Members may disagree on team goals, and subgroups and cliques may form around strong personalities or areas of agreement. To get through this stage, members must work to overcome obstacles, to accept individual differences, and to work through conflicting ideas on team tasks and goals. It’s one thing to assemble a group of high-performing remote marketers and another to get them to work together as a cohesive whole — especially when they’re all behind computer screens in different time zones. When your marketing team is remote, you can hire the most talented people regardless of where they’re located geographically. But you have to find a way to make sure team members are aligned and on the same page. The norming stage is a time where group members become a cohesive unit.
Most high-performing teams go through five stages of team development. Keep reminding the team to check in with each other regularly in person or via instant chat, but stay out of their way. They will waste time and lose their focus if they have to answer frequent, unscheduled questions about what they’re working on. Encourage team members to develop a schedule filled with large blocks of time that are free from interruptions like meetings or check-ins. In this world of constant notifications, it’s easy for people to get derailed and forget which goals are really important. Do you know where your team falls in the natural progression of team development?
Stage 2: Storming stage
Of course, you can only move on to this more pleasant stage if you’ve addressed and answered all the vital questions from the previous, Storming Stage. Once the first articles are finished, the review process brings a couple of more disagreements. Daisy has a couple of notes on the sources and anchors used — this time, Adam agrees, but Daniel gets defensive again. Editor Stella expresses her frustration because she thinks the content is far from what the audience expects to read. To clarify how this step could develop, let’s explore a real-life example of the Storming Stage.
In the performing stage of group formation, there is greater cooperation and consensus among team members and they are now matured, organized, and fully functioning. There is a clear structure and are committed to the mission of the team. As a leader, you must be able to identify the reason for conflicts in the storming stage and find solutions as soon as possible. If not, your failure to address such issues and solutions may result in long-term problems. It is like when storms come into the sea the ship captain must be able to pass this storm.
Stage 3: Norming stage
Like children, teams go through their developmental stages and can reach exciting milestones. Maybe your team is humming along in the “performing” stage, then a new person joins. Likewise, a strategic pivot for the company sends your team back to the “storming” phase. Later Tuckman added the four stages of group development in order are another and final stage of group development which involves dissolution. It entails the termination of roles, the completion of tasks and reduction of dependency. Some commentators have described this stage as ‘mourning’ given the loss that is sometimes felt by former participants.
- At its peak, the group moves into the fourth stage of group development, known as the performing stage.
- In the performing stage, consensus and cooperation have been well-established and the team is mature, organized, and well-functioning.
- Have you ever wondered why it takes some time for a new team to hit peak performance?
- Yet, the position of this unofficial leader may also be occupied by the strongest authority figure in the team.
To make things more tangible, here’s a brief overview of the behaviors, feelings, group needs, and leadership needs in the Forming Stage. By implementing the 5 stages of group development, teams can reap vast benefits due to the clear-cut structure and step-by-step approach. In fact, Tuckman only added the fifth, Adjourning Stage, together with another expert, Mary Ann C. Jensen, in 1977. The newly crafted review paper was titled Stages of Small Group Development, Revisited — and it became what we today refer to as the Tuckman model of team development. Yet, this model was initially known as the “Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing Model.” Experts often refer to this original model as the 4 stages of group development. Our discussion so far has focused mostly on a team as an entity, not on the individuals inside the team.
Storming Stage of Group Development
If the team is a standing committee with ongoing responsibility, members may be replaced by new people and the team can go back to a forming or storming stage and repeat the development process. All good things must come to an end; and this is also true of groups. After a group has successfully (or unsuccessfully, in some cases) completed their task, they must dissolve or disband from both the task and group members. This adjourning stage is used to wrap up activities of the group and provide a sense of closure to its members. This stage is also a time for reflection and acknowledgement of participation on part of the group members. Some call this stage ‘mourning’ to symbolize the sense of loss that some group members feel during this regressive stage of group development.
Click the name of each activity below to get step-by-step instructions and other helpful resources like templates and videos. You’re not sure who is doing what, or how to break this epic project into smaller components. The second point in the sequence is characterized by conflict and polarization around interpersonal issues, with concomitant https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ emotional responding in the task sphere. These behaviours serve as resistance to group influence and task requirements. A handout and process guide for training workshops focused on working in groups and organisational effectiveness. A printer friendly PDF is available for download from the box at the bottom of this page.
Clearly set expectations for communication
In this article, we discuss the different stages of group development and how you can guide your team through them to optimize collaboration. During the Ending Stage, some team members may become less focussed on the team’s tasks and their productivity may drop. Alternatively, some team members may find focussing on the task at hand is an effective response to their sadness or sense of loss. During the Norming stage, members shift their energy to the team’s goals and show an increase in productivity, in both individual and collective work.
Tuckman’s theory is that every group moves through four stages on its way to becoming a high-performing team. By recognizing these stages, we can adapt our leadership style to the needs of the team. In this stage, team members are in the process of learning how to work together. As team members begin collaborating, conflicts may arise, whether that’s from clashing personalities or opinions on how a project should progress. Without a clear understanding of what role each individual plays on the team, relationships can get tumultuous as team members struggle to find a role that’s right for them. Our 500+ ready-to-use meeting agenda templates make it easy to host project kickoff meetings, brainstorming sessions, and more.
The forming stage
The fifth stage of group development, also known as the mourning stage, is the final stage a team will go through. After a project is over or if a team is disbanded, team members who worked together will go into a small mourning period. Group members may have a hard time working with other groups as they had strong group dynamics with their previous team.
Your role as a leader is different, but no less important through all four stages. The key is understanding where your team is and providing the right kind of leadership at each stage. If you feel your team is stuck, share this information with them and ask them to self-diagnose where they think they are and what they need to do to move on to the next stage. Understanding that each stage is normal and expected can relieve a lot of tension and free the team up to break through and move on. Prepare your team for each stage, and use tools like Lucidchart to outline their roles and responsibilities throughout the journey.
The stages of group development with examples, explained
During the norming stage, leaders should have a solid understanding of who on their team are natural leaders and who have strong ideas and work ethics. Leaders can use this knowledge to assign tasks at which they know each employee will excel. Every leader’s goal should be to reach his team to this stage as soon as possible. Great devotion and commitment of members to reach the group’s goal are seen in this stage. However, leaders face challenges to manage task performance and human resources. The stages of group development in organizational behavior and management comprise the theory of team development.