What: Teams beginnings are a crucial phase in the first steps of a group becoming a team. In the forming stage members are just getting to know each other (Levi). During this stage, Gina Abudi says “they share information about their backgrounds, interests and experience and form first impressions of each other.” After introducing and getting to know one another, the team leader and each member of the team discuss goals and set plans for upcoming projects. After the forming stage, comes the storming stage. The Mind Tools content team says, “storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members’ natural working styles.” Storming is when the team starts learning and sometime disagreeing with one’s work style. Teams that make it through the storming stage end up being a strong, well established team.
So What: Once the team forms and storms, all issues are resolved and the team can set “norms”, this is known as the norming phase. In this phase, certain structures and rules of how the team will perform, as well as where and what time team meetings will take place. The team will discuss feelings, behaviors and tasks. Part of this phase is the idea of constructive criticism, where team members can provide respectful feedback to the other members, regarding different ideas or ways some ideas could improve or change for the better. Judith Stein says “Constructive criticism is both possible and welcomed. Members start to feel part of a team and can take pleasure from the increased group cohesion.” By the end of the norming phase, there is an increase in team productivity that leads to the performing phase.
Now what: The performing stage would be ineffective if it weren’t for the forming, storming and norming phases. During the performing phase the team is strong and effective, knowing each member’s strengths and weaknesses. The members have trust for each other and all focus is on successfully completing tasks at hand. During the performing phase, there still may be some issues with performance or some disagreements. When a problem appears within a well-established team, it normally will be resolved quickly and without conflict. According to ER Services: Principles of Management, “Problems and conflicts still emerge, but they are dealt with constructively.” Teams can be together for years upon years, or for a short amount of time, it all depends on what kind of work they are doing. We know all good things come to an end, this is the adjourning phase. The adjourning phase takes place when the team completes final projects and it’s time for the team to split up and dismember. Every successful team goes through these important phases.
Sources:
Abudi, Gina. “The Five Stages of Team Development: A Case Study.” Project Smart, http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.php.
“Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: Understanding the Stages of Team Formation.” From MindTools.com, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_86.htm.
“Principles of Management.” The Five Stages of Team Development | Principles of Management, courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-principlesmanagement/chapter/reading-the-five-stages-of-team-development/.
Levi, Daniel. Group Dynamics for Teams. SAGE, 2017.
Stein, Judith. “Using the Stages of Team Development.” Using the Stages of Team Development | MIT Human Resources, hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development.
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