Team
development happens in stages and as a leader it will be important for you to
be prepared on what to expect during every stage and how to encounter it. This will
help you remain proactive rather than reactive and serve your team better. I
will tell you why most teams fail, and that’s because many leaders think their
job ends when the team is created, or worst that the only way to create a good
team atmosphere is simply by disciplining those who are not doing things right and
rewarding those that are. What if I told you that coming together as a team and
having chaos or conflict is not just normal, but should be expected? In fact, my
recommendation is that you do and provide your team with the guidelines they
need to handle conflict, even before that arises.
Bruce Tuckman is a behavioral
psychologist who created the team development model I’m about to explain to you.
According to Tuckman, teams develop in stages and every stage is characterized
by a series of emotions and events. The five stages are forming, storming,
norming, performing and adjourning.
Forming
This
stage is characterized by excitement and anticipation. The team
comes together, and they are all happy to be there. During this stage they are
tolerant of one another and may even miss personality clues of the other that
they would not like otherwise. They like each other and look forward to working
together. Over time however, the second stage begins.
Storming
As the name alludes to it, during this stage team
members clash personally, professionally, or both. The honeymoon is
over! During this stage the tolerance that existed before is no longer there.
They are now more comfortable with calling each other out when something is not
done according to the others’ standards and that feedback is not always
received well. During this stage they are getting to know each other deeper and
finding out that not everyone is as good as they thought.
Norming
You will be able to recognize this stage
because conflicts occur less
frequently, and team members find ways to work together despite differences.
But don’t get too excited! While the team members are in the process of getting
to know each other and understand their personality differences, they may
resort back to the storming stage before landing on this stage again.
Teams will fluctuate between storming and norming for a while!
Performing
During the next
stage of performing the team
members have now learned conflict-resolution skills. Their tolerance levels are
higher as a result, and they might spend less time focused on personality dynamics
and more on team effectiveness. Here’s something to remember about this stage
though, without the right guidance that for the sake of peacekeeping people
will work in silos and thus impact negatively the team’s performance.
Adjourning
And
on to the last stage, which is called adjourning. This is heaven! Or so you
think! During this stage the team members go
about the business getting the work done. The problem is that if there were no
problem guidelines provided to the team during the first four stages, it is
during this stage that you will notice with time a lack of motivation and
morale. As a result, you might see an increase in absenteeism, lower quality
and possibly start getting resignations. But that’s a story for another time!
Let’s dive into what are the guidelines you should be providing at every stage!
During the forming stage, have some fun! This is a great
opportunity to create team-building activities and help everyone get to know
each other better. It is also time for you to let everyone know what to expect next
and how you expect them to conduct themselves when conflict arises, because
guess what? Oh, it will!
Here’s the guidelines I use for getting
through that storming phase! Remember, these are not good for anyone
unless you provide those with your team before they enter the storming stage.
Trust me, this will save you a lot of headaches!
·
No
gossip! Don’t do it and don’t allow anyone to come to you with it either!
Remember the gossip ends when it reaches the ears of the wise. This will
be important, because gossip can affect morale, but also the mental health of your
employees.
·
Talk!
Talk, but also listen. Teach your team that is okay to be in disagreement with one
another and create a safe environment for them to know that it is okay that
they speak up if they don’t feel something is right, but to do so in a
respectful manner. Encourage them to talk to each other but make yourself
available for mediating purposes only. Here’s where some leaders disagree with
me! As a leader I do not issue judgment during these conversations! That’s of
course unless something illegal or unethical is happening. But it's important
that you remain subjective during these conversations if you are mediating
them, because the opposite can lead to the team thinking there’s favoritism and
we all know that’s not good for any team atmosphere. How do you do that? The
same way you have your children fighting and you don’t intervene unless it’s about
to get physical! Simply put!
Let them talk it out and if you see the conversation is not going anywhere give
them guidelines on how to conduct themselves with each other moving forward to
get the job done.
Now when encouraging these conversations make
sure they understand the purpose or goal of these. The purpose is not to show
who’s right and who’s wrong, it is to learn how YOU (each employee) will learn
to move on and make things better for the
team.
·
Show
appreciation! We all have something to contribute to the team! Creating
a culture of appreciation will be important so everyone is focused on what the
other has to contribute. Everyone plays a role in the company achieving their
operational goals, making that clear to the team and will give them purpose in
what they do. Psychologists believe creating purpose or finding meaning in what
they do will be important to keep them engaged and motivated.
·
Here’s
something they won’t like hearing, but it’s important so no one ends up
disappointed. Personalities won’t change so focus on the positive. Ditch the
negative! Let them know that if someone’s negative aspect of their
personality affects the team atmosphere or team performance, that’s when you as
a leader will address it directly with that individual. Remove the possibility
of them thinking it is their role to address that part, as it is not.
·
Lastly,
remind everyone of the importance of feeling included. Be clear as to what
exactly this means. This means if you are inviting someone out to lunch, you are
not purposely excluding others. It means that if you come into the office you
say good morning to all, not only a specific group.
Guidelines
for the norming stage
·
Fortunately, there is not a lot for the team to do here
other than conduct themselves respectfully with each other. You on the other
hand, as a leader will need to pay close attention to this stage and that’s
because just because you’re not hearing rumble it doesn’t mean it’s not
happening. Make sure you stay connected enough to know what’s happening and
provide redirection if need be.
Guidelines
for the performing stage
·
During this stage I recommend team building
activities. The reason for it is because you don’t want anyone to start working
in silos as that’s detrimental to the team environment, and for productivity
and team performance as well. Fortunately, during this stage the conflicts are
a thing of the past and they have either overcome those or learned to live with
each other. You will need to help them remember that they do still need to work
together.
Guidelines
for the adjourning stage
·
This is a very peculiar stage because most leaders think
that just because the conflicts are over, they are now free to go on with their
own plans and that’s not a good thing. Let me explain! Without the proper
motivation and encouragement during this stage you might lose the good
employees, especially if they were not able to resolve the conflict with the
others, and what’s worst you might be left with those who are not engaged and
thus creating an unhealthy atmosphere. The good employees might get discouraged
and thus think that without improvement there’s no future for them in the
organization. Even if they stay with the team, they may become demoralized which
will lead to other performance concerns. This is a great stage to challenge the
team to help them stay motivated by engaging them! By this stage you should
have identified the future leaders, and thus should use this opportunity to
grow them or coach them. You should have also identified deficiencies as well
and can strategize ways to address those. In doing this you will be showing
your team that the work of keeping the team engaged and performing well is a
long investment you are willing to put in for the sake of a healthy team
environment.
References
The Upwork Team. The 5 stages of
Team Development. April 28. 2021. As retrieved from https://www.upwork.com/resources/stages-of-team-development
Wienclaw,
R. A. (2021). Teams and Team Building. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
