Four Stages of Team Development

Self-managed work teams need considerable time to perform up to its true capabilities. What a group is capable of achieving depends in part on its stage of development. The team's effectiveness can be improved if its members are committed to reflection and on-going evaluation. However, the most important aspect is that every team member understands their development as a team.

Although every group’s development over time is unique, researchers have identified some stages of group development that many groups seem to pass through. The most famous model is the Four Stages of Team Development, developed by the psychology professor Bruce Tuckman in 1965. Tuckman suggested that all teams go through a relatively unproductive initial stage before becoming a self-reliant unit.

Although there have been other written variations from many authors, Tuckman’s stages of development – Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing – are a helpful technique to recognize the team’s behaviour and feelings during the process. Identifying and understanding why changes occur is a key component of the self-evaluation process. This can help the team maximize its process and its productivity.

Introduction to the Model

Forming

Stage 1: Immature group

In the first stage, Forming, members try to get to know one another and reach common understanding of what the group is trying to accomplish and how group members should behave. This is also a good opportunity to see how each member of the team works as an individual and how they respond to pressure. The individual's behaviour is driven by a desire to be accepted by the others, and avoid controversy or conflict.

• Feelings
  During the Forming stage of team development, team members are usually excited to be part of the team and eager about the work ahead. Members often have high positive expectations for the team experience. At the same time, they may also feel some anxiety, wondering how they will fit into the team and if their performance will measure up.

• Process
  Behaviours observed during the Forming stage may include lots of questions from team members, reflecting both their excitement about the new team and the uncertainty or anxiety they might be feeling about their place on the team.

• Content
  The principal work for the team during the Forming stage is to create a team with clear structure, goals, direction and roles so that members begin to build trust. A good orientation/kick-off process can help to ground the members in terms of the team's mission and goals, and can establish team expectations about both the team's product and, more importantly, the team's process. During the Forming stage, much of the team's energy is focused on defining the team so task accomplishment may be relatively low.

In this stage, some serious issues are avoided because the members only focus on aspects related to the team organization such as work distribution or group meetings. Also each member starts gathering the information necessary about the group task. Although it is really easy to stay in this state, avoiding the conflicts does not lead to “get the job done”.

Anyway, it is an important phase for the team’s development. The team starts to agree on the goals and to undertake the jobs. Members are highly motivated and behave adequately, but tend to work quite independently. They are more focused on themselves and usually this leads to ignorance of the problems and objectives of the team. For this reason, supervisors should manage the team during this stage.

The principal characteristics of the Forming stage are:

• Confusion: they haven't fully understood what work the team will do
• Uncertainty
• Assessing situation
• Testing ground rules: people start to work together
• Feeling out others: they make an effort to get to know their new colleagues
• Defining goals
• Getting acquainted
• Establishing rules

Storming

Stage 2: Fractional group

In the second stage, Storming, group members experience conflict and disagreements because some members do not wish to submit to the demands of other group members. Disputes may arise over who should lead the group. Self-managed work teams can be particularly vulnerable during the storming stage.

• Feelings
  As the team begins to move towards its goals, members discover that the team can't live up to all of their early excitement and expectations. Their focus may shift from the tasks at hand to feelings of frustration or anger with the team's progress or process. Members may express concerns about being unable to meet the team's goals. During the Storming stage, members are trying to see how the team will respond to differences and how it will handle conflict.

• Process
  Behaviours 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. Members may express frustration about constraints that slow their individual or the team's progress. This frustration might be directed towards other members of the team, the team leadership or the team's sponsor. During the Storming stage, team members may argue or become critical of the team's original mission or goals.

• Content
  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.

During this stage, members open up to each other and different ideas compete for consideration. It can be contentious, unpleasant and even painful to members of the team who are averse to conflict. Tolerance of each team member and their differences should be emphasized. Without tolerance and patience, the team will fail. In some cases, storming can be resolved quickly. In others, the team never leaves this stage.

The team defines the problems that are most important to find solution for. They have to address the functions of members independently and together. The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage. Some team members will focus on trivial details to evade real issues.

This phase can become destructive to the team and will lower motivation if allowed to get out of control. Some teams will never develop past this stage. The team members will therefore have to resolve their differences. This way, they will be able to participate with one another more comfortably. The ideal is that they will not feel that they are being judged, and will therefore share their opinions and views. In addition, the team has to determine what leadership model they will accept.

Characteristics of the Storming stage are:

• Disagreement over priorities: members question the worth of the team's goal and they may resist taking on tasks
• Struggle for leadership: team members may jockey for position as their roles are clarified
• Tension: members who stick with the task at hand may experience stress
• Hostility: conflict between team members' natural working styles
• Clique formation

Norming

Stage 3: Sharing group

• Consensus
• Leadership accepted
• Trust established
• Standards set
• New stable roles
• Co-operation

Performing

Stage 4: Effective group

• Successful performance
• Flexible, task roles
• Openness
• Helpfulness
• Delusion, disillusion and acceptance

Further Development

Adjourning

Stage 5: Disbanding group

• Disengagement
• Anxiety about separation and ending
• Positive feeling towards leader
• Sadness
• Self-evaluation