Tuckman's Model for Sustainable Team Development

Developed by Dionysios Dasopoulos

Team development can be described as the process through which a group’s performance is boosted by improving team’s skills and communication. In order for a company to be successful and profitable, it is of vital importance to be capable of achieving teamwork of high standards and effective collaboration throughout the whole organizational structure. Although every team relies on different theories and strategies in order to continuously improve and develop, researchers have suggested approaches and models that can be implemented and explain how team behaviour and performance are connected and lead to fruitful development adding value across the company.

This article mainly investigates Tuckman’s model for team development by classifying the five stages through which teams can thrive, achieve goals and retain coherence over time. Each of the five stages of team development could be presented as a step on the team ladder. Understanding the concept behind the Tuckman's model implementation, boosts the successful project, program and portfolio management as well as the sustainable development of a company.

Model Description & Analysis

In an ideal business environment, it would be easy for the different teams across the company to perform efficiently and be really productive from the beginning of their collaboration. However, under real circumstances, it is an undoubted fact that team/group members have to be adapted separate business environments in order to perform at high standards achieving effectiveness, a process that requires time. Team efficiency is improved through continuous assessment of milestones aiming to attain targets and achieving project goals. Moreover, it is necessary for the team to breed creativity and keep the morale high especially when strict deadlines must be met and there is a lot of pressure.

The psychologist Bruce W. Tuckman investigated theories about the sustainable team development and he published the model he created regarding group development in 1965. His efforts mainly focused on the five process stages through which team members learn to collaborate with each other effectively avoiding conflicts and act professionally in order to boost company's performance. A thorough analysis of each stage is described below.

Forming

Forming is the initial stage that refers to the first contact of the team members, where an introduction meeting is held. Usually, the meeting agenda includes information about each individual's background, interests, and relative working experience. They also get an update about the project they will be responsible for, addressing potential objectives and goals while simultaneously considering their role in the project team and how they can combine their knowledge and work collaboratively in order to achieve more.

During this initial stage of team development, it is significant for the project manager to precisely present the team goals and provide clear guidance regarding the project implementation as the team is highly dependent on him as they consider him as a source of inspiration and motivation. In conclusion, this stage focuses more on the people than on the project perspective, thus the team probably won’t be able of performing at high standards.

Storming

As the team begins to work together, team members move into the Storming stage. This stage cannot be avoided as every team and especially a new one who has never worked together before, goes through this stage of growing and expanding its activities and area of responsibilities. In the particular stage, team members face challenges of competing with each other in order to gain respect and trust in their capabilities and ideas. It is a common fact that conflicts are often created as different opinions are around the table, regarding the actions that should be done and the optimal way of dealing with all the potential challenges.

As the team builds its skills through this phase, problem-solving and result-oriented strategies are developed under the supervision and contribution of the team leader. Roles and responsibilities are shared across the team while the participants work both independently and collaboratively for the overall team development and success. It is worth mentioning that the Storming stage requires an experienced team manager who is able of facilitating the procedures and organize the team coordination. It is important for him to identify team's strengths and weaknesses so as to combine both in a way that the team will benefit more. Team members should learn to cooperate with each other and listen to the manager's advice trying to create a friendly and well-operating working environment.

Summarizing, this stage process ends when all the aforementioned have been completed with success. Reaching that point, a well-established team collaboration and communication have been created and the team members are ready to take over tasks relative to decision making processes and act more independently. However, it is possible for a team to be incapable of dealing with the upcoming challenges of this stage and therefore group members perform at poor standards with a conflict domination to be obvious leading to difficulties meeting project deadlines and goals.

Norming

The Norming stage is defined as the phase where team development dominates aiming to create effective team performance. The current strategy focuses on team goals with the members working collaboratively in order to achieve high performance. A cooperative working culture has already been developed with mutual respect among all the members as the common goal for everyone is to add value to the team and to the company as well. In the norming stage, the team has established a way of internal communication defining the available resources and knowledge that will help to deal with the upcoming challenges. The team members trust each other and they are willing to provide any kind of help in order for the team to progress and grow. Moreover, project implementation is also improving as it is obvious that the whole team performance is also boosted.

In this stage, the team manager has the choice to be less engaged with the operational processes as the team has become more independent and has gain experience in taking over responsibilities. However, this does not mean that he must not be always updated and aligned with the project progress and the potential challenges that need to be addressed. The team leader must be available at any moment, during a project implementation, to provide advice and solutions to the rest team and achieve successful project as well as stakeholder management.

Performing

The Performing stage consists of team operation and performance at exceptionally high levels. The main focus area and activities include goals achievement as a well-organised unit where strong relations of trust exist among the team members. It is not easy for a team to reach this stage of team development and therefore the norming stage can be the last one in many cases. Generally, the team performance has been improved at the greatest possible extent and the group members work independently, trying to deliver always on time and meet the project deadlines. It is widely accepted that the team operates and performs without much involvement of the team leader by extended participation in the decision-making processes and having the ability to face new challenges successfully. Obviously, the team leader never stops to be updated about the team progress and coordinate when needed as well as celebrating goal achievements with the rest team to continue keeping the team morale high.

To conclude, it is worth noting that sometimes it is necessary or avoidable for a team to return back to an earlier stage is the circumstances require so. For instance, a deviation from the established working culture and the cooperative spirit can bring the team in front of the challenge of stepping back to the storming stage. Furthermore, a member addition to the team means that the new colleague needs to be approached from the very beginning leading to repeat of the forming stage. Thus, it seems rational that teams needs to move back to earlier stages of the team development when noteworthy changes may affect the overall team progress and performance. It is of utmost importance for the team to successfully manage these changes.

Adjourning

Τhe Adjourning stage was added later to Tuckman's model and the initial concept included the four stages mentioned above. At this stage, the project is completed and the team members are focusing in different activities. This stage looks at the team from the perspective of the well-being of the team rather than from the perspective of managing a team through the original four stages of team growth. The team leader should ensure that there is time for the team to celebrate the success of the project and capture best practices for future use. (Or, if it was not a successful project – to evaluate what happened and capture lessons learned for future projects.) This also provides the team the opportunity to say good-bye to each other and wish each other luck as they pursue their next endeavour.

Application

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Limitations

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References

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