Team phases

In 1965, psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed a model for team growing and development. The author defends that teams don't perform well in the beginning and that it would take some time together until it stop being only a group of strangers to become a group with common goals. The original paper “Developmental sequence in small groups” explains the following 4 stages:
 

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1. FORMING: This is the stage where team members are getting to know each other and the work to be done. They tend to be positive, polite and respectful with one another, which reflects their wish to be accepted by the group. They are searching for information both about the work to be done and about each other. Some may feel anxious and some may feel excited. Leaders play a important part here; members are seeking for guidance to find their role in the group.

2. STORMING: In this phase, team members start to share their feelings and thoughts. Hence comes the name of the phase - it's common to have conflicts and unforeseen problems in this stage, which can cause anxiety and frustration. People still act more as individuals than as a team. Leadership can start to be questioned. Besides that, they can feel stressed by not having friends with whom to share their anguish and not having the support of a well-know process. Although it's a necessary phase for every team, it's the stage where we see the biggest number of failures.

   

3. NORMING: This is a more pacific stage. Now the team members can see each other strong points and have more trust on their peers. They work as a group and compromise with the group common goal. Roles and responsibilities are clearer. Unfortunately, teams usually keep changing between Storming and Norming phases.

4. PERFORMING: In this stage, teams have a high productivity and the work environment is the best possible, with no conflicts, a good structure and well -established process. Leaders can focus on people career management instead of process adjustments and conflict resolution. It's wonderful to be part of a team in this stage; people coming in and out does not affect the productivity. It's a sad reality that not all teams can come to this phase.

5. ADJOURNING: In 1977, one more phase was added to the model by Tuckman and Mary Ann Jensen: The Adjourning Phase. Here, the team is undone and people are allocated to do another work. There may be a sense of lost of routine or sadness for losing friends or colleagues. Also, some may feel anxious about their future work. In this phase we can have recognition for the work the team has done.

In this video from education-portal.com, you can find a very nice summary of the group phases:

 

You can download the original article in pdf format here: DOWNLOAD