Team Stage of Development Introduction If your team are not completing their tasks effectively and team members don’t seem to be cooperating well with each other, there’s no need to despair – it’s well recognised that all teams go through rough patches, and it’s part of their natural progression towards becoming an effective team. You can do something about it. This self assessment exercise will help you and your team to identify what stage you are at by completing a questionnaire analysing different aspects of teamwork. It will also allow you and your team to discuss what actions you can take to progress to the stage of high performance. You may wish to use this exercise if you feel that your team could be performing better, and you would like to identify specifically how you can improve. Alternatively, you may simply wish to use it to take stock of what stage the team is at. What To Do •

Introduce the diagnostic and explain the learning objectives.

•

It would be a good idea to introduce the stages of team development to the team.

•

Distribute a questionnaire to each participant to complete individually. When finished, participants should count up their individual scores.

Review Activity •

Use the flipchart to collate all scores. •

Mainly a’s: the team is at the ‘forming’ stage

•

Mainly b’s: the team is at the ‘storming’ stage

•

Mainly c’s: the team is at the ‘norming’ stage

•

Mainly d’s: the team is at the ‘performing’ stage

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Team Stage of Development

What is Our Team’s Stage of Development? If you and your fellow team members know what stage your team is at, you’ll be able to take action to progress through the stages and maximise your performance as a team. This assessment exercise will help you to identify what stage your team is at. Take the time needed to complete the following table. Consider each theme and tick the one statement from the four given that best describes your team. Be as honest as possible. Cohesion (a)

The team is a collection of individuals rather than a group.

(b)

Team members have become aware of their differences, and the team works in cliques or splinter groups rather than as a whole. Individual differences are not as important as strengths. Team members accept their diversity and want to be part of a team, working together to support each other. The team is a fully cohesive and interdependent unit that works effectively together, with a ‘we’ rather than an ‘I’ approach. Commitment

(c) (d)

(a)

Team members are unsure of where their commitments lie.

(b)

Team members feel little or no commitment to the team and are more committed to their own goals. There is genuine commitment from most or all team members.

(c) (d)

Team members have a shared vision and are fully committed to the team and its common goals. Communication

(a)

Communication is difficult as team members are unfamiliar with each other.

(b)

Individual team members have privately held opinions, which they do not share publicly.

(c)

There is a reasonably open exchange of views in the team.

(d)

Team members communicate openly and fully with each other and there are no hidden agendas. Confidence

(a)

The team is anxious about the tasks it faces and looks to outside authority.

(b)

Confidence is growing at the individual level, but not in the team as a whole.

(c)

There is increasing confidence among team members in working together to complete their tasks. The team is fully confident in carrying out its tasks together and rejects outside authority.

(d)

Conflict (a)

Conflict sometimes arises out of uncertainty.

(b)

Competition is high and team members have a tendency to guard their own attitudes, which can cause conflict. There is low emotional conflict, and any conflict that does arise can be resolved fairly easily.

(c)

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Team Stage of Development (d)

Team members have developed good working relationships and feel comfortable in risking confrontation if necessary. Decision-making

(a)

The leader needs to give clear guidance and therefore makes all or most decisions.

(b)

Decision-making is hard. Some team members are not willing to give way, and compromise is frequent. Decisions making is often dominated by the most vocal team members. Mutually agreed decisions are more likely than compromise, and if there are any disagreements, these are negotiated. Decisions agreed by everyone and the team is even confident enough to delegate some decisions to individual team members. Dependency

(c) (d)

(a) (b) (c) (d)

(a)

Team members are dependent on others, as they are anxious or unsure of their roles or the team’s purpose. Team members are counter-dependent, as they resist the need to work with each other, preferring to work alone or in small splinter groups. Team members are independent, as they are confident and effective in their individual roles and in their contributions to the team. Team members are interdependent, i.e. the team works as one unit in which all team members play an integral part and support each other. Direction/Purpose

(c)

Team members are unsure of where they are going and do not feel that they own the team mission/direction. Team members attempt to pursue their own agendas/directions and there are sometimes disagreements about what direction the team should take. Most team members have a common focus and work together towards shared goals.

(d)

The team has a well-defined purpose and clear direction that is shared by all.

(b)

Leadership (a) (b) (c) (d)

The leadership style is directive, laying down a clear structure and direction, as the team needs guidance. There are concerns about team hierarchy and there are sometimes challenges to the leadership. The leader therefore has an authoritative role. Leadership is sometimes shared, and the team is led by consensus. The leader oversees the team, but with a non-intrusive role, and team members share leadership of everyday tasks. Motivation

(a)

Individuals do not know others well enough to be motivated as a team.

(b) (c)

Team members are driven by their individual motivations, often pushing for position and power. Most team members are motivated by their ability to get the job done as a team.

(d)

The team is fully motivated to achieving the team goals together. Roles/Responsibilities

(a) (b)

Team members are unsure of their roles and find it difficult to define the job that has to be done. Team members often deny or resist their roles/responsibilities, looking for reasons not to do them, as they are not yet fully confident in taking them on.

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Team Stage of Development (c)

Team members have accepted and settled into their roles.

(d)

All team members are fully effective and efficient in their roles and have a very clear idea of their responsibilities and how they contribute to the team. Trust

(a)

(c)

Trust has not yet started to develop, as team members are unfamiliar with each other . There is generally a lack of trust, with some members suspicious of the team direction, or of others. Team members accept and trust each other.

(d)

Trust, loyalty and good working relationships are firmly established.

(b)

Totals No.

Stage

A

Forming

B

Storming

C

Norming

D

Performing

Rank

Stages of Team Development1 It is important to bear in mind that teams are not pre-formed. They mature and develop through a number of stages. Teams begin as a collection of individuals who do not know how to work together. As a result of team building a close and effective working group should develop. There are at least four recognisable stages in team development:

1

Based on Tuckman and Jensen’s (1985) cycle of team growth.

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Team Stage of Development

Stage 1 - Forming • • • • • • • •

The group gets together for the first time High dependence on leader Formal rules/methods of working are yet to be established People are testing each other out They hide personal weaknesses Most readily conform to given rules Wary of volunteering information Not very effective as a team.

ACTION TIPS Encourage social interaction and networking. Be prepared and give direction.

Stage 2 – Storming • • • • •

ACTION TIPS Re-establish ground rules for listening, respect etc. Celebrate small successes. Identify and resolve conflicts

After the relatively polite forming stage, members grow in confidence and an amount of in-fighting is likely Real personalities emerge A pecking order is established People seek to control and dominate Sub-groupings form.

Stage 3 – Norming • • • • •

Now the group moves on to establish norms in the form of systems and procedures i.e. how it should work and a basis for decision making There is some experimentation People reach understandings with each other People begin to care as a team Team begins to be effective.

ACTION TIPS Help new members and focus on communication. Undertake a Plus/Delta. Link with other teams.

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Team Stage of Development

Stage 4 – Performing • • • • •

Finally the group becomes far more of a cohesive unit and starts to perform as a team It becomes an effective unit Can undertake complex tasks There is pride and confidence It is self regulating.

ACTION TIPS Allow others to assume leadership role. Introduce new members. Stay alert and seek changes.

Following another period of research, Tuckman developed a fifth stage called ‘adjourning’. This final stage involves the disengagement of relationships between team members and a short period of recognition for the team’s achievements. Sometimes, concluding the operations of a team is disturbing for members, epecially if they have worked together for long periods of time. Tuckman highlighted a number of important observations from his research on teams and teamwork which still have resonance today: •

A team will not be fully effective unless it reaches the stage of performing/interdependence.

•

Many teams accept storming as a normal way of operating, while a number of teams may never get beyond forming.

•

Unless the process of norming is fully completed, teams may degenerate into storming.

•

The amount of time taken to complete the cycle will vary tremendously between teams.

•

Many factors determine how quickly a team will evolve towards effectiveness including: its size, geographical spread, frequency and duration of meetings, synergy of team types, stability of team membership, external influences and time pressures and the nature of its activities.

The flexibility of the model is underlined when applied to virtual teams. Virtual teams are increasingly used in today’s business environment and they can be defined as teams that use technology to exist across time and cultural boundaries. Leading thinkers Lipnack and Stamps have modified the Tuckman model2 to demonstrate the efficiency of virtual teamwork compared to traditional teamwork. Lipnack and Stamps’ virtual team model maintains the same structure as Tuckman’s model, but the team endures a significantly shorter awkward first stage before reaching 2

Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps, Virtual teams: Reaching across space, time, and organisations with technology (John Wiley and Sons, 1997).

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Team Stage of Development the performance stage. The model also includes two extra stages, which are comparible to Tuckman’s adjourning stage, to allow for a testing and delivery of the team’s final product. Although other influential team development thinkers such as Charles Manz and Henry Sims3 have suggested alternative modifications, Tuckman’s theoretical foundation remains an influential foundation for modern thinking on teams and teamwork.

3

See C. Manz and H. Sims Jr, Business Without Bosses: How Self-Managing Teams are Building High-Performing Companies (John Wiley and Sons, 1993).

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