each member’s input is vital.
Stages of Team Development
The impact of people problems and team issues in a startup organization that is just getting its footing and trying to make the right connections and decisions can be very significant. If you know anyone who has a company in startup mode, you may have noticed that some of the early team members who are selected to join the team are trusted family members, friends, or former colleagues. Once a startup company grows to a certain level, then it may acquire an experienced CEO to take the helm. In any case, the startup is faced early on with important questions on how to build the team in a way that will maximize the chance of success. “Resolved disagreements and personality clashes result in greater intimacy, and a spirit of co-operation emerges.”[4] This happens when the team is aware of competition and they share a common goal. In this stage, all team members take responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team’s goals.
This signifies the team members’ respect for others’ opinions. The large versions are often called business units or departments. Of course, they can also be smaller assemblages of employees—committees, workgroups or simply project teams. Managers and project leads need to keep their eyes open, but be mostly hands-off so the team can build muscle around working independently.
The common pitfalls of scaling digital transformations
At the same time, they may also feel some anxiety, wondering how they will fit in to the team and if their performance will measure up. Team effectiveness is enhanced by a team’s commitment to reflection and on-going evaluation. In addition to evaluating accomplishments in terms of meeting specific goals, for teams to be high-performing it is essential for them to understand their development as a team. When your team has grown through the stages of team development they establish a state of “flow”.
It’s the time where your team learns about upcoming projects and structures. Here, it’s typical for teammates to feel excited, anxious, and curious about what lies ahead. Having an expert at your side can help you develop a high-performing team.
Performing Stage
Katzenberg and Smith, in their study of teams, have created a “team performance curve” that graphs the journey of a team from a working group to a high-performing team. Alasdair A. K. White together with his colleague, John Fairhurst, examined Tuckman’s development sequence when developing the White-Fairhurst TPR model. They simplify the sequence and group the forming-storming-norming stages together as the “transforming” phase, which they equate with the initial performance level. This is then followed by a “performing” phase that leads to a new performance level which they call the “reforming” phase. Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participating. Even the most high-performing teams will revert to earlier stages in certain circumstances.
LRI’s consultants have distinguished records in facilitating the development of high-performing teams. Our clients include public and private sector organizations as well as non-profits. During this stage, members of the team are checking each other out, trying to figure out where the influence and authority in the team resides.
Scenario: You’re leading your team through the storming stage
It’s also important to hold regular status checks, to assess progress, determine where people are stuck, provide help, and give regular effective feedback. For the leader, it’s equally important to ask for feedback and demonstrate openness to receiving it, acknowledging its value, and acting on it. It also identified a prioritized portfolio of digital solutions, with about two dozen use cases having relevance across the entire network, and a dozen identified as “no regrets” priorities. If the previous step “storming” is completed well and with minimal repercussions from any negative conflicts, the norming step will be a simple settling down of members and finding their groove. If “storming” is not done properly, however, “norming” can involve many team members checking out mentally or finding apathy for a project. As a leader, it’s important to remember that you do not need to solve every conflict as it arises.