Team-building using the Tuckman Model and Drucker exercise

One of the stumbling blocks many individuals and groups face when making change is knowing how to start while also being intimidated by the potential largeness of the task. One of the key ways to influence proactive change in a group is to empower your team to make small but meaningful changes incrementally and experiment to find what works. With this method, you can invite your group to identify small changes they can make now and work towards better working practices as both individuals and a team. In fact, moving from Norming to Performing often involves further refinement and reappraisal of working methods as your team grows and develops. Even on a limited-time project, taking time to analyze team effectiveness and working habits during the project is important in ensuring you can maintain productivity and course-correct where necessary. This might mean doing regular one to ones to develop and empower your team members or engaging in thoughtful group discussion around priorities and tasks.

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. Document the comments so that it’s easy to see which trends emerge and what changes need to be made going forward.

It can also help you predict how much additional time your group might need to complete the current project. Even if your group has two or three leaders, you can’t alwaysmonitor your team. You can’t look over their shoulders and make sure that everyone is doing their work.

Run delightful meetings with Fellow

The adjourning or mourning stage of team development is where the group parts ways. The project has reached its natural end, and group members acknowledge that while the group has found success, it is time for the team to split and move on to new challenges. The mourning stage paves the way for more growth and learning and new opportunities. This final part of the team building process grants teammates closure and provides a chance to reflect on the experience.

A highly functioning team requires the development of team members as well as the team as a whole. Simplilearn is a cutting-edge workplace training service that provides just that. At Simplilearn, our corporate training in emerging technologies is transforming our economy with valuable skills that last. Our blended learning approach drives learner engagement and the industry’s highest completion rates. The FiveStages of Team Development were developed by psychologist Bruce Tuckman in 1965.

Team development stages

By lowering the pressure, a fun team building activity will teach team members to understand each other, while avoiding many conflicts. In other words, a team building activity gives a safe, laboratory simulation of the rough, but rewarding, pathway ahead. With a sense of timing, you can better anticipate when each team development stage is likely to occur. Permanent teams never reach the fifth stage of the Tuckman model. For others, however, there does come a point at which the overarching goals and mission of the team have been accomplished and it’s time to disengage. The team won’t simply break apart, however, and there can be a great deal of grief shared among team members who are apprehensive about severing the bond they’ve created.

• They may be feeling some anxiety because of uncertainty about their individual role or future responsibilities.
• It’s vital to stay alert to team dynamics and both individual and group performance – you may want to course correct or further strengthen certain aspects of how your team works together.
• A large part of moving from Norming to Performing is empowering the members of your team to do work that excites and engages them individually as well as a group.
• Team learning is often necessary to execute healthy team development and providing your team with the tools they need to thrive is good for them and your organization.
• But you have to find a way to make sure team members are aligned and on the same page.
• It is common for individuals to have different expectations of work behavior and potential conflicts can arise due to these differences.

With a structured approach, you can improve your team’s performance at each stage of development. There is little intervention needed from leadership at this stage, but it is important to continue providing support https://globalcloudteam.com/ where needed to prevent the team from lapsing back into the storming stage. Now that the team is past the introductory stage, personalities can start to conflict due to differing opinions and approaches.

#3 Norming Stage

End-to-end Demo – A visual representation of the final product or experience makes it easy for stakeholders to provide early feedback. As you repeat this exercise over time, it’ll become higher fidelity and help your team see they’re making progress. Recently, several teams in our engineering department undertook a massive, ludicrously complex, business-critical infrastructure project. The number of risks and dependencies sent these established and cohesive dev teams into a flurry of (ultimately, unproductive and/or counter-productive) activity. If your team has ever thrashed about like this, then you know what “storming” is. Sounds great in theory, but putting it into practice can feel daunting.

DACI (30-90 min) – The DACI framework helps you make group decisions efficiently and effectively. Pose lots of questions to your team, even if you think you know the answer. Take a cue from the four stages of team development Atlassian Team Playbook and make time for these three activities. Click the name of each activity below to get step-by-step instructions and other helpful resources like templates and videos.

Stage 1: Forming (Getting to Know Each Other)

As mentioned, some of the stages are team development may have some conflict, disagreements, or general butting of heads. However, there are some strategies you can do to help your team advance through the five stages with minimal conflict. When each of the five stages is carried through, your group will feel more in sync and be a high-functioning unit. No one is afraid to ask a question, bring up a concern, or pose a new way of going about certain tasks.

Avoidance usually makes the problem grow until it blows up. As the group starts to familiarize themselves, roles and responsibilities will begin to form. It is important for team members to develop relationships and understand what part each person plays. Feedback is critical to improving your team’s performance while navigating through the five stages. In this regard, consider ending each meeting with constructive and insightful feedback to enhance the group process.

When people are brought together as a team, they don’t necessarily function as a team right from the start. Managers and project leads need to keep their eyes open, but be mostly hands-off so the team can build muscle around working independently. Remove obstacles by coordinating tightly with adjacent and upstream teams. Validate your assumptions about what your customers need, then proactively decide what you’re not doing right now so you don’t get distracted. When you start to sense that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, you’ve made it into the “norming” stage. The challenge now is to move a bit faster while keeping the quality of your work high.

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. Our team of coaches and consultants will work with leaders at either the team or individual level, depending on their needs.

The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team. 9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. What about how it might apply to friends and romantic relationships?

The stages of team development

Anticipating team efficiency can be tough, but understanding the needs of the individuals that comprise the teams allow leaders to keep their team at peak performance. Forming relationships is critical at this early stage, even though these relationships will change and experience challenges throughout the project. That’s why you should focus on people, not productivity, during the forming stage of team development. The team meets and learns about the opportunities and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks. They may be motivated but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. Team members are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves.

The first stage of team development is forming, which is a lot like orientation day at college or a new job. In this stage, the team comes together for the first time, and members get to know each other. The forming stage is often slow and casual since it primarily involves members getting acquainted.

Set individual roles and expectations

Eventually, team members get comfortable with one another and shed some of their apprehension from the previous stage around voicing their opinions and voicing their perspectives. As working styles become apparent and hierarchies are established, team members might start to butt heads. The storming stage is often characterized by disagreement and even open conflict. This is why organizations put so many resources into team development.

At the end of the exercise, all the questions go up on a whiteboard to encourage further conversation throughout the day. By encouraging the group to take ownership of this part of the team development process, you can meaningfully impact the Forming stage. This Tuckman’s Team and Group Model just says these are phases a team tends to cycle through. It’s not a hard and fast – they go through Stage 1, then Stage 2. It’s more to be aware of these phases and use them to inform your leadership or coaching (and for self-management too!).

When a team fully meets this stage, it is a high-performing team. A leader is essential at this stage to help the team figure out objectives and team roles and responsibilities. I first remember learning about Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Teams Development and model while a management trainee at a large company. I found it fascinating—because I instantly saw that this model applies to ANY groups—and relationships too. Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms. Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.

To accommodate your remote teams and to make sure your first project team meeting is productive, use a video conferencing platform like Zoom. This way team members can meet from anywhere and share their screen so that everyone can see the project details simultaneously. Record and store the meeting in Teamwork Projects so that team members can revisit it at any time if they need a reminder of the discussion. 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.

This is when the team is at optimal performance and is able to accomplish tasks quickly because members flow through the process. Team leaders need to make sure that the stronger personalities don’t inadvertently dominate the team and its outcomes. All members should be actively participating before this stage is complete. This is when team members begin to feel comfortable with each other, learns how each operates in a team environment – and begin to share ideas and debate issues.