The transition between these various stages requires intentional guidance and facilitation by the team leader. Within a high-performing team, there is an appreciation of the need for a balance of communication styles, and of balancing the intuitive and logical mind. The intuitive mind allows individuals to identify what they’re feeling.

Borrow insights from this teamwork theory, and you might finally understand how your team can push past average and unlock a higher level of productivity together. According to group development theory, four stages of group development team dynamics play a big part in pushing people past average and into exceptional success. The team comes up with an idea to focus the training on five scenarios often found in the hospital.

Scenario: You’re leading your team through the storming stage

Some members will be excited and optimistic about joining, while others will be anxious or perhaps skeptical about their roles. Meetings and other interactions will generally involve cautious attempts to get acquainted and discussions of big-picture concepts, as members determine norms and, in some cases, form cliques. The individual roles your team members play are incredibly important to team performance. These roles could be the official title they were hired to do, or the role they fit into naturally within the group dynamic.

Effective team development enhances collaboration, productivity, and motivation amongst individuals. Many studies have identified teamwork as an essential tool for high quality work and safe patient care.(17,18) The teams that work together are more effective and innovative. The participation level of the team members has greater emphasis on quality and support for innovation. Hospital research also shows working in team lowers level of stress.(15) The health care has changed enormously in past 20 years. High-performing teams go through four defined stages to reach their potential. In our example, the marketing team reached an agreement and restructured the roles of its members during the norming phase of group development.

Module 11: Teamwork and Communication

It can be hard to let go, but great teammates never assume that someone else will handle a problem or catch a mistake. The scientific term is “social loafing,” and it’s a possibility for even high-performing teams when people get siloed into their specific responsibilities. In other words, Tuckman says that when team dynamics are good, team performance is really good. Most interestingly, performance doesn’t mean there won’t be conflict. Team members will still challenge individual members, but that dissent is delivered and accepted from the “positive intent” perspective that means that challenge can actually push a team to be even more successful. For teams who can problem solve and find a way to complement (rather than counteract) each other, the smooth road of understanding and acceptance of the team dynamic is what’s around the corner.

Disagreements are unavoidable on teams, especially when each person on the team has a different perspective on how to approach the issues the team encounters. When you all work in the same location, it can be easier to hash out problems quickly. On a remote team, you need to be more thoughtful about the tools and the processes that you use to identify and deal with disagreements. https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ Finally, share the project roadmap so the team can see the starting point, the proposed check-in points, and the end goal. This gives them insight into the bigger goal but also breaks down the timeline into smaller increments. Here are the best morning routine ideas from productivity experts to boost energy, build good habits, and achieve important goals.

Stages of Group Development

After eliminating silos, leaders must model and identify the behavior they want the team to adopt. Team members will look to a leader, such as a Scrum Master, for guidance. It’s typical for individuals to focus solely on their work rather than view the team as a collective entity working towards a goal.

Members want their teammates to see them as competent and deserving individuals and as someone who can make a real impact on the team. With everyone trying to fit in, the communication during this stage is typically in a polite manner, so members may be less inclined to voice their own opinions. It’s upon reaching this stage that a team can become high performing. Members will generally be excited about their work and find satisfaction in the results.

Software Development Principles That Should Be Embraced Daily

After all, their ability to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals is a reflection of a management job well done. As you learn about their progress, you ask them questions about their processes and notice how they collaboratively provide constructive answers. As you communicate with them you notice how confidently they articulate their ideas. “Storming” can be thought of as “weathering the trying times that will come with the stresses of a project.” The latter doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue – so storming is efficient.

• If you reflect on them, they’ll tell you a cohesive story about their strengths, needs and performance.
• Having a team with already existing collaborative skills can help resolve conflicts more easily and faster.
• Many group members are disappointed that the group must dissolve, but they recognize and commend other group members for the skills both personally developed and those developed as a team.
• The team can consult this record when future problems arise and make adaptations as needed.
• At this stage, the team goals may already be clear, although its members may have different views on the best ways to achieve them.
• For the leader, it’s equally important to ask for feedback and demonstrate openness to receiving it, acknowledging its value, and acting on it.
• So, you host a meeting where your team can get to know one another, their work style, and the way they feel appreciated.

As you can see from the graphic below, at each stage the team experiences changes in level of trust, knowledge sharing, and ultimately their level of cohesiveness and effectiveness. Read on for my quick tips for getting your team started on the right foot (Forming), navigating those challenging waters (Storming), and enhancing your team’s “psychological safety” for full team synergy (Norming). Eric Douglas is the senior partner and founder of Leading Resources Inc., a consulting firm that focuses on developing high-performing organizations. For more than 20 years, Eric has successfully helped a wide array of government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and corporations achieve breakthroughs in performance.

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Questions surrounding leadership, authority, rules, responsibilities, structure, evaluation criteria and reward systems tend to arise during the storming stage. Such questions must be answered so that the group can move on to the next stage. Consequently, not all groups are able to move past the storming stage. During the performing stage of group development, also known as synergy, the performance of the group is at its peak. The performing phase is characterized by high productivity and happiness between group members brought on by the realized benefits of group work during the norming stage. Group members remain motivated, loyal, unified, and supportive of the group goals, which allows for decisions to be made more easily since everyone is in agreement.

In 1965, Bruce Tuckman researched group development and identified four distinct stages that all teams must move through in order to become successful. Over the years, I have worked with many teams and have found theses stages to be very predictable. “With group norms and roles established, group members focus on achieving common goals, often reaching an unexpectedly high level of success.”[4] By this time, they are motivated and knowledgeable. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channelled through means acceptable to the team. 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.

Scenario: You’re leading your team through the performing stage

The main goal here is to keep the momentum going so that the project wraps up on time. To accommodate your remote teams and to make sure your first project team meeting is productive, use a video conferencing platform like Zoom. This way team members can meet from anywhere and share their screen so that everyone can see the project details simultaneously. Record and store the meeting in Teamwork.com so that team members can revisit it at any time if they need a reminder of the discussion. Choose a project management software that lets you plan the entire project and assign deadlines and responsibilities so everyone can see what tasks need to be accomplished.