Within a cohort, individuals work on their course in an open, collaborative fashion, meeting online five times with an assigned instructional designer and various resource support personnel. As a team lead, it’s your goal to get your team to this stage as quickly as possible. In this stage of group development, individual members are just getting to know each other and don’t have a group process yet. At this stage, the group isn’t very productive, as they’re still getting acclimated and figuring out the role that each person will play on the team. Read about Tuckman’s five team development stages and best practices you can use to support your teams. Keep reminding the team to check in with each other regularly in person or via instant chat, but stay out of their way.

Having an agreed-upon method of raising concerns and discussing them productively is a great way to ensure that your group is prepared to handle such difficulties when they come up. One possible misconception is that to move a group through the Storming stage, you have to prevent differences in opinion from emerging. The ideal situation here is not to avoid discussions and conflicts from happening entirely, but to ensure they are productive, respectful, and result in practical takeaways.

Stage #1: Forming

Your remote teams will go through the 5 stages of team development whether or not they have your guidance, but you can accelerate their progress when you know how to support them along the way. When you can identify which development phase your teams are in, it’s much easier to provide exactly the direction they need so they feel more focused and connected. 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. Problems and conflicts still emerge, but they are dealt with constructively.

In case of a conflict, the members can quickly resolve it by using the strategies adopted at the storming stage. However, it is important to remember that these disagreements are normal and are an integral part of any team’s life cycle. As a leader, we recommend that you use the conflict management techniques in order to weather the storm. This is especially important for virtual teams where people hardly ever see each other’s faces and may be even located in various time zones.

Tips for the Five Stages of Team Development

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. A redefinition of the team’s goals, roles and tasks can help team members past the frustration or confusion they experience during the Storming stage. Behaviors during the Storming stage may be less polite than during the Forming stage, with frustration or disagreements about goals, expectations, roles and responsibilities being openly expressed.

Your team needs to communicate clearly and, rely on one another rather than turn on each other. This is a crucial point in team development where leaders can pinpoint bottlenecks, areas of improvement and couple them with team strengths to build forward momentum. These stages are steps in the team building process and are similar to team building best practices. This can lead to new insights, improved problem-solving, and increased creativity within the team.

Stage 5: Adjourning stage

Take the time to reflect on your achievements and remind your team why they’re doing what they do. This is also a great opportunity to recognize and praise the talents of specific team members. Boost motivation by helping your employees understand why their work matters. In this free ebook, learn how to create a shared sense of purpose on your team. Start your weekly team meetings with kudos to recognize milestone achievements. Management should be prepared to proactively address team issues and solve problems.

• Team members exhibit various types of negative emotions as opposed to the positive emotions they felt in the forming stage.
• The Norming stage is the first indication that the team is going in the right direction, but the unity at this stage is still very fragile.
• 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.
• Take a cue from the Atlassian Team Playbook and make time for these three activities.
• Since everyone’s hand is on deck at this stage, the team’s performance will highly increase to the maximal level.
• Team learning is a behavioral process of seeking, gathering, discussing, and implementing methods of team success.
• A « can do » attitude is visible as are offers to assist one another.

They try to conform to norms because they want to maintain their relationships in the team and they want to meet team expectations. Teams with strong performance norms and high cohesiveness are high performing. How did you know what behaviors were acceptable or what level of performance was required?

Key Features

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. The forming → storming → norming → performing model of group development restaurant app builder was first proposed by psychological researcher Bruce Tuckman in 1965. So now you know all about team development and the 5 team development stages it follows. However, remembering all the information and advice may not be just that easy. For this purpose, we have prepared an infographic outlining 5 phases of team development.

This doesn’t mean your team won’t see additional challenges or that there won’t be opportunities to improve. Effective managers will often take the opportunity to help people get to know each other in a safe environment and share themselves meaningfully. All new groups get to know each other organically through the process of getting together and working as a team. That said, without direction and consideration, this process can be time-consuming, messy, or even frustrating and alienating for some team members. A kanban board gives you a visual overview of all of the tasks for your project, so you can keep an eye on any bottlenecks or areas of pressure. Gallup have been studying relationships at work for over thirty years and their research has consistently found that having a best friend at work leads to better performance.

Establish team norms

Record and store the meeting in Teamwork.com so that team members can revisit it at any time if they need a reminder of the discussion. Choose a project management software that lets you plan the entire project and assign deadlines and responsibilities so everyone can see what tasks need to be accomplished. Team members are able to prevent or solve problems in the team’s process or in the team’s progress. A « can do » attitude is visible as are offers to assist one another. Roles on the team may have become more fluid, with members taking on various roles and responsibilities as needed.

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. Maintaining an effective team is much like maintaining a garden; if left unattended, it loses its ability to thrive. Team development ensures that the team can thrive in the long term. Team communication is key in ensuring that a group can move through the Storming stage while also not avoiding potentially productive discussions around working practices or different perspectives.

Research Study: Trends & Best Practices in Onboarding

However, the harmony is precarious, and if disagreements re-emerge the team can slide back into storming. Reaching the performing stage is a major success and often precipitates some form of team learning. Team learning is a behavioral process of seeking, gathering, discussing, and implementing methods of team success. Whether through training, group initiative, or innovative leadership, team learning is an action step that ensures healthy team development. This step was added to the existing model of group development by Tuckman in 1977.

At the end of the project, the team will begin to wrap up their tasks and start to disband and move onto other projects. You can expect an increase in productivity at this stage as everyone understands their role better and can get stuck into their individual tasks, instead of being bogged down by internal conflict. This gives everyone a chance to introduce themselves and establish roles and responsibilities that will help move the project along with ease.

The team is very active at this stage and mainly concentrated on achieving its purpose of formation. At this stage, the team might meet more often than not and communicate physically and digitally with office phone systems and video conferencing tools. Members of the team have learnt to accept each other regardless of their differences. Also, consider breaking down the team’s large goals into smaller ones so the team can focus on accomplishing the smaller ones first before concentrating on the bigger ones thereafter. Instead, they concentrate on the negative feelings they have towards each other and the team at large.